Chapter 8

She sounded forceful, and Julie got scared, so she froze. She didn’t want to give this girl a reason to hurt her.

The girl who called out to Julie emerged from the treehouse, but Julie was somewhat surprised to see four other kids come after her. Then Julie wondered how they were going to get down from there. There was no ladder from the treehouse to the ground, just branches sp**** out every few feet.

It’s going to take them a while to get down, Julie assumed. She was ready to wait patiently, but then she saw that she was definitely mistaken. The girl, who looked like the oldest of the kids, led the way, leaping down the branches, swinging and climbing with the agility of a monkey. The other four kids followed her, and in a minute, they were all on the ground at the base of the tree, and they started walking toward Julie.

“I’m Chloe,” the oldest girl said. “Sorry about the yelling. I just didn’t want you to run away.”