Page 6 of The Sun and Her Star

Her grin is huge, and she says, “Oh, okay.” I turn back around right before she leaps onto my back and wraps her legs around my waist.

I grab hold of her thighs and start walking.

She rests her sun-warmed head against my shoulder. “I’ve never had a piggyback ride,” she says, and I can feel her cheek and jaw moving against my back. It makes me long for my sister suddenly. She loved piggyback rides.

“Me neither,” I mutter.

“This is like riding a horse,” she says dreamily.

“Well, I’m not a horse, okay?” I warn her as I start to climb through the wooded brush.

She weighs next to nothing. If it wasn’t for her vice grip around my neck and her heart thumping against my back and her nonstop chatter, I could forget she was even there. It’s a good thing, too, because the climb up to the cliff’s edge is really steep in places. If she were much heavier, it would be pretty hard to do.

I try to keep my eyes on the ground as much as I can because I wasn’t kidding about snakes. I never come up here without my boots and jeans on.

A rattler bite won’t kill you if you can get help. But getting bit up here, so far away from town, it would take a long time to find help—if you could walk. And if the poison doesn’t kill you, then exposure will.

“Let’s tell each other our favorite things,” she says in a singsong voice.

“What for?” I say as I duck to avoid a low hanging branch.

“Well, we’re going to be best friends. And I love talking about my favorite things. I can’t stop talking about them,” she says.

“You can’t stop talking, period. How old are you? Eight? Why do you talk like a grown up?” I ask her.

“I am eleven years old. I’m in sixth grade,” she says proudly.

“You’re small for eleven.”

“I’m not small, I’m petite,” she says in that grown-up voice.

“Maybe inLas Vegas, but ‘round here, you’resmall,” I say.

“How old are you?” she asks in that sunny voice that didn’t ever change even when I’m grumpy.

“I’m fourteen,” I tell her proudly.

“Really? I thought you were older. My cousin is seventeen, and you’re taller than he is.” She swings her bare feet, and they bounce off my thighs midstride.

“Will you quit that?” I snap over my shoulder. My foot hooks under an exposed tree root.

“Oh, shoot.” I windmill my arms to stop myself from falling forward. She shrieks, but using her arms like reins, pulls us backward.

I manage to regain my balance.

“Oooh, I saved us,” she sings loudly and swings her legs again, repeating the motion that caused us to trip.

“Saved us? It was your fault,” I grumble and start walking again. This time I keep my eyes glued to the ground. “If you don’t stop, I’m gonna put you down and let the snakes have you for lunch,” I threaten, but start to walk again.

“Oh, you would never,” she giggles.

“I would so,” I taunt.

She just laughs harder. I blow a lock of my hair out of my eyes and remember that I was supposed to get my hair cut before I went home tonight.

I can see the light breaking through the clearing at the top of the trail. I can’t wait to get this annoying kid off my back and get the hell out of these woods.

I start walking faster.

---