“Thanks! It looks interesting!”
“Yeah, thanks!”
“And the two bracelets are for Elise and Austy.”
The two girls took their bracelet with “thanks” and happily slipped them on.
“I got myself the shirt. I only have a couple nice shirts to wear to church, and I was hoping to wear this one tomorrow,” said Adara.
“Y’all were only gone for three hours. Was it a good sale or something?” Austy asked.
“My gracious, they had a ton of stuff, but being a Saturday, there were also a ton of customers. So yeah, the stuff sold like mad. Everything was priced well, and there were nice things, too. Mrs. Davis is a great businesswoman,” Mrs. Rethman smiled. “Now how was it? What did you do? Please tell me you did something useful.” The four girls looked at each other. They knew they hadn’t finished the kitchen chores. “You weren’t trying to annoy each other while I was gone, were you?” Mrs. Rethman questioned.
Austy spoke up, “Well… not exactly.”
CHAPTER 3
Diana Cox
“Hurry up, girls! We leave in ten minutes!” Mr. Rethman yelled up the stairs the next day. They had to leave for church service soon.
“Okay, be down in a little bit!” Adara called back.
“Has anyone seen my brush?” Lexie called, racing through the house.
“Where are my black shoes?” Elise wailed.
“Do I have any stray hair that needs curled?” Mrs. Rethman asked, curling iron in hand.
“Austy, are you done in the bathroom?” Arianna knocked.
“When are you womenfolk ever gonna be ready?” Mr. Rethman called from the bottom of the steps, checking the clock for the tenth time.
“Just a minute!”
“Give us a sec, please!”
Mr. Rethman paced about the room. The van was running, and they were behind schedule. “Now if I had all boys, I’m sure this problem would never happen,” he sighed to himself, “but since I have all girls…”
A couple minutes later, everyone came rushing down the stairs. Mr. Rethman jumped to the side so that he wouldn’t be plowed over.
“Goodness gracious,” he said.
“Everyone got their Bibles?” Mrs. Rethman asked. “And don’t forget a light jacket, it’s a little chilly out there today.”
“Yes, Mom!” the girls said as they grabbed their jackets and Bibles and hurried out the door to the van.
Mrs. Rethman made sure all the lights were off in the house; then she shut the door and everyone hopped into the van.
“I call a window seat!” Austy yelled as they were getting in.
“No, I was here first,” said Arianna.
The other three quickly took the remaining three window seats.
“Dad…”
“For goodness sake, just get into a seat!” Mr. Rethman told them. They pulled out down their long lane and onto the road, zooming off to church service. The North Carolina roadside scenery whizzed by, while the tall Smokey Mountains seemed to hardly move.
Once they arrived, they parked, hopped out, and made their way to the doors of the small church building where they were greeted by fellow Christian brothers and sisters.
Elise waved to her best friend Iris when she caught sight of her as they entered the building.
Iris Davis hurried over. The two girls high-fived, fist-bumped, and clapped each other on the hands: their secret greeting handshake. Then they stepped into the meeting room to talk.
“You weren’t at the garage sale,” Iris said. “I was kind of sad that you decided not to come.”
“Sorry… I didn’t really want to go because I thought it’d be boring. Mom said that you had a lot of customers though.”
“Tons! The garage sale was huge, and a lot of our relatives pitched in some things too, so it made it all the bigger!” Iris said. “Me, Lindsey, and Adara had our hands full reorganizing things after people tornadoed through the stuff,” she laughed. “My mom got to be in charge of the money and pricing things.”
“I didn’t think of you being there when Mom asked if we wanted to help with the garage sale. All I thought of was work!” Elise laughed.
“It was a bit of work, but it was awesome, too,” Iris said.
“Oh, I think the service is about to start. Let’s go sit down. Talk to you after service, Elise!” Iris rushed off to go to where her family was seated, and Elise did the same. She was just in time. The service started and they opened up with singing.
After service, the Rethmans stuck around and talked to people, like they always did since Mr. Rethman was the pastor. They went out to eat with someone almost every Sunday. This Sunday, Iris and Elise were watching from a distance as their moms talked together.
“What do you think they’re saying? Maybe they’re talking about eating out together!” Elise exclaimed.
“Or they could be talking about us coming over or you coming to my house.”
“Yeah, that would be sweet! They’re probably just talking about the garage sale.”
“Hey, why don’t we go spy on Lindsey and Lexie?” Iris suggested. Lindsey was Iris’s sister and Lexie’s best friend.
“Sounds good,” Elise agreed as the two girls snuck up behind Lindsey and Lexie to snoop in on their conversation. They tried to listen in but it was loud there in the foyer. Elise’s older sisters Adara and Austy liked to go around and talk to a bunch of different people.
“Something about Lindsey having so much fun last year at Lake Junaluska?” Iris said uncertainly as they spied, “or something like that.”
Elise nodded, “Yeah, we go there often. We live only five miles from it.”
“Remember when our families went there last year a couple of times together? That was fun!”
“Uh-huh, and they have 5K races that they do there, and Lexie usually runs those every year around Easter.”
“What are you two doing?” a voice demanded, and the two girls turned to see snooty Diana Cox behind them, hands on hips. She had just started to attend their church a couple weeks ago.
“Oh, nothing,” Elise turned back.
“Nothing?” Diana persisted. “It looks like you two are spying on your sisters.”
“So?” Iris questioned. Lindsey and Lexie turned and saw the three girls. They moved on to a different spot.
Diana was annoying. She was thirteen, the same age as Iris. She wanted Iris to be her best friend, but Iris was Elise’s and she was loyal.
Iris and Elise stood up from their hiding place. They talked with Diana for a little bit, but it felt like complete torture to Elise anyway.
“Oh, I have to go,” Diana said a little later when her dad called her. “Bye Iris. I hope you can make it to my sleepover on Friday. A couple other girls are coming, too.” She looked at Elise, “They’re from my school, though.”
“Sleepover?” Elise repeated, once Diana had gone.
“Yeah, she invited me to go to her sleepover this Friday, but I’m not going.”
“Not going? I wouldn’t pass up a sleepover at her house, ever! She says her house is huge!”
“It is, but Dad and Mom said that they don’t want me over there spending the night. They don’t really know Diana’s parents too well yet, and they’re not sure that she’s the greatest influence,” Iris explained.
“Well, I don’t know how much time I would like to spend with Diana Cox,” Elise stated. “She’s kind of snobbish. But I do think a visit to her house would be grand.”
“She’s not snobbish to me. She just acts that way when you’re around,” Iris said.
“I know. I don’t understand why she doesn’t like me. What have I ever done to her?”
“I don’t know, but we should probably try to include her more,” Iris explained.
“Include her? We’re doing enough to include her. It’s about time she started including me. If we started including her, the only person she’d be hanging out with is you.”
“I know, but let�
��s just try to be nice to her for now. I think she had a rough background before her family came to Christ,” Iris explained.
“All right,” Elise agreed, “for now.”
“Time to go!” Elise’s dad said to the girls. They were one of the last ones to leave, as usual. She and her sister waved to their friends as they were joined by the rest of their family and were heading out the double doors of the church building.
Once inside the van, Elise asked, “Hey Dad, are we going out to eat with anyone?” Her hands were clasped as she prayed that it would be the Davises, if anyone.
“As a matter of fact, we are,” Mr. Rethman said, as he pulled out of the parking lot. “They just left and are meeting us at the Chinese restaurant.”
“Who is it?” Elise asked, already knowing that it wasn’t the Davises.
“Oh, we’re going out to eat with the Coxes,” Mr. Rethman said. “We haven’t gone out to eat with them yet and we’re hoping to get to know them better. They just started coming a few weeks ago. Diana’s around your age, Elise. You two girls should get along good. And you’ve met their other daughter Whitney, Arianna; she’s around your age.”
“Oh, I’ve met her. She’s so nice,” Arianna said.
“Oh, no, not Diana,” Elise whispered to herself. She knew that Diana would make her time at the restaurant miserable. Elise’s head bumped against the van window in anguish as she thought of Diana spoiling the meal with her snobby attitude.
CHAPTER 4
Friend Get-Together
That was terrible. That was horrible. That…
“Elise! Come here!” Mrs. Rethman shouted up the stairs.
Elise ran out of her room, down the steps, to where her mom was waiting, “Yes?” She was worried that her mom was going to have a talk with her about the previous day.
“I need you to set the table for supper, please. The food’s almost ready.”
“Okay.” Elise rushed to the kitchen to begin setting the table, glad that her mom hadn’t mentioned the day before.
Mrs. Rethman walked out of the room and down to the cellar to get some canned peaches.
Elise’s thoughts kept wandering back to the events of that terrible time yesterday—dinner with the Coxes. It hadn’t been so bad at first, until Diana brought up that she and Iris were getting together for a sleepover. Then Elise’s anger boiled, which led to an argument. Elise couldn’t bear to recall what happened after the argument.
When supper was ready, they sat down to eat. It was hamburgers!
They prayed and then began chatting as they munched their food.
Mr. Rethman cleared his throat. “Girls, we—your mom and I—were wondering if you might like it if…” he trailed off teasingly.
“If what, Dad?” Elise said anxiously.
“If we had a grill-out and we invited a couple families over. You girls can help decide who you want to come. Only a couple of families, mind you.”
“Oh, yes! The Davises!” Elise said, clapping her hands excitedly.
“And the Simpsons!” Lexie remarked.
“And the Coxes!” Arianna exclaimed.
Elise looked at her sulkily.
Arianna thought of how sad Elise would be if the Coxes came, and she added, “Well maybe not the Coxes because I’ll like Emma to be here.”
Elise brightened up.
“We could probably have one more family over if you want,” Mr. Rethman said.
The girls thought for a little bit.
“That’s a good amount of people,” Austy stated.
“Yes, I suppose that is. Well, let’s have the Evers over, too,” he said.
The Evers were a nice elderly couple whom all the kids in their church called their grandparents-in-Christ.
“What if we have the grill-out next Friday?” Mr. Rethman asked. “Is that good?”
“That sounds awesome!” Elise exclaimed, “We should start getting ready for the grill-out right now!”
……
The next week passed quickly for everyone but Elise, who claimed the days were longer than usual, especially as she sat at her desk trying to work on math, her hardest subject. She was homeschooled.
They got the house spic-and-span for the company all that week.
“They probably won’t even come into the house,” Elise complained to Arianna, as they both dusted the living room together.
Arianna just shrugged and said simply, “You never know.”
Finally the big day arrived.
Mrs. Rethman had purchased groceries and necessities in the morning. They got everything set up in the back, and at 4 p.m., the Davises arrived.
“Hey y’all, they’re here!” Elise rushed up to their van as Iris, Lindsey, and their eight-year-old brother Andy climbed out.
“You’re here!” she jumped up and down excitedly, and she and Iris did their secret greeting handshake.
“It’s going to be awesome! We have stuff to do set out in the back, like volleyball, cornhole, soccer, and other games,” Lexie said as she greeted her best friend Lindsey.
“Sounds fun,” Lindsey nodded.
“C’mon, let’s go to the back patio,” Elise motioned.
“Okay.” Everyone followed her to the back where the rest of the Rethmans greeted the Davises.
Mr. Rethman and Mr. Davis set about pulling some picnic tables closer together and getting the fire started.
A little later, a van honked from the driveway.
“It’s the Simpsons!” Arianna yelled, running to the front. “Emma!”
Emma clambered out of the van and rushed to greet Arianna.
Soon the duo was making their way to the back of the house where everyone else was. The rest of the Simpson family was close behind.
Adara and Austy rushed to greet their friends Leah and Brianna.
“Wow, you have everything set up back here,” Austy’s friend Brianna complimented.
Michael Simpson rushed over to Andy. They were good friends.
“Wanna play a game of soccer?” Michael asked.
“One on one? I’m in!” Andy eagerly nodded his head.
The three boys were off like a shot, kicking the ball around the designated soccer area, laughing, and racing each other for the ball.
“You kids act like you never see each other,” Mr. Davis laughed.
A little later, the Evers arrived. The elderly couple who loved to spoil the kids had brought cookies and a huge chocolate fudge cake. All the adults sat at the picnic tables talking. Adara and her friend Leah Simpson sat with them, listening to their conversations, like always.
After they prayed, they began to get in line for food. Austy, after she got her food, began roasting a sausage over the fire. “Wouldn’t it be fun if we all played a game of volleyball after we eat?”
“Yeah, that’d be great!” Brianna agreed.
“Starting tomorrow, we get a month off of homeschool,” Austy said, changing the subject.
“You’re lucky. We don’t get a summer break till next week. That week I’m going to be sixteen!” Brianna said.
“You’ll be as old as me.”
“Yep,” Brianna nodded.
They were so busy talking that Austy forgot to lift her sausage out of the fire where it had been cooking for a while.
“Oh, your sausage is burnt black, and it’s on fire!” Brianna gasped.
Austy quickly lifted it out of the fire and blew out the flames shooting from it.
“Oh, great. I never make sausages right,” Austy sighed.
“Or marshmallows,” added Brianna.
Austy laughed, “Or marshmallows. Uh, could you maybe make a sausage for me?” she pleaded.
“No problem,” Brianna answered.
“Thanks a ton,” Austy said gratefully.
“Food over a campfire is always the best!” Elise announced to Iris once her sausage was done.
“I agree. It’s like…like real food,” Iris smiled.
“Uh-huh, that’s exactly wh
at it is. And it’s so delicious.” Elise took a big bite. “Ow! Hot!” her face turned red.
“You okay?” Adara asked, from nearby.
Elise nodded.
“Too anxious to eat it,” Iris laughed, shaking her head.
Elise took a gulp of water. “That was not smart. Don’t ever do that,” she advised once she got her breath back.
Iris chuckled again and nodded, “Lesson learned.”
Elise smiled. A tear trickled out the side of her eye.
“Are you crying?” Iris asked, serious.
“No, it’s just that it was so hot it pushed the tears out of my eyes,” Elise laughed, brushed away the tear, and looked around, hoping no one else had seen it. Then she concentrated back on her sausage.
Lindsey and Lexie were conversing nearby when Lexie scratched vigorously at her arm.
“What is it?” Lindsey asked.
“Oh, a couple days ago, Arianna and I were sneaking up on Austy and Elise in the woods, and we got into poison ivy. Sometimes it doesn’t show up for a couple weeks, but mine showed up right away. It itches terribly.”
“I’ll bet. I’ve gotten poison ivy a couple of times too.”
After everyone finished eating, they all ran off to do different things.
Austy told Brianna, “Let’s get that volleyball game started.”
“Uh-huh. Let’s go get some people together.”
All the girls were up for it, but the boys and adults didn’t want to.
“Let’s choose team captains and then get the game started,” Iris urged.
They chose Brianna and Adara as team captains. Then the game began. All the girls were decent at volleyball.
The ball went back and forth.
The teams put all their effort into their play to win.
The game ended when Brianna’s team won.
“Are you ready for another game?” Austy asked.
“You’re on!” Adara remarked.
Elise was on Adara’s team. She looked off into the woods as they were playing the game and thought she saw movement. Immediately thinking of the bear, she was about to yell to her dad when the ball hit her in the head. Shocked, she turned to see everyone gasp and then start to laugh. She started to join in and then looked back toward the woods. No more movement. It had happened fast. She was sure it was just her imagination.
Map to Treasure Page 3
