Chapter 3-007

One morning I was specifically not looking upwhen out of nowhere she swings down from a branch and practically knocks meover. Heart attack! I dropped my backpack and wrenched my neck, and that didit. I refused to wait under that tree with that maniac monkey on the looseanymore. I started leaving the house at the very last minute. I made up my ownwaiting spot, and when I'd see the bus pull up, I'd truck up the hill and geton board. No Juli, no problem. And that, my friend, took care of the rest ofseventh grade and almost all of eighth, too, until one day a few months ago.That's when I heard a commotion up the hill andcould see some big trucks parked up on Collier Street where the bus pulls in.There were some men shouting stuff up at Juli, who was, of course, five storiesup in the tree. All the other kids started to gather under the tree, too, and Icould hear them telling her she had to come down. She was fine — that wasobvious to anyone with a pair of ears — but I couldn't figure out what theywere all arguing about. I trucked up the hill,and as I got closer and saw what the men were holding, I figured out in a hurrywhat was making Juli refuse to come out of the tree. Chain saws. Don't get mewrong here, okay? The tree was an ugly mutant tangle of gnarly branches. Thegirl arguing with those men was Juli — the world's peskiest,bossiest, most know-it-all female. But all of a sudden my stomach completely bailed on me. Juli loved that tree. Stupid as it was,she loved that tree, and cutting it down would be like cutting out her heart.