Into The Woods(Chapter 2)

By Walker McKnight

Missing Notebook

The sun peeked through the curtains of Lía and Aríana’s home as they made themselves breakfast. At 7:00, they were out the front door, ready for another day. They walked through the village, toward the school. They were successfully the first students in the classroom, as they always were, and shortly after they arrived, their best friend Maddi arrived. They were all chatting for a few minutes, talking about how Lía and Aríana’s idea to sneak into the forest was a great one, when Mr. Sim came in. Mr. Sim was the only adult to ever step foot in this treetop civilization. He was the teacher of all the classes and was the nicest teacher Lía or Aríana had ever met, even though he was the only one. One by one, everyone else filed into the classroom and took a seat. 

As Mr. Sim started up the lesson Aríana ripped a page out of her sketchbook and started passing notes. The conversation on page went like this:

To Lía: Hey sis. Wanna talk?

Aríana slipped the note page onto Lía’s desk. Lía took one look at the page and wrote this:

To Aríana: NO!

She threw the page across the table when Mr. Sim’s back was turned and glared at her sister. Aríana quickly scribbled back her counter argument. 

To Lía: Why not? This algebra is kinda boring!

They went back and forth until Lía ended the argument.

To Aríana: I am not going to get distracted by you! Do I have to deal with note passing for the rest of the day? 

To Lía: Come on. Why can’t you have a little fun?

To Aríana: Stop passing me notes. NOW. 

They got their math sheet and completed it quickly. They handed their math sheets back to Mr. Sim and had free time since they were the first to complete the sheet. Aríana ripped up another piece of paper from her sketchbook and started writing on it. 

To Lía: We have some time to talk more about escaping and going into the woods. 

Aríana swiftly passed the paper to Lía, making sure Mr. Sim didn’t see. Lía glared at Aríana once she saw the paper on her desk. Aríana grinned and ushered Lía to read the note. Lía quickly read the note and rolled her eyes at Aríana. She started to write back to Aríana when Mr. Sim walked over to them. He glared at Aríana and Lía. 

“I told you,” Mr. Sim strictly told the girls, “no passing notes in my class. I would give you detention but you girls are excellent students. You got really lucky this time.” Then he left to go help the other kids with their assignments. Although Mr. Sim was the nicest teacher Aríana and Lía had ever had, he sometimes could be really strict. Lía glared her dagger eyes at Aríana as if this was all her fault. 

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At home, the sisters talked about what to do, and they decided on going to a restaurant. They walked out the door and closed it. Little did they know, clumsy Aríana had forgotten to lock the door. They had a very nice dinner at their favorite restaurant, called The Big, Old, Burrito Barn. They both had very filling dinners then left the barn. Then they strolled home and walked into their bedroom. They planned on spending 20 minutes in their secret room and then planned on going to bed. They jumped into the secret room and looked around for their notebook, but it was gone. 

Lía and Aríana rushed out of their house and started knocking on their neighbors doors. They needed to find their notebook. It had their escape plans in it, and they needed to find it. 

“Have you seen a notebook? It is blue with purple stripes.” Aríana and Lía said to every neighbor.

But no one had seen their notebook. They scoured the village, looking in every nook and cranny that the notebook could fit in. They even swam to the deepest part of the pond, which was over eight feet deep. They were just about to give up when Maddi ran up to them, yelling, “Wait guys!” Maddi was their best friend that they had known since they were all five. Maddi was tall and had straight blonde hair. Aríana and Lía were not too tall and not too short and they both had brown hair. Aríana had bouncy curls, and Lía had wavy hair. 

Maddi finally, after what seemed like eternity, reached them and she was panting so hard, they thought she was going to have a heart attack. 

“What’s up, Mads?” Aríana asked

“I…found…your…notebook,” she said, breathing heavily. 

Without saying a word, the twins rushed up to Maddi, hugging her so tight that she felt like she couldn’t breathe again, they grabbed their notebook and hugged it too. They said a quick round of thanks and gave Maddi a couple more hugs.

“Thank you so so so so so so much!” Lía thanked.

“What would we do without you?” Aríana asked.

“Literally nothing,” Maddi said, laughing. The sisters then rushed home, feeling so relieved and tired they couldn’t even put it into words. 

They were so tired from their stressful adventure they decided to call it a night and go to bed. They didn’t admit it to each other, but neither of them could fall asleep that night. They had had such an eventful night that neither of them wanted to disturb the other. Finally, they both dozed off in under two minutes.