It stormed a lot that summer. It still scared me sometimes, but Niall and I either spent time in the treehouse doing Mad Libs - that was his go-to solution to get me through storms from then on - or else we were cozy in one of our basements where the storms didn't bother me at all.

Maybe it was the close quarters because by August, Niall started getting on my nerves more and more. Either it was his loud chomping on his gum or the fact that he was starting to get body odor or just maybe because he was always talking about the guitar his parents were going to buy when his arm was fully healed. I couldn't pinpoint one single thing he was doing, but the lot of them all mixed together simply irritated me more than it used to.

I was getting on his nerves, too. I could tell. I was grumpy and snappy and I knew it, but I couldn't figure out why. So when I started acting all moody and snippy towards him, he usually went home rather than stick around for the fights I was rarin' to have.

And then something happened.

I started getting boobs and my jeans didn't fit around my hips anymore; mom said I'd have to start shopping in the juniors section and she made me start wearing a bra.

The worst part of all came just before I started eighth grade. I got my period. It was so icky and uncomfortable. It was humiliating and I did my best not to think about it, even when it was happening. When my friends started talking about theirs, I tuned them out. I didn't want to hear any more about it than I had to, but other girls seemed to actually like talking about it.

One day after school, I invited Kirsten and a new girl named Joely over to my house. I wanted to show Joely my treehouse and then we were going to work on homework together up there since we had a tough science assignment due the next day.

I grabbed a bag of chips, two apples (we didn't have three), and bottles of water, which I handed to my friends. When we got to the treehouse, Joely's eyes went wide. "Whoa! That's so cool."

"Thanks, my dad and my neighbor's dad built it."

Climbing the steps up, I heard muffled voices in the treehouse, but they weren't nearly as loud as Niall's obnoxious friends. "Great," I grumbled. "There are boys here." But when I opened the door, I stood corrected. There was Niall with a cute, freckle-faced girl who had a dimple in her cheek and curly red hair. But not the fiery kind of red, more like an auburn.

"Uh," I said. Very eloquent.

"Hey, Meg, this is Tracie. Tracie, this is my sister, Meg."

Sister?!  What the...?

Niall's eyes begged me to play along. I glanced at Kirsten resignedly and hoped she would too. Joely didn't know enough about me to know he wasn't my brother. "Hey," I said calmly although I had a very weird feeling inside and it wasn't exactly anger, but something like it. I knew Niall brought his buddies up here sometimes but a girl? I didn't bring boys up here. That was just...ew.

"Hi," Tracie said and she had the most disturbing high, squeaky voice. "Well, I have to go. I rode my bike here with Niall, but my mom said I have to be home by 4:30. See ya!" She brushed past us and down the treehouse steps with Niall calling after her, saying he'd ride home with her if his mom said it was okay.

"Aww," Kirsten said after they left. "Isn't that cute? Niall has a little girlfriend."

"He's 11!" I snipped. "And she's annoying."

"I thought she was cute," said Joely. Of course she did.

"Just so you know, he's not my brother," I said bitterly.

Joely looked genuinely surprised and asked, "Oh, why did he say that then?"

I gave her a grumpy shrug and Kirsten answered in my place. "He doesn't want her to know Meg is his best friend. Because he likes Tracie. I still think it's adorable."

"Whatever," I grumbled. "Let's just do science."

Kirsten and Joely chatted happily during the assignment while I sat brooding over Niall bringing his friend to our  treehouse. It was when they started talking about boys in our grade that I kind of lost my patience.

"So, you guys, I think Tony is kind of cute," Joely said shyly. Kirsten just smiled without saying anything but I cracked up laughing. 

"Tony Maccaroni?" I guffawed, purposely mispronouncing his name.

"Isn't it Maccarone?" She asked, looking bewildered by my loud reaction.

Kirsten jumped in. "Yes, that's right. Maeghan is just surprised because she and Tony have a history."

"Ewww!" I yelled. "Why did you have to say it like that? It makes it sound like we're romantically involved, but I would rather have someone pull my toenails out than go out with that freak."

Kirsten widened her eyes at me as if warning me to shut up. "Oh, he's not all that bad," she said, simultaneously trying to convince me and reassure Joely.

I gave her a look similar to one time when I'd opened my chocolate milk at school and it was curdled. She in turn, gave me a much more menacing look which told me to just shut up. So I listened to them cooing over boys for a while. Kirsten had a crush on a kid in our class named David. Eventually I just tuned them out all together.

Another day after school, I climbed up to the treehouse to be by myself, but again, Niall had beaten me to it. I heard him before I saw him, playing some god-awful sounding music, if it could even be called that. When I opened the door, there sat Niall with a golden-colored guitar, the sides of it looking more like mahogany. It was shinier than any guitar I'd ever seen.

That explained the awful noise.

He smiled at me and then looked back down at a piece of paper in front of him with rows of lines and dots on them. He'd look at it and then back at the fingers on his left hand, trying to place them on different strings. Then he would try to strum across all the strings and, nine times out of ten, it sounded terrible. Like a cat getting it's fur pulled out.

I didn't say anything for a long while. I was kind of fascinated by this actually. When he finally strummed a sound that was rather pleasant, I said, "Hey, that one sounded good."

His freckled cheeks blossomed with red blotches and he said, "Tanks."

I listened for a bit longer and then said, "I'm gonna go inside."

"Meg," he said after me. "Are you mad at somethin'?"

I shrugged. "No, why?"

"Well, you seemed mad when I brought Tracie up here the other day."

"Unexpected, I guess." I tried to stay cool, but the memory still irked me. "Wait, is she like, your girlfriend or something?"

His voice said, "No!" rather abruptly, but his flaming cheeks said Yes.

"Whatever," I grumbled and left before he could say anything else.

We had an Indian summer; the heat and humidity held on long after Labor Day, an unwelcome guest for those of us who loved the crisp fall days of sipping hot apple cider and playing in the leaves. They hung on much later than usual, being tricked by Mother Nature to believe they wouldn't float away into dust. When the cooler temperatures and gusty winds finally chased the last of summer away, Niall and I were hanging out in the treehouse on a Saturday, one of the few times we were getting along lately. It was chilly outside, but reasonably warm up there as long as the sun was shining.

Niall picked and plucked and strummed at his guitar. I was duly impressed that in only a month's time, he had learned to play several chords and was able to strum without it sounding choppy; most of the time, anyway.

After a while, he stopped and laid the guitar across his lap. He shook out his arms, his left one especially. "Owww," he complained.

"What's wrong?"

"Look at me fingers." He pushed the tips of his red, raw fingers into my face.

"Man, why are they like that?"

"Pushin' on the strings. They're supposed ta get better the more I play, but damn, they hurt. My arm hurts, too. That made sense. It was the one he had broken and the doctor told him it might still hurt from time to time.

"You sound good, though," I said, giving him a thumb's up."

"Tanks," he grinned in reply.

"Do you like Mr. Peters?" I asked. He had been my sixth grade teacher two years earlier, and now he was Niall's. He never made it very high on my favorite teacher scale.

"He's all right. He's kind of mean, though," Niall replied. Then, suddenly remembering something from school, his loud cackling laughter filled the treehouse. "Oh my god, you'll never guess what happened yesterday!"

"What?" I asked, eager to hear something juicy.

"Sammy fell asleep during history and he started moanin' really loud, ya know like the sexual kind of moanin'. It was even worse when Mr. Peters went to stand by him and then dropped a textbook on his desk to wake him. He sat straight up and yelled, 'Holy shit!'"

I was laughing maniacally along with Niall whose face was beet red. "Oh, my gosh, that's the best story I've ever heard. Oh wait, no! Near the end of last year, Kevin Fuller had a cold and he kept coughing and coughing. So one time he coughed really hard and let out this disgusting fart! He was so embarrassed, he told the teacher he was sick and wanted to go home."

Niall laughed again and I realized how much I liked the sound of it. I was loud and choppy, kind of like popcorn kernels popping, only ten times louder. We shared embarrassing stories about our classmates for a long while.

Then Niall changed the subject. "Can I ask you somethin'?"

"Sure," I shrugged.

"So, there's dis girl at school. Her name's Tracie."

"Yeah, I met her."

"Oh right. So anyway, I kind of...well, she's just really cool."

"Okay." I didn't show it but I was kind of miffed that he was talking about her.

"She always wants to sit by me at lunch and hang out wit me and my mates at recess."

"So tell her to bugger off," I suggested helpfully.

He  nodded and sat quietly for a little bit. "What if I don't really want her to? My mates don't like her hangin' around so much." He cast his eyes down. "But I do."

"I knew it," I said definitively.

"Knew what?"

"You have a crush on her."

"What?" He asked, jerking his head back. "No I don't."

"Niall, you clearly have a crush on Tracie. Why else would you care if she hangs out with you or not?"

"She's my friend."

"Face it, Niall. You have a crush and you're learning to play guitar so you can serenade her and play kissy-face at recess."

"Shut up, Meg," he said, not sounding really angry, but I could tell he was irritated. I couldn't resist. My feelings about the situation had just transformed from upset to an intense desire to tease him mercilessly.

I stood up and started doing a funny little dance, chanting out, "You really like her, you want to kiss her, you want to marry her, and have her babies."

Instead of being mad, he broke out again into his crazy laughter. I stopped, thrown off guard by his reaction. "You said I want to have her babies!" He had set his guitar aside and he literally fell over laughing.

"You're so weird, Horan," I said joining him in laughter. "Guess I shouldn't really tease you like that anyway because I punched Tony when he teased me about you. Remember that?"

"Yes." And we were both laughing again. Even though Niall and I hadn't gotten along much for the past few months, it was fun spending that afternoon with him in the treehouse, doing one of my favorite things - laughing with Niall.

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