"This is stupid," I told Lexi as she dragged me to the back of the school yard.

"Kara insisted it works," my sister replied.

"And Kara is pulling your leg," I said, rolling my eyes. "I want to go back to the playground."

"There's no harm trying. You wrote your secret down, right?"

"Yes," I groaned, still unsure how she convinced me to follow her to this stupid tree. Standing tall above us, green leaves glistening against the blue sky backdrop, it certainly seemed like the oldest one. But no way would it give us treasure.

"Just humour me."

"Because this is a joke?"

Lexi pulled out her own folded paper. "If it was a joke to me, why would I be doing it?"

Shaking my head, I grabbed my paper from my pocket, shoving it into the tree hole. "There. Happy? Can I go now?"

Lexi deadpanned, then turned back to the tree, tracing her fingers across the grooves and bumps of its trunk before carefully placing hers in the hole beside mine. "What did you write?" she whispered, as though the trees were eavesdropping.

"The point of writing down a secret to get treasure is to keep it a secret."

"Fine, don't tell me," she grumbled, as she began to storm away.

"I won't," I replied, trying to walk faster than her.

It became a match of who could grumpily storm away the fastest, until our anger dissipated and we were just two ten-years-old, racing each other back to the playground.

But just before we reached it, I tripped over my shoelaces, face-planting the ground.

"Ow!" I groaned, pushing myself off the sharp browning blades of grass, gingerly rubbing my face.

"Are you okay?" Lexi gasped, turning around and running back to me. She crouched down, grabbing my face, tilting it this way and that. "Whatever you do, don't tell mum this happened because of the tree thing."

Rolling my eyes, I said, "You're just scared they will find out that you can't stay out of mischief."

Eyes glowing with glee, she replied, "Obviously."

But I continued to hold my face, feeling my eyes stinging with tears.

"Should I take you to the nurse's office?" she asked, tone deflating.

"No... then mum and dad will definitely find out."

"Then..." Her brows furrowed as she seemed to think long and hard. "What if I tell you what I wrote to distract you?"

"But then you won't get your treasure."

She grinned. "I think I will. I don't think telling your twin counts as revealing the secret."

With a sigh, I caved, saying, "What did you write?"

"That Callie is an idiot for believing she can put a piece of paper in a tree and get treasure. And my treasure will be seeing you fall for it."

Predicting my next action, Lexi jumped to her feet, stepping away as I reached for her. "You will pay for that, Lex!" I called as I scrambled my feet, chasing her once more.