"Lani!" Caleb rushes up to me, waving a paper in my face.

"Caleb!" I close my locker door and try to balance three books on my other hand. Note that I said 'try'.  The books tumble off of my open palm, but I grab two of them in midair, leaving the other one lying on the ground.

"Whoa, how'd you do that?" Caleb exclaims. 

I shrug and pick up my last book. "So, what's this paper?"

"The math test!" He hands me the paper, taking the notebooks from me.

"An eighty-seven?" I ask.

He nods excitedly. "My best grade of the quarter. This math class is hard!"

I smile. Caleb and I are both in Algebra 1, but Caleb is doing surprisingly well for his Dyslexia. He has trouble recognizing certain numbers, and mixes up numbers occasionally.

"Now, really. Tell me how you picked up all of those books at once." My best friend demands as we walk down the hall.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Such a pretty view." Caleb comments as I stand up shakily on the skinny tree branch. "Wait, what are you doing?" He asks.

"I wanna go to the very top of the tree." I declare, reaching for the branch hanging over my head.

"What if you fall?" He exclaims.

"The wind will catch me!" I tell him with a grin.

"You can't just always say that, Iolani. It's not true."

"Yes, it is, Mom! When I fall, the air around me wraps me up and makes everything alright."

"Iolani, you need to understand the difference between reality and your little roleplay games!"

"I do!"

"Iolani! Come down, it isn't safe!"

"Caleb?" I call, glancing down, then looking up. Through the few skinny twigs, I can see the murky white of the clouds after a rainstorm. "I'm almost there!"

"Please stop climbing! I don't want to think of what'll happen if you fall." Caleb yells.

When I look at him, I sigh. I know if I keep climbing, I'll give my friend a heart attack, but... "This is the closest I've ever gotten! I can't stop now!"

"I don't care. You need to stop, now."

"No!"

"If you don't come down right now,"

"You won't be allowed to come back to the tree!" Caleb warns.

I stop climbing. "But..." This tree means too much to me. I sigh and look down. "It's a long way down, Caleb." I  jump from the small branch that was supporting my weight. The air pulses around me, spinning and swirling. When I'm in the air, I finally feel free, like nothing around me matters any more. It's amazing.