The Old Oak Tree

"Why?... Why did she bring me here?" Lizzy mumbles to herself. Her mind is racing. This is the swimming hole right down the road from her family farm. The place she left and decided she was never going back to. She left her parents, animals and life behind. Now she is on its door step. A small sliver of her heart wants to see what has become of it. Yet she fears of what has become of it. Was it bombed? Even if it wasn't, the barn and house are probably in rubble. What became of her parents? Did the farm change hands? 

"...zy... izzy.... Lizzy?" It's Alex's voice and him snapping his fingers infront of her face that brings her back to the present. Lizzy is sitting in the weeds and sand.

"Hey what happened?" Stacy is beside her. 

"That was a bit scary! You just dropped." Dragon tells her.

"I. Um... I." Lizzy stutters trying to find the right words. What does she want to say? You tricked me? Why drag me here of all places? Did you know? What was you're plan? Where you just having fun? Did one of the guys tell you and you agreed without knowing?

"She is definitely in a mental shock." Karen says moving from Lizzy's head. Lizzy wonders when she got there.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I thought if you knew you wouldn't want to come. And it's selfish but I wanted to see where my house was. I'm sorry." Stacy hangs her head low.

"If you're going to blame anyone it's me." Karen speaks up. "I purposely told her about this lake. Kiki told me Stacy needed to finish her grieving process. And you... well... you haven't shown any grieving symptoms. So I helped plan this trip to hopefully trigger something. And it looks like I have."

"Everyone here I called family is dead. Once they are dead that's it. You move on. Crying fixes nothing. It don't bring them back. It only gets in the way of you're work. Yea. It sucks but that's life." Lizzy states.

"I believe it would be beneficial for you to see what became of your home." Karen urges.

"I'm not interested." Lizzy says. There was an awkward silence in the group. "You all can go swim. I'm going to sit in the shade for awhile."

Lizzy gets up, grabs a white swim suit cover up Stacy packed for her and walks to the shade. Stacy and the boys head to the water after Stacy tells them it's best to leave Lizzy alone when she gets this way. Drag ignores Stacy and tries walking to Lizzy. Alex grabs the boy's shoulder and shakes his head. Drag thinks on that for a moment and joins the group. Alex goes and sits where he was.

"Why are you so close? I said I wanted to be alone." Lizzy growls at Alex. Who is by the way fifteen to twenty feet away from her.

"I was here first technology." He holds up his backpack and then starts sipping on his tea.

"Ugh." Lizzy distastefully groans.

"It's chamomile." He holds out the thermos to her. She eyes it for a moment. "It's calming. And you are everything but calm. I would even say you might have ruined beach day." His gaze is at the kids standing in the water. They are looking around while Stacy points out frogs on the waters edge.

"You never sugar coat anything do you?" Lizzy gets up and sits two arm lengths away from him. She takes the thermos from him. Alex's brain kicks in. And it realized he just offered an indirect kiss. Lizzy sips from the thermos and hands it back. With none of the nonsense Alex is slightly panicking over.

"Yea I don't tend to. Do I?" He says. They sit in silence for a bit. "Would you want to see a spot I like to go to? It's actually right around here."

"You don't think I should try to join the group?"

"I think you need fresh air to cool off. Come on." Alex gets up with his backpack. "Hey! I'm going to take the party pooper for a drive! We will be right back!" He shouts to the group.

They look a bit confused.

"Alright but don't forget us!" Stacy shouts back.

"Come on." Says Alex. Waving for her to get up.

"But." Lizzy looks around. "Fine. Karen you're staying here!" She shouts to the Soleil then gets up and follows him to the van. 

After a short drive they come to a meadow. The road sits a little higher than the meadow so you can see a bit of it. The place is slowly being taken over by tree saplings. And not just any tree saplings they are mostly oak trees. In the middle of the meadow is a large oak. 

"It's a nice view, isn't? Gramps took me here one fall and I have been hooked on this place ever since. No one owns this property anymore." He shuts the van off and gets out. Lizzy follows. He takes off into the trees. 

"You're not going to kill me. Are you?" Lizzy stands at the edge of the field. "I know I haven't been the nicest person to work with."

"You're annoying yes but if I don't come back with you then I will be in jail. Now come on." He says. Lizzy goes deeper into the small woods. Keeping a little distance from Alex. The branches are low hanging from the saplings. They approach the big oak tree. Alex sits on a rock.

"It's quiet here." He says looking up at the leaves.

Lizzy looks at the rocks. She begins digging in the dead leaves on the ground.

"What are you..?" Alex watches as she uncovers another rock.

Lizzy brings her dirt covered hand up near her mouth. He lower lip is quivering. She is blinking a lot to hold back the tears. She knows it's useless to cry but she is more happy than anything that she can pay her respects.

"Um. I... what's wrong?" Alex asks.

"This here is Snowball's grave. That rock over there is Lilly's grave. The rock you're sitting on is Bandit's grave." Lizzy starts pointing to rocks.

"How? Why? Wait." Alex stands up. "You're making this up right?" His eyes wide with concern.

"This is. Well it was my parents property. This was the cattle pasture. It looks like the babies to this tree have spread since then. I, we use to bury the special animals here. The ones we kept for a long time."

"You're telling me this is a grave yard? My peaceful spot is a grave yard." Alex looks around for more rocks.

"They were animal graves. Now the earth has reclaimed them." Lizzy sits on the ground in the leaves.

"Now I feel bad for sitting here."

"Don't be. I'm sure Snowball enjoyed the company. Bandit's ghost probably would have bit you if he didn't want your company."

"There is no such thing as ghosts! Besides Bandit sounds like a mean goat."

"Bandit was a dog. An Australian Shepard to be precise. He was put down when I was young. Lilly was my mom's cat. She was nearly 20 years old when I was 13 years old. Snowball was my first goat. He was so good." Lizzy looks around the tree. "These rocks though. These were placed after Snowball." Lizzy walks around the tree and touches each of the three rocks. 

"I'm a bit curious of who is buried here but I know better than to disturb the resting." Lizzy says carefully looking at the rocks. There is two large next to each other and medium sized one.

Alex stays quiet as Lizzy pays respects to those buried under the tree. She tells Alex stories of young Snowball. Then Bandit protecting her at a young age. And how Lilly would sleep with Lizzy all the time. Lizzy kneels beside the three new to her rocks. She places her left hand on the medium rock and her right on one of the large rocks.

"I don't know who you are but you must have been loved to be buried here. Now rest easy." Lizzy gets up and her stomach growls.

"It's past lunch time. Maybe we should make our way back?" Alex asks gently.

"Yea I have said my peace." Lizzy says leading the way out of the little wooded area.

The car ride back to the others was quiet. Until Lizzy started fiddling with the radio. Then Alex was wondering why they were listening to heavy metal. He switches it to classical. She switches it back.

"Really?" He looks at her.

"I like the guitars and drums. Now if I'm dealing with cows then I will listen to classical." Lizzy states.

"Gramps says cows really like piano." Alex adds. Lizzy nods in agreement.

Once back at the lake Lizzy sits in the van staring at everyone sitting and talking. Alex sits with her just waiting. Lizzy is a little lost in thought of today's events.

"You alright taking Stacy and us to her old house so she can look around?" She asks Alex.

"Yea. That's fine." He says.

"Could.... could I ask if you could bring us back another time? Just till I can get my license? I know it's selfish to ask and I will pay for gas or any other expenses." Lizzy tries rambling on.

"Hey." Says Alex. Lizzy stops rambling and looks at him. He smiles gently at her. "I can bring you guys back. Now shall we get back to the group?"

"Yea we should." She hops out and steels her nerves. Now to talk to everyone and hope they aren't upset with her.

Lizzy apologizes to the group for her behavior. Then informs them Alex said he would help them come out here again. They talked about cleaning up the area on future trips. Lizzy talked about getting her license again. And finally they talked about going to Stacy's house tonight before heading home.

Lizzy and Stacy go for a walk by the water. Talking more in depth of what Lizzy and Alex did while they were gone. And Stacy scolds Lizzy for staining her white cover up with dirt. The guys start talking about the girls. Alex ends up eavesdropping thanks to not sitting far enough away.

"Hitohito you are relentless. How is anyone of us going to have a chance with Stacy?" Asks Stephen.

"Step up your game boys." Hitohito replies.

"Maybe Drag's idea of going for Lizzy isn't a bad idea." Tate comments.

"Hey you all know my end game is Stacy. Get close to the friend so you know what the other likes." Dragon shrugs.

Alex's blood boils. By the time he bolts up the girls were walking back to them. Lizzy looks at him concerned. He shakes his head and grabs his things. The sun is starting to get low in the sky. They pack up and start loading the van. Alex keeps his tongue bit.

"Lizzy rides shotgun." Alex exclaims and hops in the drivers seat.

"Shotgun?" The boys ask each other. The Soleils explain it's an older term for the front passenger seat.

Kiki sits on the floor board between Alex and Lizzy giving directions. Stacy is in the very back again engrossed in conversation. Lizzy turns on the radio to heavy metal. Alex smirks at everyone's reactions.

They make it to the outskirts of town. No one repaired the roads after the bombing so they had to walk to Stacy's house which was only a few blocks in. They carefully walk through the rubble that is slowly being taken over by nature. Stacy stops infront of what was her parents house. The whole thing is collapsed into the basement that had standing water.

"Ah. So it is gone." Stacy says. Then she slowly lost her composure. Lizzy hugged her friend so she could let out all of her emotions. After a long cry Stacy said how she felt better and was ready to go back to her new home with everyone. She put on her best smile but only Lizzy knew she was still hurting a bit.

Lizzy sits in the middle in the very back with Stacy to her left. Alex yelled for Drag to sit up front. Hitohito sat next to Lizzy. The ride was quiet with Stacy and Lizzy lightly talking of how they still have each other. Stacy yawns and leans against Lizzy before passing out. The boys poorly hid their jealous looks.

Lizzy sticks her tongue out and gives the boys a hand gesture. Alex smirks while looking in the rear view mirror.