Summer
Soon the five of them were in Shannon's room. Her room was in the attic and the whole thing was covered in pictures of this and that, quotes from books and movies, and incredibly black and white. The posters and quotes added some color, but everything else from the walls, to the bed, to the furniture was black and white.
"That couch there pulls out into a bed," Shannon was telling them, "so two people can sleep there and two of us can sleep on my bed-"
"I call sleeping under the couch!" Jane exclaims as she runs over to the couch, pulls out the bed, and hops into the little space left under the couch, where the bed is usually stowed away.
The girls all laugh at their goofy friend. "Okay." Shannon continues. "Who wants the actual bed part of the couch?"
"I love pull out beds." Penelope says as she plops her things next to the couch.
"I'll take the bed-couch as well." Wisteria says, putting her things down on the other side of the couch.
"Then that leaves the actual bed for Christy and I!" Shannon says, finishing up the sleeping arrangements.
"Wonderful!" Penelope says without much actual excitement. "So now what? At Wisty's house we did ordinary muggle things, at Jane's house we did absolutely nothing at all, and at Christy's house we played Quidditch. What are we doing while in the Prince household?"
"Oh... Um..." Shannon mumbles, her face clearly telling everyone in the room that she hadn't put any thought into the matter at all. "Well... I haven't really considered it too much... I have lots and lots of books! Some of them are really good. There's not really much around this area for us to do outside of the house, but there's lots of woods and things. We could go on hikes, bring books to read when we take breaks."
"I think that for a plan made up on the spot, it sounds pretty good. It'll be like when we would study by the Black Lake at Hogwarts, but with less headache and homework and more beauty and reading." Wisteria says.
The next day, the girls woke up in time to eat breakfast with Shannon's parents before they went off to work and were out of the house with bags full of books and food for lunch before her little brother dragged himself out of bed. They entered the forest through a small path in the backyard that was worn by continued use. They talked and joked and laughed as they made their trek through the forest. The farther they got in, the less clear the path was until eventually it disappears and they are walking on the green and red ferns that grow on the forest floor. The sun is shining bright through the trees and illuminates a cluster of big rocks.
"Well." Penelope says. "That looks inviting."
"Yes it does!" Wisteria agrees, already scaling the biggest rock. Her hand slips and she nearly drops the bag of books she was carrying. Shannon makes a strangled noise and rushes forward to make sure the books (and her friend) didn't fall. Wisteria laughs. "I'm fine, I'm just clumsy."
"This is why I always worry when you're in that tree! You can barely walk on your own two feet!" Shannon says.
"Sometimes, but I'm smooth when it counts. Like in climbing trees, or rocks, or anything. I just almost fell because of these books. They're weighing me down."
"Well you better not drop them!"
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Now get your butts up here!"
Jane is the next one to attempt the climb as Wisteria sits on the top of the rock above her, laughing as she struggles to find handholds. Penelope and Christine are close behind, Penelope passing Jane no problem and Christine stopping to help her. Shannon walked around to look for an easier way up and found one on the other side of the rock. Soon the five friends are all sitting on the rock and have their chosen books in hand, reading them using the sun filtering through the leaves of the huge oaks surrounding them.
A few hours later, Shannon and Wisteria are a little over halfway through their book, Penelope and Jane are a little under halfway with theirs, and Christine is barely a fourth of the way through hers. They take a break for lunch and as they eat they take turns describing what they'd read so far.
After they're finished eating they clean up what's left of the food and go back to reading on the rock, their positioning changing slightly with the setting sun. Finally, the time comes when the sun goes down and their is not longer enough light for them to read. The girls climb off the rocks and begin their journey through the now dark woods.
"I can't wait to get back to the house and continue reading!" Wisteria says excitedly. "I am so close to finishing! She's about to find the final clue and discover the truth behind what happened!"
"I'm almost done too." Shannon tells them. "I may join you in continuing to read back at the house. The main character is on the verge of death!"
"I think I reached a pretty good stopping point." Penelope says. "I'll just finish it tomorrow."
"I'm not close to finishing at all." Christine admits.
"Christy, you read about as slow as a snail crawls. At this rate it'll take you three days just to finish one book!" Jane says.
"Yeah," Christine agrees. "And by that point Wisty and Shay will be done with their third book."
"I can't help it!" Wisteria exclaims.
"It's not like it's our faults we read fast." Shannon says.
The girls spend the rest of the week like that. They wake up, eat breakfast, travel to the rocks, read, eat lunch, read, hike back, eat dinner, sleep. It's comforting to all of them to get into such a structured and planned out rhythm. After each day, right before they fall asleep, Wisteria goes to the dining room to write a letter to Michael. He isn't responding anymore, but she continues to write anyway. She gushes about the books she's reading, describes the forest and creatures in it, and ends every letter asking what happened and telling her that she misses him. All that she can do is write, and hope that he reads them.