Chapter 23

“Um . . . AB,” Billy finally speaks. “Did you come here without me?”

“I was just about to ask you the same thing,” I reply.

“What are you two talking about?” Everley says. “You both came here at the same time. Boys are so weird.”

“No. We mean, did one of us come here without the other one?” I explain.

“Oh,” Everley says. “But I’m standing by my last statement.”

We all look back at the tree house. Three of the walls are up. My first thought is Jackson. Maybe he sleepbuilds when he sleepwalks? And if that’s the case, I’m going to invite him to spend the night in the tree so he can finish the job.

“Wait,” Sarah says. “You guys didn’t do this? I was actually impressed. But it makes more sense that it wasn’t you.”

“Who else knows about the tree house?” Everley asks.

“My dad,” I answer. “He wanted our health insurance paid up before I started working on it. I also told Old Man Gus, but that was over a month ago. There’s no way he had time to walk all the way down here. It takes him two days just to mark off one day on his calendar.”

I pause so everyone can laugh at my hilarious joke.

“Is there any way Triple-H did this?” Billy asks.

Billy is my best friend, but he’s not the sharpest bulb in the crayon box. Does he really think a terrifying forest creature built two walls of our tree house without our help? That’s a crazy idea! Still, I wait to see what the girls say.

We all eventually agree that it’s ridiculous to believe in a huge raccoon with construction skills even better than ours. Then it hits me. Mr. Polvado! He knows about the tree house. He even helped a tiny amount when we started building.

I pull out my phone and call him.

“Mr. Polvado, this is Average Boy, your favorite neighbor.”

“Starting off with a joke, I see,” he replies. “I know who you are, Bob. I just don’t know how to block someone on this new phone of mine.” He laughs for a moment, until he starts coughing.

“Did you work on our tree house?” I ask.

“I worry about you,” he says. “You were there when I put down the floor. Remember, you and your friend were busy playing around in the creek. That floor wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for me. Is your head feeling okay?”

“No, I’m not talking about the time when you helped out a little while Billy and I gathered all those important rocks,” I say. “I mean after that. Did you come back and do some more work on the tree house?”

“Bob, do you honestly think I don’t have anything better to do than build a tree house way too close to my home for some noisy kids to hang out in all the time?” he asks. “I’m a very busy man. I don’t even have time for this phone call.”

“What are you doing now?” I ask.

“I’m watching a bird land on my front porch.”

“Sorry to bother you, Mr. Polvado. Have a great day!”

It sounds like he didn’t put up our new walls. Now that I think about it, there’s a better chance that it was HHH, despite the fact the girls keep saying it’s a ridiculous idea.

We decide to figure out that mystery later and put up the last wall ourselves. It goes pretty smoothly . . . the second time. The first time Sarah messes it up by not telling me I didn’t tie a very good knot on the rope holding the wall in place. When Billy didn’t notice Sarah’s mistake, he let go of the wall and it fell out of the tree.

The second time Sarah ties the knot while I make sure she does a good job. I must be good at managing people, because this time it works. I nail the new wall to the floor while Billy secures it to the other walls. I step back and push against the new wall. It doesn’t even budge!

Everley and Sarah start laughing, but I don’t see what’s funny. Billy and I now have a tree house with four walls. We just need to add a roof to complete the The Greatest Tree House Ever Built!

“I don’t know what you two are laughing about,” I finally say. “This tree house rocks! Billy and I are genius builders. Sure, Mr. Polvado helped a little and someone or something—I’m still not ruling out HHH—put up a few of the walls, but Billy and I are the brains behind this amazing fortress!”

Sarah stops laughing long enough to say, “Well, Brains, how are you going to get in and out?”

Girls like to ruin everything. I look at the perfectly built tree house and realize we forgot to put in a perfectly built door.

“Uh, AB?” Billy says. “The girls are right. And I’d like to get out now.”

Billy’s still inside the tree house, and he’s completely walled in. This causes the giggling girls to giggle even louder.

“Don’t panic, Billy!” I shout.

“I’m not panicking, AB,” he says.

“I’ll bring you some food and water until I get a door built.”

“Now I’m panicking,” Billy says. “I can’t stay here that long. I’m just going to climb over the top.”

Billy climbs over one of the walls, and the girls get to giggling again when it comes loose and falls over. Thankfully, only the wall falls to the ground. Billy grabs a tree limb and swings to safety.

We decide that’s enough progress for one day. Besides, we all want something to eat, especially the girls. Laughing must make them hungry.

We also decide to meet back at the tree the next day. It will be easier to build a door with the wall on the ground anyway. I tell Billy to meet at eight in the morning so that we can all get started at ten.