Adventure in the Attic

 

Meet Liana Stewart and her best friend Shelby-Grace Elliot. But even better than best friends, they're cousins! Both twelve-year-old girls were given the opportunity to stay at their grandparents' farm over the summer - together! What better way could anyone spend the summer?

On their very first day together, they made a pact.

"Shelby," Liana suggested. "We should make a promise not to get bored this summer."

"That's obviously impossible," Shelby pointed out. "We're bound to get bored at one point or another."

"Alright then," Liana retorted with a smirk on her face. "Let's make a pact never ever to say 'I'm bored' all summer. Are you up for the challenge?"

"I'll do it if you'll do it," Shelby-Grace promised.

Together they made the promise.

"I, Shelby-Grace Elliot, promise not to say that I'm bored during the duration of my summer stay."

"I, Liana Rose Stewart, promise not to say that I'm bored during the duration of my summer stay."

And that's how their summer adventures began.

 

Everywhere they looked, there was something awesomely fun to do. There was Treasure, the golden retriever, to play with.

There were plenty of trees to climb all over.

Multiple trails criss-crossed over the countryside, and for the most part, they took Treasure along.

Grandpa had horses available to ride, which greatly pleased Shelby who is quite the sportswoman.

 

And then, of course, there was the candy jar that Grandma kept stashed. That was Liana's favorite, seeing as how the artistic girly-girl had such a great sweet tooth.

 

But one day....

 

It rained.

The girls had had plenty of fun plans, but all of them consisted of either baking and eating lots of sugar or playing outside.

Obviously, they weren't allowed to play in the lightning and rain.

And, of course, today was the day Grandma had to go to her sewing club and forbade the two mischief makers to enter the kitchen.

Grandpa didn't help stop the boredom, because his only suggestions were chores.

 

Finally, the two girls retreated to the cheerful bedroom they shared.

"So...." Shelby-Grace mused. "We can't build the teepee, or even go shoe-sliding in the ditch because of the stupid rain."

"Hey," Liana reprimanded. "Grandpa needs the rain for his crops."

"You're right." Shelby-Grace admitted. They both fell silent.

Liana eyed her laptop. It sat on the desk invitingly. With a sigh, she pushed it away.

 

It was so tempting, though... the shiny silver cover gleamed.

Shelby-Grace's bright pink phone was resting on the rug beside her. She also sighed and let her hand drop beside it.

"Nope, I won't do it." she declared. "It's tempting, but I'm not going to waste my time on that black hole of time."

"Yeah," Liana agreed. "Besides... it's not like we have good Wi-Fi anyways." she finished lamely.

"So, whaddya wanna do?" Shelby-Grace asked her BFF and cousin.

"You could do my hair," came the reply.

"Okay!" Shelby-Grace jumped up, abandoning her comfy spot on the floor.

Shelby-Grace spun her friend in the swivel chair until she could braid Liana's hair.

Sliding a few hairthings onto her wrist, Shelby-Grace prepared to begin on Liana's shiny brown hair.

"So, how do you want me to do your hair?" she asked, leaning over Liana's shoulder.

"Uhh..." Liana paused to think. "How about two French braids?" Shelby-Grace laughed, because ever since Liana went with her family to Paris the year before, she was obsessed with France and anything Parisian or French in general.

Her brunette locks were soon tightly braided in two twin plaits.

"Well done, SG," Liana praised.

Liana slid out of the fuzzy blue chair and motioned to it.

"It's your turn," she insisted. "I'm not as good as you are, but I'll do my best!"

The fiery, athletic, smart red-head plopped down.

"Let's be twinsies!" she suggested. "I want two French braids too. Just like yours."

 

Liana quickly complied, having fun with Shelby-Grace's soft, but wild, hair.

After they finished, Shelby-Grace threw herself down on the floor. Liana, being the mature one of course, towered over her disapprovingly.

"I'm really, really..." she nearly broke the pact, but Liana interrupted before she could finished.

"Energetic and spoiled," she commented.

 

"Just get up, will you please?" Liana rolled her eyes at her younger (by two months) cousin's 'immaturity'. "We'll find something to do." Shelby-Grace obeyed.

"So, Miss Great-Idea, what should we do?" Shelby-Grace demanded. Liana's eyebrows furrowed as she pondered the question.

"Hey, remember when we first got here?" she exclaimed, her bright blue eyes sparkling with a new idea.

"Nope," SG replied immediately.

"Well, Grandma said we could always adventure around the attic." Liana reminded her.

"Oh..." Shelby-Grace wasn't too enthusiastic. "But... attics are for old clothes and musty broken stuff."

"Anything's better than getting b- I mean, not having much to do." Liana retorted. "And, it'll keep you from throwing another tantrum." Shelby-Grace smirked.

"How is that?" she teased.

"Well, the floor is wooden!" they both giggled at Liana's reply.

"Alright, let's go." Shelby-Grace complied.

The sounds of soft footsteps padding along the carpet was the only thing keeping the room from being silent as the girls traipsed to the attic.

The laptop had failed, and so had the phone. Why? Because they decided to try something new.... and have an adventure in the attic.

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They clumped up the creaky ladder and stepped into the attic.

It was small, because most of it was still just boards and insulation.

Liana and Shelby-Grace just stood there for a moment.

"Well..." Shelby-Grace sighed. "This looks like loads of fun." She said sarcastically, eying the boxes.

"Oh, come on, SG," Liana beckoned. "Let's at least try a couple of these boxes and see if we can find anything interesting."

 

"Rope?" Shelby-Grace grabbed a handful of twine draped over an old wicker chair and surveyed it.

"Okaaaay...."

Grace, on the other hand, had just found something exciting to her.

"Hey, Shelby-Grace, come over here!" Liana exclaimed, beckoning her cousin over.

"Look what I found!" Liana continued excitedly.

Shelby-Grace turned her head slowly.

"Wait a second, what is that?" she curiously asked.

She dropped the cord and ran over.

"Woah! That is so cool!" Shelby-Grace exclaimed. "Let's bring it down so we can play with it!"

Liana giggled. "See, this can be fun!"

"You're right." Shelby-Grace grinned. "Your attitude is contagious."

"I wonder where the dolls are for this," Liana commented, using her fingers to pretend to walk up the pathway of the little Chinese dollhouse.

"I wonder what that sign says," Shelby-Grace pointed to the sign that was precariously standing over the walkway.

 

It was written in calligraphy, with Chinese characters. Liana studied it carefully.

"I don't know," she finally gave up trying to make sense of it. The perfectionist in her reached over to straighten the sign, and in so doing, she caught a glance of the single word on the back.

"Hope," she read aloud, musing to herself.

"That's it!" Shelby-Grace exclaimed, scooting around to see the word. "That's what those symbols mean - hope!"

"Now that's pretty cool," she said. "We should take this downstairs to our room and see if we have any mini dolls that would fit in it."

"Okay!" Liana agreed. They slid it over to the side, where they would remember to take it down.

 

Liana stood to see what else was in the boxes surrounding them.

Shelby-Grace did the same, except she went in the opposite direction.

"Oh, bummer," Liana sighed. "It's empty!"

Shelby checked two others, and both of them were empty as well. Both girls were discouraged and disappointed, until something caught Liana's eye.

 

"Hey, this is fun hat!" she giggled, lifting the straw hat and perching it on her head.

"How do I look?" Liana posed.

It was a cute hat, actually, with a little blue flower on the brown velvet ribbon.

"Well?" Liana prompted. A stifled laugh burst from Shelby-Grace.

"It's a.. nice hat... and it matches your eyes... but stop making that silly face!" Both girls started laughing. Once they stopped, Liana grabbed it off her head and flung it toward the chair in the corner.

"Score!" she cheered as the hat flew through the air and landed on the pile of rope. Shelby-Grace clapped for her friend.

"Well done, well done," she praised sarcastically.

Liana started to say something when she realized that Shelby-Grace was staring over her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" she questioned.

"Nothing," Shelby-Grace replied slowly. "Look behind you!"

"Oh wow!" Liana burst out. "Check this out!"

Atop several other boxes was a wooden treasure chest with a little gold clasp.

Shelby-Grace lifted it and set it on the floor, eager to see what was inside.

"Oh, cool! This is pretty awesome!" she declared, purposefully keeping it out of Liana's view.

"Hey, let me see!" Liana demanded, leaning over her.

Shelby-Grace let the lid fall back and thump on the floor. Inside was a cache of beaded jewelry.

Shelby-Grace slid her glasses to the end of her nose and draped the pearls around her neck.

"Oh, dearie," she crooned, pretending to be an old women with a quavering voice. "Would you please get me my sewing basket?"

Liana burst out laughing. "You totally look the part!" she teased

"Hey!" SG retorted.

Soon only two pieces of jewelry were left in the shallow box.

"Check this out, SG," Liana held up her wrist with a purple beaded bracelet on it.

 

"That's pretty," Shelby-Grace admired, pushing her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose.

"Let's see what's in this one," Liana suggested, turning to her right and spotting another box.

Grace popped the cardboard lid off, with Shelby curiously waiting.

As the lid slid off, Shelby-Grace let out a squeal.

"Liana!" she exclaimed joyously. "Look at that! It's a real, true to life AG club jacket! I'm trying that on right now!"

 

She wriggled into the wool coat, shouldering the jacket.

She finally got her hand through and stretched for the other armhole.

"Ta-da!" Shelby-Grace posed with the jacket triumphantly half-buttoned.

She spun to show her BFF the American Girl star on the back.

"This is crazy hot," Shelby-Grace complained, quickly shrugging it off. "Ack! I wish it was winter so I could wear this."

"Shelby-Grace, that's not the only thing in that box!" Liana held up a pretty glass teapot.

"Cool!" Shelby-Grace repeated, sitting down again and perusing the contents of the box.

Liana pulled out the lace shawl that had been wrapped around the porcelain to protect it.

"Look, here's another prop for your act!" she declared.

"Oh, yes," Shelby-Grace replied in her 'old lady' voice, draping the cloth around her shoulders. "I think it is time for tea, honey."

 

Liana giggled, but quickly emptied the box, turned it over, and set up the tea table.

Shelby-Grace pushed the glasses back down to the edge of her nose and slung the fake pearls around her neck again.

"May I serve you your tea?" Liana asked properly. She took one of the cups and held her pinky out.

After a few minutes, the girls grew bored with the pretty tea set and set off to find another fun thing to do.

Liana let out a gasp.

"What?" Shelby-Grace asked, switching back to her normal voice. She scanned the area. "What do you see?"

"SG, we have to put it in our room this summer!" Liana bent over and lifted a wooden piece of art.

"What is that supposed to be?"

"It's string art, Shelby-Grace!" Liana declared. "I love it!"

"But like.. what is it?" SG teased, knowing perfectly well that it was a camera. Liana pretended to slug her before moving the heavy string art over to the 'take-to-our-room pile.'

The next box held some ribbon and craft supplies, which they both thought was cool, but not worth their time.

"We'll have to remember this, though," Liana insisted. "That ribbon would be really pretty to add to an outfit.

As she stepped back, her leg hit a box and knocked the lid off.

"Whoops," she commented.

She turned and bent over to see what was inside.

"What did you find?" Shelby-Grace inquired curiously.

"It's the matching hat to your whatever club jacket thingy," Liana tossed the hat aside.

"Oh my goodness! Now I really wish it was winter!" Liana gaped.

Beneath the wooly cap was a pair of elegant white leather figure skates.

The pile was growing bigger to take downstairs.

"That's pretty awesome," Shelby-Grace noted. "But we can't use that now. We could use this though," she held up a light pink basket.

"That's an Easter basket," Liana pointed out.

"So?" her cousin replied.

Also beside all of the other things was a pink cooler and an old purple suitcase.

"This one is really heavy," Shelby-Grace tried to pick up another box. When she couldn't budge it very well, she merely pushed it to the middle and sat down to find out what was inside.

"Oh. It's just papers and stuff. Hey, what's this?" Shelby-Grace withdrew a small leather book.

"Journey Journal," she read allowed. "It's a diary! Hey, Li, come over here!"

Liana joined her as Shelby-Grace found a picture of their grandmother when she was younger.

"That is one old picture," Shelby-Grace commented. "It's still in black and white!"

The girls found several old letters too...

"To Samantha - this one is to my mom!" Shelby-Grace announced. "I wonder who Chloe is..."

She opened the envelope and slid out a red, homemade Christmas card.

"Merry Christmas Samantha," she read from the red script. "That is a great question.... I wonder what the question was?" SG got distracted, so Liana began reading hers.

A pretty gold heart was on one side, and nice neat handwriting on the other.

"Merry Christmas, Katie! That is so awesome you want to compete at the Dolympics, too! I be you'll do amazing. And thank you! Ooh, I love your poem! I am going to hang it up above my bed. I love it so much! Thank you Katie! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Love, Molly."

Liana grinned. "I wonder what the poem was.... I wonder who Katie was, and if she got to go to the Dolympics. I should research that sometime."

"Now this is ancient." Shelby-Grace interrupted, holding up a yellowed newspaper. "It's like, from the Great Depression!"

"The Cincinnati Register," she mused. "Cool!

"Hey, I want to see too!" Liana demanded, sliding over to hold the other side.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she was immensely surprised.

"Forty cents to be minimum wage?!" Shelby-Grace had seen the insert at the exact same time. "No way! You can't even buy ice cream for that!"

Both found this funny, and then folded the newspaper and set it aside to look at later.

"Ooh, a new book!" Shelby-Grace devoured books like.. like... a panda eats bamboo.

"I found one too!" Liana showed hers to her friend and cousin.

"Rebecca and Melody," Shelby-Grace approved.

"Hey, I wonder if this is a copy of that poem the other girl was mentioning.... Molly, I think." Shelby-Grace scanned the sheets of printed paper quickly.

"Read it!" Liana begged. Shelby-Grace cleared her throat and read the lines slowly and dramatically.

"I stand on the podium, tears welling in my eyes.

I glance toward the crowds, and then up at the sky.

I never imagined that my dreams would come true

That it all paid off: the tears, the pain, the work, the strain.

But it did.

And now I’m standing on the podium at the quadrennial games

I’m now glad for the days when I didn’t stop

‘Cause now I’m standing here, here at the top.

I glance down at the medal that hangs ‘round my neck

The bright lights bouncing off the golden surface

It’s an assurance that I have done well

A proof of all the stories I now have to tell.

But it doesn’t matter about the fame

I’m here, enjoying the Dolympic Games,

As a child I thought it was just a story

That I could be part of the Dolympian glory

But I can’t take all the credit for all I have done

For it was my coach who made me do what wasn’t fun.

My parents poured into me all that they had and encouraged me when I was pretty bad.

And through all I persevered I’m so glad that I did because now I have…

The courage… the strength… the endurance."

"I like it!" Liana declared. Just then, another photo caught her eye.

 

"It's a signed 'Noelle Lancer' poster!" Liana exclaimed. Noelle was her favorite dancer of all times.

 

It was added to the ever growing pile of things.

"A toy box!" Shelby-Grace laughed gleefully when they moved onto the next box.

"Dominoes! The perfect thing.." SG declared, putting it with the other things to take down.

"She's pretty," Li said softly, holding a curly-headed doll. Shelby-Grace nodded in agreement.

"Oh, how darling!" Shelby-Grace interrupted again, holding up a plastic teddy bear. "There's a lot of them!"

"Here's the Papa Bear," Liana laughed, holding up another one in a black suit. "I bet they go with that dollhouse... though wouldn't that make it a bearhouse?"

As they approached the final box, both girls were disappointed to see merely scraps of faded pink lace.

"Oh! Wow!" Liana caught her breath as she whisked the overlaying fabric away.

"It's a real pinafore!" Shelby-Grace reached over and snatched up the white apron.

 

"They're dress-up clothes!" Liana lifted an old-timey green dress from the box.

"That is totally awesome!" Shelby-Grace squealed, pulling on a long blue dress.

"It's like, a princess dress! And not one of those cheap ones.. it's like, real lace and satin and chain-link accents!" SG held it up to herself. "I think it'd fit!

"Hey, this one's fit for a queen!" Liana pressed a pink gown to her shoulders. "I think it'd fit perfectly! Let's try them on!"

Just then, a voice called from below that caused both girls to turn towards the exit.

"Girls!" their grandmother called. "Where are you?"

"We're up here!" Liana called back. Shelby-Grace looked down and around in horror. They had made quite the mess.

"We'll be down in a second!" SG added.

The two hastily stuffed the dress-up clothes back in the box.

They haphazardly stacked the boxes...

Liana pushed the boxes back to their place..

Shelby-Grace stuffed the shawl in the basket..

And they made a better stack of their things that they wished to take downstairs.

"That was quite the adventure," Liana smirked.

"You're right. That was pretty fun." Shelby-Grace giggled.

"We'll have to come back up sometime," they both said at the same time, and then burst into laughter.

The two best friends and cousins walked over the ladder, and with one last glance at the fun-filled attic, started climbing down.

 

 Voices wafted up to the attic a few moments later.

"What were you girls doing in the attic on such a lovely day?" Grandma inquired.

"Lovely? Wait a second.. it's not raining anymore." Shelby-Grace exclaimed.

"We didn't even notice, even with the tin roof," Liana added. "We were having too much fun!"

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