Essay on Personal Experience - the Forest

I remember we used sit under the tall oak tree in the woods behind my house. Her long pigtails bounced as she chatted excitedly about who stole her crayons and why one of us always ended up getting a time out. Our mothers would sit on the back porch and make sure we wouldn't run too far away. I would take her small graham-cracker -smelling hand in mine, and we would run through the forest defending the world from the evil tree demons that inhabited our earth. We would throw rocks at the trees pretending they were bombs, other times we would pick up fallen branches and have sword fights against the demons. After we would run away before the king demon got a chance to attack us. On one of those various battles we strayed too far into the forest. We didn't notice how far away from home we were, until nightfall. We couldn't see anything and the evil tree demons were everywhere.

We clung to each other for dear life, we called out for our mom's but the only response we got was from the many creatures in the woods. The owls hooted and a few rodents scampered past us. I held her hand and we walked towards the direction we thought was home. After what seemed like many hours of walking it began to rain and we gave up and sat down on a fallen tree; back then it was a demon we had stabbed to death earlier. We were tired and wet and hungry and cold. We didn't know what else to do but sit there and cry for our mothers. She fell asleep quickly, her small head on my shoulder. I had begun to nod off when I heard someone calling her name. I lifted my head to see flashlights and her dad looking around. I nudged her awake and we began running towards him. We ran into him and hugged him and began crying. When we returned to my house she had to leave but we wouldn't let go of each other. I was afraid that if I let go the tree demons would get her. From then on we were never far from each other. She was my best friend and I was hers.

When we got a bit older the woods became our special place. We would meet there after school and talk. It was where secrets were told and tears were shed. No one would know of that place and no one would know of the secrets we shared. When we were about twelve she told me about her crush on Johnny Sparks, an eighth grader at our school who paid no attention to her whatsoever. There she told me Johnny asked her out, and that was where my heart broke. A few weeks later she called me telling me to meet her in our spot; she was excited and said that she couldn't tell me over the phone because it was a surprise. I picked at the grass next to me while I waited for her to get there. I heard her footsteps and looked up, I was expecting the girl with long hair and baggy jeans but she wasn't there. In her place was a blond girl with a bob and a miniskirt. The only thing that made her the best friend I loved was her name. She'd cut her hair because Johnny told her she would look better with short hair, and worn the skirt because he said it would look good on her. Well from another mans point of view it looked trashy on her. It disgusted me that she would listen to him. I told her I missed her pigtails and she pushed