The apple tree

"Sonya?"
An afternoon breeze released the music of early summer, a sudden whushhh of rustling leaves crecsendoing upward accompanied by the dance of pink apple blossoms, their perfume mingled with the scents of musty, damp earth and sun warmed bark. A barefoot young girl wearing denim cut-offs leaned back against the forking branches of the ancient apple tree, two long braids of auburn hair framing a face that shouted annoyance, green eyes narrowed, cheeks flushed, lips slightly puckered, tightening into a firm line. She spoke out again.
"Sonya!"
"Uh huh?"
"I asked you, what do you think of  Jason Peterson?"
A slender girl with black eyes and hair reluctantly looked up from the opened book nestled in the crook of her bent legs. She was the kind of girl who at times preferred the company of these pages, the ancient adventurers pushing past the edge of a known world, the underdogs of a medieval kingdom, in particular those who conversed with wizards or hobbits or the like, conquering adversities. She often thought that the world could benefit greatly from more people of this sort and less of the kind who can't think beyond their immediate surroundings. At this moment, she brought her thoughts back from other worlds focusing her gaze and her mind across at her friend cradled in the adjacent tree branch.
"Peterson?" Sonya reflected, "Oh, well he's ooo'k. Kind of a nerd though. You know, like too excited in science class and takes math seriously."
"What's wrong with liking science?"
Sonya sighed tilting her chin down and her head ever so slightly to the side. "Maury, it's o'k to LIKE science, but you don't let everyone know it." She went back to reading her book.
"Sonya."
Silence.
"Sonya!"
For the second time Sonya pulled herself away from the pages in front her gently closing the book on her finger and holding it there. "What's up Maury?"
"I really like Jason Peterson."
Sonya's eyes widened forcing her black brows upward. Now this was serious stuff requiring serious discussion time. "Does he like you?"
"I don't know."
"What do ya mean you don't know? What did he say to you when you told him?"
Maury's eyes glanced quickly downward as though a multi-legged creature of incredible size had suddenly appeared. After three seconds of inner-lip chewing and mental struggle she refocused her eyes on the serrated shiny leaf off to her left. "I don't want him to know,"  her voice cracked slightly. "I'm not going to look stupid and go up to him and say 'Hey, I like you'."
Sonya withdrew her finger, closed her book , and sat up, dangling her legs one on each side of the smooth tree branch, straddling it as though she were on a horse. She leaned in towards her friend demanding full eye contact. "Listen," she said, "you won't look stupid, really. It's not like no one else has done this before. Remember? Around Valentine's Day? Lynn Kipke and Adam Gurzinski? She told him she liked him and no one laughed.In fact," she sighed, "I know a lot of girls who wished they had said it first."
Now it was Maury's turn to sit upward and dangle her legs on either side of the branch. She nervously began swinging one leg back and forth while holding the branch, book braced between the bark and the fleshy part of her palms. Her eyes remained locked on Sonya's face all the while nawing the inside of her bottom lip. 
"Tell the guy," Sonya continued,"I mean why not? If you don't tell him how is he supposed to know?" Her dark eyes suddenly lit up, "Hey, you know what?" she piped up, "I can tell him."
Maury shook her head quickly from side to side. "No. No. No. If you do that then everyone will know."
"Who cares?"
"I care," Maury indignantly replied. "I care alot. If you tell Jason he'll tell Phil Ochowitz and Brad Larson and all the other guys and then they'll laugh in my face or, worse yet, behind my back."
The two friends sat staring at each other, both lost in thought. Suddenly a soft breeze rustled the leaves, again perfuming the air around the girls, brushing their cheeks as a mother would stroke the face of a young child. The breeze blew past the two friends, taking with it all anxiety. Sonya shrugged, "Don't sweat it Maury. I won't tell Jason or anyone else if you don't want me to."
 "Thanks,


 (Sonya lectures Maury describing Maury's too serious personality and at the same time outlines her view of life and boys)