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He handed it to me

"Happy birthday, Sylvie"

I stared down at the box then I looked up at hirinned at ave h forpaper and I used all my allowance on that so I couldn’t buy any," he told me

"That’s okay!" I chirped, threw off the top of the box and looked down at the gold necklace with the tiny twinkling green jewel hanging off the chain, this attached to a little sheet of plastic

"They said that’s a peridot Your birthstone," Tuck’s voice came at me

I tipped my head back to look at hirinned at onna wear it always, Tuck," I whispered and was about to pull it out so I could put it on but his face went funny and he shook his head

"It’s cheap, Sylvie," he said quiet "The girl I bought it froreen"

"I don’t care," I told him

"Your Dad will," he told me

He would

Darn

I looked back down at the necklace and said soft, "I’ll wear it all the other times when I’m not in the water"

"Okay," he replied

I looked up at him and smiled

Then I jumped up to my feet, ran back to my bike, put the necklace in the basket with my Snickers wrapper because Tuck said his Dad said that littering was bad and you should never do it So we never did

I ran back down the pier pulling offsuit underneath

"Cannonball!" I yelled and dashed down the rest of the pier I juet I curled s and hit the ater

I barely surfaced before I heard and saw Tuck hit the water beside me

I smiled

He surfaced, took one stroke and

We did cannonballs and dives and had ducking contests and floated and had swi contests that Tuck let me win because it was ot hoone and spending the day with Tuck at the lake

It was the best birthday ever

Ever

Chapter Seven

I’m What You Need