Part I: In Which a Boy Receives Twenty-Five Cents to a Dollar

Peter and Jonathan couldn't have been better friends. Their closeness was to be topped by no one. None, that is, but their younger sisters: Chloe and Emily, respectively. Jonathan looked up to Peter, wanted to be just like him. Wanted to be with him all the time.

One day, Peter and Jonathan were examining something special, something Jonathan was proud of: a two-dollar bill.

"That's not worth anything anymore."

"Yes it is!"

"No it's not, but I'll tell you what. If you give me that, then you can have something worth more -my fifty-cent piece."

"Okay! Gee, thanks Peter... you're my best friend."

But unfortunately, Jonathan was blinded by his admiration for his friend Peter, and allowed himself to be swindled more than once by that Hopkins boy. Hired to rake leaves for the neighbor lady, Peter insisted he receive more on account that he lassoed the work, and after laboring just as hard as Peter, Jonathan received five dollars, letting his companion to walk away with the remaining fifteen. Don't get me wrong, Peter wasn't always mean, just when it benefited him.

Emily and Chloe had a bit of a different relationship. While being inseparable, they were a smidgen more fair to one another. These little girls, as all little girls do, loved to play babies and house, the things they saw their mommies doing. Well. These girls had it special. Their mommies were having lots of babies at home and Chloe and Emily happened to be the best, most skilled midwives in the area.

The lives of these children, Hopkins and Havener alike, were full of wonderful tales. Trips to the zoo, mismatching socks, fantastic costumes, Vaseline, forts, and braided hair. Pony rides, missed opportunities, cops and robbers, twins, bicycles and streamers, and everything that binds the hearts of children together. How fortunate that they lived across from one another.

As all good things must come to an end, the black day arrived when we, the Hopkins children, received the saddest news in the world. The Haveners were moving away.

To be continued...