Stevie dropped his bike on the lawn and ambled over to the porch, plopping his skinny butt down next to me. "What's up, Toph?"

"Exactly nothing! Two days into summer vacation and I'm so bored it hurts. What you been doin'?"

"Me? I'm dodging my mom. She's been after me to clean up the garage. Have you seen that thing? The only way that place is ever gonna get clean is with some gasoline and a match."

"Yeah? I dare you."

"Har, Har! Get real! I'm too young to lose my cherry to a bunch of horny convicts with tattoos on their dicks."

"Hey, who knows, you might like it."

The strident, fingernails-on-the-blackboard voice of my sister came through the screen door, "Topher, Mom's looking for you!"

"Come on, Stevie, let's find someplace else to be." We headed around the side of the house and sprinted toward the wood that began at the end of our yard. We settled on the far side of a huge old oak where we couldn't be seen.

I'd always wondered how old that tree was; the trunk had to be at least five feet in diameter. I'd climbed it so often I believe I could do it blindfolded. I was leaning my head back looking up along the trunk and spotted the three branches extending straight out about twenty feet up and remembered that when I was eight or nine I asked my dad if I could build a tree house on them. He put the kibosh on that plan saying I was too young and the branches were too high up.

"Hey! That's it!"

Stevie jumped up and looked around. "What?"

"Something to do. Come on!" We trotted along the edge of the wood toward town. Ten minutes later we walked into Dad's hardware store. He was shuffling along the far wall with a clipboard inventorying tools.

"Toph, Stevie, what's up guys?"

"Dad, remember a long time ago I asked if I could build a tree house in that big oak out back?"

"Yeah, I think I remember something about that. Why?"

"Well, you said I was too small then. I'm nearly sixteen now and I'd still like to build it."

He looked at me with a kneejerk 'No' about to come out of his mouth but I guess he had a change of heart. "Do you have any idea how much work you're talking about? And the lumber isn't going to be cheap."

"I think I can round up enough scrap lumber to do it. Come on, Dad. Look at it from a parent's point of view. It'll keep me off the streets and out of trouble."

He chuckled, "I wonder. Tell you what, you draw up a design for me with proper measurements and a list of supplies and tools. If I think it's a good plan, I'll ask Jed Wilson over at the lumberyard to see if he can't make you a deal on some odds and ends pieces."

"Great! Thanks, Dad! I'll work on a plan this afternoon." Stevie and I had turned and headed out the door when Dad hollered, "Hey! I'm serious, Toph. If you build this thing, it has to be structurally sound. I'm not going to buy off on twenty or thirty boards nailed to a couple of branches."

"Not to worry, Dad. I'll come up with a good design."

As soon as we were outside, I pointed down the street. "Lets go to the library. I need a computer."

"Toph, there must be at least three computers in your house. Why do you need to go to the library?"

"If I go home, I'm going to be locked up with chores all day. Come on."

We were amazed! When I googled 'tree houses', I quickly had literally dozens of designs right in front of me. Of course, most of them were professionally built, way beyond my carpentry skills, but I found three that I was pretty sure I could handle and compared to what I originally had in mind, these were castles in the air. I printed off what info there was about them and we headed back to the tree to do some measuring. By the time Dad got home that evening, I'd cobbled together my own design using parts of all three downloaded plans. I included a list of materials and tools and even had an estimate of expenses. He was impressed.

"OK, Toph. This is pretty ambitious but it's got my seal of approval. Do you want my help building it?'

"Maybe some advice if I get stuck on a problem but I'd really like to build it myself. Well, Stevie said he'd help."

"That works for me but I hope you're not counting too much on your friend. He's not exactly the epitome of reliability. Go talk to Jed Wilson tomorrow and see what kind of a deal he can make you on some lumber. I'll give him a call in the morning. Hell, he might even deliver."

When I called Stevie the next morning to get started he found a way to weasel out of it. It's pretty much what I expected considering he's absolutely phobic about anything that looks like work. I don't think I've ever seen him actually carry out anything he said he was going to do. Well, one thing; he told me he was going to fail tenth grade and he did. A lot of his time was going to be taken up with summer school.

I headed down to the lumberyard to see Mr. Wilson and beg for what I needed. He looked at the list and shook his head, "Must be some tree house you're building, Toph. I don't have near enough scrap around here to meet your needs but I might make a deal with you."

I'm always leery of adults making 'deals' with me but I bit anyway. "What kind of a deal?"

"If you give me five good days of work cleaning out the shop out back I'll provide all the lumber, nails and screws you need and bring it over."

I couldn't ask for more than that. "You've got a deal! Uh, when do you want me to start?"

"You pick the days but I'd appreciate it if you could squeeze them in over the next three weeks. I'm moving some new machinery in and I'll need the space. I'll have Larry load the stuff up today and bring it over. I'm relying on you to keep your word. I don't think your dad would appreciate getting a bill from me."

"Thanks, Mr. Wilson. I'll be here at eight sharp next Monday."

When the truck arrived later that morning, I helped Mr. Wilson's hired man, Larry unload and carry the stuff across the back yard to the tree. I covered it with a plastic tarp to keep it dry. I'd also need about two hundred feet of extension cord for the power tools and a couple of saw horses. I figured I'd get started right after lunch. When I turned to head into the house, I almost ran right into Fran, a girl in my class who lives a couple of houses down.

"Hey Toph, what are you gonna build with all that lumber?"

Fran was the class nerd. You know the type; straight A's, scholarship awards, that kind of stuff. She was nice enough but she wasn't the kind of person you wanted to be seen hanging out with. She was always dressed like a guy in jeans, T-shirt and sneakers. Sometimes I wondered if she even owned any other clothes. The only thing that had changed about the way she dressed since the first grade was the addition of a bra, although she wasn't all that big and probably didn't need one very bad. I'd heard rumors that she preferred girls to boys but then none of the guys I knew had ever even asked her for a date so how would they know? She definitely wasn't the kind of girl I'd expect to see on the cheerleading squad.

"It's going to be a tree house." I pointed to the plans lying near the lumber.

She picked them up and looked them over. Shaking her head, she said, "Huston, we have a problem."

"What problem?"

"It won't work."

"And just what would you know about building a tree house?" She could be so irritating when she rolled her eyes and got that 'I'm talking to a dumbass' look on her face.

"I'd know enough not to anchor the floor to three separate tree limbs. The first high wind and it'll just rip apart."

"No way! Look at the size of those limbs," I said, pointing up into the tree.

"You're anchors are six feet out from the trunk. Look, Einstein, you're fixing something rigid onto three different things that move independently. Jeez, they'd only have to move an inch or so. You can rest the floor on the limbs but you can't anchor to them. You have to anchor to the trunk."

I saw that she had a point but damned if I was going to admit it. "Fran, why don't you go build you own tree house and let me worry about mine, OK?"

"Sure thing, cowboy. Your funeral if you just happen to be in it on a windy day. Seeya!"

I went to the house and brought back some sandwiches and water. Sitting under the tree, I munched a PB&J and looked over the plans again. The more I thought about what Fran said the more I knew she was right. Then I began to wonder what other little screw-ups I'd committed. I really didn't want this project to look like something slapped together by the Our Gang Comedy kids. Eating crow wasn't my long suit but it was better than having to do everything twice. I walked over to Fran's house and knocked on the door.

She answered, of course. Fran was the only child of a single mom who was a nurse at a doctor's office so she was pretty much always home alone on weekdays. "Toph?"

"Uh, Fran, sorry I was such a butt. Would you be interested in helping me build it?"

She thought about it a bit before she answered. "I might, but only if I can be half owner."

"How do you figure that? I'm the one who has to pay for all the materials and besides, it's my idea!"

"First of all, your idea is flawed and secondly, I'd be doing half of the work as well as being your design consultant."

"What do you mean flawed? What's flawed besides the thing with the limbs?"

"Look, Toph, your design is basically good but it's got a lot of bugs in it. I'd be happy to sit down with you and rework it. That is, IF I can be an equal partner."

"No deal! Just forget I even asked!" No way I was giving up half ownership in my tree house that easily. I turned and headed back to study my plans again to see if I could find the 'bugs' she was talking about.

As I lay in the grass thinking about how I was going to bolt half a dozen heavy-duty braces to the tree trunk, I felt my resolve slipping. It was going to take at least two people to get the construction materials twenty feet off the ground and fixed into place. What I really needed was a cherry picker or some scaffolding.

"Shit!"

I knocked on Fran's door again. When she answered, I just said, "Deal!" and turned around and walked back toward the tree. When she arrived like five minutes later, she had a legal pad on a clipboard and a hand-held calculator. Of course, she zeroed in on the first problem like she was reading my mind.

"We need a block and tackle. Can you borrow one from your dad?"

I suppose by now you can see how this was going to go. By the time she had worked over the plans making changes and coming up with a plan to get the floor to support the weight of three times more people than you could pack into the place, I knew I was hopelessly outclassed.

"Jeez, how do you know all of this stuff, Fran?"

"I don't know. I just see it is all. Like a problem comes up and I get a picture in my mind of the solution. It's always been like that."

"I wish I could do that."

"No you don't. People would treat you like some sort of freak like they do me. You might have noticed I don't exactly have flocks of friends hanging around me."

"Yeah? Well maybe you'll be making tons of money someday while they're flipping burgers. Who knows? Maybe we're all a little bit afraid of you." She smiled at that and it was the first time I ever noticed that she was actually kind of cute. She had dimples.

It turns out Dad had a block and tackle setup stored in the garage. I climbed the tree to about ten feet above where the floor would be and roped it to a stout limb. Once that was in place, things started moving pretty fast. In three days, we had the floor laid down and started hauling up 2X4s to frame in the rest of the house. Fran could swing a hammer and drive screws with a power drill as well as I could. Hell, she could probably do everything as well as I could except maybe pee standing up and I didn't think I'd want to challenge her on that.

The days were warm and humid, typical for our part of the country. For most of the day we were both drenched with sweat. I had the advantage of being able to take off my shirt. Poor Fran's clothes just got sopping wet and stuck to her like glue; uncomfortable for her but a bonus for me because I could see her dark nipples showing through the sports bra and T-shirt. I had to force myself to not get fixated on them so I wouldn't have a perpetual woody.

The more we worked together and the more time I spent with her the more I liked her. There was really nothing weird about her at all. As far as I was concerned, she was about the nicest girl in the whole class and she didn't try to put on any pretenses; what you saw was what she was. What probably put off a lot of kids at school was that she didn't sugarcoat her opinions and she didn't go out of her way to stroke anyone's ego. I think she kind of liked me because we kidded around with each other a lot.

Thanks in large part to Fran's suggestions and corrections, it turned into an awesome design. It wrapped about two thirds of the way around the tree and had six exposures, five with screened and shuttered windows that latched on the inside and the sixth on one end with a door facing a six foot by six foot railed porch. While it was anchored to the massive tree trunk, a lot of the weight rested on the limbs with a metal skid plate that allowed them to move back and forth in the wind. A rope ladder was hung from the branch over the house so we could just step off onto the porch. Dad said we could leave the block and tackle in place to haul up heavy stuff like some scraps of furniture. We started out just having four beanbag chairs and a low coffee table, complements of Fran's mom. By the fourth of July when it was almost done, Dad and Mr. Wilson came out to take a look at it. They liked what they saw. In fact, Mr. Wilson was so impressed that he donated enough shingles to make the roof waterproof. As an afterthought, we put a deadbolt lock on the door; you know, to keep out the riff-raff. Fran and I had the only keys.

I had worked off my debt to Mr. Wilson so Fran and I were finally the proud owners of a very unique and very well built tree house. She found some house paint in her garage and did the exterior in a cammo design making it nearly invisible through the limbs and leaves. Of course, once Stevie saw that the place was a reality, he wanted in on it. I told him Fran and I would send him an invitation to our housewarming. I think it pissed him off which was no skin off my nose since Fran was my best friend now.

I can't say when it was that my feelings for her began to change; when it began to sink in that Fran felt like more than a friend to me. We had accomplished so much together as a team that she occupied a bigger place in my life than that. Sure, I was aware of her femaleness and didn't miss many opportunities to 'check her out' but I do that with all girls. She was different. My attraction to her had grown to the point that I wanted to touch her and share things with her. What we were doing with the tree house was so domestic and comfortable I just wanted to be there with her as much as possible. The problem was I didn't know if she felt the same way about me.

Though it was originally meant to be a joke, my partner thought we really should have a house warming. We invited my family, her mom and a few kids from school including Stevie who didn't show. We made some sandwiches and had some chips and dip and iced tea. The tree house would hold every one if they didn't mind being in each other's personal space. Most everyone just climbed up, looked around, said it was really cool, ate a sandwich and some chips and left. There were the expected smart-ass references to Fran and I playing house but neither of us would rise to the bait. Mom refused to climb the rope ladder but she made us a gift of a couple of old framed rustic prints that we hung on the wall.

Little by little, Fran and I kind of personalized the place. I built bookshelves on one of the interior walls and we quickly filled them up with our own brands of junk, including a few books. I raided our attic and found some old board games. There were two oil lanterns and even a kerosene heater for cooler days to come. The finishing touch was an official name for the place that Fran had burned into a piece of oak and hung over the door. We decided to call it 'The Aerie'. I'm a little ashamed to admit that when she first suggested the name, my response was, "What the hell is an aerie?"

You know how it is when you have something new; you fuss with it all the time trying to make it just so. Well, Fran and I fussed for two or three weeks making little changes and additions here and there but as the novelty wore off, The Aerie became just what it was intended to be all along, a place where we could just hang out and feel some separation from the rest of the world. We both loved to read and it was so nice to flop onto a beanbag with a fresh breeze wafting through the screens and get into a good story.

One evening as it was getting dark, I was looking out the windows and saw that there were a few houses directly visible from the Aerie. I hadn't paid much attention to them before but now they stood out because their lights were coming on and I could actually see into some of them. If you want to call it adolescent behavior, I guess that's OK since I'm an adolescent, but I couldn't resist the temptation to spy on people when the chance presented itself. I didn't want to think too hard about whether I was a pervert or just curious. Personally, I think almost everybody is a little bit of a voyeur if they think they can get away with it.

I happened to be the owner of a better than average telescope given to me as a Christmas present a couple of years earlier. The next day, I managed to sneak it out of the house and up to The Aerie. I set it up and moved it around from window to window to locate the best viewing spots. I'd be telling a lie if I said I didn't hope to see some naked female bodies but that wasn't my only interest. A lot of what I saw around the neighborhood was just plain funny, like a view of Mrs. Andretti's enormous derriere when she was on her hands and knees working in her flower garden and Joe Allen taking a big stick to his lawnmower because he couldn't get it to start.

Looking toward my own house, I discovered a perfect view into my sister's bedroom on the second floor. Of course the blinds were drawn in the daytime but I happened to know for a fact that she always had her window open at night. Even though I generally thought of her as the sibling from hell, I thought it might have possibilities since I hadn't seen her naked body since long before she started growing boobs.

I started to scan around the area for more interesting possibilities when Fran called out from below, "Toph, drop the ladder!"

I moved the telescope away from the window and leaned it against the inside wall before stepping out the door and pushing the ladder off the porch. Even with a pack over her shoulder, she clambered up the ladder like a monkey. "I saw you were here so I thought I'd make us some lunch."

"Great! Whatcha got?"

"Just some sandwiches and left-over potato salad." She looked at me with a mischievous grin and added, "I also snuck one of Mom's beers if you want to split it."

I grabbed two paper cups off the bookshelf in response. "Won't she know it's gone?"

"I doubt it. She doesn't pay much attention to that kind of thing. I sneak beer every once in a while and she's never said anything yet. Hey, look at this!" she said, spotting the telescope. "Is it yours?"

I already had my story worked out. "Yeah, I thought we might spot some birds and animals from up here."

She laughed and poked me on the chest with her finger, "Don't try to BS me. You brought it up here to spy on people. I would've if I had one. What have you seen so far?"

"No, really!" I started to protest but it was obvious she could see through me like a plate glass window. "Well, nothing much so far."

"C'mon, set it up and let's look around!"

An hour of searching around didn't turn up anything worthwhile so we abandoned our surveillance for a game of scrabble. I tried playing chess with her a couple of times thinking it was a game I was pretty good at. With her talent for picturing solutions to problems, she could see so far ahead of me that I didn't stand a chance. At least she was kind enough that she didn't rub salt into the wound after she kicked my butt.

In the back of my mind I was thinking there was something different about Fran when she climbed up the ladder but it didn't hit me until we sat on the floor with the scrabble board between us. She was wearing shorts and a tank top! And no bra! The shape of her small breasts was clearly defined and her nipples made two prominent little bumps on the front of her top. If that weren't enough to get my hormones churning, she sat with her legs splayed out offering me a clear view of the crotch of her white panties through the legs of her loose fitting shorts.

I forced myself to look away and quipped, "Did your jeans and T-shirt finally wear out?"

"What do you mean?" She apparently didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

"It's just that ... never mind. Go ahead, you start."

"OK, um, oh! I-O-N-I-C. How's that?"

"Jeez, you are so lucky, Fran. I never draw letters like that." I actually held my own on that game and edged her out in the end even though it was really hard to concentrate because my eyes kept drifting back to her panties and her boobs. If she had any idea I was ogling her body, she didn't let on. I finally had to adjust my position to lying across the beanbag on my belly to hide the boner that was distorting the shape of my jeans. It also gave me a better view up the leg of her shorts.

We were about to start another game when my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I had to promise my mom that I would keep it with me when I was in the tree house so she didn't have to send out a search party every time she needed me for something. I checked the text: 'Come home and mow the lawn.' I forgot that I'd promised Dad I'd have it done by the time he got home.

"Sorry, Fran. Gotta go finish some chores. Later!"

"Seeya. I'll lock up."

After dinner that evening, I headed out the back door saying I'd be at The Aerie.

Mom protested, "I don't like the idea of you spending so much time out there."

My dad came to my defense. "Come on, Honey. There's no harm, is there?"

"I've got my phone, Mom. You can reach me if you need me."

I was out the door and headed across the lawn before she could come up with any more arguments. I pulled the ladder up behind me and opened the windows. I set the telescope up but it was still light out so I doubted there would be much going on in the secret world of people's bedrooms. It was too dark to read without firing up an oil lantern and I didn't want to draw attention to myself so I laid back in a beanbag with my I-pod and listened to music for a while. Sometimes I just liked to sit in silence in the dark because it was so peaceful there.

In about an hour, people's lights began to come on. It was time to assume my role as a peeping tom. I saw Mom busy cleaning up the kitchen; nothing interesting there. I looked through Mrs. Andretti's living room window across the street and saw her squeezed into her recliner watching the tube with her little ankle-biter of a dog in her lap. Keeping my eye to the lenspiece as I moved the telescope looking for lighted windows, I couldn't really tell which house I was panning across. I passed a window with a visible person in it and backed up adjusting the focus. When I looked up from the lens, I saw that I was looking through one of the upstairs windows in Fran's house. I locked the scope into place and fine-focused on the inside of the room.

Fran was typing away on her laptop but she was facing the window so I couldn't see what she was working on. I could see the bottom half of her bed behind her and a full-length mirror on a door on the opposite side of the room. After about fifteen minutes of watching nothing happening, I was feeling bored as well as a little guilty so I unlocked the scope and swung it around to look for other targets.

The light came on in my sister's room so I locked onto her window. As I predicted, she raised her blind and opened the window wide. She must have had a thing for fresh air. She went to her bureau and pulled open a drawer, taking something out and tossing it onto her bed. As I was trying to figure out what she was doing, she turned her back to the window and pulled her shirt over her head. Reaching behind her she unhooked her bra and leaned forward letting it fall off her shoulders. Still with her back to me, she pushed her shorts and panties down and stepped out of them, leaving her bare-assed naked. When she turned around to pick up what I now knew to be her nightgown, all was revealed. She had awesome breasts, probably as big as Mom's, and a dark patch of hair between her legs. If I had managed to maintain non-sexual thoughts about my sister before this, those days were gone forever. Then she pulled the nightgown over her head and body killing the moment.

In spite of everything I knew to be brotherly and decent, I'd sprung a boner looking at my sister's very sexy body. When you're fifteen going on sixteen, there's no other relief for my condition but to jerk off. So I did, shooting my stuff into a paper cup so I wouldn't leave traces of my self-abuse on the floor. As I was stuffing my dick back into my underwear, my cell phone buzzed. It was from Mom, of course: 'Come in Toph – it's time for bed.'

I was hopelessly hooked. Lying there in bed, I could only think about what else there might be out there for me to spy on. I crawled out of the sack and pulled on my jeans and sneakers. Creeping down the stairs, I remembered to step on the outside of the fourth stair down so it wouldn't squeak.

When I opened the window shutters on the Aerie and looked around the neighborhood, I was surprised to see Fran's light was still on. I knew it was after midnight so I guessed she was one of those night people. I focused the scope on her window and saw her moving around the room. Following her, my eye caught the mirror across the room and stopped. There was something written on it in red letters. When I got focused on the printing, I read: Hi Toph. Text me if you'd like company. 4886.

Busted! How the hell did she know I was here? I put my eye back to the lens and looked again. She was busy doing something but she never once looked out the window. This was so weird! What was she up to? Maybe she didn't even know I was here but then, why would she write that on her mirror? My first inclination was to lock up and go back to bed but the message was enticing: 'Text me if you'd like company.'

In the end, I couldn't let it go by. I texted: 'How did you know I was here?'

I saw her stop what she was doing and pick up her phone off the desk. When she read the text, she smiled and waved at the window. She punched something into the phone and my phone buzzed soon after. 'I didn't – I'll be over in a minute.'

I watched her trot across the lawn dressed in her normal jeans and T-shirt. She climbed up the ladder holding something in her hand. It turned out to be a thermos of hot chocolate.

"Hey, Toph. Want a cup?"

"Uh, sure."

She poured a cup for each of us.

"Come on, Fran. How'd you know I'd be here?"

"I didn't know for sure but I knew you couldn't resist checking me out with the telescope sooner or later."

Even in the dim moonlight, I guess she could see that I was blushing. "Don't get all upset now. I was counting on it as you could see by the message on the mirror. Did you think I didn't see you looking at me when we were playing scrabble?"

Now I was really embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Fran. I shouldn't have done that."

"And why not?"

"I guess it was kind of rude of me."

"I disagree, Toph. I'd say it was kind of normal of you. Especially after I went to so much trouble to put myself on display. How often have you seen me wear shorts or go braless?"

"Are you saying you wanted me to look at you like that?"

"Bingo! The light comes on. I doubt you've taken any classes in proper etiquette for young ladies but surely you noticed I was sitting in a very unladylike posture."

"Well, yeah, I guess."

Fran heaved a big sigh. "I can see I'm going to have to be the aggressor here. Toph, would you like to see more than you saw earlier?"

I felt my heartbeat suddenly doubling and my breath get stuck in my chest. I could only manage a hoarse whisper, "Yeah, I guess so."

She giggled. "Your cute."

Setting her cup of hot chocolate down on the table, she lit one of the oil lamps and carried it with her as she closed all the shutters, then hung it in a far corner leaving only a dim, indirect light where I was standing. When she stood in front of me again, she leaned forward and kissed me softly on the lips.

"This is a game of 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours". Here's the only rule; I take off something then you take off something. Oh, wait, there's another rule. We can't actually fuck unless you have a condom, OK?"