Wood, Meet Land
I was in the middle of gently prying an open ready-to-spill bag of baby carrots out of Ellie's hands when I heard the knock on the door. I left her where she was and sprinted to the door. Oh, so what if she spills some carrots? I'll cut them up for her and she'll be happy to munch on them for a while. They're good for you.
"Haley, so glad you're here!" I say, swinging the door open and ushering my friend inside. "Everybody say hi to Haley!" I instruct, beaming at the young ones. Ellie gurgles something through a mouthful of carrot - I hurry over to chop up the ones that have fallen out of the bag.
"Hi Haley!" says Ari, waving exuberantly from his perch on the arm of my dad's armchair. He's not supposed to do that, but if I let him while Mom and Dad aren't in he always eats all of his vegetables. Ari loves Hales. Seriously. It's kinda adorable how much he fawns on her and how she humors him. She's the one girl older than him who's over here a lot and not related to us, so I guess he's entitled to a crush. Besides, she's gorgeous; even a seven-year-old notices that.
"I'll just be a sec, Hales." I finish cutting up the carrots, leaving Ellie with a neat pile which she instantly destroys. I toss a few carrots into five almost-ready salads, zip up the bag, and shove it into the fridge. Then I grab Haley's arm and drag her to my room, set her down on my bed, and snatch my laptop.
"I'm not crazy," I say, which is always a great way to get someone to genuinely listen to your opinions. "I thought about what you let slip the other day, that thing about trees, and stuff like that's been happening to me all week. So I did some digging, and I think I know why."
I opened FireFox, went to my Bookmarks tab and clicked on the "Nymphs" folder. While finding the website I want, I quickly say, "Greek mythology isn't a joke; all myths are based on fact. And I think that we're living proof of that. You're a wood nymph - that explains all of the tree-hugging behavior of late - and I'm a land nymph - I make stuff grow, I'm tight with Mother Earth. And we're missing our water nymph. And I think we need to find her and then - then - then something will happen! I know it's far-fetched, but you know it's true. Say you believe me." I finally look up at her, and can immediately see that something I said struck a chord with her. "Say you believe me, Hales. C'mon, you and I both know it's true."