i dont care if its good or not its cute and thats all that mattersJade hums under her breath as she skips through the berry bushes, plucking each one bare. Her hands are already stained from the berry juices, but she doesn’t seem to mind. God, she’s adorable.
Meanwhile, I’m high up in a tree, with a bunch of nuts in one hand and two eggs in the other. I used to feel bad when I stole them, but now it’s hard to care. After all, the animal inside isn’t alive yet.
I jump down to the ground, squinting up at the sky. The sun is about to set, and it’s a thirty-minute walk to get back home. We might as well leave now. I’m about to call Jade, when a high-pitched scream cuts through the air.
Sheer panic is just setting in when my little sister scrambles towards me, her berries scattered on the ground. She hides behind my leg, trembling from head to toe as she says, “It’s a monster!”
I look over, alarmed. But there’s nothing there, at least until I look down and see a tiny corn snake, slowly slithering towards us. Jade squeals in fright, and I almost laugh at how scared she is over such a harmless little thing.
“Calm down, okay?” I say, addressing both my sister and the snake. “It’s just a snake. It’s not even venomous.”
I kneel tentatively, then hold out my hand. Inside are a few small eggs. Snakes eat eggs, right?
I get my answer when it jumps forward and snatches an egg whole. Jade peeks out from behind me. “Can I feed it?”
“Sure,” I say, passing her one. She holds it out, but it slips out of her hand and shatters on the ground. The snake slurps it up anyway, tongue flickering in and out as it looks up at Jade.
She stretches her hand out again, then tucks it under the snake’s body, carefully picking it up. The snake curls up around her arm, closing its eyes in apparent contentment. Jade giggles. “It’s cute!”
I smile, slightly bemused at her sudden change in attitude. “Yeah, it is. Time to let it go now, okay?”
She looks up at me, sticking her bottom lip out. “Can we keep it? Please? Please? Pretty please?”
I pinch the insides of my cheeks to force back a smile. “No. It’s just another mouth to feed.”
She pouts, and I have to look away so I don’t give in.
“Come on, you were so scared of it before. Just let go of it. If it comes back tomorrow, then you can have it,” I say firmly, knowing it won’t come back and that Jade’ll probably forget about it in a day anyway.
“Fine,” she says, placing the snake back on the ground with an adorably sad expression on her face. “See you tomorrow, Mr. Snake!”
I sigh at her optimism. “Come on. It’s getting dark.”