Whoa. Fifteen. It would easily take us twice that to get back up to the top.
“How did you get home after?”
Sophie’s smile grows across her face. “Walked, silly.”
I peer down to the bottom again and back to Sophie. She’s as excited as I’ve ever seen her, and if this is what she wants to do, then I want to do it too. Even though I’d be just as happy sitting here with her for the rest of the afternoon. Normally, when it’s just the two of us, I listen to the latest story she’s made up, but today, we’ve been telling secrets.
Hers is that she hates working on the farm with her dad, and mine is that I heard Lando crying about being nervous to take over Burlington. He’s eighteen now, and everywhere we can see belongs to him. Even the hill Sophie wants to roll down.
“I don’t think he wants to be in charge of people.”
“I love being in charge of people,” Sophie replies, even though I already knew that. At school, she’s alwaysthe one to put her hand up for group leader when we have to do activities.
“I don’t.” My nose scrunches up as I think about it. “I only want to help animals. I want to work at the vets.”
Rolling back onto the grass, she jumps up and holds her hand out to me. “Come on, we’re doing this. More fuel for the plot.”
I don’t know what that means, but I go with it anyway and let her pull me to standing. “Okay, fine.”
She points down the hill. “You have to stay on this side because the other is more bumpy, and it stops halfway.”
I nod. “Okay.”
Following her lead, I line my feet up with the edge of the grass where it drops down. On second glance, it’s not as steep as I thought, but the bottom is really far away.
“I’ll go first, so you can follow me,” she says, lying flat on her belly and easing herself down.
She doesn’t roll very far. She also didn’t stick to the left side and ends up in the middle, plus her braids keep getting stuck under her shoulders.
Rocking forward gets her moving again, and she giggles the whole way. It’s so fun listening to her that I forget I’m supposed to be rolling down too, until she gets stuck again and waves up at me.
“Hen, come on.”
Getting into position, I manage to make it all the way to where Sophie is waiting and laughing her head off.
“You have to stretch your arms out like you’re Superman. It makes you go faster,” she tells me, lyingdown again. “Are you ready?”
I peer down to the bottom again. It doesn’t seem any nearer, and this next bit of the hill looks way bumpier than the one we just rolled down. But I don’t say that out loud, especially because Sophie’s staring at me.
I lie down flat behind her. “Ready.”
She goes first again, and I follow. I was right about it being steeper and bumpier than the first. I’m not sure I like it, but Sophie’s laugh gets louder with each roll. When I reach the bottom, she’s still lying down, and I bump into her.
“That was the best one I’ve done so far.” She turns to me on the grass. Her cheeks are pink, and her smile almost reaches each ear. “C’mon, let’s do it again.”
“Okay.” I grin back. There are twigs in her hair, both of us are covered in grass and mud stains from the ground, and I know we rolled over some sheep poo, but I have to admit that it was really fun.
It’s not so fun walking back up to the top.
“This is much higher than it seemed when we were going down.” I puff.
“I know,” she groans, scrambling up a particularly hilly bit.
“Let’s do it from here,” I suggest when we reach halfway. “The roll will still be as good.”
Her eyes move to the top of the hill. “Yeah, okay. Great idea.”
But instead of lying out, she just sits. “It’s really pretty here, isn’t it?”
