Jess got up early every morning to run through the cow fields hoping that when he got back from summer break he would be the fastest runner. He was the only boy in his family. His older sister always taunted him but his little sister May Belle worshiped him. When he came back in, Ellie and Brenda (his older sisters) were tricking their mom to give them money to go shopping. It worked. They then left and mom asked Jess to go pick beans. May Belle came out and said people were moving into the Perkin’s house (which was right beside them). Sure enough there they were, but he didn’t think they would last long because the house was so ratty. Afterwards they both went inside to make supper and ate outside. When he was done he went into his room to draw, he liked to draw unusual animals with problems and beasts. He was about to go show his dad, when he remembered when he was younger his dad was not pleased with this, so he changed his mind. No one really liked his drawings, not even the teachers except for one, Miss Edmunds (the music teacher). He had a crush on her. Finally school came, it was the greatest except for Miss E. Other than that he felt kind of lonely. He then went to bed, when he got up he went for a run. He saw a person and went over to talk to them. They told him that they had moved into the Perkin’s house. She came closer and told him her name was Leslie Burke. He didn’t see her again until school. He kind of felt bad for her. The teacher asked him to pass out the sheets. When he passed Gary’s desk (one of the fastest runners in class), Gary said, “Going to run today?” Jess replied, “Yes.” Gary then said, “You will never beat me!” When it came to races they split up into groups of 4 and the winners would race to see who wins overall. Gary was the winner of his group and Greg Williams was the winner of his. Jess seen someone coming over to him, it was Leslie, Jess tried to ignore her and stay focused. When the next group crossed the finish line a fight started over who won. Jess said to just let them both run in the finals. Gary turned around and looked at Leslie and said, “Next thing you will want is to let a girl run.” Jess turned to Leslie and said, “Sure, you want to run?” Leslie agreed. It was Jess and Leslie’s turn to run. Jess took off fast, he wanted to look back to see how far ahead he was, but he didn’t. He then saw someone out of the corner of his eye. Leslie Burke had won the race. Gary then came over and said, “OK Leslie, you had your fun…now leave.” She replied, “But I won that race, I’m going into the finals.” That’s when Jess came over to say, “What Gary, are you scared to race a girl?” Of course Gary replied no, so he let Leslie race. She came in first! She went over and thanked Jess. On the bus ride home Jess sat with his sister May Belle, which he had never done before, but he wanted to make sure Leslie didn’t sit with him. Every day Leslie raced and every day she won. A few boys left to play something else. When it came to be Friday and Leslie won again, they were going to quit racing, but it was Friday which meant Mss Edmunds was here. They went inside and Leslie introduced herself to the teacher. Miss Edmunds introduced herself as well and began to sing. Everyone joined in and when the song ended he turned and smiled at Leslie. She smiled back. Jess decided that he was going to be nice to her, they sat together on the bus and made some room for May Belle. Leslie talked about her old school and how nice it was, also how much she missed it. Jess interrupted her and said, “So I guess you hate it here.” She replied with a yeah. She was quiet for a moment when Jess asked her, “Did you have a lot of friends?” She said yes. “Why’d you come here?” he asked. She answered, “Because my family decided they were too hooked on money and success, so they moved here to think about more important things.” Jess kind of thought it was ridiculous. When the bus stopped Leslie took May Belle’s hand and helped her off the bus. Jess followed. Leslie was talking about the paper they had to write on their favourite hobby and how Mrs. Myers read hers out loud. The next day at school there was a new assignment. That night on channel 7 at 8 o’clock they had to write a paper on that show. “Now we have to write a paper on it, I don’t have a TV,” said Leslie. At recess the girls surrounded her. Jess could tell that they were making fun of her. As he started playing the game, he looked back and Leslie was gone. He waited outside the girl’s bathroom, a few minutes later Leslie came out. He could tell that she had been crying. He asked her what was wrong, but she replied that he already knew what was wrong. At the end of the day, when they got on the bus, Leslie sat at the very back of the bus where the seventh graders say. Jess gave Leslie a look saying come closer to the front of the bus, but she ignored it. Jess ran to the back of the bus and grabbed her by the arm, but it was too late, the big seventh graders were there. They said move and leave, and more too, so they got up and went to their regular spots. By the time they got off the bus they were both smiling. Leslie asked if he wanted to hangout later, he said yes. They went down to a creek and saw a rope hanging from a tree. They took turns swinging from it. Leslie thought of an idea. What if they had their own secret place where no one would know about, it could be like a country and they would be the rulers of it? Jess agreed so they looked around for a place to have it. Leslie said it could be a magical place like Narnia and the only way to get there is by swinging across the rope. They swung across and found a place in the woods and named it Terabithia. They dragged stuff down to build a castle. They filled cans with food, water, nails, and string. They told stories, at first they ignored each other at school, but in October they hung out at school too. People made fun of Jess for having a girl friend, Jess knew it wasn’t true. At recess they would find a spot on the field and talk. Leslie always made a long day fun. Terabithia was cold in November; they sometimes built a fire outside their castle. For a long time Leslie managed to keep two sleeping bags for them, but in December her father was looking for them so she took them back. Both of Leslie’s parents were writers, her dad went back and forth from Washington to write his book. He made a promise that after Christmas he would only write in his spare time. They were very nice to Jess when he came over. He didn’t always like to have her over because his older sisters would be rude and make her uncomfortable.  Leslie was always making up stories about the creatures that threatened Terabithia. On the bus ride to school May Belle was bragging about what she had for lunch, it was a twinky. When May Belle got to school the bully Janice Avery stole it from her. Jess and Leslie were going to try to get back at Janice, but they didn’t know how. At Terabithia they made a plan to write a note pretending to be the cutest guy in the seventh grade, Willard Hughes. So they wrote a love not to her and it said “Meet me behind the school after school if you like me too.” The next day they went to go plant it in her desk, Leslie was lookout. Jess was nervous but he got more nervous when he seen saw the seventh grade teacher coming. Leslie made up an excuse on why she was there; she talked very loud saying where they were going. Jess zipped around the room looking for Janice’s desk, he found it and put the note inside it, he got out in time. At recess Janice’s face was so happy. The bus driver asked where she was. One of her friends replied that she wasn’t riding the bus today, but when they saw Willard on the bus they wondered what happened. The next day Janice was very mad. May Belle asked if they did it and she was so happy they explained what they did, and said she could never tell anyone or they would be doomed. She said she wouldn’t. It was almost Christmas and Jess was thinking about what to get Leslie. On the bus ride home they drove past a sign that said ‘Free’ he got off the bus and went over and got it. He then went to Terabithia with the puppy. When Leslie saw it she loved it and named it Prince Terrien, she made him the guardian of Terabithia. Leslie gave Jess his gift, it was watercolours and paper. On Christmas morning Jess helped May Belle with her Barbie. He got a race car set. After he went out to milk the cows, Leslie and Prince Terrien came out and talked about their Christmas’s. After Christmas Mr. Burke was fixing up their house with Leslie’s help. Jess didn’t really like Leslie’s dad, it took her until February to figure that out. She suggested that he help them on the house to get to know her father better, he did. After they finished Jess liked him. Leslie and Jess went down to Terabithia; they hadn’t been there for a month. They were worried about what might have happened there. Leslie pretended there were evil animals there, so they shooed them off. The next day at school Leslie went into the girl’s bathroom, she heard someone crying. It was Janice. Leslie told Jess, she went back in to talk to her. Jess listened. Janice was crying. Jess was impatient trying to figure out what happened. Leslie didn’t tell him until they got to Terabithia. Janice told her friends about how her father beats her and they told everyone. That night Jess stayed up late and May Belle came over to his bed and said, “I know where you and Leslie go to hide, I followed you there.” He got angry and said that she can’t tell anyone. A few days later Jess’s dad came home from Washington because  he got laid off and it was almost Easter, which means it was the one time of the year Jess’s family went to church because his mom didn’t like the priest. Leslie never went to church, but wanted to so Jess convinced his mom to let her come. It was Easter Monday and pouring rain, but Leslie and Jess still wanted to go to Terabithia so they did. It was hard to get over the stream now that it was flooding, but they made it. Their castle was leaking and they imagined it was the evil spirits. They spoke to them trying not to laugh. It kept on raining that week and Jess got scared so he was going to have to tell Leslie he didn’t want to go to Terabithia. The next morning Jess got up to milk the cow and the phone rang, it was for him. It was Miss Edmunds; she wanted to take Jess to a museum. He said yes. When they were finished they went outside, it was sunny. He couldn’t wait to tell Leslie about his day (if he had the chance to).