The Code
“The meeting for our club will now come to order,” eight year old Ruthie announced to the other two girls gathered in the clubhouse that day. “The first order of business is that we need a name for our club.”
Her cousin Lexie raised her hand. “Ooh, ooh! I know the perfect name.”
“What is it?”
“The ‘I Hate Boys Club.’ That’s why we’re all here, isn’t it?”
Ruthie nodded her head. “That’s not bad, not bad at all but I think we need something a little less obvious than that.” She rubbed her chin with her thumb and forefinger, deep in thought. Suddenly her eyes lit up. “I’ve got it. The CODE: The Core Order for Dealing with Enemies.” Lexie nodded her head in approval. Ruthie looked at them both seriously. “Are we in agreement then? We’ll call ourselves the CODE? All in favor raise your hands.” Ruthie and Lexie both raised their hands but the smallest and youngest of the group did not. Ruthie called on her. “Rebecca? You’re not raising your hand. What seems to be the problem? Don’t you like the name?”
The girl stood up. “The name is fine. I just don’t think we should hate all boys. What about Daddy? We shouldn’t hate him, should we?”
Ruthie rolled her eyes. “Of course not Uncle Matt or my daddy or anyone else’s daddy, alright? Just boys. Boys who annoy get on your nerves and spoil everything.”
“Um, Ruthie? Speaking of boys who annoy and spoil everything, we have a problem,” Lexie said, looking out the window of the tree house and pointing to the ground below. “That kid Christopher who lives next door is walking down below with a couple of his friends, sneaking around.” All of the girls quickly ran over to see what Lexie was pointing at. Sure enough, Christopher and two other boys were walking along the pathway, armed with a box. “What is that they have in the box, Ruthie?”
Ruthie’s eyes narrowed as she took a closer look courtesy of her binoculars. “I’ll tell you what they’ve got. They’ve got a box of water balloons. I knew it. I just knew it which is why I’m prepared for just such an occasion.” Ruthie walked back over to where she was sitting earlier, reached under the seat and pulled out a large bag. She unzipped it and pulled out three water guns. “My dear cousins, you always need to be prepared. Now, I have one for each of us. We’ll wait until we see them walk the other way, climb down the ladder very quietly and carefully, then sneak up on them from behind. Alright?”
“Alright!” Lexie and Rebecca agreed. The girls waited until the boys were out of sight, climbed down the ladder and reached the bottom. Ruthie was in the lead, moving her head from side to side, aiming her water gun in every direction she looked. They had only walked a few feet when they felt three splashes hit their feet. They jerked their heads around to see three boys standing, tossing water balloons in the air and smiling sadistically. “You actually thought you could get away from us, didn’t you Ruthie? Why don’t you admit defeat now and save us a whole lot of trouble.”
“Never give up! Never surrender! Let’s get them girls!” Ruthie shouted. With that they started firing water guns and balloons at each other at a rapid pace. The boys had exhausted their supply of balloons and began to retreat back up the pathway. Ruthie turned to Lexie and Rebecca. “Come on, let’s go get them.”
Rebecca pouted. “I don’t really want to, Ruthie. I’d rather just play with my dolls.”
Lexie nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, I don’t really want to get my new outfit dirty. Let’s go back inside the tree house and do something else.”
Ruthie scowled and let out a deep breath. “You guys are no fun. I’m going by myself.” With that she ran after the boys. She quickly caught up with them and had one boy in her sights. She leaped forward and jumped on the boy’s back, bringing him to the ground. She flipped him over and got back on her feet so that she now stood above him menacingly, her super sized water soaker pointed at his face. “Christopher Nichols. We meet at last. I ought to blow you away right now.”
Christopher smirked. “Go ahead. I’m not scared of a girl.” That was all the encouragement Ruthie needed as she threw her head back and laughed, firing another round of water into his face.
Christopher held up his hands, waving them in surrender. “Alright, alright. I give up. I give up!”
Ruthie looked at him with a gleam of victory in her eyes. “Now, Christopher. I want you to say something for me.”
“Anything. Just don’t fire that gun at me again.”
“Say ‘Long live the CODE.’”
“What the heck is that?” he asked while a look of confusion spread across his face.
“Just say it or I let loose on you again.”
“Long live the CODE. Are you happy?”
Ruthie held her water gun securely at her side and nodded her head. “Extremely so. You’ve been a worthy opponent.” She tilted her gun in his direction. “Until we meet again.”
As she walked back up the pathway in the direction of the tree house, she thought you know Daddy says there’s going to come a day when I don’t hate boys so much and I might actually want them to be around. Daddy knows a lot of things but he doesn’t actually have a clue about that, does he?
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