When she heard that she put on a weird face. “Why not?”

“Cuz I say so!”

“Fine, but you better have a good reason for it.”

I did have a good reason for it but it’s a little bittle too soon to let her know. But then her eyes opened wide. “Your family … they don’t know?”

“Just drop it, OK?”

“Fine, fine. So, where is your house and how do we get there?”

“I can show you the way, but I’m not too sure if you can keep up with the way I head home!”

“Word of your parkour stunts is all over school. It’s not a secret, you know. The only thing the students don’t know is how soon before you kill yourself or land in the hospital.”

“They’re just jealous.”

“Or maybe they prefer staying in one piece until they graduate.”

“If this is your way of backing out …”

“Go on, I’ll be right behind you.”

When she said that, I decided to let her see for herself. I started running and told her to catch up.

“Then what are you waiting for? I thought you said you’re right behind me!”

“HEY! WAIT!”

“What is it? You can’t handle my way?”

I looked back and saw that she had started running, so I decided to keep going. When I reached a fine path to get on top of a building I went for it, a jump on top of the trash can, getting my hands on the emergency staircase, and went up to look down and see what Sunshine is up to.

“You’re not coming up?”

“What, are you crazy? Of course not!”

“You scared, Sunshine?”

“DON’T….CALL….ME….THAT!”

She tried the same way I used to come up and to my surprise, she did it in one go. After she was up I continued my way and she kept following me. Jumping from one roof top to another till I reached the big jump. Sunshine kept up really good with me but when she saw the distance, she wasn’t sure whether to continue or not. I took a little bittle of backing up and ran towards the jump. I managed to get to the other rooftop just fine. Now it was her turn.

“What are you waiting for? Just jump!”

“’Just jump, JUST JUMP!’ Have you ever thought about what would happen if you didn’t make it?”

“It’s happened a couple of time. Nothing serious, except for a broken leg. And another broken leg. And I messed up my hand.”

“You’re insane! I’m not doing this.”

That was what I needed.

“OK, then, I guess you can’t come to my house since you can’t make this jump to follow me. Well, that’s just sad but hey, I can still come to your house and work on our rese-“

She then backed up, ran and jumped while I was saying that. I could tell mid-jump that she wouldn’t clear the space so I went and took her hand and pulled her up. That was close. This girl is too serious.

“Wow, you did it.”

“I … did it? ... I mean, yeah, I did it! Now can we go the rest of the way on the ground?”

“Fine, I was easy on you since it’s your first time.”

“Don’t feel too smug; you haven’t tried keeping up with Pinkie Pie when she’s riding a cupcake sugar rush!”

We headed back down to the streets and ran the rest of the way there, though she couldn’t run for a while and we had to stop so she could catch her breath. After a long run and a few stops we reached our destination. I really thought she would have just given up on trying right at the long leap that she had to take but she didn’t. So I thought she deserves to be welcomed in my home.

“Finally, here we are. I present you the Flame Palace!”

She gazed upon it like she was seeing something majestic, though I don’t blame her. I do live in a majestic place.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editor Daniel Drazen.

Make sure you read other chapters too.