It was late in the afternoon and two boys were roaming the outskirts of Whitby. One of them was a dark-haired child. The other had chestnut hair with a glow of red. They were both around eight years old and the mischievous sparkle in one of the boy’s eyes betrayed that he was up to no good.

“Claude.” He said with hushed voice. “I bet if we help each other we can climb that wall. There’s an orchard there.” And not even waiting for his friend to reply, he took the dark-haired boy by the arm and dragged him over.

Claude didn't get up to mischief on his own, far to scared of his father. But Simon had always been able to bring out that side of him. So instead of arguing against the idea of wall climbing, he simply followed along, shooting a quick look behind him. "Simon... do you really think we can make it over?"

The boy was far too impressed by his own idea to worry. He was terrible in school, and yet he was clever in his own way, and he loved showing it off, especially to Claude. He took his friend by the shoulders. "You stand here." He said, and he positioned the boy so that his back was against the wall. "Now hold your hands in front of you and clasp them together."

Claude did as he was told and knelled down to brace. Lifting Simon over wasn't going to be the issue, it was following after that Claude was unsure of. "Okay, ready" he said with a small nod.

They would never find out whether it worked. Simon stepped on Claude's hands, holding on to his shoulders for balance, and then stepped up on his shoulders. But then there came a cry. "Oi!"

Simon lost his balance, fell, and landed on his back. He felt the air being slammed out of him, but crawled up anyway and started running on pure adrenaline.

As soon as Simon's weight was gone, Claude was off, only stopping at the next corner to wait for his friend. Once Simon had reached him, Claude grabbed his arm and pulled him around the corner before taking off again. He would be dead if his father caught him or found out.

Simon would be equally dead if one of his parents found out. But he was a fast runner. When they were a good distance removed from their crime scene, he stopped at last, sank down against a wall until he sat and laughed, for although they did not get their apples, outrunning a punishment still felt like a victory.

Claude kept up the best he could, grateful when the other boy finally stopped. He let out a groan instead of a laugh as he sank down next to his friend. "You're gonna get us killed one of these days."

Simon laughed more at that and put an arm around Claude's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'd get us out of trouble as well."

"You betta" he granted but lent into his friend. "What now?"