Balloon

  Nora and Silas looked down from the top of the tree.  "A little to the left!" called Avery.  "Got it!"  Nora and Silas chimed in unison.  They hopped down a few branches to where Avery was waiting.  "Mylar," he grinned, "Nice one!" Then he filled it with air (not an easy task for an apricot), and the three friends lowered the balloon to the ground.  "What do we do now?" asked Nora in her apritot voice (for she was very young).  "DO?!" both boys shouted.  "We jump on it!!"
  Nora felt a pit in her stomach (besides the one that was already there naturally).  She was supposed to jump on this thing?  From that height in the tree?  She climbed a little lower.  Just then, Silas whizzed past her and landed with a phloink in the center of the balloon.  But instead of bouncing back into the tree like he anticipated, all he did was slide sideways onto the ground.  Avery and Nora both laughed and laughed.  And Silas laughed, too, because it actually was a lot of fun.  Avery went next, with results similar to Silas's. By this time, Nora had mustered up the courage to jump.  However, Avery's jump had squelched the last of the air out of the balloon, and so she had nowhere to land.  Suddenly, she heard Avery's voice.  "It's ok, Nora, just jump to us!"  And Silas.  "Yeah, jump to us, Nora!"
  Nora jumped.  And when Avery and Silas caught her, they let her slide off of them just like they had slid off of the balloon.  Safely on the ground, they threw the balloon away.  It's what they had planned to do, anyway, and a toy that loses its air that quickly loses its appeal quickly, too.  So, they threw it out and then climbed back up the tree for dinner.  And THAT is what apricots do with balloons.