SOLVED. YA Mystery from the 80s about a secret society that admits you based on how you named a tree in school. [s]

[Jonathan]

in the 80s i was in middle school. i generally read above my age group. it was a novel, and about high schoolers getting inducted into a secret society. the metric for admission was years previous the students all adopted a tree and named it. students whose tree name had seven letters were admitted. main character used seven letters. his best friend had called his 'Rex.' I'm 41 years old and have been searching for this book name for 30 years please help me.

[Brenna]

Found this previously solved post that shares some of the details you've provided!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Fell by M.E. Kerr

[Capn]

Brenna wrote: "Found this previously solved post that shares some of the details you've provided!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Fell by ..."
Nice one, Brenna!
It's free on OpenLibrary! https://openlibrary.org/books/OL18885...
" …anything but name a tree something with seven letters in it. It was the great secret of Sevens…
…unbeknownst to the other had chosen to name the tree after one of its relatives: Celeste. FELL…
…said was he didn't want a name with seven letters in it, so Lenny started calling him …"

[Jonathan]

oh my god. that's it. that's the book! Y'all are awesome! I've spent decades losing my mind over this!! now how do i mark it solved? lol.