Summary:

Amy's mom and dad have been running Heartland's around the world for as long as she can remember. She has lived in over five states in the USA, and both North and South England. There are seven Heartlands in the Heartland Chain and it has been a little over two years since the newest farm in Virginia was completed. Marion and Tim (her parents) both like to supervise each new farm for at least a year, and sometimes more. So now it is time to start yet again because Heartland is so much in demand (they deal with healing, racing, and jumping), and their horses are overpowering their farms. So they start to pack, ready to move on from Virginia, when Amy puts her foot down. She is sixteen and going into her junior year. She has stayed in Virginia longer than anywhere else, and loves it. She doesn't want to move, and especially to Ireland. So when she is given the option to stay with old family friends that live only an hour and a half from where she lives in Virginia, she readily accepts. She will still be in Virginia, and she is ready and willing to travel back every weekend to stay with her best friend Soraya.

She remembers the family she will be staying with very well, the Baldwins. They are a family of nine. Mother, father, and seven sons. She remembers the little boys who used to pull her hair and chase her with snakes, and although she dreads living with them, she still isn't willing to give up Virginia, so she goes. What she doesn't expect is that most of those 'little boys' have grown up to be not so very little. They are worthy of the Gods with the bodies they adorn, well...most of them. But only one she cares about...Ian. Ian is a year older and sooo not pulling her hair anymore. So whilt she chases him for a change, she has to deal with Ty, who is a grade A jerk who can't wait to get rid of her because she took his room.

Will she be able to survive with seven boys? Will she get over the hairs left in the sink that make her want to vomit? Will she get Ian, like she wants, or will an unlikely canadite come forward and steal her heart?

Note: This story is based on the book Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys by Kate Brian (an awesome book), not 7th Heaven. 7th Hell just worked, and 7th Heaven was the inspiration.

One

August 13th

Amy Fleming sat, quietly, studying the folder laid out before her. She was concentrating so hard that she didn't notice her parents as they stepped into the large room where she sat. Her long auburn hair was in a loose ponytail and draped casually over her shoulder, and she was slumped forward, reading. The pen grasped loosely in her hand was flicking slightly back and forth. After a moment of watching her Marion Fleming cleared her throat.

Amy's eyes darted up and gazed, startled, at her parents. "You scared me. What's up?" She pushed back her chair slightly and laid her pen down on the papers in front of her. Lacing her fingers around the arm rests on the chair, she leaned back and smiled encouragingly at them.

Tim Fleming cleared his throat, and lightly tapped the papers that were in front of her. "What are these?"

Not moved in the least by her fathers nervousness Amy just shrugged. "The papers for the new border. He should be here tomorrow and I just wanted to brush up on his problem." Amy's parents ran a large chain of equine farms that specialized in the healing of abused horses and also they participated in racing and jumping. They had seven farms, under the name of Heartland, located in the United States and England.

"Star, right?" Marion asked and Amy just nodded, not wanting to get into the horses problems. She knew they had probably read the papers that day too, and they were just stalling. For what, she had no idea.

When they just stood there for a moment Amy leaned forward and rested her elbows on the desk, "So, did you guys want something?"

"Yes, actually." Tim took a deep breath, one that Amy had learned to recognize, but hadn't seen in a while, and she immediately perked up. Before he could even continue his sentence Amy had jumped in.

"No." Marion looked startled and Tim just took another deep breath. "No!" This time she was more hysterical, her fingers grasping the desk as she stood up.

"Amy, we understand how you might feel about this, but before you jump to conclusions I want you to..." Amy slapped her palm against the desk to get her mother to be quiet.

"No. You do not understand how I feel about this!" She was on the verge of crying and blinked back the unwarranted tears. She quickly ran through all the deep breathes her father had taken over the years, and took a deep one herself. She had heard that certain intake of breath six times before, and was not in the mood to hear it again. She was comfortable this time, happy. She had friends that she'd known for over a year and a school she actually liked, and the workers at Heartland were nice and were teaching her more things than she could hope for. She was not ready to move again. Two more years, two more. That's all she asked for and then she'd be out of High School and able to make her own decisions.

"All my life I have been moving. The longest we have ever stayed in one spot was when I was a baby, and I don't remember it, so that shouldn't even count. We've been here two years, that's a record! Guys, I like it here. I really do. Please," she begged them. "please don't make me leave."

Marion glanced at Tim with a sad face and nodded slowly. Amy looked back and forth at them, trying to figure out their silent consent.

"Amy, we have to go. We've already signed a contract for the land in Ireland, and we don't renege on things like this." Amy sucked in her breath. Ireland? So far?

"But Daddy," Amy begged with her eyes and Tim brushed a piece of fly away hair behind her ear. He looked so sad that Amy was confused, she looked at her mom and saw tears glistening there. Now totally baffled she looked up at her father with a question in her gaze.

"Amy, you don't have to go." He finally spoke and Amy actually flinched.

"I don't?" She looked at him like he was crazy and he smiled sadly.

"No. Your mother and I realize that this moving around isn't good for you and you want to stop, and we do too, soon. We signed this contract when we signed the one for this land, but we have put it on hold for a long time. We can't do that anymore. It's a lot of land and it's going to take a while to build and we still have to decide which horses to transfer and which ones to buy. We're thinking maybe two years, at the least, for this one." Amy just raised an eyebrow. "We know you want to finish school in the states, namely Virginia, so we have a proposition for you."

"And that would be?" Amy asked, readying herself for the answer that had her so bewildered.

"Do you remember the Baldwin's?" Amy nodded, having no clue where this was going. She vaguely remembered the few visits when she was a child in which a whirlwind of little boys pulled and tugged at her. Ripping her dress, pulling out her hair, hitting her with inanimate objects. Sure, she remembered them. "Well they live about and hour and a half away from here, on their own farm, and would graciously let you stay with them until we come back from Ireland and you finish school."

"The Baldwin's?!" Amy gasped and Marion nodded. "As in screaming little boys who relish in ripping off my pigtails and throwing boulders at me. Those Baldwin's?"

"Amy, they aren't little boys anymore. Most of them are around your age, save a few younger ones. I think the youngest is in the fifth grade." She laughed lightly. "They're hardly ripping pigtails and throwing rocks anymore."

"Boulders." Amy said lightly, still startled by the news.

"Boulders?" It was now Marion's turn to look confused.

"They didn't throw rocks, they threw boulders. Big whopping ones that broke the skin and gave you an instant headache." She nodded. "Boulders."

Tim chuckled and coughed to cover it up. "Look, Amy. I know you want to stay here, but we don't completely trust any of the workers here enough to take care of you. We've known Mark and Lily for over 20 years, we trust them. I mean, what's one more kid in the long run? They have seven, for God's sake."

"I'll go." Amy blurted out. She had been thinking silently while they blabbered on and had decided quite easily. Sure, she wanted to be with her parents, she loved them, but she also loved Virginia. She wanted to stay in one place, and that was the US, strictly Virginia. Their farm was only a little over an hour away, she could easily drive down every weekend and stay here or with Soraya for a few days. It definitely beat going to Ireland.

"To Ireland?" Marion seemed startled but also happy. She clearly didn't want to leave Amy.

"No, to the Baldwin's. I'll live with them until graduation. Only two more years." Amy closed the folder on the desk and picked it up, before standing in front of her parents.

"Look, I love you guys and don't like the fact that we're going to be separated any more than you do, but you're right. I hate moving and although I'll still be moving, at least it isn't light years away. I like Virginia, and I like it here. So I'll visit on the weekends...I can't do that if I went to Ireland. So I'll go to the Baldwin's if that's my only option."

She smiled lightly and passed by them towards the door, breathing deeply.

Seven boys, her own personal Hell.

Note: TA-DA 7th Hell. The second chapter may be up soon because I already have it half way done and then after that, no more until after New Years. So MERRY (early)CHRISTMAS / HANUKKAH / KWANZA and HAPPY (early) NEW YEAR.