"Why are they doing this to me?" Laken had been on the phone with her best friend, Ali Setlocker, since she had begun her packing. Her dad had decided that he wanted to uproot his kids and take them all the way to Alexandria, Minnesota. Which really has Laken all in a tizzy, because it was right before deer season. "Lulu, you know they're just doing what they think is best for you." Ali had called Laken Lulu for as long as she could remember. "Yeah I know, but do they know what kind of weather they're having up there?"
"Snow?"
"It's snowing! Which means that it's to freaking cold to do anything." Laken allowed herself to fall backwards onto her now bare mattress, which was waiting to be loaded into the moving truck. "I don't know I guess I just don't want to go...I mean what's up there for me?"
"Hey you never know there might just be some hunky guy that's just perfect for you. Waiting for you to find him." Rolling her eyes Laken hopped off of her bed as her dad and her older brother came in to take her mattress down stairs. She walked to the corner and slid down the wall untill she was sitting on the floor. "Yeah okay. That is not going to happen."
"What why?" Laken waited until they had taken the mattress out of her room. "Well for starters, no guy is going to want to date a girl who has bigger muscles than him." Laken had been lifting weights ever since she was twelve. She found that it was a way to get rid of all her pent up energy, plus it was a good excuse to get out of the house. She felt like she was always in her brother's, well David's, shadow. He had always made really good grades, excelled in sports, and was just generaly the favored child. Every one tended to forget about her. She wasn't like the rest of them. She liked her space. When she had asked her dad to take her hunting, they used to go all the time together. He used to go to her high school rodeos to watch her too, but after she had saved up enough of her winnigs, that he hadn't taken from her, to buy a truck and trailer to haul her horse and tack, he quit going to those two. She had always wondered why. She really didn't know her mother, she had left before Laken was a toddler. He father kept telling her that she looks too much like her mother. She didn't think that her father liked her all that much, she was just an inconvenience. After she had turned eighteen, he'd actually started charging her rent. "Hey girl you've worked really hard for those. I can see you on the cover of Muscle and Fitness. Or..." Laken had had her elbows resting on her knees, her left hand holding her cell phone, which she has to pay for herself, to her ear and her right hand had been on her for head. When she heard her friend trail off like that and not finish her sentence, the blonde had let her right hand fall from her face and dangle from her knee. "Or what?"
"Well...I was going to say that maybe there's a guy up there that wouldn't mind the fact that a girl can hold her own and likes to spend as much time as she can in the woods or riding her horse." Laken made a snorting noise. "Yeah, that'll be the day I say you told me so."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Brock sat at his kitchen table, just looking out the big bay windows into his snow covered back yard, the mug of coffee in his hand remaining to be undrank. He still couldn't believe that they were gone. Rena didn't even let him explain. She had just jumped to conclusions and flew off the handle, and had filed for divorce. Thank god that she had settled for joint custody of the boys. This was really hard on Mya, who still didn't really understand what was going on. Yeah, she's eight, but she still couldn't grasp the fact that Rena wasn't coming back. That Rena and Mariah weren't living with him any more or that her little brothers wouldn't be there most of the time. He hadn't heard his daughter as she came into the kitchen. Apparently she had been trying to get his attention for a while, because she tossed a spoon onto the table and it clattered to a halt in front of Brock, causing him to jerk out of his confusing thoughts and come back to reality. "Yeah, what?" Maya was sitting at the other end of the table, clearly finished with her cereal. "I said are you ready to go?" Brock wrinkled his fore head in confusion. "Go?" His answer made her roll her eyes."To school, it's Monday." Brock pulled his sleeve back and looked at his watch. Seven forty five. "Damn it! Get your bag and get in the truck. Your probably going to be late." Her mother is picking her up from school and is taking her back home. Their time together was over for a while. This was going to be a long and lonely day, without Mya there to keep him company. At least he he still had the gym.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It had been a god-awful long drive, but they had finally made it to their destination. To their new home. Which, she would never mention it to her family, was one that Laken actually liked. It was a farm, alot like the one that they had lived on in Texas, only alot bigger. There were several pastures that reached, what seemed like, as far as she could see, dotted with cows here and there. Continuing to look around, she saw the large barn and from the smell of it, the pigs were residing in it to keep out of the freezing Minnesota weather. Which meant that she was going to be the one that has to muck out the barn. Just lovely. Laken really didn't mind, that was one thing that she was rather proud of, people couldn't call her lazy. She had an amazing work ethic, she was always doing something. Laken turned her attention to the house, her jaw dropped. It was huge compared to their old one. This one has two stories to it, she could already picture her room. It would have a window with light airy curtains and lots of sunlight. Walking around to the back of the moving truck, she raised the door and started pulling stuff out and setting it in organized piles. After about a half an hour, the truck was empty of boxes, all that's left are peices of furniture, which she would have to start on after she took her boxes to her room. "Dad which room am I in?" Her dad looked at her like she had grown an extra head. "I'm not sure, we'll see after your brother and sister pick out their rooms." That only meant one thing. The attic or the barn. Laken felt her shoulders go slack. Why did you expect it to be any different here? Better yet, why do you let them treat you this way? Laken knew the reason. They might not be the best family, but the were all that she had. She used to sleep over at Ali's house all the time, but Ali wasn't here. Without her 'family' she'd be completely alone, except for Cheyenne, her horse. Her horse that she had had to use her money to get, a fact that she loved. It meant that it was one thing that her father couldn't take away from her, along with her truck, horse trailer and small unfinished teardrop camper that she takes to rodeos or livestock shows that call for her to stay over night. No they weren't new, but they were reliable. She kept the papers on all four of her most cherished posessions hidden at all times, she didn't trust her father or siblings any farther than she could throw them.

Putting those thoughts aside, Laken began unloading the furniture, something she was able to do with out help, thanks to living on and working the farm her whole life. As she unloaded each peice from the truck, she went ahead and sat it in the house after her father, Richard, told her where each peice would go. She had the truck completely unloaded and had set the last chair around the dinning room table, before Amanda and Devon had even came downstairs. The two siblings came down the stair with smug looks on their faces. They are not going to get the better of me this time. Laken walked out side and started putting her boxes,what few were her's, into the passenger side of her truck.