A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! It really made my day! :)

After feeding the animals, gathering the eggs and other various chores, the farmer finally called them together to tell them what their punishment would be for getting into a fight at the festival. The plan was that they would all have to come straight home from school and shuck corn for three hours before dinner and homework. On the weekends they would shuck corn for the entire time that they weren't doing weekend chores. They had no idea what they were in for.

"So we have to sit and peel some husks off of corn cobs?" Carlos asked, to make sure that he heard right.

"That's right," said Farmer Slate, "and I don't want any goofing off, or excuses to get out of your duties."

"Okay, yes sir," Kendall said, feeling relieved that they had managed to escape any sort of real punishment. They began their newly learned task right after school that same day.

The farmer set up four stool,s and placed three huge tin buckets at their feet. One for the husks, one for the corn silk, and one for the corn cobs.

"This isn't so bad at all," James said cheerfully. "It beats sleeping in that smelly barn."

They liked that they could actually sit and talk while they worked, and they didn't have continuous supervision. They discussed Halloween, which was only two weeks away, and tried to figure out what they would dress up as, if they were given the chance.

After only an hour or so, their hands and wrists were a little tired, but it wasn't too bad. They glanced over at their pending supply of intact corn, and then at the pile of finished corn. They shrugged it off. Not too bad. They could easily finish the rest of the corn by the end of the week.

Two hours later, their time was up. It was dinner time, then homework and bed. Now they realized that their hands were sore, for sure. They looked one more time at the supply of corn just in time to see a tractor pull up and dump a trailer of corn on top of the pile. They stopped and stared in disbelief.

"All of that is for us?" Kendall asked agape.

"It sure looks that way," said Logan.

"Well, we have all week," said James nonchalantly.

They stretched and rubbed their lower backs, which were getting a bit sore from leaning over the buckets, and headed in for dinner.

That evening, they noticed that they had a hard time staying awake to complete their homework. The new addition to their already full schedule, made them groggy even earlier. They also felt it in class the next morning. Mrs. Benson rapped her pointer om each of their desk tops at least once, to keep them all from dozing off.

They came home and began to shuck the corn again. After the three hours, the boys had grown quiet and could feel it more in their hands and lower backs. They knew that they still had an entire weekend of shucking ahead of them. When they stood and walked around a bit to prevent stiffness, the farmer yelled for them to sit down and get back to work.

After one weekend day, they had painful blisters on their hands, and their backs and shoulders ached.

"My hands are soooo sore," James whined.

"Mine is bleeding," Logan announced.

"I don't know what hurts more, my hands or my back," groaned Kendall, arching his back and wincing.

"I don't want to do this anymore!" Carlos cried.

"Well, I"m pretty sure that we don't have a choice," Logan sighed.

By Sunday night, they could barely stand. Farmer Slate had made them do morning chores, attend church, then shuck corn for six hours.

Anna watched the boys sit down in the mud room and moan.

"You boys need a good soak," she told them in her gentle way. She could see that they were on the verge of tears.

"How much longer do we have to do this?" Carlos asked in desperation.

"Until all the corn is done," Kendall said glumly.

They heard a motor and looked out the window to see the tractor pull up, and unload yet another heap of corn. They hung their heads and whimpered.

Anna had to treat and wrap all of their sore raw hands before they were able to continue shucking the next morning. It made it difficult to move their hands to write in school, and Jeb and Eric snickered when they saw all of them by the lockers, with gauze around their hands. Embarrassed, they tried to ignore everyone's stares and focus on staying awake.

They moaned the entire time that they shucked corn after school.

"I really do not like that guy!" Kendall reminded them. James and Logan were literally tearing up as they worked the last half hour.

"I don't think I'll ever eat corn again," Logan cried. "Corn hurts."

"I think I would actually rather sleep in that smelly barn tonight, than do this," James huffed.

Carlos began to hum to himself to take his mind off of the pain. Soon they were all harmonizing together and it did help, but just a bit.

That night in bed, they swore to one another that they would do everything in their power, to help one another stay out of trouble with the farmer. However, a part of them knew that he was a pretty unpredictable guy, and that there was bound to be trouble, regardless of their heartfelt pledge.

"Only he could take something as harmless as corn, and turn it into a weapon that we had to use against ourselves," murmured Kendall, just before they fell asleep.

Halloween is the next chapter! One of my favorite times of the year!

And a little whumpage might make it a little more festive! :D