Disclaimer: I own nothing, my writing is for amusement and sanity.
Here's my Take Three! Or is it Four? I've messed with my other story "Reindeer to the Rescue", from edits to deletes and redo tries...I'm not satisfied with it, and can't make myself fix it at this point so let's try this!
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Chapter Fourteen
Xxx
June 21st, 2003
Xxx
Charlie wiped at his brow with his sleeve, not that it was very effective considering the t shirt was just as soaked as he was, but the sweat dripping down into his eyes stopped for a few more minutes.
It was hot!
He'd been out at the rescue center since dawn, it wasn't really a "ranch", being only three miles outside of Lakeside town limits, but it was a cute name that attracted attention. Today, it wasn't attracting anything other than some flies and mosquitos, being the first official day of summer with record breaking high temperatures-Charlie was constantly checking water troughs and the fans inside the animal shelters around the front of the property. The back half of the ranch was something else, a different venture that Kate hadn't shown Charlie yet, stating it was for legal purposes that only specific crew members on the roster could be back there.
Not wanting to push it when Kate had gotten Charlie moved out to the ranch to finish his community service hours, and had covered for him in art class when his project ended up unsatisfactory and he'd tried to redo it on time-Kate and Sarah fought for him to get an extension, stating Charlie had been with them out at the ranch and his project had been damaged.
Their art teacher had been skeptical, but had given Charlie the weekend to fix his last painting. Kate's silent scolding at poor time management had been the kick in ass Charlie needed and he'd aced that project even with the slight deduction for the being late part.
Which was why Charlie had offered to cover for Kate this morning, she had to be out of town with her mom and Jack, why her mom was stepping in more…neither of them had a clue. Especially after hearing some of the bullshit Kate had been dealing with for years, Charlie was more than willing to jump in and give her a break.
That and Sarah had promised to come out for the night chores, and was bringing s'mores supplies. There were two other people, from Creekwood, joining them. Even with company, it was going to be fun.
But, it did leave Charlie alone for chores most of the day. Saturdays were deep cleaning, he'd gotten out to the place right around sunrise so he could get the heaviest stuff done before it got stupid hot. All troughs and racks had been dumped-scrubbed-dried-and refilled before noon. Plus morning feedings. Early afternoon had been checking all fans in the horse stalls for those inside today, late afternoon was checking water troughs, and dumping out the duck pools when they got too hot from being so shallow.
Sliding towards evening on the longest day of the year, sunset was still over three hours away, Charlie was finishing up his list of maintenance tasks that he'd been handed at the beginning of the month. Between Kate's mom and Sarah's aunt, they'd made a list of tasks that needed to be done before Charlie's punishment was up. However long it took him to complete, that's how long Charlie was on metaphorical probation. This weekend, Charlie was bound and determined to get the round pen he was working on, complete. At least the fence, the ground work to dig out the grass and get sand in…that might take longer.
The poles had gotten dug in yesterday, including the much taller gate posts and crossbars to hold up the gate panel that was currently leaning on his stack of fence rails to nail into place. As of almost five o'clock, Charlie had gotten about half of the rails in place. He'd be a bit farther if he'd started at the top, but since Charlie was alone and had to measure off the ground to get the bottom rail up, it was easier to start with the hard part and rest each adjacent rail on the one below.
He'd also had to rip off a couple to completely do over again.
Leaning on one of the posts, Charlie caught his breath and watched over the paddocks at the youngest foals playing in the heat, their mothers were more interested in their hay bale than the babies racing around. Tomorrow, they all would be put back out on the full pasture to run, today was closer to the barn for the shade covers spread out over the paddocks.
Turning another way, Charlie tried to catch sight of another horse, the sick one he had met the first night out to the ranch.
Not finding the grey head, Charlie immediately jumped over the half complete fence to go looking. While he had only minimal experience with the rescue animals, literally only the last few weeks, Charlie had been drawn towards the sorry looking gelding who would rather hide than be outside and be a happy horse. "Dollar" as his nickname was, had come from a breeding farm that had cranked out more babies than they had space and resources for. Reality, the horse was even registered with pureblood lines, he'd had the potential to be amazing…if he'd been given the chance to be loved. Now, Silver Dollar Shine had been gelded by a vet shortly after rescue, and was still struggling to put weight back on, let alone caring about anything or anyone.
Kate was going to try to find the horse a friend, a stall buddy, to maybe get him more interested in life. The concern was that Dollar wouldn't recover enough will to live…to stop anything else from hurting him, like another infection or illness to set him back. Charlie had already gotten two separate tasks added to his list because he'd gotten home late, all because he'd hung around Dollar's stall to try and get some kind of reaction.
The majority of the barn was quiet, low nickers from a couple heads peeking up at Charlie's arrival, the hum of fans going to maintain cool air flow across the stalls was more noise than the animals dozing out of the heat. Almost all of them had access to outdoor pens, or were on a rotation for pastures depending on their needs. Hottest day so far of the year was not encouraging many of them to be out in the sun.
Dollar still didn't look up, even after being around Charlie for over a month on almost a daily basis. He had however, finished his breakfast…it had only taken him almost all day to do so, but the grain bucket was finally empty.
"Hey…what's going on buddy…?" Charlie leaned on the stall door, dejectedly bracing his head on a hand while watching the gelding nose at some dropped hay from the rack, but didn't eat, "C'mon man…you gotta try, please Dollar."
Nothing, not even a nibble.
Charlie sighed heavily, scrubbing at his face with an equally filthy hand, Dollar remained listless while the teen headed back to his work. His watch showed just before six pm, so instead of going back to pounding on fence rails, Charlie gathered up his tools and headed to the garage to put them away. Twenty extra yards of walking in the heat, rather than risk Kate's wrath if the toolbelt was left unattended. And Sarah would totally tattle on him.
Night chores were slow, usually Charlie had another person helping him measure out feed and mixing. Ranch rules were that each horse in their respective wing of the barn was fed just about simultaneously. If the horses could see each other, they got to eat together. The method stopped stall neighbors from fighting, and stopped food aggression with the people bringing the buckets if the horses knew they weren't competing.
Instead of working his way down one side while someone else did the other, Charlie made up and set each bucket outside the stall it belonged to, before even going to open the last of the doors to let all the horses inside. A couple he had to go get from other pens that weren't directly connected to the barn, including one of the mother and baby pairs. Momma Tulip followed along sedately, baby Daffodil raced ahead and back along the fenced in alleyway between pens. Being the oldest of the babies, Daffy Duck-Sarah's nickname for the gold baby-loved to run and was going to be a handful to be properly halter broke when the time came. Tonight, with just Charlie moving them, the teen lead momma on a rope to her stall, trusting the high railed alleyway and the mare's constant awareness of her baby to get Daffy Duck back to the barn. She'd race away, get stopped by the gates, and then race back to circle around mom and Charlie before sprinting off to repeat.
Tulip went calmly into her stall, nosing at her full hay rack before realizing her baby wasn't at her side, again.
Charlie winced as the mare called out, the sharp noise echoing in the barn. Grumbling at the volume, Charlie waited until Daffy bounded through the door, sliding on the fresh bedding. Once both horses were inside the stall, did Charlie unhook Tulip's lead, letting the pair settle in for the night.
Baby was content to find things to nibble at, momma immediately shoved her head at Charlie over the door, nickering for her bucket.
"Alright! Gimme a sec!"
Scowling at the horse with no heat backing it, Charlie double checked the locks on the gate and headed off. Three more horses brought in later, and then Charlie began hooking up the buckets, darting back and forth across the alley to keep as close to the normal routine of two people as he could. With the last bucket dropped, Charlie took a minute to watch Dollar again, this time the horse didn't even seem to notice the fresh bucket, even with a bit of molasses dribbled on the food to encourage an appetite.
Charlie sighed, loudly, pushing away from the stall to head over to the other wing of the barn. It had taken him almost two hours to do the first two sides, the last wing of the horse barn was the most complicated and would likely take even longer. Stepping through the dividing corridor, Charlie almost didn't notice the lights were already on when the teen should have turned them off in the morning.
At least he didn't notice until the radio changed and the music flared to life, much louder than Charlie would ever play it.
Startling at the noise, Charlie tried to find the source of the change, brow furrowed as he followed the sounds of muttered singing to the last feed room and the rattling of buckets.
The blond inside was dressed similarly to the brunet, minus his shoes were bright sneakers instead of work boots. He also had a Lakeside High Debate Team t shirt, and his name stamped on the back like a mock jersey.
"Devon…"
"Hey Charlie!" Devon Lancaster glanced over his shoulder, not stopping in his work, "Took you long enough to get over here!"
"Seriously?" Charlie lightly kicked at a stack of buckets, still empty, "You've barely made a dent!"
"Yeah well, I just got here 'bout twenty minutes ago. Girls are in the house ordering food, figured you wouldn't have stopped to eat so they've got like six pizzas on the way. I came out to help you get done so you can clean up before we eat."
"I…thanks." Grabbing a stack, Charlie joined in, enjoying the almost silent companionship to get the last of the work done. Devon sang along with the radio, mostly under his breath, as he worked, completely at ease with not having small talk.
Charlie appreciated it, he was filthy and exhausted, and a bit wrung out if he was being honest with himself. Between end of school tests and work, hours at the ranch, keeping up with Lucy's exploding summer activities, and helping Carol ultimately move out of her house for the buyer…Charlie was more than ready to just crash.
Even with assistance, it still took the pair almost an hour to finish up.
Slamming the last gate bolt shut, Devon groaned dramatically, a grin taking over as the horse shoved their nose at him for attention instead of eating.
"That's my Bluebell, gnite pretty lady. See ya at dawn." Devon leaned on the wall until Charlie joined him, the other teen dragging with fatigue.
"Dude…you look like a zombie."
Charlie snorted, yawning loudly, "Ya think?"
"I know," Devon lightly whacked Charlie's shoulder, "C'mon man, Rosa keeps the guest bath stocked and clean."
"Rosa?"
"Sarah's aunt, Rosalina? She goes by Rosa if she likes you," Devon killed the big lights as they left the barn, double checking the doors on his way, "Give her a bit to swing into summer schedule and she'll basically adopt you too, all of us call her Auntie at this point."
"She won't mind?"
"Nah, not when you've been haulin' ass out here. She's been busy at home, otherwise she'd have been out more."
"Anything I can help with?"
Devon smirked, pausing in the walk to the house to stare at Charlie, "You are not what I expected Calvin…not by a long shot."
"How so?"
"You've met Rosalina, what? Twice? Sort of," Devon jogged ahead to glance over the fence keeping the ducks relatively contained, some still jumped out occasionally, following the daring chickens. Once satisfied with the birds, Devon turned back to Charlie who was seriously starting to lose the ability to function, "And here you are, dead on your feet, and already offering to help someone you don't know. Considering I was seriously concerned when Kat told me she'd gotten you out here in the first place…that's pretty damn cool of you."
"You…you didn't think I'd be good at this?" Charlie scowled a bit, he and Devon had been schoolmates if not actual classmates since the fifth grade when Lancaster had moved to the area. Just in time for the rumors about Charlie's dad to finally fade out. They'd been off and on decent acquaintances for years, working together in classes if assigned by teachers to be partners, but nothing more than barely familiar.
That was until the rescue ranch, and Lucy starting the day classes at Creekwood. Devon was one of the summer teachers for the elementary students and was usually the one at drop-off in the mornings when Neil or Laura drove Lucy out to the school and Charlie to the ranch. After "stealing" the minivan, Charlie wasn't allowed to use either his mom's or stepdad's vehicles, even to drive out to do chores and go right back home. Usually Lancaster would barely greet Charlie, maybe commenting on something from night chores the day before so Charlie was ready once he got to the ranch. Tonight however, the classmate was more serious than Charlie had seen him since middle school when the blond had disappeared for three weeks and come back rather dejected for months after. Rumor was his own absentee father had finally stopped showing up, or something worse.
Charlie didn't put any stock in the majority of the rumors, but he did recognize Devon wasn't playing around, not when he stopped their trek up the porch steps to the deck.
"I thought you'd show up a couple times, probably late, then goof around until Rosa or even Elle told you to just fuck off and not come back," But Devon shrugged, and waved out at the yard where the half complete round pen fence was solid and ready for more. And where sleepy horses, with full bellies and lulled into grogginess with the heat now rested. "And yet, Tricks and Sparrow will eat out of your hand and let you catch them after being free outside all day. Guess I misjudged you."
"That's what you're using as a character reference?"
Still blocking the top of the stairs, Devon watched Charlie for a long moment, "You believe in magic, Charlie?"
"Why d'you ask?"
"They say animals know more than people, that they're better judges than any court in the world," The other teen huffed out a breath, "Even the ones that don't exist. Tricks was beaten if she raised her head, doesn't let men touch her; and Sparrow…he is food aggressive and bites anyone who has something edible because he had to fight to survive. And yet both of them like you. I'm not sayin' you're not an idiot…but I'll give you the chance to prove the rest."
Charlie's brow remained furrowed, even as Devon climbed the rest of the way up the stairs, kicking at scattered firewood that had slid from the rack, "Why do I get the feeling you and Kate aren't just music friends?"
Before Devon could answer, the back door slid open and an ice blonde head of hair poked out with a slight glare at Charlie's helper.
"What are you two waiting for?! Pizza's here and Charlie's a wreck! Hi Charlie!" She was pretty, her face done up in dancer makeup and still in the typical teacher clothing of workout gear, and she was more than willing to snap at Devon.
"Hi?"
Yanking the new girl out of the way, Sarah scowled at the two boys, "Devon, go start the pit, Charlie go clean up, Jazz and I will make sure there's pizza left for you."
"But it's more fun if we hide it!" Jazz, she had to be Jasmine Carter, the toddler dance volunteer, Sarah just shoved her away from the door, stifling the blonde's giggles while clearing the doorway for Charlie, "Fine…"
Sarah pointed down the hallway towards the open bathroom, "Towels are ready, and Devon's spare clothes are on the counter, most of us keep a spare set here anyway. Come out to the fire pit when you're ready."
By the time Charlie was cleaned up and in the gym shorts and t-shirt, it was fully dark out minus the bare slivers of light on the far horizon. For all her snark, Jazz had saved two entire pizzas for Charlie to start in on. Passing him the boxes, she stabbed at the fire pit to settle the embers while Devon picked out more logs to add.
"Nice of you to join us, newbie. That round pen is looking really good by the way."
Nodding around his food, Charlie took a seat next to Sarah who was taking candid fire photos, more to keep away from Jasmine's reaching hands trying to snag the marshmallows from Sarah's lap. While Devon unceremoniously dumped more wood into the pit, Charlie saved the teen next to him from robbery, hiding the chocolate bars behind his back and tucking the crackers under his leg.
Jazz might have pouted, but Sarah's maniacal giggle was like musical wind chimes to Charlie's ears. The brunette stuck her tongue out at the blonde, earning a blown raspberry before Jazz sprawled across Devon's lap.
"So…Charlie, what's your schtick?" Jazz inquired, lazily flicking pieces of mulch at the fire pit wile Devon gently played with her hair, "I've seen pics from the school, those graffiti images? That's pretty cool."
Charlie's brow furrowed, swallowing around his mouthful he tried to judge if she was joking, "I uh…thanks?"
Sarah snorted, flicking through her camera to pull up a couple photos from around town, including a few images Charlie was a bit more familiar with.
"Any of these yours?" She passed the camera over, "Jazz and I found these last summer when I came to town to visit. I really like the northern lights one down by the elementary school."
Wincing, Charlie nodded, "Yeah, that one's me…so's the back of the strip mall on main street, and this one…the side of the football shed."
"How many of these does Newman know about?" Jazz leaned over to grab the camera, cooing over the football shed image. Charlie had done that one last spring, after a huge blow up argument with his mom about slipping grades and crappy class attendance. He'd run from the house. Disappearing for hours and ending up back at the school grounds with a backpack full of paint. Mike Hanes had met up with him soon after Charlie started tagging he shed, bringing greasy fast food and more paint. That time, Principal Newman had absolutely no idea who had done the artwork. Unfortunately, Charlie's dad had caught him walking home a few hours later, no paint cans on him, but the stains on his hands and clothing splattered with drops hadn't helped at all.
Scott hadn't found the football shed image in time to tie it to Charlie, but he had caught his son right after the elementary school tagging, that school suspension had been highly satisfying if only that Charlie got four extra days to study for a test he'd skipped just before the art.
"Honestly?" Charlie shrugged, "The three at the high school, the elementary school 'cause Principal Novak called her, and an attempted piece on the side of the basketball court wall-the outdoor one in between the high school and the middle school. Security caught me before I got very far."
Devon pulled the camera away from Jazz to scrutinize the photos, messing with the zoom and tipping the screen to show Charlie a piece of the strip mall art. This one was a vivid mirage of colors, a kaleidoscope mosaic of shapes that pieced together a comet and stars.
"Why didn't you do this for your senior project? This is hella sick man!"
Shrugging, Charlie leaned out of the way for Sarah to grab the chocolate, "It's nothing-"
"Dude!" Scoffing, Devon's smirk cut off any arguing from Charlie, "These are amazing, like really amazing. Even if they're tagging. Why don't you ever take this to the next level? Canvases or something?"
Instead of answering, Charlie kicked a pizza box aside, accepting the roasting stick from Sarah as she handed out the skewered marshmallows. Devon let the question drop for a bit, helping Jazz fix a few s'mores first.
"Seriously though, come to the arts center next time we work on backdrops, I bet you'll have a lot more fun painting something that's not going to get you arrested in the process." Devon flipped way back in Sarah's camera, past her final project sketches Charlie had even helped her with, the next photo he showed was from the front row of an auditorium, the stage pictured had long hanging canvases of trees in various seasons-or at least attempts at the four seasons, "This was April's Showers to Flowers recital, for the little kids…that's what Stacey did, and we got a bunch of questions about just what in the heck was hanging behind the toddlers."
Charlie grimaced, eyes scouring the image and completely ignoring the chocolate and marshmallow oozing over his other hand, "Pretty sure she just chucked a bucket of green at this one. And there's no attempt at shading or-"
Sarah shoved a marshmallow in his mouth.
Sniggering at his slight shock, Jazz rescued the camera from death by chocolate, snapping a picture of Sarah and Charlie before either could protest.
"Well…we know Charlie can do art, what else?" She curled back against Devon's side, stealing his pile of crackers and handing him more chocolate, "What makes Charlie Calvin tick?"
He smirked, clearing his throat from the thick sugar before tossing a marshmallow into the fire pit to watch it puff and burn, "Not much…apparently good at art. And like working here at the ranch. That's about it."
"How you doin' with your dad marrying our now-former principal?" Devon asked, then grunted painfully when Jazz elbowed him in the thigh, probably a little higher than she intended.
"Honestly," Charlie shrugged, "It's not bad. Weird…but not bad."
"Could be worse I guess," Sarah teased, "Not like your dad married the wicked witch of the west."
"No, just the bitchiest public education administrator in Illinois," Again, Devon got an elbow to his leg, Jazz hissing at him as well, "What? Newman wasn't winning any popularity awards, not with the delinquent students anyway…and some of the non-scholarship groups too. The Jocks not on the coaches' MVP lists…the fine arts kids before the dance group funding got killed, heck pretty sure that winter break wedding is what saved half the math department from outright quitting in January."
"Was it really that bad?" Sarah looked the most lost, even with Jasmine attending the other high school across town.
"You have no idea!" At Charlie's agreeing nod, Devon tried not to laugh too much considering the other guy there wasn't as amused, "Newman used to be the biggest hard ass in the entire school system this side of Peoria. Then, she gets married to Calvin's dad over here, and we get one of the cool principals again. Like the teachers were more relaxed all second semester, the coaches weren't calling all the shots in class ranks, and even with the new principal starting to join in she was involved in more than state testing and discipline crap."
"I'm almost going to miss her," Jazz teased, "Almost."
"Well…" Charlie smirked, stabbing more marshmallows to roast, "Don't have to worry about her being around much, kinda a travel nuisance now up with my dad."
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