"So, the wiring is good...only a few little things?" I waited, pen in hand over the clipboard I was holding, for the answer.
"Yes ma'am. Alls I need is to fix a few frayed wires here and there, and run some wiring for that phone you want, and everything will be good." The electrician was a man in his late thirties, early forties. He had slightly graying hair, jeans, and a total hick country accent. I tried not to laugh at his voice, but it was just like those over exaggerated and totally not true (for the most part) voices that comedy shows used for the country bumpkins. I held in my laugh with a hacking cough, waving away the stares everyone gave me as I struggled for breath. When I was finally breathing regularly I put a mark next to electricity and then looked at the next man, slightly behind the electrician. He was maybe forty also, but he was a handsome old. No sign of neglect on his part. His eyes reminded me of someone, but I couldn't remember who.
"Ah, and you!" My mom was really starting to embarrass me. Every time she saw someone she would practically leap on them with enthusiasm, actually believing they felt the same. "How's the structure?" She closed her eyes, readying herself for the worst. We were all most worried about the beams and the damage, knowing it would cost the most.
"Well, its not as bad as I thought. The roof needs to be patched up quite a bit, and I need to put a few more supporting beams in the walls and roof. Other than that and a few easily taken care of termite damage places, everything is pretty good."
"Wonderful!" My mom clapped her hands lightly in joy. She then looked at me, motioning at the list. I unstuck my braid from the back of my neck in annoyance and then checked off carpenter. It was almost three o'clock and we had been at this for nearly five hours. Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, pest control, and all other sorts of people had started showing up at only eight, and I had joined the work force at ten.
For the first part of the day I had been the one to graciously take food dishes from the new neighbors, which was the whole town, and welcome them into the house or around the yard for a tour, most of them making excuses of why they hadn't been over earlier. They had just wanted to come when things were actually in motion. I had figured out by the fourth person that Jefferson was a gossip monger town. Everyone wanted to know why we moved here, what Jack had left behind, what we planned on doing, and only every other little detail of our lives.
I had finally flung the job onto my dad and, relieved, begun to help my mother. It had been a long day and now it was finally almost over. I was exhausted from practice all week and now that it was Saturday, I figured I deserved some rest. I was inclined to take over for my mom with releasing these poor souls for the day, but I waited her out.
"Well, I guess that's it!" She smiled around at the group of people that had yet to leave. "Thank you all soo much. Have a good night and I'll see you all Monday."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Come Monday I was gladly driving to practice. For the rest of the weekend my mom had flitted around the house and yard, preparing non-stop and with too much exuberance for my taste. She had wanted me to skip practice (yeah, okay) and help her out today. The electrician was coming and the plumber, and she wanted my help. Dad was going to, but he had to catch a plane in only an hour for England. He was going back to pack up and ship everything here. Conner, being his normal self, begged out by going to a friends. I had almost given in to her pleading but I was motivated when Soraya called and asked for a ride there, and how could I say no?
So I had apologized and then hit the road. I was now pulling into the Martin's driveway, turning down my music.
"Hey!" Soraya flew from within the house, bag in hand. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that both looked way too stylish for practice.
"What gives?" I asked, looking over her outfit. She threw her bag into the backseat then posed by the open passenger door.
"Yay, nay?" She fluffed her hair at me.
"Uh, what am I yaying and naying here?" She rolled her eyes as if I should know, as if I had a sixth sense or something.
"My outfit. Tomorrow is the first day of school, what do you think?" She twirled and lifted her foot to show her sneakered feet.
"I like it, it's a total first day outfit." She nodded her head to herself and then suddenly ran back into the house. She came out in a pair of shorts and a tank top.
"Ready!" she laughed, jumping into the car.
"How did you change so fast?" I stared at her, amazed.
"It's a gift." I laughed in spite of myself and headed off towards practice.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Tired?" I looked over towards Haven and smiled.
"Nope, it's like riding a bike. Much easier than I thought. How bout' you?" I plucked a piece of grass off of my knee as she answered.
"Hell yes. Only a freak like you wouldn't be." Practice had been especially brutal today. We had three more laps then usual and almost twice as many warm-ups and drills. While I should have been wheezing for breath at that moment, the end of practice, I was actually fine. It wasn't only that I was getting back into shape, but I was pumped for school and Virginia and the farm. I was ready for my new life.
I decided to change the subject away from soccer for the moment. "So, school tomorrow." I didn't know quite how to feel about this. I mean, I usually loved school. I was good in all my classes because things came easy to me, except math which sometimes tripped me up, and there was the bonus of seeing all my friends.
This year was a little different. I was the new kid with only my team as friends, and it wasn't even the whole team. I was only friends with about seven of the girls. Which was fine by me, I just hoped everything went okay.
"Yeah. Maybe we'll have some classes together." I smiled as Haven picked up her bag. I really liked this girl, she was cool.
"Maybe." I just left it as that because at that moment the guys came around the school and we all stopped, as was our usual ritual. Now it's not that were not used to the sight by now of the guys, it's just who can't stare. It sort of a tradition, and we all enjoy it. Ty, this time, was almost in the back. He wasn't even running, just walking. The coach was keeping stride next to him and talking with his head down in a low voice. After a minute Ty lifted his head and looked over at the girls. His eyes traveled right over me and settled on Satan girl, Ashley. Apparently she was watching him too and nudged the girl next to her, Sadie. I heard her say Ty's name and then she lowered her voice.
I kept watching him as the guys got closer and closer, many of them, almost all, began to walk also. So as they gained on us I tried to catch Ty's attention, but whenever I did he dropped his eyes quickly or shifted his glance to Ashley for a long moment. I almost expected him to walk towards me, since that was the general direction he was heading, when he took a beeline and walked right up to Satan.
"Hey." I heard his velvet voice wash over my ears when it was meant for hers. "We need to talk." I watched from the corner of my eye as he lightly grabbed her arm below her elbow and tugged her away from her group. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but the tension that eased out of Ty's shoulders after a few breath-holding moments did not reassure me.
I strained my ears throughout the whole conversation and only managed to catch the last few words as they headed back towards us.
"So, how about the party this Friday?" I heard Ashley speak to him. Her voice was sugared over and sweet like I had never heard it before.
"What about it?" Ty's shoulders may have slackened but his face was still wound tightly as he momentarily looked down at her.
"Well, if were going to try and do this, we have to start somewhere right?" Try and do what? My head screamed.
"And you think a party is the place? How about talking, Ashley? How about school or one of our houses or over dinner?" He seemed to throw the words out at her, hitting her over the head.
She only sighed in reaction and lightly patted his forearm. "Ty, baby, you know I don't like that stuff. I hate going to dinner and a movie...unless its in a group. I'm more of a people, party person. We've always had fun together doing that kind of stuff."
Ty shrugged away the arm she had slipped through his and turned towards her, halting her mid-step. "Ashley I'm not going to do that again, I already told you that. Either it's going to be different or this isn't happening at all." He seemed angered and I couldn't tear my eyes away, even as he looked over at me with a questioning gaze. I tried to avert my eyes and look like I wasn't eavesdropping, but before I could he looked away.
"Fine, whatever. We'll go to dinner then the party. It doesn't start till like eleven anyway." She smiled like this solved everything. "Better?"
Ty looked down at her like she was crazy, then looked over at me again, this time barely catching my eyes before looking away. "No, Ashley, not better. Look, lets leave this weekend alone and then figure everything out. I have plans anyway. We'll do something next Friday."
"Figure it out? Ty, I thought we just did. We said we're going to try again, slowly, and see where it goes. What happened to that?" She glared up at him and his face fell slightly. "And what do you mean, you have plans?" She snapped suddenly.
"I can't go to the party with you, that's what I meant." Ashley scoffed at him, huffing and puffing.
"Why not? Are you going with someone else? Mike, Norman? Then what about dinner, we can still do dinner."
"We can't do dinner, I forgot I have things to do. My dad has a job on Friday that he wants me to help with. I'm going over at four and staying till six or seven. Then I have work till about eleven anyway. If I come to the party at all then I'll see you there, okay?"
"Whatever. Maybe this was a mistake after all." She turned away from him haughtily and stomped towards her soccer posse. I expected Ty to go after her and fix it but he just stared at the ground for a moment before walking over towards his group of friends. I stopped listening and thought over what I'd heard. He'd told me he had just broken up with his girlfriend a few weeks ago, I guess that was Ashley. So, had they talked over the weekend? They must have since he didn't seem like he was thinking about getting back together with her last week. So they'd talked and decided to 'try again', which meant that the conversation they just had wasn't a good omen for their impending relationship. I was still pondering this when I heard someone walking up to me from behind and turned quickly.
"Oh," I breathed. "You startled me." Ty smiled lightly, but it didn't travel to eyes like it usually did. This, in itself, surprised me and I smiled brightly to make up for his lack of enthusiasm.
"Hey." He practically whispered.
"What's wrong?" I touched his arm in worry and he stared at the place where we had touched for a while before looking up at me.
"You heard, didn't you?" I glanced around for Ashley, thinking she might here this and send my to hell, but she was walking away with her friends. Everyone was leaving and I hadn't even noticed. I looked back at him, then dropped my eyes, ashamed at being caught.
"Um, a little." I murmured, my voice almost silent.
"What did you hear?" he crooked a finger and nudged my chin up lightly, then removed said finger.
"I heard you guys talking about 'trying again' and how she hates romantic things like dinner and a movie and would rather party then talk." I blurted this all out, then slapped my hand over my mouth in horror. I hadn't meant to say all that. "I'm sorry, I probably sound like such a bitch, listening in and everything..."
He cut me off by laughing lightly. "You like that kind of stuff?" I gave him a quizzical look and a ghost of a smile lifted his face. "Movies, dinner, walks, and talking. Things like that, opposed to partying 24/7."
"Yeah, I mean I like parties as much as the next person, but only on occasion. Give me dinner and a movie any day. Actually I'd rather..." I smirked. "If you promise not to tell, I'll tell you a secret." God, how much more could I flirt. I didn't mean to...
"I promise."
"I love to bowl. Call me a geek or weird or anything, but I love it. I'd love to go bowling rather than party." I smiled at him and began to walk towards the parking lot. Ty fell in step with me and began to talk.
"Ashley's my ex. I bet you got that by now, huh? Well, she came over unexpectedly over the weekend really sad and everything telling me how she missed me. Truth was, I sort of missed her too. But, more as a friend. She's clingy and moody, that's why I ended it in the first place." He broke up with her. That was surprising. "So she was saying how she would change if I'd give her one more chance. So I said okay, if we went slow." He paused and looked at me.
"After today I think I made a mistake. She's not even trying. I mean, what should that tell me?"
"I don't know Ty, that for you to decide. I can't be the judge." He chuckled then nudged me in the side.
"Yeah," he said after a moment of awkward silence. "I guess not."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Mom?" I yelled into the empty, desolate house. "Are you here?" I had just gotten home from practice and talking with Ty about everything, only to find nobody home. I looked on the table for a note and didn't find one.
"Weird." I said to myself, confused. I walked out into the yard and headed towards the barn to see what had been done. When I opened the door I sighed. Everything was the same.
I was heading back to the house when my moms rental car pulled up and she cut the engine. She slowly opened the door and looked at me.
"Hey, what's going on?" I asked as I walked towards her. She shut the door and let the keys dangle from her hands.
"Why hasn't anything been done to the barn?" she shook her head in annoyance. I had thought she was sad but I realized she was mad as I neared her.
"The electrician couldn't do anything." I stared at her, shocked and confused.
"Why not? He said it would be easy." She angrily walked towards the house and I heard her slam the keys on the table. When I followed her she was standing over the sink, shoulders hunched.
"Someone cut the wires." I scrunched my forehead in confusion and waited for more. "Someone went into the barn and cut the god damned wires with a knife." She turned. "The electrician can tell what they used you know? By the way the wire frayed." She sighed. "I was just at the police station, filing a charge. Someone was trespassing, and frankly? I'm pissed."
I could see that, 'and frankly', so was I. Who would come into our barn in the night and cut our wires? Apparently someone who didn't want us to work, to keep us down just when we were getting up.
Sooo...