Chapter 1
"Stupid…Dang…Strawberries." Samantha Forster grunted plunking the ripe, red strawberries into a bucket. She stopped a moment to wipe the perspiration off of her forehead. The boiling summer Northern Nevada heat was almost unbearable. Most people loved the summery, sweet taste of strawberries. Sam was not one of them, since it seemed like she'd been eating them all summer. Grace Forster was raising the fifty plants for the Darton fair, which was approaching. I never did agree to pick them every single darn day, Sam thought glanced enviously over at her best friend/boyfriend, Jake Ely; who was on a bucking wild appaloosa. Even being thrown off a loco feral horse numerously would be more fun than sweating in the dirt. The regal-looking filly gave another angry neigh and heaved the Shoshone cowboy half-way across the shook her head, trying to control a laugh. The HARP program would be starting in a few months, and already Wyatt had got the first horse from the Bureau of Land Management, the feisty appy. They hadn't named it yet, since Sam thought it would be cool for the HARP kids to help name it, but Jake had told Sam his nickname: Bruiser.
Wyatt had astonished Sam by hiring Jake back up again, after all the coincidences the last previous months. From being accused of sexual misdoings in Jake's pick-up (which were false and still made Sam's ears burn), to the fake proposal…Sam was sure this had been the most exciting summer ever.
More to come yet, too. The Darton County Fair, the round-up, the HARP program and the start of school, which wasn't stimulating Sam any. Her junior year wasn't going to probably be too exciting.
Sam Forster was planning to make this be the best end-of-summer ever. No annoying strawberries would prevent that!