"Stop" Lucy mumbled, opening her book, "Stop coming up to me."
"Lucy I'm so sorry"
"You're so innocent!"
"Be brave sweetie"
Different church members had been coming up to her all day, full of sorrow for her and, at least the older ones, well-intentioned advice. She's meant to spend the day – after changing from her service clothes - reading under the tree, but it seemed to be more and more impossible. She'd barley read a chapter, but had heard more advice then ever before.
"Lemonade?" Ruthie asked, holding a wobbly pitcher in her arms, some of the sour liquid escaped and splattered onto her bright pink dress. Simon had decided to set up a stand in the yard due to all the people passing by and Ruthie needed something to do. She was supposed to be attracting prospective customers by trying to tap dance in front of the stand, but after 3 spilled pitchers she'd given up.
"Yes please" she agreed, sitting up as she placed the bookmark back. Taking the pitcher, she helped Ruthie pour each of them a cup before sending the pitcher back to Simon. Ignoring the forgotten book they watched Mary and Matt, both in bathing suits, "wash" the car, when in reality they were getting water on themselves to cool off.
"HEY!" Mary screamed in protest as Matt aimed the full-blast hose at her.
"Hey's for horses!" Matt sang as she turned the hose back onto him. The water squirted past him onto Ruthie and Lucy. For a second it looked as if Ruthie were going to cry and Matt offered his apologies as he inched closer. When he was about a foot away her face lit up.
"GOTTCHA!" she and Lucy screamed in unison as they dumped the cups onto his head.
"Nice trick" he laughed, turning to aim his soapy bucket at them, but before he could Mary sent a jet of cool water over his shoulder and into their faces.
"That's it!" Lucy screamed, running to grab the hose from her sister. As if Lucy had the plague Mary dropped the hose and it squirted, writhing like a snake along the black driveway. Picking it up Lucy sent a jet of water spraying across the lawn, hitting Happy, contentedly lying at her owner's side.
"Hey! Watch where that water goes!" Simon screamed, throwing the towel he'd used to clean up the spilled pitchers onto Happy's back.
"I am!" Lucy responded, letting the water sprinkle down onto her youngest brother.
"That's it!" Simone screamed, pulling out his hidden water gun and aiming for his sister. Of course, neither of them noticed Mary, Matt, and Ruthie sneaking off to get the backyard hose until they had come back, sprinkling water on the quarreling siblings. Quickly, they united and sent their own stronger jet back. Handing the hose to Simon Lucy tried to get the soapy sponge to throw when she slipped on the slippery ground, skidding on her butt to the driveway's end. Matt hurried toward her as Mary and Ruthie went to turn off the back yard hose, and Simon the front. Lucy had turned onto her right as she'd skidded and was now somewhere between face-down and her right side, her arm lying oddly under her.
"My arm!" she cried as Matt drew carefully near her.
"Are you okay?" he asked, helping her turn onto her back so he could get a better look.
"Does it look like I'm okay?" she spat, pulling her arm away from him. "ow."
"What happened?" Annie asked, running to see what happened, but it was obvious as she drew nearer. "Matt go get your father and some towels, okay?" Not answering, he sped off towards the house. Carefully, Annie turned to Lucy. "Does this hurt?" she asked, gently trying to bend the arm a bit. Not answering except for tears, Lucy pulled the arm away again. "I'll take that as a yes" Annie sighed, standing, "come on, we're going to the hospital." She told her, offering her hand. With difficulty Lucy stood, relying on her mother to help her stay steady.
By the time they got to the car Eric had spread towels in the back for Lucy to sit on, and the others were taking down the lemonade stand and bringing it in. Matt and Mary would watch Ruthie and Simon while Eric and Annie took Lucy to the hospital.
XXXXXXX LATER XXXXXXX
"The baby looks fine" the doctor reported, pacing in front of the nervous group. Lucy sat on the doctor's bed, swinging her legs nervously and petting her arm. Her parents stood nervously behind her, hanging on the doctor's every word. "But her arm is broken in two places. It should be easy to repair, but she won't be able to swim for a while, probably most if not all of the summer. Tonight she should put something cold on her arm to keep the swelling down, but we need to wait to put on the cast until after the swelling stops. Any questions?" Lucy shook her head, "Good, you can make an appointment to get your cast tomorrow on the way out, and if you have any questions at all, don't be afraid to call."
"At least the baby's okay, right?" Lucy asked, cheerfully jumping off the bed, not facing her parents.
"Lucy you need to be more carefully." Annie told her. In the car she had been sympathetic, but that had passed. "Jeopardizing this so you could play? Why weren't you reading?"
"Ruthie and I were watching Matt and Mary while we drank our lemonade." She answered, shrugging, "it just kind of happened. I didn't plan it."
"That's not an excuse" Eric told her, "the baby was unplanned too."
"No duh" Lucy replied snottily, "you think I planned to be raped? Who plans for that to happen to them? You think I asked for this?"
"No Luce I don't" Annie replied, calm but firm, "but now that it's happened we can't go back. You're pregnant and you have a broken arm. We have to deal with the consequences of both and learn from the mistakes. What we've learned is to watch over you a bit more carefully."
"I'm not a little kid" Lucy told them, "I don't need someone hovering over my all the time."
"No your not a little kid" Eric agreed, "but you're not used to being like this either" he said, gesturing towards her stomach and arm. "We just want to make sure nothing goes wrong."
AN: sorry, I would have updated yesterday, but I snuck onto my dad's REALY ANNOYING computer to write it and it wouldn't send it in for some reason! I hate old computers!