Author's Note: The Byron reference from the title is in this chapter. Here's a fifteen year old Puck just for you Keiri :)
Puck is fifteen. He is tall, wiry but strong. Girls do a lot more than just notice him now, but Puck has plans. He'll be 16 soon and he has his eyes on a used pick-up that someone up the street is selling. And he still has a couple years of high school, but the end is in sight. He is so going to be out of here.
Right now he needs money. He does landscaping. A stupid fancy word for mowing lawns, raking leaves and planting shit, but the money is o.k. and under the table. Maybe he'll start cleaning pools in the summer. He hears there's good money in that.
In mid-November, landscaping means cleaning out gutters for the morons who were too dumb to do it when the weather was still nice. He asks his mom's latest stupid boyfriend to drop him and his ladder off at the rich end of town Saturday morning and starts ringing doorbells. The work is wet, cold and messy, but by 4:00 he's up almost 200 dollars. He jumps up and down a few times to warm himself up, squints at the sun already sinking in the sky and decides that this will be his last house.
He blows on his hands to get the feeling back in his fingers and rings the bell. A dark-haired girl opens the door. The warmth and light from the house hit him like a blow. Music is playing in the background. Singing shit.
"Can I help you?" she asks. Her voice is soft. She has a blue dress with sparkly stuff on, like a party dress. Puck can't speak for a minute--the cold obviously. She waits.
"Rachel sweetheart, who is it?" Puck hears someone call from the back of the house. He swings into his pitch.
"I'll check with my dads," she says. Dads? Puck thinks, but she's already moving on "Normally, they handle routine maintenance." Huh? thinks Puck.
"Please come in, " she says, holding the door open wider. Puck steps into the front hall and she disappears into back of the house. He stands gingerly on the door mat, trying not to think about how dirty he is. He's been in fancier houses today, but this is...nice. Real paintings on the wall, some sort of good food smell coming from the kitchen, and the music was weirdly catchy.
She reappears with two guys both with shirts and ties--the dads, obviously. Puck gives an internal shrug and launches back into the pitch. They hesitate, a dinner party, but Puck says he can be quick. They look at Rachel, they look at each other, they look at him, they agree.
Puck is fast at his work and honestly, their gutters don't need that much work, but it is deep twilight by the time he finishes. He puts in a call to the stupid boyfriend for a ride and finishes tidying up. He rings again and the dad's praise the job and pay up. The girl brings him a cup of hot chocolate and he drinks it while sitting on the steps waiting for his ride. For some reason, they stand out on the steps with him. He hates small talk. Stupid turns up and they say goodbye.
As he finishes tying the ladder to the top of the car, he looks back at the house. Light shines from the windows and he can see through into the living room. She is dancing, being twirled by one of her dads, the edges of her party dress standing out. For just a second he wishes he were in there to hear if she is laughing.
Puck gets in, slams the car door shut and cranks up the music. It's just another house. He's been doing this shit all fall.