She was Hanna freakin' Marin. Queen bee. Blond goddess. Lesser creatures bowed before her, trembled with fear. She should not have to do this. She didn't want to sound like a snob, and say that this was beneath her, but this was beneath her. Someone had to do it though, and she just couldn't picture her mom out here in her heels, swallowing her pride yet again. It was Hanna's turn this time. Besides, it would be nice to do it for her mom, since she had done so much for her.
It all started when her and her mother started scaling back on their spending as an attempt to keep the house. Shopping trips had stalled to nothing, groceries were bare minimum, and well, lawn maintenance was clearly no longer. At first, Hanna had not even noticed, but then suddenly the grass all seemed to grow at once – and she swore one day, on her way out the door to her car, she saw something move in the grass. Probably a snake. She shuddered at the memory. She was okay though, she had on her rainboots and snakes hardly ever bit above the ankle – she had read that somewhere. She hoped she was remembering it right. And besides, the neighbors had begun to talk about how unsightly their lawn was making the whole street look. So here she was, on a Friday night of all nights, hoping to God no one would see her like this. After all, rainboots and jean shorts weren't exactly in style.
Hanna pulled at the – God, what was that thing even called? The pully string, she decided. She pulled at the stupid pully string and waited for the thing to spring to life. Is this even how you started a lawn mower? God, she was in way above her head this time. She pulled at the string again, and heard a little cough of the engine, but then silence. She stopped, sticking her head closer, listening intently.
"You know, you're doing that wrong," a deep voice said from behind her. Hanna whipped her head around, her blond ponytail smacking her in the face.
"Jesus Christ, Lucas!" she exclaimed. "You scared me. What are you doing out here?"
"Really? You're going to ask me that? Because taking a walk at night to go get dinner is a lot less strange that whatever it is you're trying to do," he said with a friendly smile, walking up the driveway to stand next to her.
"I need to mow the lawn," she told him. "But I think the stupid pully string –"
"The recoil starter," he corrected with a quiet laugh.
"Pully string," Hanna pressed on, "is busted."
"It's not, you're just doing it wrong. Do you want me to...?"
"Oh, please?" Hanna begged. "I just need to get this done, which proves to be difficult when the piece of crap won't start."
"Quiet," Lucas said. "You're going to hurt it's feelings."
Hanna stepped to the side, taking a large berth of space, letting Lucas stand directly in front of the lawn mower. He gave the recoil starter – was that what he called it? – a few quick, strong pulls and the beast roared to life. Hanna stood awestruck, then began to jump up and down a little, in childlike excitement.
"Oh my gosh! It works! Yes. Yes!" Hanna said excitedly. Her mom was going to be so happy, and people would stop pointing at the house when they drove by in their shiny cars, and she wouldn't have to wear her rainboots from the house to the car. "You are a genius. Thank you!"
She bounded over to him and gave him a hug. Hanna was surprised at how warm he was – not to mention how nice he smelled. She was about to pull back when suddenly Lucas' arms sprung to life, wrapping themselves around her waist, then just as quickly, awkwardly pushing her back.
"Well, uh, you're welcome. I guess, you know, you've just never mowed a lawn before. And why should you? I mean, look at your house. It's insane. You probably have people who do this."
"Yeah, right, look at what a great job they've been doing," Hanna said, gesturing to the lawn.
"Ah, yeah, good point. You've got a good point," Lucas said. "So, you're spending your Friday night mowing the lawn? Most people do it in the morning, you know."
"I may have never done this before, but I did happen to be aware of that fact," Hanna muttered.
Positioning herself behind the ancient lawnmower, she gave a push at the handles, expect it to flutter forward effortlessly. Instead the thing, the utter beast, did not even give an inch. She pushed again, not exactly thrilled when an unattractive grunt escaped her pink, glossed lips.
"That thing seems really heavy for a girl, if you wanted, I could do your lawn for you. I mean, it's not that big anyway," Lucas said, even though in reality her front lawn was twice the size of his backyard.
"No, you were going somewhere. I can do this, really," Hanna said continuing to push. Her arms were locked straight, back arched, butt poking up into the air. She dug the heels of her heart patterned rainboots in the driveway, and shoved again. Nothing.
"I was just going to dinner," Lucas said.
"Well then, I'm sure your date is waiting for you," Hanna said with a quizzical look.
"Right," Lucas said with a laugh. "I was going to dinner by myself, Hanna."
"Oh, people do that?" Hanna said goofily, trying to joke over her faux-pas.
"Much more often than they try to mow their driveway at eight at night in, what have to be, in my opinion, the most interesting set of footwear I have ever seen."
"Don't judge," she said, looking at the grass uneasily. "I'm pretty sure I saw a snake in there the other day."
"I doubt it," Lucas said. "So are you going to let me help, or not?"
"I mean, if you really don't mind. I'm sure I can get it going," Hanna said.
"Gimme," Lucas said, shoving her playfully away from the lawnmower. "You, Hanna, can get me a drink, if you don't mind."
"That I can manage," she said with a smile. "I'll be right back."
She ran quickly over the grass, not caring how she looked. Snakes may have been in this year, golden necklaces adorned by them, but ask most girls and they would've done the exact same thing as her. Snakes were gross.