Disclaimer: Here is Chapter 2, everyone! Sorry for not updating this fanfic…been busy with a couple of things, but thanks for keeping up with this fanfic! I'm glad you are taking the time to read it. Once again, I do not…I repeat, DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS PORTRAYED IN THIS FANFIC. Here it goes! ^_^

Chapter 2: A Hard Day's Work

Jess's POV:

After I collected all of the milk from Miss Bessie, I darted back towards the house and came back inside. May Belle and Joyce Ann were still watching cartoons as I was dripping wet from the pouring rain.

There is no way I'll be the only one cleaning the house today. I thought as I observed what I saw in the living room. There was clutter everywhere. There were food wrappers scattered across the floor, drawing paper, crayons, and pencils were everywhere in sight. The cushions from the couch were in disarray. I didn't realize how cluttered my home was.

I walked in front of the television and turned it off.

"Hey! We were watching that!" Joyce Ann whined.

"Momma says we have to clean the house, Joyce Ann. Look at how messy the house is."

"Momma said you need to clean the house!" May Belle teased. "She didn't say anything about me and Joyce Ann!"

I sighed. Come on May Belle…if we get this done faster, we could do whatever we want afterwards!"

"What's in it for me, Jess?" May Belle asked.

I was astonished. She's pretty clever for a six year old...I mused. "Alright…If you help me clean the house, I'll let you draw in my sketch pad."

May Belle beamed. "It's a done deal! Come on, Joyce Ann! Let's help clean the house!"

Gotta love having younger siblings and getting them to help me when I need them. I thought as I re-arranged the cushions on the sofa. May Belle used the broom while Joyce Ann put all of the clutter into a pile. Momma was about to put up the water for coffee when she saw the progress we made.

"Now, this is what my family should do more often!" Momma said with a smile. "Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes."

Within the ten minutes, the living room was spotless. The rest of the house, unfortunately, still needed to be fixed up.

Brenda noticed the progress as she walked into the living. "Whoa, did we get robbed? The living room is all different."

Momma scowled. "No, your sisters and brother actually had the decency to clean up after themselves. Since you made that comment, you're washing the dishes after breakfast." She ordered.

After breakfast, I headed towards my bedroom and made my bed. I organized the art set Leslie gave me, and put the pile of closes into my dresser. As I was organizing everything, I noticed it stopped raining. The sun still wasn't shining, but it was better than the pouring rain.

Good thing it stopped raining. I'm happy that Miss Edmunds is having a nice day in Washington without the pouring rain...and me. I sighed.

I wonder if Leslie is awake yet... I wondered. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 11:37. Perfect time! It's not even noon yet!

I headed back towards the living room when Momma called me over.

"Jess, I wanted to talk to you about this morning."

Uh oh. I hope I'm not in trouble. "Yeah? What is it, Momma?"

"After seeing the progress you made…I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I yelled at you this morning. You know how I get when someone tells me something at the very last minute—especially early in the morning. I like planning things ahead of time so I would know if I needed you to stay home and help out or what not."

"Like I said, Momma, it happened so fast. Miss Edmunds called and asked me to go with her out of the blue. I had no idea that she was going to call me. It was completely unexpected."

"Look, what I'm getting at, Jess…is if I had been told of the trip to Washington D.C in advance, I would have let you go down there."

"Okay Ma…I'll keep that in mind."

"I really am proud of you, though. You did what you were told to do without complaining or whining. You even got your little sisters to help out too. You're starting to become a great role model for them"

"Thanks Momma. That's really sweet of you."

"I know you probably wanted to see Leslie and enjoy the weekend, but I need you to do just one more thing."

After that nice compliment, you're making me do more work? "What's that, Momma?"

"Since it stopped raining, I'd like you to cut the grass before Daddy gets home. After that, you're free for the rest of the day. I already stopped you from going to Washington D.C…I can't take away your freedom by not letting you see Leslie or whatever plans you may have."

"Alright, will do. I'll go over to Leslie's after I'm done then."

"Thank you for telling me, Jess."

It was a lot warmer than it was before, so I didn't mind being outside. I got the lawn mower out of the shed and began to cut the grass. I honestly loved the smell of fresh cut grass, but not when I was the one mowing the lawn.

After mowing the lawn, I put the lawn mower back in the shed, and headed back towards the house. Before I could go back inside, a voice from behind me called me.

"Hey Jess!"

It was Leslie.

"Hey Leslie," I smiled. "I was just about to stop over and see if you were home."

"I had to take P.T for a walk…he wouldn't stop yapping." She laughed. "And I wanted to see if you wanted to go to Terabithia since it finally stopped raining."

The water in the creek is way too high for my liking, Leslie. I really hope you don't mind if we didn't go to Terabithia today. I wanted to say. "Let's see how high the water is in the creek first."

"Aww, come on, Jess, it can't be too bad! Let's go!" Leslie said as we walked back towards her house. "Let's drop P.T off and we'll go up to the creek!"

The walk back to Leslie's was a little quiet—minus the strategies we came up with incase more monsters attacked Terabithia. We dropped P.T back off at Leslies and headed towards the creek.

"I have so many ideas about how we can add to the tree house," Leslie smiled. "This is gonna be great."

I smiled and nodded.

Leslie frowned. "Jess, you seem quiet. Is something bothering you?"

I hesitated and took a breath in. "Leslie, I gotta tell you something." I finally said.

Yay cliffhangers! What's gonna happen next! Find out in Chapter 3! Read and review!