My alarm goes off at 4am as per usual the next morning. I reach over and pickup my phone. As I silence the alarm, I notice yet another notification waiting for me from MatchMe.
I waste no time in opening the message.
Angelgirl08: Very important question. What Pokémon would you want to be if you could choose?
Well, that was unexpected. I read the text again just to be sure that I wasn't perhaps still too asleep for my brain to function.
But upon the second inspection the question remains the same, a seemingly serious interrogation about my Pokémon second life tendencies. The corners of my lips quirk up into a smile as I decide to humour this angel girl.
Haught(givemea)shot: Usually, I wait until the fourth date to answer that question. But for you, I'll make an exception. If I could choose? Charmander, no contest.
I give it a few seconds to see if perhaps angelgirl08 was awake this early. After receiving no response for two minutes, I decide to get up and get on with my day. I go the bathroom to relieve myself, wash the sleep from my eyes and brush my teeth. Once back in my room, I quickly throw on my faded jeans and a ratty old t-shirt that I reserve for the early morning chores. It was the dirtiest job, after all.
Once ready, I exit into the hallway and make my way slowly towards the room neighbouring mine. I release a sigh and mentally prepare myself, remembering how cold the new girl had been towards me yesterday. Safe to say, I was dreading being the unlucky volunteer who gets to wake her up so early for chores. But it had to be done. Such are the rules at Joy Farm, you got to earn your stay. With a deep breath I raise my hand and knock three times.
At first, I hear no signs of life. I knock again, louder this time. When there is still no reaction, I decide to bite the bullet. "Er, Waverly. It's Nicole. It's time for early morning chores. You need to…"
The door suddenly flies open, a thunderous Waverly Earp stares me down from the other side. I should be absolutely terrified. Men have died from less. But despite the daggers flying from Waverly's eyes, I am unable to pull my gaze from her body. The fierce brunette wears only a tank top and what are presumably sleep shorts, but goodness gracious it should be a sin to wear anything that revealing. Those legs… they seem to go on endlessly…
"Can I help you?" Comes the angry question, breaking me from my daze and finally alerting my fight or flight instincts. Flight wins and I take a tentative step back in an attempt to preserve my life. "Mornin' Waverly. I just came to wake you up for your first chores of the day."
Lightning bolts practically flash across her face, the way her sleep messed honey brown locks stand up in all directions only aids in accentuating her stormy demeanour. But Waverly Earp is a beautiful hurricane, and it should really be against the law for anyone to look so damn good in a barely awake state.
"Its 4am in the damn morning! What the hell is wrong with you people?!" She exclaims through gritted teeth before slamming the door in my face. I stand frozen in place for a few seconds, in complete shock at the abrupt dismissal.
"So that seemed to go really well." A smug Jeremy says from the other end of the hallway as he exits his room. I roll my eyes at him. "Yep. About as well as can be expected."
I take one more look at the door, running my hand through my hair with a sigh. Waverly Earp is proving to be a greater challenge than any wild animal I have wrangled. "Come on, let's go get some coffee as we wait for little miss sunshine to join us." I say to Jeremy before heading towards the stairs.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Jeremy and I are taking the final sips of our coffee when the angry queen decides to finally grace us with her presence. She wears some really tight skinny jeans and another crop top, both to my delight and horror. "You can't wear that." I say, gesturing to Waverly's choice of shirt. She raises her eyebrow at me in challenge. 'We are gonna be doing real dirty work.' I quickly explain. "Wait here, I'll get you another shirt."
I run up the stairs, two at a time, and go to my room. I hurriedly grab on of my old Wombats band T-shirts and hurriedly head back to the kitchen. I offer the shirt to Waverly tentatively; the girl looks at it as if it were yesterday's trash, to my horror. How dare she!
The shirt was a souvenir from one of my favourite concerts, a reminder of one of the happiest days of my life! I am willingly offering Waverly Earp a part of the treasures in my heart to do dirty work in and here she was rejecting it! I am about to give up and take the shirt back up to the safety of my room, where it won't be ripped to shreds by disdain filled hazel eyes, when a bony hand grabs it.
Waverly takes the shirt and disappears up the stairs. I hear Jeremy chuckle from behind me and shoot him an annoyed look. We hear soft footsteps pounding against the wooden floorboards as Waverly makes her way down the stairs. As she comes into view, my heart does some funny cartwheel shit at the sight that is Waverly Earp wearing my shirt.
The moisture in my throat seems to go on leave as I gaze upon the angry beauty looking so damn good in an item of my clothing, which now has a whole new significance. I swallow in an attempt to bring some life back to the desert in my throat. Jeremy's voice luckily helps bring me back to a state of sanity.
"All right then, are we all set for the day's first chores?" He says cheerily, causing the scowl of Waverly's pretty face to deepen. Before she could make an attempt at his life, I quickly guide her towards the door. "Come on, we better hurry or the cows will be behind on their milking routine. And trust me, you do not want to milk a grumpy cow." I say as I lead us to the barn where the quadbikes are located.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
As we drive behind the herd of cattle, guiding them towards the milking station, I fear my morning coffee might make an unexpected return by the vice grip Waverly Earp has on my waist. She has had this death grip ever since we got onto the quad. I slow down slightly, placing my hand over hers at their position on my waist.
"You can relax. I will never let you fall. I promise." I tell her in my most gentle voice. I expect her to ignore me or throw some feisty comeback, but am relieved to find the vice grip loosening ever so slightly around my midsection. I allow myself a small smile, taking the tiny bit of progress as a huge win.
My thoughts turn to the task at hand when we finally reach the milking station. Jeremy parks his quad ahead of us and continues guiding the herd of Holsteins into the yard that leads them one by one into the milking station.
I hop off and offer a hand to Waverly, which is ignored. Naturally. Ignoring the rejection from the angry girl, I head to the inside of the station where six cows are ready to be milked. Waverly follows behind me, her nose crinkling at the strong smell of manure. I allow myself a chuckle. "You sure ain't in the castle no more, princess." I say with smirk, causing her to throw another death glare my way.
No longer fearing her daggered gaze, I just smile wider and take delight in the increased annoyance on her face. I move to grab some gumboots and overalls near the entrance of the milking station and hand them over to Waverly. "Put these on, it will help keep your clothes clean." She takes them without question this time, the reality of the dirty nature of the work finally setting in. I grab my own overalls and gumboots. After putting them on, I grab two teat cleanser bottles and hand one to a frowning Waverly.
Jeremy finally joins us, also putting on his overalls. He then moves to the control box mounted to the right wall and flips the switch to turn on the milking machine. I walk over to the first cow, indicating for Waverly to follow. When she reaches me, I turn to address her with a serious look.
"All right Waverly, I am gonna take you through the milking process now. Listen closely, if you do it wrong you can severely injure the cow and yourself. Do you understand?" I say, my tone serious. The girl nods at me and to my surprise, her face takes on a very focused look.
I quickly talk through and demonstrate to her the milking process, which starts by dipping each of the teats into the funnel of the cleanser bottle to ensure hygiene, then I show her how to gently place each of the milking machine's suckers gently onto each of the cow's teats.
Waverly Earp listens to my instructions attentively, her face wrought with focus. I find this new emotion on her face rather intriguing and very attractive. Before I lose myself to inappropriate thoughts of the new girl, I move on to the next cow. I indicate to Waverly to have a go. She nods, her eyes flashing with determination and her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth adorably as she sets to work.
Waverly Earp is a natural, I deduce proudly as I watch her expertly apply the milking method on the first two cows. The third cow, however, proves to be difficult. Waverly fixes the first two suckers with ease. But when she goes to attach the third, the cow balks loudly and I only barely manage to get her out of the way when the cow kicks. The brunette releases a surprised shriek, I feel her heart beating wildly against her ribcage as I hold her close against my body.
I feel her body go rigid as the initial shock wears off. Realizing our compromising position, I immediately release her. "Er sorry, I just had to get you out of the way. A kick like that can easily break a pretty face."
"Yeah, uh, thanks." She says with a nod before turning back to the cow. "Why did she react that way?" She asks as she takes a tentative step back towards the cow. I walk over too and inspect the last teat that Waverly had tried to attach the sucker to. My fears are confirmed when I see the angry red flush along the skin surface.
"Mastitis." I hear Waverly say behind me, to my great surprise. I turn around to face her and ask her how she had known. She shrugs like it was nothing. "I used to watch a lot of Dr Pol with my…" She stops in the middle of her sentence, her eyes taking on a sadness that fills my own heart with sorrow. She seems to think better of what she had wanted to say, shaking her head. "Never mind. I just saw it on Dr Pol."
I smile at her warmly. "Well, colour me impressed. Not everyone can easily name an inflammatory cattle disease." It might be my imagination, but a red colouring seems to dust the brunette's cheeks. Did I just make the ice queen herself blush? My suspicions are fluked when a composed Waverly looks at the cow worriedly.
"Is the cow going to be alright?" The way Waverly Earp cares about the wellbeing of an animal ignites a warmth in the depths of my heart. Perhaps she was not as much of an ice queen as I had thought. I give her a reassuring smile. "Yeah, she will be just fine. Mastitis is quite common among dairy cattle and is very treatable."
I turn to Jeremy. "Jer, can you remove the infected milk?"
Jeremy nods and grabs a bucket and some gloves. He moves over to the cow and gently milks her by hand, the thick infected substance falling into the bucket as the cow balks in pain despite Jeremy's gentleness. Waverly looks like she is about to burst into tears. I can completely understand it, I also hate the thought of an animal in pain. Which is why I had to stop that pain as quick as I could.
I go over to the medicine cabinet and remove a pair of latex gloves, two vials and a new syringe. I put on the gloves and remove the syringe from its packaging.
I draw up the correct dosage from the first vial and walk over to the affected cow. Jeremy follows and gently holds the cow's leg in place as I inject the painkiller into the animal's teat canal after properly disinfecting the teat first. The cow releases an annoyed grunt and I am grateful for Jeremy holding her leg. I was not in the mood to lose my teeth today.
I throw away the syringe and remove another one from the cabinet. I feel Waverly's eyes on me the whole time, watching everything I do intently. I am unable to help the smile at her intrigue. Seeing an expression other than anger on her face is quite the relief.
"The first shot was some meloxicam, to numb the pain." I explain at Waverly's questioning eyes. I remove a second syringe from its packaging and draw up the correct dose from the second vial and proceed to also inject that into the cow's affected teat.
"That was sulphadimidine, it'll kill all the bacteria." I say, feeling the burn of Waverly's curiosity on my back as I dispose of the second syringe and my gloves. I hear Waverly mumble something inaudible under her breath. I think I catch something along the lines of "…like Dr Pol." But don't pay it much heed.
I walk over to the desk in the far-left corner of the milking station and remove the logbook. I make sure to enter all the details of the infected cow.
"Will… will she be all right?" Waverly asks in a small voice as she looks at the cow with the most adorable worry face. I smile warmly at her. "Yeah, she will be just fine. I'll ring Doc to come have a look later today. He is our vet. "That seems to clear the worry lines from the brunette's pretty face, to my own relief.
After this we continue to milk the rest of the cows in quick succession, luckily with no more mastitis incidents.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Its 08h30am when my phone vibrates in the pocket of my jeans. I slow down the quadbike near the fence I had been patrolling and pull out the device. Two messages from MatchMe await me, to my delight.
Angelgirl08: Ha ha, imagine thinking you will get one date, let alone four!
Angelgirl08: Oh, and fire Pokémon? Quite an interesting choice. Care to elaborate why Charmander?
I am unable to hide the smile that automatically spreads across my face as I read the messages. This girl really is something else. And I think I might just like something else. Speaking of something else, I am suddenly reminded of the most miraculous thing that happened this morning.
After we finished at the milking station, I took Waverly to the paddock where we keep all the calves that are still being weaned. I had grabbed two milking bottles and filled them with some of the fresh milk we brought with us from the milking station.
I handed one to Waverly and showed her how to hold out the bottle for the calves. At first, she had released a breath of surprise when the tiny calf practically toppled her in its enthusiastic quest to reach the bottle.
The sound Waverly Earp released the moment when the calf started suckling still rings in my ears like wind rushing through a meadow on a peaceful Sunday. It started out as a soft giggle, becoming louder and louder as fits of true, pure joy erupted from the usually angry brunette.
I was so baffled that Waverly Earp was laughing, that I just stood there frozen in place. I practically held my breath to stem my motion, scared that any sudden movement would ruin the magical moment. The sound of Waverly Earp being happy seemed to sooth something in my own spirit, much like the painkillers soothed mastitis in the cow this morning. I promised that I was going to do anything in my power to bring forth the happy melody from the brunette more frequently.
I smile at the fond memory and look back towards the schooling shed where Waverly and Jeremy were currently in the midst of some online high school class. Safe to say, the scowl was back on the brunette's face the moment she headed back to the house to get cleaned up for school. Boy, was I glad I was done with high school.
I realise I have been so enthralled by thoughts of the new girl at Joy Farm that I had not yet responded to angelgirl08. I quickly go to correct this error and type out my reply.
Haught(givemea)shot: Oooh are you challenging me to get you to agree to a date? I accept. Be warned: when I see something I like, I don't wanna wait ;)
Haught(givemea)shot: As to why I chose Charmander: Everyone knows redheads just do everything better.
I am about to place my phone back into my pocket when it buzzes again.
Angelgirl08: Hah! I hope you have money for a wheelchair and adult diapers, because you will be waiting for a long time, honey.
Angelgirl08: Okay, I'll admit, I laughed at your reason for choosing Charmander. And it takes a lot to get me to laugh, so someone just earned a point. Lemme guess you have red hair then, Captain ego?
I release a snort at the snarky replies. This girl is really starting to grow on me.
I am about to reply with a snarky comeback of my own when something on the fence catches my eye. A piece of fabric moves in the wind, where it is caught on a wire sticking from another hole in the fence. An uneasy feeling creeps up my spine. I shake it off and I hurriedly place my phone back into my pocket as I get off the quadbike.
I crouch down near the hole and remove the piece of fabric to inspect it. Flannel. The feeling of unease running through my nervous system increases tenfold. My suspicions are confirmed when I spot the clear signs of metal cutters along the edge of the hole.
With a clench of my jaw, I jump back onto the quad and drive as fast as the vehicle allows towards Nedley's office.
