Okay guys, So I think this year is going to end relatively well for me. I've had my ups and downs but I got a lot to be grateful for. I have two jobs, one of which I just got promoted and a pay raise, one which doesn't even feel like work because its doing something I love. I started selling 3d printed items for a side hustle, and the last two months have been pretty good. And I'm finally getting back on a regular fitness schedule.

I still plan on moving out of Illinois, especially with all the BS going on in the state now. Its just I'm debating if I just want to move to Wisconsin, or if I want to just go balls deep and choose a state like Wyoming, Montana, Texas, Alaska, South Dakota, etc etc.

Back to the house

"How was your day?" Willow asked Whitley as he walked in.

"..." He was completely silent as he came in in only a pair of underwear and a tanktop.

"Why is he almost naked?" Willow asked as Jem walked in. And she was a little concerned as to why he was also in his underwear and a tanktop.

"Well we got coverered in dirt and grime, so we both put our dirty clothes out in a bin to wash later. Last thing we want to do is to bring that stuff into the house." Jem said as he heard the shower running knowing that Whitley had gotten there first.

"Is he alright?" Willow was a little concerned for her son, she had never seen him that tired before in his life.

"Oh don't worry about him, he's fine, he's just had a busy day." Jem said as they looked at the clock.

"You guys were gone all day, its almost dark!" Winter couldn't believe Jem had been around Whitley that long without complaining.

"Well, we left the house pretty early, I told Whitley he was going to have a different life than what he was used to. So I figured I would expose him to something completely different from what hes used to. You should both be pretty proud of him." Jem said as he heard the sound of the shower stop and the door open.

He saw Whitley immediately go to the spare bedroom. He didn't even bother to close the door. He just collapsed right on the bed and they could soon hear snoring coming from his room. Willow closed the door to drown out the sounds of the snores. It sounded less like a bear and more like a light hum.

"What did you do to him?" Willow asked wondering if she should be concerned.

"Well first, we started out wrangling some calves, then after that he helped butcher and gut some chickens." Willow almost seemed to go green at that thought.

The idea of her son killing something was a little sickening.

"Then after we cleaned him up from that, we did a little bit of cleaning out the pig stalls, he milked some cows, we bailed some hay, fed and watered the horses, shoveled out manure from the horse stalls, so overall, he had a full day of work." Jem said as he left to go take a shower.

Willow wasn't sure how she felt about that. This was a completely different way of life for Whitley. And while she was grateful he was out from under Jacque's influence, she wasn't sure about this huge cultural shift. It might have just been her motherly instincts kicking in, but seeing her son come in practically limping from exhaustion, it was something that made her worry. She knew Jem wouldn't intentionally harm Whitley, but this seemed a little too much for her son to handle.

"Also you'll be happy to know Whitley has a job." Jem called from the bathroom.

"Wait...what?" Willow couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, I talked to Mr. Indigo, he'll be working on the farm. If he gives them a fair days work, they'll give him a fair days wage. He'll also get a free lunch out of it." He said as they heard the shower running.

"Wait a minute." Willow walked up to the door to speak to Jem.

"Don't you think thats a little too fast? Whitley's never done anything like this before!" Willow knew she shouldn't be acting like this, but she couldn't help but worry.

"Don't worry about it! He'll be fine, the fresh air in the country will do him good! Besides the Indigo family will treat him well. I put in a good word for him, and he did make a good impression on them today." That actually surprised Willow.

"He did?" She didn't think her son would be that friendly.

"Well, after I had a 'talk' with him, he didn't complain so much, and lets just say dinner with the Indigos went well."

Flashback

"Jem, it was really nice for you to come and help us out today, especially now since you're going to be the newest member of the council! Your schedule has to be getting busier by the day!" Mrs. Indigo said as she set the table for everyone.

It would be Jem, Whitley, her husband, herself and her daughter.

"Oh it wasn't any problem at all Maam. I just wanted to make sure things were going okay. Besides, I came here to make you a deal." Jem said as Whitley was sitting at the table looking dead to the world.

"I know that we got off on the wrong foot. But I could use a favor." He said as the farm family looked at him.

"Whats up?"

"Do you think you could hire Whitley?" He asked as that snapped Whitley out of his stupor.

"Wait what?!" Whitley barely survived today!

"He's a bit prissy, but I think working here could do him some good, he's a good kid, just needs some discipline in his life." Jem said as the Indigos thought it over.

"Well, it would be nice to have an extra hand around the place." Whitley opened his mouth to protest.

"Then how about it? If he's going to be living with us, then he's gonna have to do some of the providing, right Whitley?" Jem looked at the boy with a look that said 'Don't you dare say No, this will be good for you.'

Whitley stayed silent. He couldn't go back home. And he didn't want to see his mother sad if he ran off to go back to Jacques. So he just chose to not saying anything.

"The only thing I could see being an issue is how long it takes for him to travel to us."

"That won't be an issue, I'm moving the whole family down closer, I would rather be as close to my constituents as possible, especially since all the Atlesian elites have sticks up their asses." Whitley turned his head to look at Jem.

He couldn't help but feel that Jem also intentionally said that to remind Whitley that the hoity toity high and mighty attitude wouldn't work down here.

"Well, I suppose we could. Do you swear by him?" Mr. Indigo asked as Jem nodded.

"Hey, you saw how he did today, besides that rough start and the chicken incident, he did okay." Whitley shivered at the chicken incident.

Jem had shown him how to properly dispose of a chicken, the first thing he did was teach him how to tie a slipknot, and he put it over the chickens feet. They then hung the chicken upside down from a nail in a fence post. Jem showed Whitley where the base of the head met the neck and where to cut. Whitley was shaking a little as he saw Jem cut the head off a chicken and he felt like he was going to be sick.

"Now Whitley, remember what I said, but whatever you do, do NOT look at the head, just throw it away." Jem said as Whitley was still shaking.

He took Jem's buck knife, and he grabbed the chickens head right at the base of the neck with his hand covering the lower part of hte beak so he could stretch it out and also avoid the chicken biting him. He breathed in and out a few times to calm his nerves. And then he forced the knife in.

FWOOSH

Surprisingly it went rhough pretty easily. But what Whitley wasn't expecting was the wings to start flapping and some of the blod squirted onto his face.

"AAAHHH!" He let out a bit of a girlish scream as he jumped back as it was flapping around.

"Thats okay! Its just nerves! He's dead!" Jem said as Whitley took a deep breath as he stood back.

But then out of instinct, he looked down at his hand.

ANd he saw the chickens head turn up to look at him.

"BWAK BWAK!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Whitley screamed as he threw away the chicken head and dropped the knife.

"Oh my god! Oh my god!" He was NOT expecting that.

"I told you not to look at the head!"

Jem made that same mistake the fist time he killed a chicken. He got curious and looked down at the head of the chicken, but what he wasn't expecting was for the nerves to still be active and he saw the chicken stare deep into his soul. The first time you ever killed a chicken was going to stay with you. And it messed him up for a bit.

And now Whitley did the same thing he did.

And that was why you just threw the chicken head away instead of looking down at it. Because even though you knew it was a part of life and chicken was delicious, it would still mess with you.

Back in the present

"After that, we had a pleasant dinner, and Whitley is going to be training under their daughter India." Jem said as he stepped out of the shower now in a fresh change of clothes.

"And he's okay with that?" Willow asked surprised her son would go along with it.

"Well, he doesn't have much of a choice, besides, this will be good for him, you don't want him to end up like your ex right?" He asked Willow as she nodded.

"Then this will be good for him, this is as far away from Jacques as he can get. He's probably already wondering where Whitley has gone, and he sure as hell isn't going to look on a farm now is he?" He asked as Willow thought it over.

Jacques detested manual labor, so he sure as hell would never expect Whitley to be on a farm. So it was a perfect cover for him.

"Now I did stop by and get him some clothes. I'm still going to wake him up early tomorrow since I get the feeling he's not going to get used to this new schedule overnight." Jem knew that he was going to sleep like a baby tonight.

There was nothing like a hard day of work to put you to sleep. It was better than a glass of milk and a lullaby.

So there we go, Whitley's redemption starts now

As for the chicken story. That was actually a true story. The first time I killed a chicken, I made a mistake of looking at the head, and the nerves were still kicking and the head looked up at me and freaked me out.

After that, I was fine, but damn that was freaky at first.