Chapter Eight

The sun poured down on the sparkling pond in front of us. Flowers and bushes and rocks surrounded the pond and the breeze made it lap the shore gently. I smiled and looked around. We had some big lakes in and around my town that had some nice views, but again, nothing like this.

Beck pulled up next to me, looking from the pond to me.

"Like what you see?" he asked. I sucked in a breath.

"It's amazing." I replied.

Beck jumped off Riley and of course, offered to catch me again. I knew that he just wanted a reason to hold me, it had to be the reason. He was a cocky, good looking teenage boy, why else would he want to help a teenage girl off her horse?

I sighed and jumped down into his arms, quickly trying to move away. Beck smirked and began to untack the horses. I slipped off my sneakers and my socks and rolled up the bottoms of my jeans. The water splashed at my ankles gently as I stepped in.

I tucked the long ends of my bangs behind my ears and giggled a little. Obviously since back at home it was just Spring, so it was still chilly, I hadn't been in an actual lake or pond since the Summer before.

My peace was disturbed when the two horses raced past me into the water, splashing up a bunch of water and soaking me. I gasped and closed my eyes as water dripped from my hair. I could hear Beck cracking up behind me. Shaking my head I laughed and turned towards him.

"Is that funny, Beck?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yeah, a little bit." he answered.

"I'll show you funny." I raced toward Beck as quickly as I could and he turned to run, but I wrapped my arms around him and started pulling him back. We were both laughing the whole time, him telling me not to. We wrestled for a minute before I was finally able to push him into the water. I had that split second of victory that was ripped away when he grabbed my arm as he fell, pulling me right in with him. The two of us broke surface and sucked in air, cracking up. The horses were neighing and rearing up, but it didn't look like they were mad, so I assumed they were excited, playing.

I stood up, the water reaching my knees, and I rung out my hair. Beck stood up too, still chuckling. I could feel my hair curling and I sighed. No one had ever really seen me with my curly hair, and I didn't like it.

"You have curly hair." Beck said in a sort of confused tone. I scrunched my nose.

"Yeah... I straighten it everyday." I replied. "I don't like the way it waves."

"It's pretty." he said. I rolled my eyes and turned away.

"Whatever." I said.

 "I think the horses got their exercise." he said with a grin.

I nodded.

"Yeah, I think so."

"We still have more work, we should get back."

Beck walked to the horses and led them out of the water, pulling towels from the pack on Riley's saddle.

"You came prepared." I said.

"Oh yeah, I assumed we'd get wet." he replied.

I didn't want to like Beck. He still had that look on his face that he thought he was awesome because he handled horses or whatever. He was still a cocky teenage boy who flirted with me and probably every other girl. But, something about him I liked, it was amusing. He laid the towels on the horses before tacking them and the two of us pulled ourselves up, heading back down the trail.

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When we finished our work Beck stayed for dinner then helped me with the dishes after. We said our goodbyes and he told me he would see me in school the next day.

For my hour of "free time" I grabbed some of the cookies Aunt Hailey made and rushed to my room. I scrambled to get under the big quilt, scooted myself down, flicked on the TV and muted it, then grabbed my phone and hit #1 to speed dial Fio.

I munched on a cookie as it rang.

"Hello?" Fiona asked.

"It's hasn't even been a day since we talked and I still missed the sound of your grating voice." I teased.

"Cody!"

I laughed. "You didn't check the caller ID?"

"No, I almost missed the call, so I just flipped it open. What are you doing?"

"Eating cookies, watching TV."

There was a small pause. "Sounds horrible."

I laughed again. "I actually just got done with my daily chores. Seriously, I've never worked so hard, I'm so tired."

"What did you do?"

"Took care of the animals all day and did the dishes after dinner."

"Ooh, sounds tough." (Sarcasm)

So, I explained everything I had done that day to her. All the work I had done and how hard some of it was.

"Oh... Yeah, okay, that sounds tough." she said and we both laughed.

"So, how's Fender?"

A pause. "Fine... We had lunch today."

I squealed a little and laughed. "Yay! I'm so happy."

"Oh, stop, Cody."

I could hear her grinning.

We talked for almost a whole hour about Beck and Fender and school and everything we could think of, before Aunt Hailey told me to go to bed (at 8:30). But, it was okay, because I was so tired. I said goodnight to Fio and told her I would call her the next day.

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There wasn't much difference in my waking up experience at the farm than at home. I woke up instantly angered, not because the sun was in my eyes, but because it wasn't. A rooster crowed loudly at 5:15 and the sun was just rising. I was right when I said the bed would be my heaven. It truly was. As soon as I flicked off the light I feel asleep. But, now I was awake and kind of mad about it. I was still so tired and just wanted to fall asleep. I yawned and turned over, face down on the pillow. Just as I was about to fall back asleep my door burst open and Gunner leapt onto of me. I grunted and lifted my head. Gunner was wagging his tail and trying to lick my face.

"Gunner!" I groaned. "Get off." I heard laughing coming from the door way and I turned my head to see Uncle Chris standing there.

"He's our back up rooster." he said. "If someone doesn't get up, Gunner gets them up." I sighed.

"Well, I'm up, call off the rooster..." I replied.

With another chuckle Uncle Chris called Gunner down off the bed and told me to get ready for my first day of school.

Back in my own town I never thought I could hate getting up for school anymore, but I was wrong. I hated getting up today more than ever. Not only because I was exhausted and sore, but because it was a new school in a new area and I had to wear a stupid uniform... And I would be one of the only ones without a southern accent! Well, Beck didn't have one, but I knew that most of them would. And even though I still loved my hair, I knew people would rag on me for it.

I sighed and pushed myself out of bed. I wasn't really that sore from the work, because I was pretty active at home, but my thighs were sore from riding Duke.

I grunted a little as I swung my legs over the side of my bed. The bottoms of my pants fell to my ankles as I stood and waddled to the bathroom.

The upstairs bathroom was themed just like the downstairs one- The sea. There were shells and shell covered things everywhere, the walls were blue and the tiles on the floor were white with blue waves. There were pictures of boats, the sea and lighthouses on the walls, the soap holder was a blue wave, and even the toothbrush holder were dolphins riding on waves.

I sighed. I missed my normal bathroom in my room. White walls, a green shower curtain (as apposed to the light house one I was looking at in the mirror) a gold trimmed mirror, white tiles and a green rug in front of the sink. As well as a towel rack and some cabnits. Everything was normal. I'm not really into themed rooms.

I pulled my toothbrush from the back of one of the dolphins and brushed my teeth before hopping in the shower (which took me like five minutes to figure out how to turn it on), changing and trotting downstairs. When I reached the kitchen Aunt Hailey was cooking up bacon, eggs and toast. The smell filled the next three rooms and my stomach started to growl.

Aunt Hailey turned to me.

"Oh, Cody, you can eat in those clothes if you like, but I picked up your school uniform when I found out you were coming. It's in your closet upstairs." she said, then she turned her attention back to her cooking.

I frowned.

I did not want to wear a skirt and sweater all day. I sighed and decided to just change, so I went back upstairs and got into my closet, pulling out the skirt, blouse and sweater. I rolled my eyes. Then something on the floor caught my attention. Black dress shoes (the kind little girls wear, with the little buckle and everything) and some long, white socks. I winced a little and picked them up, setting everything on my bed.

Reluctantly, I changed from my torn jeans, Green Day shirt and Tony Hawk sweatshirt, and put on the khaki skirt, white button up, and yellow sweater with the school's team name and a picture of a horse. The Greenville High Stallions. Real original. The Stallions.

I sighed once again while I pulled up the socks and slipped on the shoes, trotting back down the stairs again. Once I got down the table was set and my plate was ready. A nice pile of scrambled eggs, eight pieces of bacon and four pieces of toast.

I grinned.

Aunt Hailey knew that as a child I always ate more than the rest of the McQuaid kids. And the McQuaid's eat a lot. This was the perfect serving for me.

I sucked the food down in like five minutes, then someone knocked on the door.

"Oh, Beck! How are you, dear?" I heard Aunt Hailey say. I almost choked on my orange juice. I wiped my mouth and quickly stood up, walking to the kitchen. Beck was standing there, all dressed in his uniform. He chose the khaki pants over the shorts, and the sleeves of his sweater were pushed up to the elbows and he was wearing shoes that sort of looked like boat shoes.

"I'm good, Mrs. McQuaid, how are you?" Beck asked.

"Oh, fine, hun. Would you like some breakfast?" Aunt Hailey replied.

"Oh, no, ma'am, thank you." Beck said respectfully. "I actually came to help Cody."

"With?" I asked, entering the kitchen. He and Aunt Hailey both turned to look at me. Beck grinned at me and I didn't smile back.

"Well, I didn't know if you knew where the bus stop was, so I thought I would walk with you." he answered.

I nodded.

"Right." I said. "Whatever." I turned and reached for my backpack, which Aunt Hailey had prepared for me, and slung it over my shoulder. Beck frowned a little and gave a nod.

"Alright, well, it was nice seeing you, Mrs. McQuaid, and I'll be back after school to help with some chores." Aunt Hailey smiled.

"That would be lovely, Beck." she said. "Actually, we were planning on going out to dinner tonight, to kind of- celebrate Cody's first day of school. Would you like to join? Our treat."

"Oh, no, Mrs. McQuaid, I couldn't impose." Beck replied.

I rolled my eyes. I knew that as soon as she offered again he would accept.

"Oh, nonesense." Aunt Hailey said, shaking her hands at him. "I wont take no for an answer. After your chores you can clean up here and we'll all go out and have a nice dinner."

Beck grinned and nodded.

"Well, alright." he said. "Thank you very much." He looked at me.

I was right... I thought.

"Should we go?" he asked me.

I shrugged.

"Sure." I answered. I didn't even know this kid and I all I could think was he's just a flirt, coming over to walk me to the bus stop... Please. No one does that.

The two of us headed out the door after I said goodbye to Aunt Hailey.

As we walked down the road Beck looked me over.

"You straightened your hair again." he stated. I nodded.

"Everyday." I said. Beck looked down at his feet.

"Oh." he said. After a few seconds of silence he asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" I asked, looking at him. He stared at me for a second, almost like he was trying to decide if I was serious.

"I don't know." he answered finally.

We waited at the bus stop in silence and when we got on the bus a few girls called him over to sit with them, so I took a seat in the back alone. I could see from the corner of my eye as I looked out the window Beck kept looking at me, but I ignored it. I almost felt bad because I had fun the day before, but now all these girls were all over him and he didn't get up and leave. Sure he was looking at me, but he didn't come to sit with me.

I sighed and tucked my hair behind my ears.

"I like your hair." I heard. I turned and saw a blonde girl next to me, smiling. She had a small southern accent, but not much.

"Oh, thanks." I said.

"It's very- blue." she said, then giggled. "Not a lot of people around here have the guts to do that."

"I'm not from around here." I said. "I'm from the East, actually. No one up there really has the guts either, but more than down here." The girl grinned and held out her hand.

"I'm Laina." she said. "Laina McCarthy."

I shook her hand and replied, "Cody McQuaid."

I could still see Beck glancing at me, and Laina noticed it too.

"I see Beck has eyes for you." she said quietly. I rolled my eyes.

"He works on my aunt and uncle's farm." I replied. "He's a flirt." Laina giggled.

"Yeah, he kind of is sometimes, but mostly the girls flirt with him." she explained. "But, he is good looking." I nodded.

"Yeah, he's not bad." I underplayed.

Me and Laina talked the rest of the ride there and when we got to school I was really surprised.

It was a really nice looking school. It was big and fancy and had a big large archway with the school's name on it. It looked like a rich place, not the school Little Creek kids should go to. Laina walked me inside and helped me get my class schedule and find my locker. The whole school looked so fancy. The lockers were even nice looking; A yellow color. Laina and I were like five lockers away.

I entered my combonation and even the inside of the locker was nice looking! It was a metalic color and it was all cleaned and polished. I shook my head and put my books inside on the top shelf, my backpack on the bottom, doing rather gently, feeling like I didn't want to dirty up the inside. Laina told me that we weren't allowed to put anything on our lockers, like pictures or mirrors or anything. I didn't really mind much, all my stickers and pictures were still in my old locker at Maxwell High.

I looked at my class schedule; First on the list, English. I had someone named Mr. Fitcher. Laina told me she has him, just at a different time, and that he's pretty nice. I guess that's sort of a relief. I thought.

Me and Laina parted ways until we found out we would meet again in History class, with Ms. Fallon. I walked through the sea of yellow and khaki, trying to make my way to my first class, when me and Beck crossed paths.

"Oh, Cody, there you are." he said. "Have you found your first class yet?"

"Not yet." I answered. "I have English with Mr. Fitcher." Beck grinned.

"I have that class. I'll show you were it is." he offered.

Trying to pull back on the scorn at least a little I gave a nod.

"Sure." I replied.

Author's Note

All feedback is appreciated