Life on the Farm

Chapter 5

"Let's get this place lookin' sharp!" My mom calls. I crouch down on all fours with a sponge and a bucket. Oliver dips his sponge into the bucket and we start scrubbing the floors. Guess I don't have to do this Saturday. Wait. Marci can still come over, right?
When I'm done with my section of the floor, I move on to the dining room table and chairs. We have to scrub down every inch of the property and make sure it's sparkling by dinner time. That leaves us about six hours and no lunch break.
Fun.
My mom made us all attach sponges to our shoes so we wouldn't get anything dirty. I stand up and load the dishwasher before wiping down all the counters.
"Behind you."
I whirl around to see Dalton holding the bucket of cleaner for the kitchen.
"Aren't you supposed to be in the tool shed?"
"I excused myself. Now give me a hand, would you?"
I grab a rag and we scrub the kitchen spotless. My mom comes in to see how we're doing.
"Looking good in here." She opens the fridge and wrinkles her nose. "Could you two work to clean out the fridge? Then move out to the barn."
I take everything out of the fridge and set it on the counter. Then I go through everything and separate everything that needs to be thrown out from everything that can stay.
"Dalton. Throw away all of this food in this pile-" I gesture to the pile of food that can be thrown away-"and wash all the dishes. I'll wash out the fridge."
Dalton starts scraping containers and plates, and I take the shelves out of the fridge and wash them in the sink before towel drying them and putting them back in place, then loading them with food. Dalton puts all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and wipes off the counter one last time.
Then we walk out to the barn, and I pull out a shovel and a bucket.
"Hey pretty boy. You ever cleaned out a stall before?" I smirk.
Dalton turns around. "Excuse me?"
I toss the shovel at him. "Take this."
I let the horses into the field to graze and set Dalton to work cleaning out the stalls as I wipe down everything in the arena with sanitizing spray.
"Ew ew ew ew," I hear from Lana's stall. I laugh.
"Something wrong?"
"Yes. Everything."
I walk back into the stall and pick up an extra shovel. "Come on. Put some pep in your step grandma."
"Actually, I would be a grandpa."
"Shut it smart mouth. Try working for once."
We shovel in solve for a while, until it's time to mop out the stall. Then I drag the hose into Lana's stall and spray the floor. I hand a mop to Dalton and he goes to work. When it's all dry I put the hose back and Dalton gets some new hay.
Once we're done cleaning out the barn we head back to the main house to find my mom.
"Hey mom," I say.
"Hey sweetie. What's the status?"
"We cleaned the whole barn top to bottom. Even the loft. Swept up any extra hay and gave it to the horses."
"Great job. Looks like you two have the rest of the day off." My mom looks us over. "But...I would suggest a shower."
I laugh and run upstairs to the bathroom, where I strip down and hop into the shower.
***
"Hey," Dalton knocks on my door frame and walks in as I tie my hair back in it's usual two braids.
"Yes?"
"We have the rest of the day off."
"I'm aware of that."
"What are you doing?"
"I was gonna go for a ride. Would you like to come?"
"Sounds like a plan."
"Good. Meet me in the arena in ten minutes."
***
I saddle up Sugar and take Mano out of his stall. I begin to tack him up when Dalton walks in.
"Hey." I turn to face Dalton.
"Yeah?"
"Look, I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Last night. And...everything."
"What?"
"I've been really rude to you, and for no reason. I'm sorry."
"It's fine."
"Let's just start over."
"Ok. Hi. I'm Dalton."
"Hi. I'm Aubrey."
"Let's not go through the part where you show me around though...that takes too long."
I laugh. "Yeah. Well, wanna get going?"
"Let's go."
I grin and hop up on Sugar. Dalton gets on Mano and we ride out.
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A/N:
Hello again<3
I'm so sorry it's been a while since my last update. I just had a few things going on and not a lot of inspiration for this chapter. But I hope you guys like it. I know it's short but it's what I could get done.
Thanks for reading!
<3