Kissed by Team Crafted //tc 3

This Isn't the Army

~Kyle's POV~

Adam apparently brought a dog home from the park on Tuesday, so Friday afternoon, when we had some free time, Nicole and I went over to meet her. Hannah said Adam had taken it to the vet on Thursday after nobody claimed it, and they discovered it was a girl.

"What's her name?" I asked, as I scratched the pup's ears.

"Bailey," Adam announced.

"Are you keeping her forever? Or just for a little while," Nicole questioned.

"Hopefully forever, but we still don't know if someone will come by and claim her," Alesa chimed in. She was sitting on the couch with Heather in on arm, and Tyler beside her. Well, the baby Tyler. "Tyler Senior" was at the grocery store. "We don't think anyone's going to, though. She didn't have a collar when Adam found her."

"Fingers crossed," I said, but I was too busy petting Bailey to actually cross my fingers. "She's really cute."

~~~

When all the petting and dog-loving was complete, we went outside to rake. That might not seem like the most exciting thing, but the maple tree in the Dahlberg's backyard had dropped a lot of leaves, and Adam agreed to letting us jump in the leaf pile, as long as we were the ones to make it in the first place.

It took at least an hour to form a semi-good leaf pile, but at least half the yard was still covered with a mid-shin-deep coating of leaves.

"Is this good enough?" Nicole sighed. Yes, we dragged her along to rake. The more people, the quicker we could get the job done. Even though we weren't getting anything out of raking the whole yard except for the satisfaction of making a really big leaf pile.

"No," Hannah insisted. "You see that? We still have half a yard to go."

"But I'm tirrreeeeddddd," Nicole complained, dropping her rake to the ground for emphasis. It landed in the still-covered part of the yard, causing a few leaves to fly up into the air, and flutter back to the ground slowly to rejoin their friends.

"Yeah? Soldiers don't get breaks," I prodded her rake with the teeth of my own, nudging it towards her foot.

"What? This isn't the army," Nicole replied, confused. "This is the Dahlberg's backyard."

"Yes, but we have to work just as hard," Hannah added, grabbing the rake from the ground and throwing it at Nicole. Luckily, she caught it before it, like, hit her in the face or something.

"Whatever," Nicole poked a leaf with a prong on her rake, and impaled it. "When can we jump? Raking is boring."

"Patience, young grasshopper," Hannah insisted, scooping a armful of leaves into the bigger pile.

"What's with all the metaphors today? I'm not a grasshopper, and I'm not in the army," Nicole questioned, bringing a handful of leaves to the pile.

"So you're not part of the grasshopper army?" I asked, in mock-disappointment.

"Oh, because that's a thing," Nicole held up her hands in surrender, dropping her rake again in the process. She bent over to pick it up, and I walked past her, whispering, "Of course it is. You've just offended the grasshopper gods."

"I'm two hundred percent done," Nicole pretended to start walking away when Hannah stopped her.

"Hopefully you're not done with math yet, because something can only have one hundred percent," she said.

"Not if that something is me, having a conversation with you two," Nicole laughed.

"Be that way," I responded, and grabbed a handful of leaves. I scooped up as many as I could, and dumped them on Nicole's head. She swatted them out of her hair.

"Better?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied sarcastically. And, with as much force as she could muster, she shoved me into the leaf pile.