The Chicken Attack

Part 1

Jessica froze at the instruction, feed the chickens? Uh, nop.

“Nop, you do it,” she told her brother and passed by him refusing to even consider such a thing.

She knew he was probably laughing at her and calling her dramatic but she didn’t like chickens, especially roadrunners, dead or alive but especially alive. They were vicious little things and the less time she dealt with them the better.

“Jess, you had better feed those chickens, I do not want to hear any stories!” their mom shouted from the kitchen.

Jess froze immediately, just as she got to the door to her room, her brother had told on her, the little brat. She turned around and walked back to the corridor and gave him a look that was sure to send the message.

There would be no more favors from her, if he thought he was smart and could play such games then she would play the game right back. The little brat shrugged and grinned at her before he walked back to the sitting room to watch whatever he had been watching before the whole thing started.

Leaving him to do as he wanted to give him a  false sense of victory, she turned to the kitchen instead. Her little brother had forgotten that he was watching a movie on her laptop, and with her headphones too.

So because he did not want to be disturbed from his movie she had to feed the chickens? Well, as soon as she was done she would take her gadgets back and then they would see who had won.

“Honestly Jess, you are not a child anymore, in the next few months you will be going off to college and yet you are still afraid of chickens, when will you grow up?”

Jess narrowed her eyes at her mother who had her back turned to her but refused to respond. She didn’t say anything because she knew if she opened her mouth, she would point out to one of her mother’s own irrational fears and she knew the woman would not appreciate that.

She did not want to have to get into any more trouble.

She did roll her eyes at her older sister who was standing fridge, laughing at her. They didn’t get it, none of them did, but one day they would realize she wasn’t crazy. She just prayed that it would not be her that the chickens would attack.

Grabbing the two containers with the leftovers that they used to feed the chickens, she walked out to the sitting room and did not miss the chance to narrow her eyes at her brother as she passed him on her way to the door.

He would pay for betraying her, they had a standing order that he would feed the chickens for her whenever it was her turn but obviously he did not need any more favors from her so she was going to make sure not to accommodate him in any way.

Her uncle, who was sitting on the sofa near the door gave her an encouraging smile but she knew he wouldn’t help her as her mom had forbidden him from ever doing their chores for them. She had said they had to be sick and dying for him to ever help them, and Jess didn’t want to get him into trouble. Everyone feared her mother, even her uncle.

And evidently, she feared her mother way more than she feared the chickens.

Standing by the door, she peered outside to see if there were any chickens around. She really did not want to have them jump or fly at her as they ran for the food, so it was best for her to throw it on the ground where they fed while they were still distracted.