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IV

chapter name: 2

George was still fully awake at 8:45, when him and Nick were walking up the hill to the new people at the Henley's. They approached the house and George walked up open the porch to knock on the door. He knocked three times and walked a bit back, waiting for the door to open. He heard a lock being fumbled with before the door opened wide, to present a tall boy with blonde hair and green eyes. George froze on the spot and Nick started cackling in the background.

The boy did smiled, but he looked confused, he made eye contact with George who was still frozen on the spot. "Why is he laughing?" George almost fainted when he heard the boys voice, it wasn't deep, but it was a voice that had been working and in the sun. George ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. "Oh, he's laughing because he's an idiot. Who are you?" The boy in the doorway just snickered at George's explanation. "I'm Clay, you two are?" George pointed at Nick, "That's Nick, he lives in town and I'm George, your new neighbor. Is there an adult I'd be able to talk to?" Clay nodded and motioned for the two boys to come inside. Nick had stopped laughing once they got inside the house.

He led them through a large house, the Henley's had a good harvest the year they rebuilt their home, for themselves and their seven children. Clay brought them to the back porch where two people were sitting in rocking chairs talking and smoking. "Oh who's this?" George smiled, "I'm George Davidson, I live next door. I was wondering if you would want to join our family for dinner tomorrow night?" The two people looked at each other before the woman stared back at George and smiled. "We would love to, but I should warn, we are a family of eight. Six." George smiled, he loved the idea of having friends, and possibly getting to help take care of a little one.

"That's fine, I also wanted to know if you wanted to buy time, I sell it to Aslynn and the two neighboring towns for $5 a week." The man smiled, "Yeah that's fine, I'm guessing you'll come around this time every day?" George nodded. "If I can ask, what are all your kids names?" The woman smiled, "Well only three of three of them are ours, the other three were adopted.