My Redhead Redneck

The Rat Arrives

Chapter one: The rat arrives

"Your Dad's home!"

I inwardly groan, "No he's not," I yell. My mom has a bad habit of hearing fantom noises.

"Yes he is."

"How do you know?" I retort. "I don't hear his truck." My dad owns a Dodge Ram so it tends to send little electric cars running in fear with its loud grumble.

"He just called me. Get up and go open the side gate for him."

This time I outwardly groan. I trudge down the stairs and slide on my worn out flip flops. I exit through the garage door and go out the side one that leads to the RV parking on the side house. Opening the small gate I lift the peg that goes into the concrete to hold the larger one in place. Pushing it open I hear the distinct sound of his truck. He pulls past the house so he can line the trailer up to back in.

That's when I notice that he doesn't have the customary trailer with a Takeuchi tractor on it. This time he has our house trailer. I get excited. We might actually get to go camping.

"Rebecca come here!"

I walk to the drivers side window and am warmly, and wetly, greeted by our four dachshunds.

"Hey guys!" I coon to them. Before I can continue my greeting I see a flash of red and immediately know it's not Zipper our red colored dog. I look up. And see a boy about fifteen or sixteen, around my age. Not only is he a boy but a very attractive one at that. He has shoulder length red hair. For some reason this fact does not bother me because it looks good on him. With a square jaw and wide shoulders it only completes his strong ruff exterior. He has a baseball cap on that shields his eyes from my view. My eyes travel down to his t-shirt which does a nice job of showcasing his biceps.

"Um, Dad who is he?" I gesture towards the boy.

"That's Finn, he's going to be staying with us for a while."

I gape at him my mouth wide open. I close it before bees can make a honeycomb in it. "Exactly what did you plan on telling mom?" I already know she's not going to be pleased. Suddenly I remember that tonight is In-n-Out, my youth group. Yes I go and I also enjoy it.

"Dad!" I yell. "Tonight's In-n-Out. What do you plan on doing with him?" I say very contemptuously.

He frowns at me. "Just go clear the side yard so I can back in."

I groan and as I walk away he yells,"He can come with you!"

I am tempted to turn back around and yell at him but he's going to be my ride there since my mom definitely won't take me after he tells her about the arrangement. I start tossing pipe fittings into recycle bins so they're out of the way then move onto the cherry picker.

A cherry picker is a jack used to lift engines and other things into cars. It's heavy and awkward to move.

I start to roll it out of the way when suddenly a hand shoots out and grabs above where my hand is. Reflexively I retract my hand quickly, jump back, and scream. I know that isn't scary, but I couldn't help myself.

I look up and find Finn looking down at me. It is now that I see just how tall he is. Man were his parents mountains or what?!

"Sorry ma'am, didn't mean to frighten you."

I look at him with what I'm sure is a full blown look of bewilderment on my face. He has an almost southern accent mixed with redneck. I like the sound of it.

I quickly run my hand over my face to wipe the dumb look off. "That's okay. I get scared easily. I got that."

I go to grab the cherry picker, but he moves his hand to block mine.