Ellie's Garden // luke hemmings au

Chapter One:

The cool spring breeze pushes my hair out of its hair bonnet, leaving me partially blinded at the moment, desperate to put down my two pails of water. My pace quickens as I rush towards the barn only to run into a large figure. I bounce right off and one of my pails tumbles to the ground.

"Ellie!" A voice exclaims. I whimper from the ground, digging my nails into the dirt. My father stands over me, his frown pulling wrinkles to his brow.

"Yes father." I say weakly, milling over the punishments to come. Instead he just sighs and bends down. After handing me the now empty pail, he grips my other hand and pulls me off the ground. I brush myself off and give him a small curtsy.

"Just go get more." He says snatching the other pail and turns away, muttering under his breath.

I've never been the farmers perfect daughter. To be honest I have never been 'perfect' at anything. I can barely read and my handwriting looks as if a bird has scratched its talons along the paper. My singing, quite frankly, could scare that bird away along with my harp playing. The only thing I was good at was sitting in the garden a few miles from my house. I can imagine it right now, blue jays perched along the large oaks. No father to yell at me and no distractions.

Lost in thought, I take the trail back to the old mill near my friend Niall's house. I can hear his bubbly laugh from coming from the inside of his house as smell of his mother's cooking drifts into the warm breeze. I walk past the house up to the mill and press my pail into the water. The branches behind me shuffle slightly causing me to jump.

"Hello?" I ask, stiffening my back. My voice quivers as I scan the tree line.

"Ellie! I thought you had chores!" A light pat on my back sends jolts of surprise through my body even though I know the voice. I turn and envelope Michael in a hug, his brown hair brushing against my cheek.

"I dropped the water...I have to go get more and then I'll be done." I say pressing the pail down in the water. He chuckles and brushes his hair back with his fingers.

"It's fine, it's just that Niall is with his mom still so I'm kind of out of people to bother." He chuckles and does his famous eyebrow wiggle to brush his hair out of his face. "Oh and Calum is out with some girl again..."

My face drops as I lift the bucket. I've had an infamous crush on Calum since primary school. I remember the day he showed up, his messy brown hair tumbling around and chocolate brown eyes that stole my heart. Not to mention he gave me half of his cookie at lunch so it was practically love at first sight. Well for a young child at least.

"Yeah I should have guessed it huh..." I say walking slowly, swinging the pail around.

"Ellie, you are the most beautiful girl I know-"

"I'm the only girl you know besides your sisters." I sigh back. Tinny and Andrea keep me on my toes with their constant battles over Calum, it's amazing he gets around the way he does.

"Yeah, yeah I'm aware." He says shoving me.

"Okay if I drop this again I may get whipped so stop playing around!" I try to say in a playful voice, but he doesn't seem amused.

"I would never want that to happen again Ellie." He says stopping in the middle of the path, the breeze has calmed a bit and the birds are back to their hypnotic songs.

"You know I don't either..." I say and continue forward, avoiding his gaze. We drop the subject and shuffle conversation topics from the new teacher coming in next week to the weather.

"Of all things to talk about Michael why on Gods green earth would we talk about the weather!" I giggle and motion around us. "Can't you see it's a beautiful day out?"