Belle & Daegan

Working on the Fence

Belle had the whole day to herself. Her grandparents were at the market, leaving her to their house to do homework.

She decided to take a break from studying for biology, leaving her textbook open on the long wooden table, which was strewn with worksheets and notes. Belle had a big test on Monday.

She stretched, and walked to the fridge to get a soda. She heard hammering outside.

Curious, she pushed the screen door and looked out on the porch at Daegan's farm.

They had started working on the new white fence to replace the old, rotting brown one. Daegan was working hard. He hammered the fence post into the grass.

"Working hard?" Belle shouted.

Daegan stopped hammering, and looked up at her. "Been working since dawn," he yelled back.

Belle went back inside, grabbed another soda, and exited again. She walked down the white porch steps, and toward Daegan.

He noticed her approaching, and set down the hammer. He wiped his face with his shirt, and thanked her for the soda. He drank deeply.

"I needed that," he said. "My dad told me to work on the fence all day today. He left for the market, so it's just me on the farm."

"Funny. My grandparents are at the market too, so I've been studying all morning."

"History?"

"Biology."

Daegan gulped down more of the soda, and belched.

"Gross."

"All guys do it."

"Is that so?" Belle gulped down her soda, and waited. She held up a finger to Daegan. He gave her a confused look.

She released a huge burp, startling some birds that flew up into the sky.

Daegan broke out a huge grin, laughing. "Impressive," he said.

Thunder rumbled.

"It's going to rain," Belle said.

"I need to finish this by tonight. This whole side of the fence." He motioned to the side that was nearest to her farm. "My father would get mad if he had to do more work."

"Well, he did leave you to do it. That's not much help," Belle said.

Daegan shrugged. "I just do it."

"Don't you have school?"

"Dad made me drop out at the end of sophomore year. He needed help with the farm."

"That's stupid. He should hire some farm hands."

"He says he doesn't have the money."

"Whatever. Come on, let's go inside."

"I need to work."

Belle grabbed his shirt, and made him climb over the fence, and started dragging him to her house.

"Belle--"

"I'm not going to let you work in the rain," Belle growled. It started raining, first in drops, then in bucketfuls. They were drenched in seconds.

"Okay, okay, I'll go in."

Belle slipped on the dirt--now mud--patch that her grandpa had failed to grow grass on. Daegan followed her when she fell into the mud, landing almost on top of her.

"Sorry--" Daegan began, jumping up back on his feet.

Belle laughed when she saw Daegan's face. Mud had covered one half of it.

"What?"

Belle got up, and examined herself. Her pants were covered in mud from the knees down, including the front of her shirt.

Daegan grabbed a handful of mud, and threw it at her.

Belle shrieked, and tried to run away but Daegan caught her easily before she could escape into the house.

"Let me go!"

Daegan laughed and did so, and she raced for cover under the white porch roof. He hesitated before joining her.

The rain had started to wash away the mud, but there was stains all over their clothes. The red flannel in Daegan's plaid shirt had now darkened to a burgundy, Belle's white T-shirt now brown.

"Well," Daegan said, "we have quite a story to tell."

Belle helped her grandma with preparing the food--sub sandwiches--laying out the slices of meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and buns on a large serving plate. She poured cranberry juice into a pitcher, and took out eight cups. Me, Grandma, Grandpa, Daegan, Reed, Harissa, Olive, and Qwin. she thought as she took out plates.

She set all the dishes and the serving plate on the large wooden table. Everyone dived in, taking what kind of meat and cheese they wanted for their sandwiches. She noticed Daegan handing a bun to Reed before taking one for himself. Belle stared down at her empty plate.

Qwin tried to strike up a conversation with her about how cool riding horses was.

Belle vaguely heard Harissa and Reed talking about cheerleading to Daegan.

Olive was talking to Grandma about her latest painting.

All Belle could think about was the time when Daegan had to hide at their house to avoid his father's anger.