flipped ➸ c.h au

5.

so the science fair was coming up and i had no energy to join it whatsoever, its been almost two weeks and im still not over my sycamore tree being cut down. during those two weeks that passed by, i didn't want to see that stupid stump from the sycamore tree. so what did i do? i didnt ride the bus, i rode my bike and went a different route so i didnt have to see the stump that reminded me of my sycamore tree. 

however, my parents wanted me to join the science fair and i told them that i didnt want to, i didnt have the energy to. but that night, my dad told me about the eggs. he told me that it would be a great project and it would teach me a few lessons about it too. 

but one problem, i had no idea what to do and how to take care of it. i read the incubation chapter over ten thousand times and still had no idea what to do. i didnt have an old aquarium and i didnt have an incubator thermometer either! 

not to mention that i had to control the freaking humidity too, or else terrible things would happen to the chick. if it was too hot, it would peak out and if it was too wet, it would have mushy chick disease and die and i did NOT want to know more about that, i was too disgusted to even read that again. 

luckily, my dad helped me with this whole thing. he told me that we would build an incubator for it after dinner. my dad also knew a lot about raising chicks, he told me that he raised chicks for a science fair project too. 

my dad told me to keep the temperature constant, the humidity right, and to turn the eggs several times every day. we then went to go find more thermometers and a hygrometer. he told me that it was to check humidity in the incubator.

the next day at school, my teacher, mrs. rosales, told me that not all of the chicks make it, most of them die even before they would be born. so she told me to hope for at least one. 

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that night, my dad wanted to show me how a candle light allows you to see through the shell of the egg so you could watch the embryo develop. he then told me that if any of them are weak, we would have to cull them just in case they explodeand contaminate the healthy eggs with bacteria. 

we then checked all of the eggs and once i saw all of the embryos, i suddenly felt happy. i think it was because the eggs were actually alive and then they would hatch into something that would be able to breathe, eat, live, etc. i dont know, it just made me feel happy that i was doing something like this. 

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for the next two weeks, all i ever did was take care of the chicks. my dad told me that i didnt really need to name the chicks, he said that i could just label them as A, B, C, D, E, and F. but i was way too excited to NOT name them. i named them: charli, joshua, zelle, aurora, concheta, and lacy. 

also, during those two weeks, i read the beginners book to raising chickens twice, maybe even thrice. (a/n: this is me trying to be funny soz) i even drew a few diagrams of the progression of the chicks. i honestly thought that this project would be the most boring thing ever, but turns out, it was one of the most amazing decisions ive ever made. 

the problem was, i had no idea how i was going to see all of them hatch. i didnt even want to miss a single second of the hatching. so i told my mom about it and she told me to just set it up at school already, you know, an early set up. and thankfully, mrs. rosales said that i could set it up early and she didnt mind at all. 

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zelle and aurora were the first ones to hatch and i have to admit that they were pretty ugly. but after a few days, they started to develop feathers and charli and concheta hatched too. lacy and joshua were the very last ones to hatch, but they didnt hatch until the actual science fair. and thank god that they did because it actually impressed the judges. 

when the night was over, my mom asked me if i would keep them as pets. i havent actually thought about that, really. the next day at school, i asked mrs. rosales if i could keep them and to my relief, she said that they were all mine. but as soon as my told my mom when i came home, she automatically said no. i begged and pleaded and maybe even cried a bit for her to say yes. i told her that i would take care of them and i would feed them and that they would stay in our backyard. thankfully, she finally said yes. 

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a few weeks after they were fully grown, zelle and aurora started to hatch eggs and soon enough, my family was bombarded with eggs and we would cook them in every dish possible, but they were too much for us. 

then mrs. davis asked us if she could have some of our eggs. so i started selling my eggs $2 a dozen to all of our neighbours. but i realized that i never actually gave some eggs to the hood family. i decided that i wouldnt charge them for the eggs because they were always there whenever we needed something like a vaccuum when ours broke down and all that. 

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every time i delivered eggs to the hood family, calum would always open the door before i could even knock and plus, i got to spend a few seconds and minutes with him. 

but one day, after i delivered the eggs to calum, i stayed at the front of his house for a few minutes just thinking about some things, then calum comes out with the garbage. 

"celine? what are you still doing here?" he asked, he seemed pretty tense, actually. 

"just thinking, do you need any help with your garbage?" i walked closer and saw that my eggs were at the top. i stepped back and said, "calum?" 

"im really sorry celine." was all he said. 

"why are you throwing them away?"

"i- uh- i dropped them." he said nervously. i took a good look at them again and said, "they look perfectly fine, calum." 

he looked down and said, "im really, really sorry, celine. my dad thought that we would get salmonella poisoning."

"salmonella poisoning? why the hell would you think you guys would get salmonella poisoning?" i asked angrily. 

"have you seen your yard, celine? its a complete mess!" 

i shook my head and took the egg carton out of the paper bag that he was holding. "mrs. davis, mrs. johnson, and mrs. miller have been paying me two bucks for each dozen i give to them. and ive been giving you these eggs for free, calum." 

"really?" 

"yes, really. and if you didnt want these eggs in the first place, then why didnt you just tell me that you didnt want them?" 

"i- i- i- was just afraid of hurting your feelings, celine." he stuttered. 

"hurting my feelings? you wouldnt have hurt my feelings like this if you wouldve told me that you didnt want them!" i yelled, fighting back the tears.

"then why did you even give them to us in the first place?" he fought back. 

at this point, the tears were starting to pool in my eyes but i tried to blink them away so he  wouldnt notice. "your family has given us so much and i thought that i would be a good neighbor and share my eggs with your family for free."

he was silent and i stared at those chocolate brown eyes of his for a few seconds. "im sorry, celine." he whispered. 

i shook my head and walked back to my house. but as soon as i opened my door, the tears that ive been holding back, were finally falling down my cheeks as i stumbled into my room with my heart cracked open. 

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this chapter was hella boring v sorry but it was actually important to the plot soo 

and boo for calum for being a bitch to her and yay for celine for standing up to him 

also, i decided that i wanted calum to cuss a lil bit bc yolo, maybe even a bit for celine, maybE, but most probably, idk ok 

the first time i wrote 'fuck' in the other chapter, the story became pg-13 automatically, im laughing