The New Girl

{3} Settling in

The next morning I wake up to the sun hitting my eyes. "What?!" I say seeing my grandmum. "Grandmum what are you.." "your getting out of bed and coming with us to eat breakfast downstairs. I let you mope yesterday and I understand what your going through hunny" she says sitting on my bed. "I love you but the only way your going to get through this is facing it. Get out of bed and live your life like your parents would want you to. I know they don't want you lying in bed the rest of your life" she says pulling me up and leading me downstairs. I sit at the table as she brings me breakfast. Eggs, bacon, toast. I poke at it while they eat away. Grandads already dirty and looks like he's been working for days. "You gotta eat. Grandmas eggs and bacon is the best eggs and bacon in town." "I'm just not that hungry." "Prolly cuz you just gulped down a half apple juice. Your stomach ain't got room for nothin else after all that drinkin" grandad says stuffing more eggs into his mouth. I put a tiny piece of bacon into my. "Blimey! This is really good" the words rumble out of my mouth. "What in the hell does Blimey mean. I mean y'all say it all the time" grandad says completely confused. "It means like "my goodness!"" Grandmum says. "Well I'll be" he says baffled. As they talk I stuff all the food on my plate into my stomach. "Alright I gotta go check on Maybell" grandad says getting up from the table and going to the kitchen with his plate. "Who's Maybell?" I ask doing the same. We rinse off our plates and put them in the dishwasher. "She one of our pregnant pigs. You want to come with?" I nod my head. "Alright we'll go on and get dressed and come on out to that shed right over there" he says pointing at a little building that's not very wide but it's pretty long. I run up stairs and throw open my suitcase looking for something to wear. "Here try this on." Grandmum says holding up some jeans and a shirt. I grab them and run into the bathroom to change. "Oh and brush your teeth while your at it" she yells in at me. Once I'm done I come out to show grandmum. "The pants are kind of big" I say and she hand me a belt with a big circle emblem thing on the front of it. "Your momma had a bunch of farm clothes" she said putting the belt around my waist to hold up the jeans. "It was all she'd ever wear. Here turn around" she says while finishing up the belt and doing my hair. She does one long braid down the back. "It is comfortable" I say looking at my outfit. I turn around and grandmum throws a hat on my head and it says something about equestrian something. It looks pretty old too. "This was mine when I was your age then I handed it down to your momma and she wore that everywhere." "Thankyou!" I say and go over to put my high top converse on. When I do so grandma laughs. "What?" "Your not gonna wear those out there honey. Here come here." She says walking down stairs. She hands me some cowgirl boots that fit perfect! "Thankyou grandmum" I say hugging her and running out the door. I get to the building and it stinks bad. "What is that smell" I say plugging my nose. "That's the good ol smell of pig" grandad says smiling. "Why are there so many?" I ask looking at all the pigs. "Well we raise em then sell most of them" "what do you sell them for?" "Well people buy them for meat mainly" "oh. Can I pet one?" "Yeah if you want" grandad says laughing. "They aren't very furry" he says still chuckling. I lean over and pet one and it looks up at me and snorts. I laugh along with grandpa. "Which one is Maybell?" "This one over here" he says walking towards a separate cage. "It's so big!" I say surprised. "Yeah well she's got around twelve baby pigs in that tummy" "woah. When are they going to be born?" "Well hopefully tonight. You want to stay with me tonight so you can help?" "I don't think I want to see the whole process if I'm being honest but I'll hold them when it's over!" Grandad laughs at that. "What other animals do you have?" "Well" grandad says walking out of the shed. "We've got cows, chickens, a few cats..." he's interrupted by a dog running up and jumping on him. I gasp and bend down to my knees to let it. "Your so cute!" I say as it licks my face and jumps all over me. "Max down" grandad scolds and the dogs sits and looks between me and him with his tongue out and smiling. "Aww he smiles" "yeah that stupid puppy face" he says walking towards the barn. "You know now with being on the farm and all it'd be nice if you could help me and your grams out you know?" "Oh I definitely want to help" I say excited to help. "What does grandmum do?" Well she milks the dairy cows, tends the bees, cleans up the house, makes dinner, and occasionally she'll make pie and boy it's the best darn pie in Tennessee!" We both laugh as we enter the barn. "And what do you do grandad?" "Well, I tend the pigs, feed the cats and the dog, I tend the beef cows, the chickens, and I also tend the crops." He says opening a door leading to a hayloft. "Blimey! What is this place?" I ask walking around a big open room with hay stacked randomly. "It's a hayloft. Your mom and her friends would always hangout up here. They made it their own little fort. When she first met your dad she brought him up here which was a surprise cuz she only let her best friends in and they had to have a password. One day she almost fell out of the hayloft and your dad tried to catch her and instead fell with her on a truck load of hay." We both laughed. "Mum never told me that story" "yeah I'm sure she didn't tell you a lot about this place. Too much to tell" he said looking around. "Now about that British slang you got goin on. We're in Tennessee now. So Blimey isn't a word. Nobody knows what that means. It's Oh my goodness. And it's not wicked it's cool." "Sorry grandad I'll catch up on it sooner or later" I say finding a new set of doors. I undo a latch and push them open to see a pretty view of land. "You could see London from here" I say sarcastically. "Oh yeah and the sarcasm.. maybe not so much of it." He says walking up behind me. "There's the cows over there, there's the chicken coop, theres where the honey bees are, there's Butchs dog house, and underneath us is where the dairy cows are milked and the cats roam all over the barn. They usually sleep up here." He says closing the doors and latching them shut. We walk down stairs and he shows me the barn. "What used to be here?" I ask gesturing to a stall with hay in it, some ribbons hanging on the walls. "This was where your moms horse stayed. She would sleep in here." "My mum told me about her! She told me I was named after her since her name was Melody! I love horses just like my mum" "yeah she always told me that! She loved that you loved them just as much as she did!" He says smiling down at me. Grandad shows me the rest of the farm while we check on Maybell every so often. We go inside and it's only lunch time. As we're eaten grandmums homemade pot pies some one knocks on the door. "It's prolly just Tom" grandad says to Grandmum as she walks towards the door. She opens the door down the hallway and we can hear her. "Hey Tom come on in! Your just in time for my homemade pot pie!" She says laughing and walks in with a boy walking behind her. He is smiling and he is very handsome. I nearly spit out my food. "Hey Tom how are you bud" "I'm good Rick how are you?" He says almost professionally. "I'm doing great. Here meet my granddaughter Melody" "wow the world famous Melody?" He asks funnily. "The one and only" grandmum says from the kitchen. He sticks his hand out looking me dead in the eyes there's a sparkle to them. "Hey I'm Tom." I grab his hand to shake it "Nice to meet you" I say and his eyes widen. "Woah they weren't kiddin when they said you were British" we both laugh and finally let go of each other's hands. Grandmum puts a bowl of pot pie in front of him at the table. "So how's Maybell" "oh you know pregnant, always sleepin" they both laugh like their 80 year old men who have known each other a lifetime. They talk about the farm for a bit then he turns towards me from across the table. "So where you from exactly?" Tom asks his eyes still containing sparkles. "Cambridge. It's a town outside of London." I say my fingers interlocking each other in my lap. "That's cool so are u staying for awhile or just visiting" "I'm staying." "Oh that's cool are your parents just out?" "Uhm well. Their uh. They kinda of uhm a died." "Oh I'm so sorry I didn't mean t..." "no it's fine really. I think I'm just gonna go unpack some more. I'll see you around?" I say getting out of my chair and putting my dishes away. "Uhm yeah, yeah of course" he says and I give him a tiny smile and disappear upstairs.

                                     +++++++++
When I got up to my room I decided to call Claire and Jeremy. It was one a clock here so it was 7 a clock there. "Hello sorry I didn't call yesterday it was kind of...rough" I say sitting up on my bed. "It's alright." "Where's Jeremy?" "You know, just cuz we're twins doesn't mean we spend every second of everyday together." We both laugh and she yells for Jeremy to see her. "Oh hello Claire" "hello" I say giving them a smile. Just happy to see their faces. "What's wrong?" "Nothing I'm just glad to see you lads again" they smile "so show us your room!" Claire says excitedly. "Ok ok so I haven't completely looked through it yet but I have this desk with a wicked spin chair, here's my bed, and my dressers, and these really long curtains." I pull them open and see a balcony. "Woah" we all say together. I open the door and walk out getting a pretty view of a big city. Nashville. It's not up close or anything it's kind of distant. "That's wicked Melody!" "It's so pretty!" "Omg lads there's a chair with like cushions on it!" I say even more excited. "How did I not even notice this. "Ok now I'm super jealous" Claire says, making us all laugh. I hear a knock on my bedroom door and turn around to see Tom in the doorway. "Who is..." Claire starts to say before I hang up real quick. "Sorry my friends" I say awkwardly and he laughs. "No I'm sorry" he says walking in. "I knew that.. u know.. I just didn't put two and two together I'm just kind of stupid like that sometimes. But I just wanted to say I'm really sorry." He says looking at his hands fidgeting the whole time. I walk up to him. "We didn't really meet great so let's restart. Hello, I'm Melody Rick and Ruby's granddaughter" I say smiling. "Tom, Rick and Ruby's farmhand" he says shaking my hand also smiling. "What is a farmhand?" I ask while he laughs. "It's just somebody who helps out with farm chores." "Oh okay. Well helping me unpack is a chore and it's in a house on a farm and I could use some help" I say and we both laugh.

                                 Authors Note
Hey y'all, so here we're getting some details on how her home life is going to be now and a little bit of the friendship that's already happening within Tom and Melody. I wasn't very confident in this chapter but I think it turned out fine. Next chapter she's going to be starting school!! So we'll get a little bit of her education starting to come into the picture! Again let me know your thoughts so far!! I really appreciate the advice!!