Sweat trickles down my back.
Disgusting. I hate sweat. I'm tempted to go hose off, but that would mean walking up the hill.
"Can we take a break yet?," my sister, Geneice - who goes by Jenny but spells it Jeni - asks. She's hunched over with her hands on her knees, panting. She's a heavy set girl. 5'3", blonde hair, - when is not dyed - blue gray eyes - which she calls hazel -, and a hefty 235lbs. I know because I pick her up on occasion to see just how strong I am.
"No, we need to work until 1. Dad is gonna wanna see progress when he gets home. Besides, is not as hot now as it will be at 1, so I want to take my break then."
"A two hour break?" She tilts her head to the side, raising an eyebrow. Her crooked teeth show, causing me to smile. My mom and I are the only ones who have straight teeth and that's due to braces. I love seeing her crooked teeth because they are the same exact ones I had before three years of braces. Momma says she'll get her turn eventually. She's already 15, I doubt she cares too much about getting them now. Our teeth are going to rot out anyway. We both have fillings due to never going to the dentist. She's been one time and I only went twice before getting braces. I wanted them. I wanted to be an actress and that meant having straight teeth. I'm 16 now, and though I'm no where near ugly, I'm not exactly hot either. She taps her foot. "Earth to Nicole," she say, bringing me out of my ADD trance, or hyper focus -that's the preferred term I like to use.
"I want to finish sooner than later. If we can fill up two buckets each before lunch, then we can take a longer lunch. I'll even let you pick the movie."
"Two 5 gallon buckets in 2 hours?" She let's out a heavy sigh. "Remind me why we have to spend our summer digging up rocks."
"Didn't you hear, next week they're holding auditions for Holes 2!" I laugh at my own joke. She straightens, her hand on her hip, and rolls her eyes. I don't like digging up rocks any more than she does, but dad says we have to. He says he'll beat us if he runs over a rock with the new riding lawn mower. The grass will come in soon. If we don't finish by the time school starts, he'll have us out here on the weekends. It could be worse, we could have friends.
That would really suck. Oh, you want me to go to the mall with you? Sorry, I have rocks to pull out of the ground. People would think our family is crazy. Heck sometimes I think that. "Go get some water and hurry back," I tell her, knowing that she'll take at least 15 minutes.
I watch her make slow strides up the hill as I rake the ground. 'Get them barried ones too. They'll come up when it rains.' My dad's not a evil man he just thinks children need to earn their keep.
We're not treated like other kids. We have responsibilities and we don't get paid for taking care of them. We don't have cable TV or Internet. No mp3 player or special electronics. And our cell phone is a spare that came with our parents phone plan. We can call them and we can talk on the weekends and anytime after 7. If we use it outside of that time frame, we'll be in big trouble.
Jenny is still grounded for downloading tetris. Lucky for me, her grounding includes washing dishes every night for the rest of the month. Yay me.
Sweat starts dripping into my eyes. It's gotta 100 degrees out here. Dad says not to be out in the sun from 1 to 2 since that is when it is the hottest. I lift my shirt to wipe my forehead. Our closest neighbors are 100 feet away and they keep to themselves. They live in a three story mansion in comparison to our small three bedroom house. They're nice but they keep too themselves. I see the older woman every once in a while. She likes to garden and take walks on the farm. I like the pasture, a big open feild easily seen from our back yard.
Rff. Jenny comes stumbling down the hill with her bucket and shovel as Freddy, our black lab, runs past her. Rff. Rff. "Oh no, the cows are in the water."
Rff. Freddy flattens out his body and slips through the fence. Splash. Moo. Moo. Freddy swims across the pond, disturbing the cows.
"Wish I could get in," Jenny says.
"Oh hush, you just had a water break."
"Sorry I'm not a cactus like you. I need water."
"Sure," I laugh. She just thinks this is easy for me. I'm exhuasted. I would love nothing more than to go inside, but the second I stop working Ilk get comfortable and won't wanna come back out. We're over half way done with our 1.75 acres the harder I push myself, the faster we'll be done. I need more time for my summer reading anyway.
