Engaged

Chapter 9

The car ride was dead silent the entire rest of the way to the site.  Lainey got out and headed up to find her friends not bothering to wait for Peyton, who was trailing behind.

"Lain!" Mack yelled.

"Mack, Eli" Lainey called out.

"I see you took Mack's advice and brought your tagalong." Eli said motioning with his head to Peyton who was coming up behind them.

"Hey guys" Peyton said slightly out of breath.

"Yeah, she refused to get out of the car.  What are you guys working on?" Lainey said ignoring Peyton.

"We're trying to put together this rock wall, but dumbass over here keeps handing me the wrong pieces so it's taking forever." Mackenzie said.

"I'm colorblind ok.  I don't know why I got this job anyway.  Why can't you hand me the colors?"

"Because your weak-ass can't screw the pieces together." Mack teased.

"Hey, no cussing over there" Tim, the project manager, yelled to them.

"Sorry Tim!" Mack yelled back

"Lainey!  Good to see you again kid!  Can't you keep those two in line a little better?" Tim joked as he made his way over to them.

Lainey laughed, "My bad Tim.  I just got here."

"I noticed you didn't show up with your friends like usual. Did you oversleep?"

"No, I had an interview this morning for Morning Dew with Drew."

"Oh, that's my wife's favorite morning show, so I'm sure I'll hear all about it when I get home today."

"Wonder why, the man's a god." Eli mumbled under his breath earning a sharp elbow to the ribs by Mack.

"Who ya got with ya?" Tim asked looking over to Peyton who had moved to stand behind Lainey after Tim came over.

"Peyton, she's never came with us before. Peyton this is Tim, he's always in charge of these things."

"Nice to meet ya Peyton.  Always happy to welcome new comers." Tim said extending his hand to Peyton.

"Nice to meet you too." Peyton said taking Tim's hand.

"Can I actually get you two to go over and start working on the swings?"

"Yeah, no problem." Lainey said walking over to where the swings were laying on the ground.  Peyton followed close behind.

"Thank you so much girls.  I'll send a couple of kids your way!" Tim yelled out as they walked away.

"Mackenzie" Tim grumbled.

"Yeah" she grunted out trying to tighten a screw.

"What's their deal?"

"Who?  Peyton and Lainey?"

"Yeah."

"They've hated each other for as long as I can remember, and now their parents are forcing them to live together for 'business reasons' or something like that at least.  Not really sure what the whole story is Lainey's not aloud to talk much about it."

"What do you think of that Peyton girl?" Tim questioned watching the two girls working.

"I think she needs to get her head out of her daddy's ass." Eli chimed in.

"I think that she's a lot different than Lainey, and that is what caused them so many problems in the past, but I think they could be unstoppable if they put their differences aside long enough to work together.  Peyton grew up rich like Lainey, but she took advantage of it whereas Lainey decided to give back.  I don't think she's a bad person, I think she just fell into the prissy stuck-up crowd so that's who she turned into."