𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐲'𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞

10 | 𝐿𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑑𝑒

"Mom--" I groaned, throwing my head back irritatingly.

Why did today have to be so hot?

The sun practically spat fire on Wyoming and this had to be the day that Jessica arranged chores. She'd been preparing herself for a case, an extremely hard one at that. My mom's job was cool in my opinion, as messy as it was to watch her staying up at all hours of the night some days and I hated her complex work weeks, like the upcoming one.

"Come on! Put your back into it!" she enthusiastically chanted behind me, hauling the wheelbarrow across the yard, the one singular wheel rocking unsteadily in the divots upon the ground.

"I just got back from school, I don't really want to do this," I returned exaggeratingly, my arms tightening and ready to give out at any moment. Our backyard was lengthy, but from the house to the fence parallel was just a short distance.

"I'm gonna be inside working like crazy soon, let's get this done," she hastily said, parking the wheelbarrow outside. She hyperventilated, but not as much as me.

"Okay, where do you want this?" I grunted. I carried a big bag of chicken feed. The bag weighed a ton on my arms and started to cause me to wobble backwards.

My mom pointed to the corner of the shed. "Right over there is fine." She placed her hands firmly on the outline of her waist as I was careful to not miss the step up onto the platform.

When I entered the shed, the surrounding walls were wood and some scraps of wood planks laid on the floor.

I plopped the bag down with a thud then wiped the back of my sleeve against my forehead, collecting beads of sweat on my hairline. "What else do you need to buy?"

I was exhausted from the amount of overworked shopping we did earlier that day and hauling what we bought from the car to the shed.

I similarly stood, hands holding onto my waist in hopes of balancing myself.

She beckoned a hand to the scraps of wood planks. "I need to create perches, then I have to build the nests, but I think I'm gonna do that in January or maybe I can get started on it? I really don't have a clue." She started chuckling, composing her breath.

It was my mom's idea to get chickens. She'd always wanted to have them since she used to as a girl when staying at her aunt's. We hadn't gotten the chickens yet, but it was her idea of working on the project bit by bit before they got here. Constructing their chicken coop and making it nice and homey for them until arrival.

I glanced up to the arched ceiling of the shed and said, "we should add fairy lights."

"Then fairy lights it is." She chuckled in reply, nodding her head and then pointing to the crimson red wheelbarrow. "Come on, help me get this in."

All of the planks of wood we needed to construct the nests were buried into the wheelbarrow and jabbing out. Though it was blazing hot and sunny, it was predicted to rain later that night and my mom was not taking any chances with damaging the wood.

I used everything in me to haul the tip of the wheelbarrow as she pushed, and we drew the cart inside. Redeeming her harbored breathing, she admitted, "your dad always wanted to have a lot of animals," she explained, a tight grin on her lips.

"We should get a dog," I remarked off-topic. I knew deep down I was insane for suggesting an idea, wholeheartedly because I lied to Sullivan, but a part of me had always wanted a dog. I grew out of the phase shortly after I turned fourteen, or did I?

"No," my mom deadpanned. "A dog's a lot of work. It'll disrupt me when I'm working--"

"I'll keep it out of your way?" I offered. I sounded less of a seventeen year old at the moment and more of a young child when I kept trying to find ways to coax her into such a life-changing decision.