Spotty World I - My Stepdad's Daughter Was My Ex-Girlfriend

Home On The Range VOL.2

DOLLY

It was early in the morning, the first rays of sun starting to appear on the horizon and the rooster getting ready to crow. To anyone, it would look like a beautiful morning.

Except for Dolly.

Dolly is definitely not a morning person, especially when it comes to waking up before sunrise. And this morning, the sleepy girl was faced with one of the most absurd chores she had ever been given.

Milk the cows.

Even though Patch had provided all the meals at the start of the visit, Dolly and the other new grandchildren had discovered the day before that doing farm chores was part of their family vacation in the Dalmatian Ranch. Chores are written on small plastic ping-pong balls, which are placed in a cowboy hat and drawn the night before.

In the previous years, each of Patch's grandchildren would have to take two balls out of his hat and Dylan would take three, but as the number of grandchildren doubled, they would each take one of the balls and at his own insistence, Dylan would still take an extra ball.

And while most of the chores were simple, three had to be done long before breakfast, these being collecting eggs from the chicken coop (which for today was taken by Da Vinci), preparing breakfast (a chore written on three balls, which today were taken by Dawkins, Dimitri 3 and Dizzy) and of course, milking the cows, which was the chore that Dolly least wanted, and although there was a system between the siblings to switch chores, milking the cows was precisely the one chore that none of the pups wanted.

And if that wasn't uncomfortable enough...

"Don't worry, Dolly." Summer said amicably, patting the Dalmatian on the back. "With my help, it will be much easier."

Dolly grinned, trying (and failing) to hide how uncomfortable she was around the Collie girl. The two were in the barn, standing in front of the milking area, where there were four cows. As Patch's new grandchildren still didn't know how to do certain chores, the old Dalmatian asked Scott, Summer, and Dylan to help him teach them in these first days.

Dolly was sure that milking the cows would be a less unpleasant experience if Dylan had been the one to teach her, but apparently he was banned from the barn because one of the cows always tried to attack him.

"Thank you, Summer. I don't know what I would do without you."

Summer immediately frowned, looking at Dolly sternly and crossing her arms.

"Okay, it's more than clear that you're uncomfortable with something." Summer's eyes widened then, and she looked at Dolly quite guiltily. "Oh, dog. Are you still upset about the kiss?"

Dolly's face went red like an ambulance's emergency light, the overwhelming sense of shame making her fully awake.

"NO! I mean... yes! Maybe? Ugh!" Dolly then covered her face with both hands, totally overwhelmed with shame and uncertainty. "Why does everything have to be so complicated in my life?"

Dolly just stood there, trying to calm down, when she was caught off guard by a hug.

"It's all right." Summer said, speaking in a comforting way and patting the Dalmatian on the back. "We don't need to bring this up, and we don't need to be friends either if you don't want to. However, I live at your grandfather's resort and keep in touch with Dylan and Da Vinci, so we need to be able to at least be close to each other without creating a tense mood around us."