Romantic - Enemies to Lovers - Forbidden Love
•✦───✧✦✧───✦•
In the peacetime following World War II, Jean Ward loses everything and is sent to live with her best friend, Clyde Mayberry, and his brood of brothers on his family's cattle ranch.
For a...
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•✦─Late Summer, 1949─✦• Sally Jean, age 11
Mama was buried next to Anne in the backyard of the shack. Sally Jean and the Mayberrys were the only ones at her funeral, and Sally Jean cried into Mrs. Mayberry's shoulder throughout the service.
Afterward, Mrs. Mayberry would explain to Sally Jean that she was going to stay with them for the time being, since Sally Jean didn't have any other family that could take her in.
Mrs. Mayberry cleared out Simon's old room downstairs, getting the boys to haul some of the furniture from the shack to furnish the room with. Sally Jean got her Mama's bed and dresser, and even the vanity Mama used to put on her makeup at before the sadness started.
Mrs. Mayberry also went out and bought Sally Jean new things for her room, like frilly, pink sheets and matching curtains, and new clothes to stock her dresser with.
They were pretty clothes. Dresses with patterns and sailor collars and pretty, little bows at the neck. Sally Jean loved wearing her new clothes. They made her feel like a movie star. She didn't have to wear her old feed-sack dresses anymore.
It was exciting, and as she grew, Mrs. Mayberry bought her more clothes to accommodate her changing body. Sally Jean quickly found that she enjoyed clothes and accessories and makeup and all the things the older boys liked to pick on her about.
They said she acted like a city girl with how she obsessed over what movie stars wore to awards shows or what new product of makeup was being advertised in one of her magazines.
On occasion, Mrs. Mayberry would let Sally Jean get into her makeup. Her only rule was that the girl wasn't allowed to wear it out of the house, because she believed she was too young for it. It took up until her first day of junior high for Sally Jean to be allowed to wear makeup.
Even though it wasn't a lot, the fresh coat of mascara Sally Jean wore made her walk with a pep in her step down the long, dirt road that led to the only bus stop on their side of town, Paulie, Jory, and Clyde trailing behind her.
"Geez, Sally Jean, stop walkin' so fast," Clyde joked. "The bus stop ain't gonna run from you!"
"Leave her be, Clyde," Paulie said. He was dressed in his good clothes, and his unruly, dark curls had been cut down the day before to look his best for school. "It's a good thing she's happy about school." He sidled up next to Sally Jean, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "Cherish the feelin' while it lasts, Pipsqueak, 'cause Lord knows it won't last forever."
"You're just sayin' that 'cause you always get crap grades," Jory said from behind them.
Paulie shrugged, dropping his arm from Sally Jean's shoulders. "Guess we can't all be nerds like you, Jory."
