That Boy Next Door

Chapter 9

As if knowing that they were all going to protest, the Parkers left quickly with the Hales hot on their heels.  

Oliver grumbled something along the lines of, "I don't want to work with grumpy."  Van responded with a sharp elbow into his stomach.  

"Let's go guys," Quinn sighed pushing Dexter and Katy out the door.  She was the responsible one so it was only logical if she took them out for the day.

"I guess it's just you and me then." Seth said turning to face Dannie.

***

"This is such hard work!" Dannie complained from on top of the ladder.  She had just scrubbed every last window on the front side of her house and was now working on the back.  Seth had been surprisingly helpful, cleaning just as many windows as she had.

"The day is still young!" Seth yelled to her from the downstairs window.  His hair appeared to be a lighter shade of brown as the sun cast its ray onto him.  Sweat beads were forming on his forehead from the exertion of simply cleansing all these damned windows.

Dannie leaned her head against the newly cleaned window, holding her pail of water loosely in her hand.  Carrying a bucket of water while simultaneously washing with a sponge drained one's energy fast.

"Can we take a break now?" she complained.

"Why, tired already little girl?" he taunted from below her.

"Of course not," she lied.  Dannie picked her sponge back up and continued the scrubbing motion that had become so mundane to her.  Up and down.  Up and down.  Up and down.

Somewhere between the up and down motions, Dannie's left arm had grown numb.  She didn't notice as it slipped from her hand and went hurtling down towards the ground.

Or more specifically, towards an off guard Seth, who was humming the tune to a pop song.  As Dannie noticed the missing bucket in her hands, she opened her mouth to shout at Seth.  It was a meaningless effort though as the bucket had already made contact with his head.

"Mother of--" Seth grabbed his head in agonizing pain as the soapy water drenched his clothes.  "Dannie!"

Dannie scrambled down the ladder as fast as her legs would take her.  She rushed over to where Seth stood, clutching his head like it would explode any minute.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" she repeated as she tried to figure out what to do.  "Where does it hurt?"

"Where the bucket hit it," Seth answered in a 'duh' tone.  Dannie rolled her eyes at him but was relieved on the inside that he was still able to joke around with a head injury.

"Let's go to the back shed, that's where we keep the medical supplies," Dannie instructed.   She led him to a wooden shed, about the size of her room that was located under their syringa tree.

"Why is the first aid in a shed?  Couldn't you have just put the stuff in a closet in your house?" Seth asked trudging inside the shed.

"Well my dad is a doctor so we have to keep all his supplies in one place.  We didn't have enough room in the house so we decided to build a shed," Dannie explained as she started digging through drawers of pills and tablets.  "Oh, and make sure the door stays open.  It locks from the outside."

"Huh?" Seth asked dazedly.  His head was starting to throb and the words Dannie spoke sounded vaguely like Spanish.

"I said, keep the door--" she cut off when a thud sounded from Seth slamming the door shut on accident.  The ice packet she held in her hand slipped out as she rushed to the door.  She grasped the handle and jiggled it furiously but to no avail.