Surfing Midland (Complete/ First draught).

Chapter 7

Dinner began when everyone was sitting at the table, which took a while as Valerie dwadled down from our bedroom. She was an odd girl, I was yet to see her smile out of happiness, and I'd been around her most of the day. Whenever I did lay eyes on her she was either frowning or trying to insult me; it was probably a good thing I had thick skin, or I might have cried by now.

"So Leah, when you did attend classes at school, what were they?" Cringing at the question I hoped the conversation wasn't going to focus on me all night, yeah I was the new person on the ranch, but I wasn't the only one at the table.

The question came from Adrian Rose, the one that was in charge of the ranch hands and who I would eventually be working with. "Gym, history, English and science." I hated that they were questioning me like this like I couldn't keep at something as simple as a class. The way Adrian looked at me felt like I was lying or that he didn't believe a single word I said.

"So why did you fail?" This time the question came from Valerie, again she looked like she wanted to kill me or something. Her expression was flat, the tone she used dripped distaste.

"Does it matter?" I questioned as I took a sip of water, the conversation had nose dived quickly and left me feeling like I was the centre of all the bad attention. No one came to my rescue as I looked from Trisha to Declan and around at everyone else who was sat at the table. A few people avoided my glance, others just coughed and reached for water, but it was apparently just Valerie and me in this little game.

"It does actually, we all want to know how dumb you are." That did it, Trisha stood from where she had been sitting and ordered her to apologise. I ignored her and stood, along with my glass of water and walked over to Valerie.

"I'm dumb enough to do this," before Valerie had a chance to move I tipped my glass of water over her head, placed the empty glass next to her and walked out of the dining room. Usually, I would hit anyone that was so openly hateful towards me, I don't know why I didn't hit Valerie, but the urge was still there when I made my way outside.

A lot of people would have said that physical violence wasn't the way to go, I was never sneaky enough to play pranks, never had the patience to plan anything, so the next best thing was to get physical.

"I want you to apologise," I hadn't heard anyone come out the front door but assumed the command was directed at me when I turned to tell whoever it was that I would rather die than apologise I stopped. Valerie was stood not too far from me looking ashamed and wet, Trisha was standing behind her looking as angry as ever.

I made a mental note never to anger Trisha. Usually, she looked like a pleasant woman but right now well I was glad I wasn't in Valerie's spot right then.

"Valerie, I'm waiting. We'll stand out here all night if we have to, I want you to apologise for being a brat to Leah. Leah, I would appreciate an apology from you as well." I frowned but nodded, all the same, apologies weren't my thing, and I never had to give one before, so this would take a bit of practice.

"I'm not apologising to her! You and dad both have been giving her special treatment since she got here and it's not fair on any of your actual kids. Not to mention, you treat her like an adult! We're the same age mom!" All I heard coming out of Valerie's mouth was, 'blah, blah, I'm jealous, blah, blah, blah.'

"Look how you're reacting to everything Valerie! You wonder why I treat Leah like an adult and not you? She's not the one throwing a hissy fit because she doesn't like the situation. You've had a stick up that behind of yours since your daddy announced that Leah would be coming to live and I want it gone. You've got a bad attitude missy, and unless you want all privileges taken away, you'll adjust it. Do I make myself clear?" Was I mature? Huh, that was a new one. Usually, I was in Valerie's position getting the same lecture from my mother; I was immature, I was throwing my future away...hissy fits, stupid moves and all that.

"I'm not apologising to that." There it was again, that total dislike for me but this time it made me step back a little.

"Well, when you wonder why you can't go riding, why you have no laptop or why you can't take your cell phone to school you just remember tonight. You're grounded for a month, and that means no sports practice after school, that means no end of the school dance and anything else like that! Until you can apologise to Leah for being immature." Wow, that was harsh punishment. I had never been grounded before, my usual punishment was washing dishes or making my bed, and that was it.

Valerie stomped off inside without so much as another word if that were me I would have probably kept arguing with my mom.

"You let me know when she apologises, won't you Leah? We are giving you some special treatment, but it's because you've come from another world. Declan told me you might be a little uncomfortable with two parents and being so far away from home we don't exactly want to drive you back down there after the first day. But, if ever you display behaviour like Valerie's you will be given the same punishment...understood?" Now I felt as if the negative attention was squarely on me, the only thing I did was give a slight nod before putting a finger up in question.

"But you wouldn't take my cell, would you? I can understand my laptop or iPod, but I need my phone in case someone calls from the tour circuits I was supposed to go on this summer." That was a lie, and Trisha saw right through it, shaking her head as she motioned for me to follow her back inside.

"I'll take the phone too; we can go over who you need to call next weekend and then we'll put the calls through." I didn't like the sound of that but nodded anyway, if my phone was taken I could always buy a new one. I kept friends cell numbers written down in a notebook so it wouldn't be like, I had no one to stay in contact with.

"I...uhm, my mom hasn't been around much ya know? So I don't know how to be normal around moms. Mine just made me wash dishes if I got in trouble, but like...I don't know how to do anything around houses. I had a maid and a nanny for all that stuff." Trisha stopped when I began speaking, she seemed surprised to hear what I had to say and thought for a few minutes before answering me.

"We'll take it slow, okay? I can show you how to do things around the house until you get the hang of it and then we can move out on to the ranch, does that sound okay? If your mother was hardly ever home who took care of you?" Trisha seemed to be thinking hard about a solution to the problem, I would like to have learned things, but house work seemed so lame and not at all appealing.

"Melissa, my nanny used to take care of me. My mom was only home forty days last year; she's always busy with business meetings and all that." Shrugging, I carried on into the house leaving Trisha outside to contemplate what I had just told her. It was all true; I had trouble remembering the times I did see my mother last year, she hadn't been home for Christmas or summer break...I was alone on New Year's Eve because I felt sorry for making Melissa stay so locked her out of the house and told her to go and have fun.

Instead of going back down to eat I went upstairs to change into my pj's and then climb into bed, Valerie wasn't in the room, but there was a pile of her clothes at the end of her bed. Not liking mess I picked her clothing up and put them in the clothes hamper next to the door, it was when I closed the lid that I realised I could do house work! I'd been picking up my clothes for a long time now.

Suddenly the thought of house work wasn't as frightening as it had been previously, I could do it.

__________________________________________________________________

Don't hate Val, she has her reasons for not liking Leah...or the idea of Leah (other then being jealous).