Surfing Midland (Complete/ First draught).

Chapter 19

The ride home was the same as the ride into town, quiet and long. I knew that by the end of the week time would be dragging by so slowly that it would take forever just to get through a day. Either way, when we arrived home Trisha was standing on the deck, Val had caught a ride back with her as she'd gone down to the school today instead of waiting until tomorrow or whatever.

"You won't be getting bothered about what you wear anymore Leah and if you do, just let me know. That school has no right to enforce what is not written in their guidelines." I only nodded, I had no idea what Trisha was talking about and didn't want to know. I was more annoyed though that I couldn't carry out my little plan of showing the school exactly what a slut of sorts wore. Their eyes and modesties were now saved thanks to Trisha.

"I have two puppies." That wasn't meant to come out in that way, a simple statement with a flat tone. Trisha looked surprised but only nodded as she came down off the deck and went around the back of the truck.

Andy and Puck had made a lot of noise for the first twenty minutes of the ride; they didn't understand what shut up meant so my saying it was pointless.

"Oh! How cute! What are their names?" I shrugged at the question, Declan had advised me to let their personalities shine through before settling on the name. Personally, Puck and Andy were better than anything I could come up with and have decided on those two names before we'd left his office.

"Puck and Andy," I replied quickly before ducking inside. Trisha liked to make small talk, even if it was drawing things out and making it more awkward, she seemed oblivious to all that sort of stuff.

As I walked past Trisha into the house, I realised the puppies were still out in the truck, before leaving Declan's work I had promised I would patiently learn how to care for them. They were always a little gross; I was sure one pooped in their travel crate on the way back out to the ranch. Declan wouldn't pull over though so the truck had been stink for a long while.

Instead of continuing up to my room I instead turned around, dropped my bag near the bottom of the stairs and went back out to the truck where Declan and Trisha were now pulling the two travelling crates out.

"Thought you might have abandoned them for a second." I tried to smile, but it probably looked a little forced as I walked towards Declan, who held Andy's crate out towards me. Unfortunately, it seemed Andy was the puppy that had crud in his crate; my nose wrinkled as the smell wafted up and for the first time I felt a little bad.

"Ew! How am I supposed to clean it out? Won't he have pooey paws?" The question must have been worded the wrong way as Declan and Trisha began laughing to each other unless there was an inside joke I wasn't aware of.

Waiting for their laughter to die down I kept hold of Andy's crate, half tempted to shove it at either Declan or Trisha. "Seriously? Can we get this done so I can go inside?" This time both adults didn't find what I had to say funny. Instead, Declan looked a little ashamed, and Trisha nudged him in the ribs before jerking her head towards me.

"Come on then Leah, I'll show you how to clean up after a pup," the lesson was by no mean fun or cute and by the time Declan allowed me to leave the little wash area in his home practice I was regretting his ever talking me into taking Puck and Andy home. If they did the poo thing too many times I could see myself giving that task over to Declan, it was nasty work.

"Oh! Puppy!" That was the first time Juliette and Justin had ever really approached me since my getting to the ranch. Often they kept their distance or weren't in the same room as me for long periods of time; I didn't mind because kids were weird little humans. But there was no avoiding either of them as I came in the front door carrying Puck and Andy under each arm.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, but it fell on deaf ears as both pups were taken, instead of chasing the two down I saw it as a reason to take a break and took my bag that I'd put at the bottom of the stairs up to the room I still shared with Val. Declan had told me that he and Trisha would clear out the attic so that I could have my room, it would be a bit drafty...whatever that meant, but I didn't care. Especially if it meant my room.

Val was laying on her bed, though as soon as I came through the door, she pulled herself up and had a smirk on her face. I knew by now that whenever she was in the room waiting for me that whatever she had to say or do was not friendly. When she pulled my new phone out of her pocket I narrowed my eyes, she was sneaky, but I hadn't known just how devious she could be.

"So I guess my mom would be happy to see this." By the way, she seemed smug I knew Val thought she'd just won a massive battle against me. Instead of reacting the way she probably wanted me to I shrugged, the phone was still empty of contacts or messages which I was thankful for.

"Go ahead, it's new, and I'll just buy another one tomorrow. Though I'm sure, your mom would be happy to hear that you're touching in my shit...dont you think?" Val seemed to grow a little nervous at the question, and I felt a smirk spread across my face at having the upper hand for once.

Val was dumb; she tried so hard to beat me that she failed to cover her ass.

"Do you want to test that theory?" I asked, Val, seemed to change entirely as she shook her head, throwing the phone back at me before I could say anything else. Though as the phone came flying towards me, I sidestepped it and let it fall to the floor, letting out a little gasp as I heard and saw the screen crack.

After a few moments I could hear footsteps coming up the stairs, Valerie scrambled off her bed and went to retrieve my now broken phone. Instead of Trisha, I saw Declan coming through the door with a frown on his face. As soon as he spotted Val on the floor with my now broken phone in hand, the frown only deepened.

"Valerie! What did you do?" Declan demanded as he stepped through the door into our room.

Instead of letting Valerie take the blame I stepped in front of him, "it's my fault. She threw my phone at me, and I didn't catch it, butterfingers I guess." Declan looked at me a few moments like he was trying to figure out if I was lying or not. He seemed to make up his mind before turning back to Valerie, who had stood up by now and was standing just a little behind me.

"How'd you get the phone, Valerie?" This time I couldn't but in and instead turned to see what Valerie would say. She didn't have an answer, her mouth worked wordlessly to form any excuse, but her mind seemed to blank, and the frown that fell across her face was amusing.

"I took it." Surprised to hear the truth come out of her mouth for once I turned to Declan to see what he would do or even how he would react.

"Jesus Valerie, you're a sucker for punishment aren't you?" It was a rhetorical question, but Valerie shook her head all the same as tears began falling. Frowning, even more, I wondered if this was all an act, I'd never seen Valerie crumple so fast before.

Declan sighed but said nothing as he took Valerie by the shoulders and steered her out of the room. Curious to know where they were going I followed, Declan took Val down into the family lounge where Trisha was with Henry, Justin and Juliette.

Without saying a word, Valerie held the phone out towards Trisha and began sobbing. I held back, peeking in through the open door instead of going right the way into the room.

Instead of yelling Trisha only sighed and stood from the sofa, she hugged Valerie who seemed to break down even more. Either Valerie was an Oscar award-winning actress or she really was crying, why I didn't know but was sure to find out as soon as Declan turned and gave me a look.

High tailing it back up to the room I waited until someone came to either growl me or yell out that dinner was ready but the call never rang out, so I didn't leave the room until the next day.