The car ride was dead silent the entire rest of the way to the site. Lainey got out and headed up to find her friends not bothering to wait for Peyton, who was trailing behind.
"Lain!" Mack yelled.
"Mack, Eli" Lainey called out.
"I see you took Mack's advice and brought your tagalong." Eli said motioning with his head to Peyton who was coming up behind them.
"Hey guys" Peyton said slightly out of breath.
"Yeah, she refused to get out of the car. What are you guys working on?" Lainey said ignoring Peyton.
"We're trying to put together this rock wall, but dumbass over here keeps handing me the wrong pieces so it's taking forever." Mackenzie said.
"I'm colorblind ok. I don't know why I got this job anyway. Why can't you hand me the colors?"
"Because your weak-ass can't screw the pieces together." Mack teased.
"Hey, no cussing over there" Tim, the project manager, yelled to them.
"Sorry Tim!" Mack yelled back
"Lainey! Good to see you again kid! Can't you keep those two in line a little better?" Tim joked as he made his way over to them.
Lainey laughed, "My bad Tim. I just got here."
"I noticed you didn't show up with your friends like usual. Did you oversleep?"
"No, I had an interview this morning for Morning Dew with Drew."
"Oh, that's my wife's favorite morning show, so I'm sure I'll hear all about it when I get home today."
"Wonder why, the man's a god." Eli mumbled under his breath earning a sharp elbow to the ribs by Mack.
"Who ya got with ya?" Tim asked looking over to Peyton who had moved to stand behind Lainey after Tim came over.
"Peyton, she's never came with us before. Peyton this is Tim, he's always in charge of these things."
"Nice to meet ya Peyton. Always happy to welcome new comers." Tim said extending his hand to Peyton.
"Nice to meet you too." Peyton said taking Tim's hand.
"Can I actually get you two to go over and start working on the swings?"
"Yeah, no problem." Lainey said walking over to where the swings were laying on the ground. Peyton followed close behind.
"Thank you so much girls. I'll send a couple of kids your way!" Tim yelled out as they walked away.
"Mackenzie" Tim grumbled.
"Yeah" she grunted out trying to tighten a screw.
"What's their deal?"
"Who? Peyton and Lainey?"
"Yeah."
"They've hated each other for as long as I can remember, and now their parents are forcing them to live together for 'business reasons' or something like that at least. Not really sure what the whole story is Lainey's not aloud to talk much about it."
"What do you think of that Peyton girl?" Tim questioned watching the two girls working.
"I think she needs to get her head out of her daddy's ass." Eli chimed in.
"I think that she's a lot different than Lainey, and that is what caused them so many problems in the past, but I think they could be unstoppable if they put their differences aside long enough to work together. Peyton grew up rich like Lainey, but she took advantage of it whereas Lainey decided to give back. I don't think she's a bad person, I think she just fell into the prissy stuck-up crowd so that's who she turned into."
"She looks familiar. What's her last name?" Tim asked, still watching as Lainey was now doing most of the work while Peyton stood and watched.
"Chapman" Mackenzie said.
"Mhm" Tim grunted. "That explains it. They snaked their way to the top. Thanks for the insight." Tim said to Mackenzie. "Chapman, you gonna help or just stand there and watch Howard do all the work?" Tim yelled causing Peyton to jump and Lainey to laugh.
They all spent the rest of the day working on various parts of the playground trying to get it finished. At 2:00 they found themselves watching as Tim and two others put the finishing touches on the last part.
"Ok, everyone. I think that is this park all finished." Tim yelled "Thank you all for helping. If any of you need community service papers signed or pictures taken for proof that you were here I'll be under the gazebo for the next couple of hours. Other than that, kids, it's all yours." The kids all ran to the play as Tim finished his speech.
Peyton turned to Lainey and found her walking off hand-in-hand with a child. She watched as Lainey pushed the little girl on the merry-go-round.
"She's a better person than people give her credit for you know?" Mackenzie said stepping up next to Peyton.
"Huh?"
"Oh come on you and I both know what rumors are spread about Lainey, and how most of them come from the people in your circle."
"Why didn't I know she did this?"
"She doesn't tell anyone. Shit she didn't even tell her parents until they called her while she working one Saturday and wanted her to come home. She doesn't like advertising the good things she does. She does them because of the smile it puts on other peoples face's."
"She's not at all who I thought she was." Peyton sighed.
"Who did you think she was?" Eli asked walking up to stand on the other side of Peyton.
"The person the rumors describe. Loud, obnoxious, brash, too smart for her own good, heartless, unmotivated, need I go on?"
"Not if you're only going to mention bad things. That's my bestfriend you're talking about there." Eli defended.
"But I've realized that while yes she is some of those things. She is also caring, understanding, quick thinking, independent, beautiful, and actually pretty nice once you get past the brutal honesty." Peyton and Mackenzie both released a light chuckle at the last part.
"You know I really expected you guys to scold me for what a shitty person I am." Peyton half-joked with them.
"I wanted to but Mack wouldn't let me" Eli said earning yet another elbow to the ribs from Mackenzie.
"Owww. You've really got to stop doing that."
"What do you mean?" Mackenzie asked Peyton, completely ignoring Eli's whining.
"I tried calling her last night but it went straight to voicemail, so I know she shut her phone off. Also I drove around looking for her but couldn't find her anywhere so even though I know she wasn't at either of your houses. I'm guessing she didn't tell her parents where she was staying because they would have told her to come back to our house, which is obviously the last place she wanted to be, so I'm assuming she told you guys where she was incase something happened or someone needed to get ahold of her for an emergency. And if I had to put money on it I'd say you didn't let her get away with not staying at home and turning her phone off without telling you guys why she wasn't staying at the house and exactly where she was so..." Peyton trailed off.
"Sounds like you've got it all figured out for yourself, and if you are waiting for me to tell you off then obviously you already know you were in the wrong. But I don't believe telling people that they are shitty people is necessary to get your point across in most cases, and I don't believe it is in this case because you already know it's your fault. Oh and just for the record I do believe that sometimes even great people make shitty decisions, so it's ok for us normal people to have some leeway as well. I agree that some people are stupid and don't learn from their past mistakes, but that's on them and you can't judge a whole person's life because of a few tough situations or wrong choices that led down bad paths. Now, Eli, on the other hand, was ready to rip you three new assholes when he heard about it last night, and today when you had the nerve to show up I liked to thought I was going to have to sedate him from coming uncorked on you."
"You best bet your bottom dollar I was. Still am too, but now there's kids around and they shouldn't see that so I guess you're safe till I catch you in your house or some shit." Eli sassed.
"I'm sorry." Peyton sighed.
"I don't think it's us you need to apologize to Peyton. I believe that person is right over there putting a smile on that beautiful little girls face and probably making her day." Mackenzie said motioning to Lainey with her head.
"Yeah, but she told me not to talk to her while we were here. She said this is about the kids and it's no place to deal with 'us', so I can't."
"I'll go talk to her, but I can't make any promises on how she's going to react. After she was done with the tears last night she got more mad than I've ever seen her before and I was honestly scared she was going to kill someone. I've never seen her so mad, but then again I've also never seen her so hurt either so in a way I understand." Mackenzie said to Peyton before patting her on the arm and walking over to talk to Lainey.
"Oh by the way" Eli piped in. "Is charity case the best you could come up with? Because if so your insult game is fucking weak.
"I know." Peyton mumbled.
"Also if anyone is the charity case here it's definitely you honey-booboo."
"I know." Peyton gritted her teeth
I've never met someone more caring, respectful, charitable, fun, and so many more things most people could only ever wish to be half of."
"I. Know. Ok." Peyton raised her voice
"You know? Oh so you know? Was that before or after you treated her like the scum off the bottom of a homeless man's shoe? Before or after you lied and made her think you were 'friends'? Before or after you told your so called friend she was nothing but a charity case? Before or after she saved your ass this morning in that interview? I ain't even got to watch that shit to know who the prepared one was between the two of you. The way you guys walked up here today was enough indication for me to know she saved your ass at least once this morning. Am I wrong?"
Just as Peyton opened her mouth to respond Lainey interrupted "You. me. car. now." Lainey demanded as she stomped over to Peyton and Eli pointing her finger at Peyton.
Peyton looked to Eli for some kind of help but he was too busy snickering to be of any help. All the sudden Lainey brushed between the two without another word and Peyton was quick to follow her.
"Bye Tim!" Lainey yelled out as she walked past the gazebo where Tim was.
"Bye Lainey, bye Peyton. Hope to see you girls back again soon." He yelled to them.
Neither responded as they made a b-line to Lainey's car. Even though Lainey was mad at Peyton she still got the car door for her, but the proceeded to slam it after she got in.
"Thank-"
"Save it." Lainey said aggressively starting her car. "I don't want to hear another peep until we get home. I can't even look at you without wanting to rip your head off let alone talk to you while I drive." She said speeding off down the road.