CONTENT WARNING! READ NOW! HARD DRUG$, ALC0H0L, MENTION OF ABU$E, AND N€GL€CT
It's a hot and humid day in the state of Florida. And it's clear why it's called the sunshine state, the sun beating down an aggressive amount. Florida is very bright today because of it. So bright in fact, that no one wants to go outside, it's much too blinding. Dirt Poor people though, they have to go outside, it was the only way they'd survive.
Kevin McCormick is the only child of the McCormick farmers. They tried being spice farmers, but the name had a copyright, so they started growing oranges. This works out decently. They earn just enough to keep their land. That meant though, no electricity, fresh water, no heat, no cold, barely any food, no nothing, just the house and the trees. Recently though, the people they pay to keep their land have raised the price. Now, the McCormicks have next to no luck surviving.
Kevin heads out to do his chores on the farm after his morning yelling match with his father and fresh bruises and cuts planted on his body. He has to grab water from the well, filter it in the tub of dirt and coffee grounds, which he wasn't sure how it worked but his dad says it does. After that he has to go down to the lake and catch some fish, then water the trees since it hadn't rained yesterday and wasn't going to til the next day, hopefully. Finally, it was the most tasking job of the day. Pick the ripe oranges.
Kevin goes back to the house and grabs his buckets and wheelbarrow. His mom and dad are toked up on the couch, flying as high as a kite, basically they were stoned. If you still don't get what I mean you're too young to be reading this.
After grabbing his buckets and wheelbarrow, Kevin heads out to the groves and starts picking oranges. It takes 3 hours to clear out even a quarter of a field on a well equipped farm with good machines. It takes Kevin 3 hours just to clear out 9 trees, all hand picked. That barely cracked the surface. The McCormicks had grown hundreds of trees from a single bag of oranges. No one was sure how, it was like a miracle.
After picking oranges from 4 trees, Kevin got tired. He sat down under one of the great orange trees and pulled out his lunch. A piece of bread made from the "wheat" around the outside of the house. It wasn't actually wheat but it looked close enough. Carol, Kevin's mother, used dog milk, "wheat", grass seeds, and nicotine to make their bread. She wasn't a very good cook or baker.
After eating his slice of bread, having eventually gotten numb from the taste after so many years, he took a nap. Hours pass and suddenly, Kevin is woken by something falling on his head. Groggily waking up, he sees an orange at his feet. Something felt off about it. Kevin picked up the orange and tossed it around in his hands, when suddenly, it starts shaking! Kevin drops the orange, yelling "SHIT!" as he does.
As the orange hits the ground it doesn't squash or go everywhere, which is what usually happens with their oranges, it's perfectly intact. The orange starts to glow though. Small beams of light escape the pores of the orange as it shakes and vibrates violently. Suddenly, out of the orange pops a little torso, then arms, then legs, and it starts to cry.
Kevin holds back a scream, knowing it'd royally piss off his dad, and being so poor they couldn't even afford to be royally emotional. Kevin shakily kneels down and pokes the orange, making it cry more. He flinches, then carefully picks up the little thing. Kevin cradles the orange and it calms down. When it calmed down enough he held it close to his face to take a closer look at it. The little orange was a little person made of fruit, he thinks? It looked human, but it obviously wasn't. Kevin turned it around a bit before he decided it was as human as he was, though it fit in the palms of his hands.
"Woah, it's a little fucker! My parents are gonna love this!" He pauses, then remembers who his parents were. "No, wait." Kevin considers his next move very carefully. He had to do something, this orange was alive, but he knew his parents would hurt it. Kevin finally decides what to do. "Alright little orange, yer gonna be my new best friend! Yer names gonna be. Uhhhhhh. Orange! Orange uhhhh Kenny. I'll share my bread with ya as long as you help me out with mah chores."
The little orange seemed to understand exactly what he was saying, letting out a muffled chirp of joy. Suddenly, the little orange flies up! A magic glowing trail followed behind him as he flew through the trees, clearing the trees of oranges in seconds. After clearing a small section, Orange Kenny flies around excitedly. Suddenly the oranges start to float! Oranges dance to the baskets and wheelbarrow Kevin had to fill, and in fact overfilled all of them.
Kevin watched in excitement and amazement. The little orange did something he did by himself in 3 days in only a matter of seconds! A joyous laugh erupts from Kevin's body, his excitement palpable. "I'm gettin my waffles! I'm gettin my waffles!" He exclaims with a massive amount of joy.
Kevin runs to the house to get his parents and show them the amazing task Orange Kenny pulled off. Of course for the safety of the little orange, he'd have to say he did it all himself. He knows it won't make them sober, but it'll pull them out of whatever high they're on for at least a second.
"Maw! Paw! Come look! I didn't even realize what I did! We've got oranges to sell! A whole lot of 'em!" Kevin yells as he enters the house. Orange Kenny follows quickly behind Kevin as he gets so excited. The little orange hides when the adults on the couch stir awake.
"What's all this yelling? You want to get another shiny bruise you little shit?" Kevin's father, Stuart McCormick, says. His mother, Carol McCormick, sits up as well. "It's too early fer yellin." She says, causing Kevin to sneer. It was almost 3 in the afternoon.
"It's incredible! The oranges! There's so many!" Kevin says, his country twang and slight lisp making him sound more ridiculous than he already did with what nonsense he was spouting. "Come on, come on!" He says, running back out of the house to show his parents the miracle that just happened.