I Hope You Like it in the Country ((closed))

[Sirius Baren]

Capri Daniels

19

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Capri Daniels was just like your average teenage girl. She hated school, loved to shop, and had a new crush almost every other week. She had her best friend in the whole world, Katie Ellmore, and her dreams. Capri was happy with her life and had everything to look forward to. Her older brother had gone off to college when she was just a freshmen in high school. He had always acted like an older brother teasing her, chasing boys away, and taking every liberty to embarrass her. Even though they were four years apart they were close.

Everything changed for Capri during Homecoming week of her sophmore year. Katie and she had gone out shopping for dresses for the dance when their car flipped and rolled. Katie was killed instantly and Capri ended up hospitalized for half of the school year. When they told her Katie had died Capri retreated into herself. No one, not even James, had understood her they way Katie had. They had been more than friends, they had been sisters. To lose Katie meant that everything was gone to Capri. All of their hopes and dreams were together and now Katie was gone. The worst part was that Capri had been the one driving the car.

The summer after the car accident Capri started to make friends with the wrong sort. They pulled her down a dark path. She was in so much pain that she didn't care. She started to drink, stay out late past her curfew, experimented with drugs, and had a rather abusive boyfriend. All of it was to block out the pain and reality of what she blamed herself for. She started to skip school and go hang out in the bad parts of their city.

Her parents tried everything. They tried grounding her, rehab, a therapist, taking privileges away, and even home school. Nothing worked to keep her out. She began to resent her parents for them trying to help her. She especially hated it when they asked James to come down during one of his school breaks to talk sense to her.

Her senior year came and went without her. Capri didn't care about graduating or college. Why should she care about life when she would die one day with nothing?

At that point her family came to a difficult decision as a last resort. It was the summer of Capri's 19th birthday that they flew her up to Montana to a close and old family friend. They figured if they couldn't keep her away from her bad friends and the drugs there, then surely they could take her to a place where she wouldn't have it at all.

Even though the drive was quiet and rather awkward and she was being taken to a strangers home, the one thing that had bothered Capri the most was that this was James' idea. Even though he hadn't been home for a while as he was finishing up his bachelor degree he had called their parents with this suggestion.

It was a Monday afternoon that they arrived at the ranch. Their family friend owned hundreds of acres of land with several types of livestock such as cows, sheep, and horses. Capri had her black jacket zipped up, her hood over her head, and her earbuds plugged into her ears as she stepped out of the car. The place smelled like animals.

[Caille]

Ellie Clark

20

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Ellie was one of the elder kids on the farm although she was the only female besides her mother and aunts as well as her grandmother. Ellie was the fifth oldest out of eight, she has four older brothers, three little brothers, and five cousins which all had turned out to be male. Ellie took more after her father's side of the family with the reddish hair and all her features. Everyone here on Orchid ranch helped out and did different chores most of the boys did the outside stuff with the crops, cutting grass, painting, pulling weeds out, watering the grass, collecting eggs, milking cows, carrying hay sacks back and forth, and many more jobs there was just so much to do that no one would ever imagine and while most of the men did this the women inside would be doing dishes, cooking meals, taking care of the young children who couldn't work yet on the farm, they also know first aid, they bare lots of children to keep the ranch going so it wont die out. Ellie had the best job though, she got to attend to the horses, what did she do? She brushed them, fed them, talked to them, rode them, and she even trained them for horse races as well.

Ellie loved the ranch and she loved the smell it gave off always smelling like animals and delicious food. Ellie had always wondered why the farm was named Orchid farm but when she was young her mother used to tell her stories how before she was born Orchid's used to appear on the ranch like crazy but shortly after Ellie was born they vanished and hardly returned, they would show up once in awhile but hardly ever and her father always told her that there was too much unhappiness on this ranch and that she should try to restore it, well now that Ellie was older she thought of that as crap and no longer believed in it.

This afternoon was a fairly hot one and Ellie was wearing her shorts with her blue plaid shirt on today and the sleeves were rolled up and her hair tied back as she took time carefully brushing the horses. It was a long job and not many people knew that because they didn't know how many horses this ranch did have and Ellie could tell you exactly. They have five full grown horses and three babies. Ellie was now finishing off brushing her last horse of the day and this one happened to be her favorite, Whisper.

Whisper was a beautiful white horse with a white mane. Ellie started with the saddle and started to put it on and it took her a few minutes and then she climbed onto the horse and started to let Whisper get her exercise, while Ellie felt the wind hit her face and flow through her hair.

Jake Banes

22

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Jake was a good friend of the Clark family and as of the moment he was the hired help at the farm. He did get paid but only a little bit but her was also given food and shelter. His parents had no money so they had sent him off to be the helper to the family and he would do any plumbing job or any thing that had to be fixed he'd fix it and it was plain and simple and he never complained about any of it. When there was nothing to be fixed he would help out the others except for Ellie who insisted on having no help what so ever. Ellie was the type of girl his parents would want him to marry and Jake was the type of guy who Ellie's parents would want Ellie to marry and once they were almost placed in a arranged marriage but Ellie and Jake had both avoided it other wise they would have tied the knot by now but Jake and Ellie had never felt that way about each other and it was actually Ellie's grandma who had talked both sets of adults out of it.

Jake got along with the guys on the farm too. He was a role model to all the younger boys and he learned from the elder boys on how to improve on some skills and sometimes he would joke around with the older boys. The best nights of all was when they had a harvest moon. The reason for that was because that was one of the nights that they decorated part of the farm for a big party for the whole town or village what ever these folks wanted to call it but the harvest moon was a great joy for all the folks and they usually had a big party.

These parties were usually filled with tons of dancing and singing as well tons of drinking contests and they had often times dealt with charging bulls as well. Almost every year though they have a cooking contest so who ever makes the best homemade dish wins and gets a prize of a lot of different things in a basket. Jake liked the whole drinking contest and nine times out of ten he kicked everyone's butt.

This afternoon Jake had heard that a girl from a family in the city was coming to live with them and lets just say that Jake wasn't very pleased with this. He didn't need so city slicker coming in and doing nothing but sit on their buttock and using that stupid mobile phone to interact with others. Jake was stuck fixing up a bed frame for their new guest who was to arrive soon and many times he had thought about messing up the bed some how but he had to keep in mind that if he slipped up in his job he could always be sent back to his parents or shipped off to another ranch.

Jake finally finished it and he brought it a mattress to on top of it. This ranch had always made their own beds and everything. Jake had get the ladies to sew a few soft sheets together and then when he had one side of it at the end still opened he filled it in with lots of hay and finally it was stitched together and then he was done that job. Jake finally had to move on to fixing some areas of the fence. The horses had got freaked out and ran for it right through the fence so now it was his turn to fix the fence.

[Sirius Baren]

Capri followed her parents up to the large ranch house. She felt irritated and irked that she was being forced here. She didn't even know the people. What were her parents hoping to accomplish in sending her all the way up here? They were quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and to top it off her parents had taken away her cell phone so she couldn't contact her friends back in the city. There was nothing more frustrating then to be cut off from civilization.

The ranch house was very large and looked very old. Despite the obvious age to it it had been well kept and had been painted probably a couple of months before. It was nicer than Capri had imagined but she wasn't going to enjoy her stay no matter how nice it was. If she had to be away from her friends then she would make sure that those around her were unhappy.

Capri stood off to one side of the porch as her parents talked to the Clarks. They gestured towards her but since she had her music plugged in she had no idea what they were saying. The adults moved inside to continued to talk and left Capri on the porch. She moved over to one side and leaned against the railing. She looked very out of place with her skinny jeans, black jacket, designer t-shirt, and her vans. She was rather bored as she stood there and stared out at the ranch. There was a very large barn about a hundred yards away from the ranch house and there were several pastures behind that. She looked at the one closest to the barn and saw a couple horses grazing on the grass.

When Capri was young her and Katie were in love with horses. They had even convinced their parents to let them take riding lessons. Of course the riding lessons didn't last long after they had discovered ice skating, but Capri remembered the basics.

"Capri?" her mom called her name before pulling the ear bud from her ear. "We're leaving now, the Clark will take good care of you, all right?" her mom stepped forward to hug her but Capri shrugged away.

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes and turned her body from her parents.

Her mother's eyes shined with tears while her father only sighed sadly. The goodbye was terrible but they left quickly. This was truly their last hope in getting the old Capri back. After they had gotten into their car Capri turned and watched them drive away. She missed her old life, but she was too warped to care.

[Caille]

Ellie came to a halt on her horse when she could see far off in a distance that a car was there and it made her wonder, not many cars came around a lot of people around here were still so tied up in the old ways that they still had carts towed by horses but Ellie didn't mind it gave the town and old feeling to it and she was glad. Hopping off the horse and taking the saddle off putting it away quickly she knew in a few seconds her mother Blair would be ringing the bell usually meant for her and a few others to come in.

Ellie put the saddle down in the proper spot and then just as she had thought the bell rang and Ellie booked it across the grassy field that she guessed that Brandon hadn't cut yet and surprisingly she could run fast in her boots.

She stopped at a halt by the porch and was breathing lightly trying to catch her breath and she watched as one of her brothers was coming up as well.


Jake had heard the bell ring and he sighed nailing the last nail into the fence and packed his things up quickly so no animal would step on them and he left it off to the side and he had assumed that the city slicker was here which he really wasn't looking forward to because out of everyone that got called to the bell it was usually Jake who had to do what ever it was Mrs.Clark wanted.

Jake didn't run to the porch like the other two had he just walked at a fast pace and when he reached there he got a better look at the city slicker and he could bet you fifty horses what Mrs.Clark was gonna say next, it was that obvious and if no one understood they might as well interact with people more.

"Thank you, you three for coming for the bell but Ellie and Chace you need to get back to your jobs they are far more important." Blair had spoken softy.

See watch how this turns into Jake having to show this girl all around the farm and then show her to her room, that was something he dreaded doing simply because she most likely wouldn't like it and most likely she wanted to be in the city doing drugs and being with her boyfriend she most certainly would have had that kind of life and most kids like her were sent here for a lesson.

Jake sighed and was just waiting for what Blair was gonna say next he really didn't want to do this and he knew Ellie would be way better at it plus that would save him the problem of having to teach this girl something she didn't want to learn and probably wouldn't do.

"Jake, darling. Could you be a gentlemen and show Capri around the ranch and then to her room, and then around the house? Then tomorrow morning could you be a dear and teach her how to milk the cows?" Blair said in that sweet tone of voice that got anyone to do anything for her and he hated it so much.

"Alright." He said not very pleased with this but he would suck it up and do it anyways. Once Blair was inside and he knew she was well inside the house he turned on his heel and took a step in front of him. "You coming city slicker?" He asked with no emotion in his voice mostly because he didn't give a damn.

[Sirius Baren]

Capri watched as Mrs. Clark rang a bell. A girl around Capri's age came as well as a boy. It wasn't until a second boy showed up that Mrs. Clark sent the first two away. Capri didn't want to be there. She rolled her eyes as Mrs. Clark asked if the man, Jake, would show her around. Was she serious? Capri was not going to milk a cow!

Capri looked at Jake with a frown. He was cute but it was obvious he didn't want to show her around just as much as she wanted to actually be there. She waited until Mrs. Clark had moved inside once more before she turned her music back on. She watched Jake move down the porch steps before asking if she was going to come.

"No." She said with as little emotion as he had given her before she plugged her earbuds back in and turned her back to him. He already that he was better than her and she hated that.

[Caille]

Jake wanted to do his job and if that meant forcing her then so be it. He sighed and watched as she put her ear buds in. Stupid musical devices the actually music hearing it in person was so much better then on a little device like hers. He ran his fingers through his hair and let yet another sigh let go out of his mouth and squinted his eyes pinching the bridge of his nose.

He already knew that she wouldn't wanna milk a cow but she was gonna and he wasn't gonna take no for an answer tomorrow and he most certainly wasn't going to take no for answer now. He made his way back up the porch steps and took the ear buds out of her ears. "Respect is a wonderful thing you know." He growled at her in a low tone.

"Now we can do this the hard way or the easy way, it's up to you.." He said and waited a minute but he wasn't going to give her the luxury of having a choice not a chance, if she wanted to have that luxury she'd have to earn it. He bent down and picked her up from the knees and had her over her shoulder in a matter of minutes and set off walking. "Sorry princess you ain't gettin' a choice today." He said in his accent.

[Sirius Baren]

Capri glared at him as he took her ear buds out before telling her respect was wonderful. "Do I honestly look like I care?" she snorted back and was about to turn her music back on when he told her this would either be easy or hard. Capri wasn't about to go the easy way. She was going to make this as hard on them as it felt for her. Maybe if she got them to hate her enough then they would send her back home and her parents would stop with these silly ideas.

Capri shrieked when she realized he had lifted her up into his arms and tossing her over his shoulder like she were potatoes. She began to smack him. "Put me down you country hick!" she slapped him. Capri refused to do this any way other than hard. She continued to kick and hit him as well as squirm so it was difficult to carry her. What was he even thinking as he carried her like that?

[Caille]

Jake hated how the city slickers talked to them country folk but it had to be expected sooner or later right? That's what he had thought. He knew since he first picked her up that she'd squirm and what not but did he believe it was gonna be this bad? No he didn't. Heck the five year old's were a lot more behaved then her and a lot calmer.

"You're acting like a little kid!" He snapped at her as he held her tightly walking on, it would have been faster but she really didn't like being picked up at all you could tell and when she called him and country hick his eye brows raised. "That was awfully rude ya city slicker." He mumbled and walked a few more paces and decided he couldn't carry her like this anymore. "Don't make me get out the damn rope! I wouldn't wanna drag ya on the grass and have that designer shirt grass stained." He said grinning from ear to ear hoping he'd get the chance to do so.

"Oh and tomorrow morning you're milking the cows whether you like it or not, don't worry about your clothes you'll be provided with the proper attire for work tomorrow." He said. "Milking cows isn't that difficult and it's only messy when you squirt milk on your self like many newbies have done previously." He said calmly.

[Sirius Baren]

"You're the one who's carrying me like a sack of potatoes!" Capri shot back when he told her she was acting like a child. Capri didn't want to be there. The fact that he was hauling her around only made her dislike him more and more. "Rude? You're the one who called me a city slicker first, I guess your polite country manners aren't as grand as you think they are." She spat at him. "You wouldn't dare." She narrowed her eyes as he said he'd just drag her around on a rope.

"You can't make me milk a cow." She said stubbornly. She squirmed a bit more in his arms until he finally dropped her. "My parents sent me here in hopes of bringing back there little girl. Well news flash to them, she died. I do not want to be here, and I will not listen to you or what anyone else says. So how about you do yourself a favor and leave me alone. Don't you have a chore or something to do?" Capri was no longer in the mood to talk with anyone. "I don't care if you think you're better than me, just leave me alone!" she said suddenly.

[Caille]

Jake listened to what she had to say and didn't butt in no matter how much he wanted to, a sack of potatoes? Is that what she thought he was carrying her like? Well she wasn't heavy and Jake being used to carrying a sack of potatoes might have treated her like one but why should he care? She wasn't being very nice but that made him think more, she didn't want to be here just the same way he felt when his parents sent him here but there was a difference, he had never been a city slicker.

With those thoughts going and and coming out he sighed and dropped her gently and watched her talk on more and to him it was just a bunch of words that hadn't meant too much but he had rather been interested in what she was saying about her parents trying to get their little girl back and how she died? That didn't make sense to him something must of happened and him being curious and nosy couldn't resist asking.

"Firstly, I do not think I'm better then you...I can't compare my self to you because we're so different it's like comparing and apple and an orange." He spoke calmly. "Secondly this is my chore..I do everything and anything on this damn ranch because I'm the "hired" help." He paused for a moment right before asking the question that could pretty much get him bitched at. "Did anything happen to you in the city before you turned out like this?" He asked quietly and hopefully she wouldn't bitch at him but that was a far off hope for him.

[Sirius Baren]

Capri knew he was right about them being completely different. Though it was unnecessary for him to use a fruit comparison since she knew they were very different already. She was surprised that he asked her out front why it was that she had been sent out there. Not very many people were bold enough to ask, and those who knew the truth always stayed away from it.

"You really want to know?" her tone was bitter. "I killed my friend. Happy now?" the anger and pain was obvious in her eyes before she turned and walked away from him. She was done with the tour. She didn't need to see the rest of the ranch.

Capri quickly took off at a run so she could get as far away from Jake as she could. She didn't want him picking her up again. She just needed to be alone. Her whole life was in shambles and he hated her because she was from the city. He didn't even know her!

[Caille]

Jake watched her for a bit and didn't say anything, maybe a fruit comparison wasn't needed? Either way he had always been used to having something to back up what ever he said because in this place it was best if you did otherwise no one would believe you and your thoughts would be tossed to the side.

When she had suddenly spoke again and asked if he really wanted to know and honestly he did but what she said next was the most shocking thing to him and he didn't want to believe it but was there more details to this? Of course this was, would she have killed her friend? Probably not but Jake couldn't say anything because he didn't know the full story. Next thing Jake knew was her walking away with pain and anger filling her eyes.

Jake didn't bother going after her not even when she started to run. She had hated him most likely but he couldn't blame her because he wasn't acting very kindly and respectful himself he was treating this like a job he usually had which he probably shouldn't. Sighing he walked back to the fence and started to work on it some more.

Finally the sun started to set and that usually meant dinner was almost ready and that now everyone would be washing up. Jake started to think about earlier today. Soon later on he had reached the farm house and walked inside taking his boots off and went up stairs to wash up and change clothes. He came back downstairs and into the kitchen and found a seat to sit in and he was wondering if Capri ever did make it back to the house.

[Sirius Baren]

Capri had kept on running until she was sure there wasn't a soul around her. She stopped in a large field. No one had gone after her, which was strange. Someone always chased after her whether to yell at her or punish her. She sat down in the grass before she laid back and looked up at the sky. It felt miserable to be where she was.

After a long time of laying in the grass she began to wander back towards the house and barn. Before she reached either she came to the fence that were currently holding their horses. She leaned against the rail and watched them graze about until one of the babies trotted over to her. She pet it on the nose before it gave a small sneeze and scampered away to his mother. For the first time in a while she managed a small smile.

It wasn't until the sun started to hang low in the sky that she made her way back to the house. The food smelled great but she wasn't in the mood for eating. She walked into the house, passed the family, and to her room where she locked the door before crashing on the bed.

[Caille]

Jake had noticed that Capri had walked by but she didn't come in and have dinner with, probably because he was here and he felt bad now and just hoped that it might not be him for the reason she didn't come to dinner. The whole family had been silent tonight and didn't say much during the whole meal until finally Mrs. Clark had to say something and this was probably the highlight of the night.

"Jake dear, why don't you go talk to Capri and see what's wrong oh and well you're at it honey could you take her dinner." Mrs. Clark asked and at this point Jake was fed up with this crap and stood up, a fuse had most likely gone off. "Why! Just to have her ungratefulness be shown!" He snapped anger filled in his eyes. "If you wanna make sure she's okay and feed her be my guest but I am done playing the little host in this crap get Ellie to talk to her! Ellie's a girl, girls talk to each other!" He snapped once again pissed off and sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. "Last time I checked was her parents wanted her to learn something while she's hear she ain't gonna learn nothin' with you treated her like a princess!" He yelled the last part before storming out of the room and walking up the stairs.

He really didn't care if he got shipped off to another place this family could go down and go down in flames and have nothing left, that would be exactly what would happen if he wasn't here. Jake just really thought that and early nights sleep would be best for him as of this moment, so he entered his room and closed the door gently behind him and sat down on his bed and sighed falling back on his bed.

[Sirius Baren]

Capri slept uneasy that night. She tossed in her bed and whimpered as she dreamt about the night Katie died. It was a horrible nightmare that was playing over and over like a cd stuck on repeat. She couldn't escape it. When she woke up in a cold sweat she moved to her bag. Her friends had given her a little stash to help her out. Getting drugs where she was would be impossible. She knew she had to make these last.

She popped a pill and felt her body growing numb. She slipped back into bed feeling easier now. The pill would keep the nightmare away and she would be able to sleep.

In the morning she woke up feeling more tired than when she had first gone to sleep. She rubbed her eyes before pulling the blankets further over her head. She didn't ever want to get out of bed. What was the use?

[Caille]

Jake hadn't fallen asleep at all that night and had been staring at his ceiling all night long and not once fell asleep but finally when he did, within five minutes he alarm went off to wake up at the crack of dawn and that was when he unplugged the stupid clock and fell back asleep and no matter who wanted to wake him up wouldn't be able to he was out like a light.

Mrs. Clark tried several times to wake him and so did Ellie and some of the boys but he never budged and there for Ellie had to go and wake Capri and teach her about horses and such instead of milking which Ellie knew would be a little difficult.

Ellie walked down the stairs and then walked down one hall and then to the door on the right and the last one down there and she knocked softly three times and waited about three minutes for a reply and nothing so she slowly opened the door and peeked in and found Capri asleep under the covers and Ellie went up closer to her and shook her a few times gently. "Capri it's time to wake up." Ellie said softly.

[Caille]

(Are you gonna post or is this dead? I mean it's almost been two months :I)

[Sirius Baren]

((I am so sorry! I actually forgot about this thread as life caught up to me and I had to leave for a while.))

Capri ignored the soft knocks on the door and the quiet voice. She didn't want to get up. She didn't want to move. All she wanted to do was stay in the bed for the rest of her life if she could. When Ellie entered her room and came over to the bed, Capri knew she had no choice left but to get up.

"Go away, I'll be down in a couple minutes." Capri said irritated. She waited until Ellie had left before she flopped back on the bed. She stared up at the ceiling and felt the guilt start to swim inside of her. Her dreams had been haunted by the accident and she knew there was only one way for them to go away. The only problem was that the means with which to do that were not readily available to her.

Capri climbed out of the bed and changed into a black t-shirt before she pulled on a black hoodie. She pulled on her converse shoes before she left her room and walked down stairs. She was surprised when she didn't see Jake at the breakfast table but was glad of it. She didn't want to have to put up with his high and mighty attitude that day.