Jacob and Brook sat at the lunch table that afternoon, sharing a bag of chips that he had bought from the vending machine. James and Lily were sitting across from them, talking quietly to each other and giggling like little school children. They had recently become a couple, so Brook and Jacob were now used to being ignored. Mil was no where too be seen. She has acted really shy around them that morning, and didn't even say hello to Brook, Lily and Daniella as they climbed into the truck that morning. Jacob knew something was off about his sister, but he didn't want to bring it up in front of others.

   Lunch was almost finished when Nikki came running up behind them and took Brooks hand, leading her away from the table.

"What are you still doing with him?!? he's a player!" She said. Brook smiled at her amusingly.

"Well, if you had paid more attention to him, he would have told you that Sara is his ex that won't leave him alone. And he said nothing about breaking up with me." She said. Nikki glared at her and walked away angrliy. Brook just chuckled to herself and headed back to their table.

     It was Friday afternoon, so Brook and Lily were invited to spend the night with Mil. Daniella had been invited too, but she had to watch her nephew and couldn't. When they first got home, they all took their horses out, Jacob riding Gold Dust, and went on a trail that Jacob had never been on. When they returned, Jacob took Mil's hand and dragged her into Coal's stall, away from everyone else and out of their hearing range.

  "What's wrong Mil?" He asked his sister. She stared at her feet.

"It's nothing Jake." she said. she tried to leave, but he grabbed her hand, pulling her back to him.

"Mil, tell me." He said a little more firmly then the first time. Mil let out an irritated sigh and glared at him.

"You want to know? Fine. It's that girl, Nikki. She keeps teasing me because Tommy broke up with me. Like it wasn't bad already!" She let out a growl and turned to see Jacob's reaction. He squeezed her hand and let out a sigh.

"First she spreads rumours around the school that I'm cheating on Brook, then she messes with my sister? She's going to regret every stepping foot in that school on Monday." He growled. Mil had tears forming in her eyes and she hugged him tightly around his waist.

"Just don't tell James." She said. He nodded and wiped away her tears and they headed inside to join the others.

   The next day, Jacob watched as Mil texted away on her phone, not even bothering to go outside and play in the warm weather while it lasted. Summer was coming to an end and fall was setting in. David had the boys help him prepare for the upcoming Winter that Saturday by helping him build a new fence that was out of the washout for the cows. James told Jacob how if he thought the major storm a few weeks ago was bad, then he was going to hate the Nevada Winter. Jacob was excited though. He had never been outside of Florida during the Winter, yes it was fairly cold for Florida standards, but He had never acctually seen snow before. Only in movies.

    The fence was fairly easy to build between the four of them. Joseph would make runs to the house or barn for supplies, like water, or hammers and nails. The twins were also runners, but in a different way. They had a huge roll of barbed wire and they stuck a peice of PVC pipe in the middle and they strung the wire by running it down the length of the field. It was hot and the two of them were sweat a bunch by the time they had finished, and their muscles were killing them. David simply teased them by saying they would be fit and ready for the sports season.

    Once the wire was run, They hooked it up to the back of the truck to tighten it so it wouldn't sag when they connected it to the T-Posts. While it was still connected to the truck, David had the twins lift the wire up to a certain point on the post where he could nail it to the wooden beam. The two of the struggled to lift the wire since their was so much tension from the truck pulling on it, but they still managed. After three strands were strung, they pounded in the T-Posts, then connected them until the three strands were held up. They finished within a few hours, and they stepped back to admire their handy work. The last time they had built fences, James was too young to remember, and Peter simply helped David by handing him nails or the hammer. Peter wasn't there to help them this time though, because he had left for Idaho for collage two days earlier.

    After they had finished it, they hopped on their horses and rounded up the cows with the help of the two dogs, putting them in their new pasture. they were happy to be there since it was a new piece of land to graze. Rocky had been doing so well over the past few days too that they also put him and his new mother, which Jewel named Milkshakes, into the pasture also.

    They finished everything by noon, so Jacob took Chevy out of her stall and saddled her up. It was the first time that David was allowing him to ride her outside of the arena or round corral. He had to take James and Mist with him, but he was still as excited as Chevy was. Joseph played with Wildfire while they rode out to distract him from watching his mother leave. If he let out a distressed call, it could alert Chevy and Jacob could get bucked off. Only after they were out of sight did Joseph put Wildfire back in his stall.

    Jacob was starting to feel a little scared riding Chevy once the barn was out of sight. She began to figit a little and James had to come over, taking her reins from Jacob since she seemed to calm down easily when she was being led, rather then someone yanking on her reins. After she calmed down, James returned to reins to Jacob. Jacob was more confident now that she was calm and following Mist. He barely had to do anything with her, since she simply followed the older mare. James and Jacob made small talk as they road to the mailboxes that were two miles away. They stopped once half way there because Mist began to limp, so Jacob dismounted and held both the mares by their reins while James checked Mist's foot. Her leg was fine, she simply had a rock in her hoof that was making her mad. He took the hoofpick and quickly picked it out. there were no problems the rest of the way. James got the mail while they were there to save their mother a trip.

    Though Chevy was excited to go, she was even more excited when she returned to her baby. James told David there were no problems and the twins headed up to their room to talk. While they were talking, they heard Mil go running passed their bedroom door and slammed hers shut. She came out a few minutes later and came into their room. She had braided her hair into a bun and was wearing a tight black shirt that showed slight cleavage. She also had on Dark blue skinny jeans, and dark makeup. Everything about her seemed dark.

"How do I look?" She asked her brothers. They turned to each other after examining her and gave each other questioning looks.

"Um...Mil, Are you going somewhere?" Jacob asked. She smiled a bit.

"Hattie Blake invited me to her party. Mom and dad said I can go." She said.

"A highschool party?" James asked sitting up. She nodded. "Then in that case, you need to put on a different shirt." He said. She glared at him.

"Why? What's wrong with this one?" She snapped. Jacob put up his hands as if to surrender.

"Don't get us wrong, Mil, you look great. But we're trying to look out for you, and that shirt may make some guys come after you." He said. She blushed slightly.

"Fine, I'll change." She grumbled. She left, returning a few minutes later with a plaid green button down that was identical to the one she wore the Daniellas party. She had it tied up around her waist so it showed off her stomach. James stood up from his bed, coming over to their sisters and untied the shirt so it fell to where it was suppose to. It cover her stomach. She glared at him.

"Why'd you do that?" She asked. He bit his lip.

"Mil, I'm a guy, so I know what other guys are going to think when you walk into a highschool party dressed like this. Take me to your closet, and I will pick out your shirt." He said. She glared at him, but led the two of them into her room. Jacob had never acctually been in her room, so he was supprised to see it painted a light green color and her furniture matched. Everything was spotless, unlike the twins room, that had clothes and shoes on the floor. She opened up her closet door and Jacob wasn't surprised to see her closet was arranged by color. Lightest to darkest. the blacks were on the right hand side and the whites were on the left, and inbetween was the others in order from yellow to dark green. He never knew his sister was such a neat freak. Or did she just have a bad case of OCD. James fingers through the shirts and dresses until he came across an orange one that he pulled out and smiled at.

"Perfect!" He said holding it up to her. The sleeves went down to her elbows and it was form fitting, and wasn't as inappropriate as the other two, and it was still cute. She shrugged.

"Alright." She said. She pushed them out of her room and shut the door, coming out a minute later in the orange top. She smiled a bit.

"Thanks Jay, I like this a lot better." She said. He gave her a qucik hug.

"Same here, now you have boys hanging on you." He said beaming. She punched him playfully in the arm and left. Her friend Lacy was waiting for her in the driveway.

"Highschool party and she's a freshmen?" James asked unsure about as they watched from their window as Lacy drove away with their sister in the passenger seat.

"Do you know a Hattie Blake?" Jacob asked. James shook his head and pulled out his phone, looking her up on facebook. The second her picture pulled up, Jacob knew her from passing time as school. And he also knew she was a senior with a Freshmen brother.

"I don't think this was a good idea." James said logging out of his Facebook account. Jacob nodded his agreement. Their sister could get into a lot of trouble tonight.

***

If Ya'll are reading this far, Then my book is at least Okay! Yay! Love you! The Picture on the side is of Coal, Mil's horse.

~Avis