I wake up to sunlight streaming into my open window. I roll over in bed, barely opening my eyes. But I catch a glimpse of the red digits on the clock, and throw myself out of bed. I was late for my chores.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I snap at my Dad, when I reach the barn. I grab a bucket of feed and start giving the animal’s their breakfast.

He adjusts his red hat on his brown hair. “I called. I thought Emery would have waked you.”

I roll my eyes and mutter something rude under my breath. Yeah, Emery would totally wake me. “Where is he anyways?” I stroke Patch, our paint horse’s head and she neighs happily. We only had two horses, but tons of cows. They weren’t in the barn, so that meant they were in the pasture.

“I told him to learn how to order King to round up the cows,” he laughs, and I know that Emery was probably yelling at King.

“You didn’t tell him how to do it?” I ask, putting the feed bucket back in the feed bin. Dad shakes his head no, still laughing. “Well, I better go help before he kills King, or the cows escape.”

I head out of the barn and look around for the mysterious boy. I can hear him yelling, but I can’t see him.

“Go get the cows, you stupid dog!” I follow the voice. “They’re going to get away!” On the other side of the barn, Emery stands, glaring down at King. His arms are thrown around him angrily, and King sits wagging his tail. Emery is still wearing the black band t-shirt and blue skinny jeans.

“You know there’s this thing called getting dressed,” I walk and stand in the middle of them.

“You know there’s this thing called shutting the hell up,” Emery snaps, and glares down at King. “How do you get the stupid dog to round up the cows?”

Rolling my eyes, I stick my fingers in my mouth and whistle twice. King barks happily and runs towards the heard of brown cows that is slowly migrating towards the dirt road. Within seconds, King is guiding them towards the open gate to the field.

“Whistle twice for King to round them up. Once to call him back.” We watch as King glides happily around the cows, ushering them towards the gate. A calf is slowly walking away from the gate, and I see Emery look at it with somewhat of worry. But sure enough, King runs across the green pasture and chases it back to the other cows and its mother.

“Oh,” mumbles Emery, sliding his hands into his pockets. Out in the open with the morning sunlight on his face, Emery doesn’t look so threatening.

“What’s wrong?” When the cows are in the pen, I whistle once, and King returns to us. I speed walk towards the metal gate, and lock it so the cows can’t escape.

“Nothing,” mutters Emery, leaning against the wooden fence. He stares out at the cows, and digs through his pockets. He pulls out his pack of cigarettes, and holds one in his mouth.

“You can’t whistle,” I watch as he lights the cancer stick, and takes a long drag before he shrugs his shoulders. “No worries, I’m probably going into town today. I can buy you a whistle.” Emery glares at me, thinking I’m making fun of him, when really I’m being honest. “Were going to have to get you some new clothes too, if those are all you have.”

He blows smoke out of his mouth and it floats away in the breeze. He shrugs again, and avoids my staring eyes.

“Hey, why didn’t you wake me up this morning when my Dad called?”

Emery smirks, and flicks ashes into the grass, stepping on the burning embers. “You said one of your rules wasn’t to wake you up.”

Five Hours Later

Five hours later, I’m sitting on Silver, staring out across the gently blowing grass. On my right, is Mary on Patch. Her dirty blonde hair is done up in a messy bun, and she grips the reins loosely with her pale hands.

Dad had driven Emery and into town, which Emery now refuses to call a town. He had labelled it a village, for its lack of tall buildings, nightclubs and other ‘big city’ things. The only place we could talk him into getting clothes from, was the one and only Fresh Ink tattoo parlour, which didn’t have much of a variety. Black t-shirts with band names, brand logos, and just stupid looking sayings were the only thing he agreed to take. Finding jeans were even harder. We only got two pairs of the same pants.

“I can’t believe you won’t let me meet him,” grumbles Mary despite her soft, calm voice. “The first interesting thing happens on County Line Six, and you won’t let me partake.” I roll my eyes. We were an hour’s drive away from the town known as Springdale, but since we were in the middle of nowhere, we considered ourselves our own town. It consisted of the five people who live on County Road Six.

“Trust me, he’s not worth meeting.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I question them. If he wasn’t worth meeting, how come I was trying to impress him by smoking last night? I make a disgusted face as I remember the taste, and push away the thought of what Emery had said to me afterwards.

“Oh, give me two reasons,” Mary leans forward until she’s lying on Patch’s neck. Technically, he was my horse, but everyone considered him hers. She only had milk cows on her farm, and her parents refused to let her get any more animals. So as long as I have my Silver, she can come ride Patch whenever she wants. Plus, it makes exercising the horses twice as easy.

“Well, for one, he smokes.” Mary makes a gross face, and I know she’s thinking of her Aunt Selma. She always was smoking whenever we saw her, and had a tendency to blow the smoke in our faces. “Second, he almost choked me to death.”

Mary jerks up in the saddle, startling Patch. She strokes his neck until he’s calm again, but when she looks at me, her eyes are still wide.

“Didn’t he hold a knife to your neck too?”

I nod, and then explain the story from last night. When I’m finished, Mary looks more interested than worried for the safety of my life.

“Well, that’s all the more reason to give him some new friends!” She grins ear to ear, and leads Patch until he’s facing the opposite way.

“Are you as oblivious as my parents? I just said he tried to kill me, twice!”

Mary laughs, and nudges Patch to start trotting. “This is the first interesting thing to happen to us in our seventeen years of life on County Road Six! Let’s embrace it!” She calls over her shoulder, before galloping towards home.