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Chapter 6

"Hey mom, just letting you know I made it safely to Montana. There's no reception out at the ranch, so I guess you'll have to ring the house." Not knowing what else to say I said goodbye and hung the phone back on the receiver. I felt a little disheartened that my mom hadn't answered her phone, but then she had told me she might be travelling.

Going back into the kitchen, Trisha and Declan were still standing around. When Declan saw me he straightened a bit, "come on; I'll finish giving you a tour and introduce you to some of the staff and the guy you'll be working for." Nodding, I still couldn't believe that I had to work, but I kept it to myself.

"You might want to...oh never mind, come on." Declan stopped whatever he was thinking of saying when Trisha gave him a sidelong glance. Obviously, they had an unspoken language and whatever was meant by the look stopped Decland from finishing whatever he wanted to say.

Following Declan outside I sighed, the reality of this being my home until the end of high school was finally settling in, and the idea of it all was a little depressing. I would have to live here, travel to school god knows how many minutes each way and on top of all that there was no ocean.

"So we live in the main house, that's my vet practice in that building over there. I can only treat small animals; they need dealing with then we go down into town. Not to Great Falls, there's a smaller town called Butte not too far away, and the local high school is there. That's where you'll be going to school next year, down at Butte high." I was glad to hear that there was a town closer then Great Falls and at least it was a little closer.

"So do I get to go to school on Monday?" The question seemed to trip Declan up. Apparently, he hadn't been expecting it and floundered a few moments as he tried to think something up.

"Well there's only two weeks of the term left, we figured you would want to start with the new school term after the summer break. We can enrol you on Monday and then you can start Tuesday if you want?" I nodded before Declan had even finished speaking, there was no way I would begin working two weeks early just because they didn't want to overload me or something.

Sure I'd had that panic attack less than twenty minutes ago, but school was school. It was the same no matter where you went, work was different and varied depending on where you went. Looking down at my heels covered in fine dust I wondered how many other girls down at the high school would be dressed similarly to me.

"Yeah, that'd be great Declan. I'd rather go to school than sit around here all day and do nothing." The way Declan looked, he looked like he wanted to correct me meant I was probably not going to be sitting around all day doing nothing.

"Okay, I'll talk to Trish. You can go down with her on Monday, or I might be able to take you down. I gotta go into the Butte office on Monday anyways, yeah I'll do it." It seemed Declan liked talking to himself a lot; he probably didn't get a lot of social interaction if he was a sort of travelling vet. At least that's what I got from his occupation; I'm sure people travel all the way to his ranch just to have a cat or dog treated.

"Thanks. So what does a ranch do?" I asked, changing the topic. It seemed that awkward situations bloomed between Declan and me, I was still adjusting to being around adults all the time or at least having two around that kept checking to make sure I was okay...I think Declan was just trying to figure me out a little more.

"Well it depends on what stock animals are on a ranch, we run cattle and breed horses out here. Well, Trisha does with the help of a few hands, it's not full-time work, but our stud is asked after a fair bit in this area." The change of topic seemed to completely erase the awkwardness and Declan walked off in one direction as he explained things. I followed off after him as rattled off a few interesting facts about horses and breeding and typically told me things I didn't want to know.

Despite the area around the main house being small, the entire tour took two hours. I was introduced to animals by name, was offered petting rights for a bit...was bitten by a goose and also introduced to a few of the ranch hands. Most of them were guys, older guys too. But there were a few women, and they looked at me like I was from another world.

I ignored the unwelcoming looks and was soon chatting away to Sonia Talbot, she worked in the horses shed with Trisha but she was friendly and only a few years older than I. Most importantly, Sonia had grown up in New York so she could relate to what I was going through. But how she ended up out in the middle of Montana I was yet to find out, she didn't seem too forthcoming with information either so I didn't prod.

"Hey, maybe you can work out here with Trisha and I once school is over? I can teach you some things before you go play with the big boys." Playing with the big boys? If Sonia meant those old, crusty men that Declan had introduced me to earlier then, I certainly would need a gradual introduction and accepted the offer without a second thought.

"Come on then kid! It's probably time to eat, and Trisha will want everyone scrubbed clean before sitting down at the table." It was now undeniable who ran the ranch, the name on the sign might have said Declan Gallers, but it was more like Trisha and Declan but with more emphasis on Trisha.

When we walked back inside Declan was shooed upstairs to clean himself up, and I went back up to my shared room to see Valerie brooding on her bed again. I swear to god if I had to look at her one more time like she had a stick shoved up her ass I was going to have to...feed her confetti or something.

"Wow, the life of the party aren't you?" I had barely stepped into the room, and Valerie had already begun. Smiling at her I shrugged my shoulders; I didn't know what she wanted me to say so said nothing at all.

Instead, I busied myself with getting a new set of clothes out and a new pair of shoes, there was one thing I loved, and that was dressing up to eat. Everyone would probably look at me oddly, but who cared? It was dinner time! The one thing I loved when Melissa stayed with me for dinner was that she came as dressed up as I and we always laughed about it.

Pulling down my jeans, kicking my shoes off and pulling my t over my head I smirked when I saw Valerie's expression. She didn't seem too comfortable with nudity, and the bra and panty set I currently had on wasn't modest, not to mention I had a few tattoo's here and there and my belly button pierced.

"Well aren't you a class A perve?" I joked, Valerie turned a bright shade of red as she looked down at the floor, fiddling with her fingers as I pulled on my little black dress and then my usual heels I would wear to dinner. This probably wasn't the most dressy I had ever been when eating, but it would be enough for a Montana ranch.

"Why are you dressing up? It's not like anyone cares what you look like." Apparently, Valerie didn't know what fun was; I turned away from her towards the mirror as I put my hair up into a rustic hair do and began applying makeup.

"It's not about what other people think of me or what I look like Val, it's about how I feel, and right now I feel like dressing up. Is that such a crime?" I was messing around with her to be sure, again she didn't have a response to what I'd just said, and I began to wonder where she stood in the food chain at Butte high school.

"So I'm going to be starting at the high school on Tuesday, won't that be fun? You can introduce me to your friends and tell me who to be friends with and who to stay clear of." Though my enthusiasm was fake Valerie didn't pick up on it, in fact, she looked even more murderous than she did earlier. My dear step sister seemed only have two moods, depressed and angry. I would need to change that about her.

I left Valerie up in the room and went down stairs, Declan was the first to see me and stopped in his tracks. "What are you wearing?" That wasn't what I had been expecting him to say, actually I had expected a compliment and an usher towards the dining room, but I was wrong.

"What? It's called dressing for dinner...what are you wearing?" I asked, pointing out the same sort of clothing he'd worn before going up to get changed. If the colour of his shirt weren't a different colour, I would think he'd just gone upstairs, showered and then changed into the same clothing again.

"I'm wearing clothing; your dress is missing the bottom half." Sighing I realised what he was doing; mom had warned me that Declan would get a little 'protective' if guys came around. But there were no guys around that interested me, so I didn't see what the huge deal was.

"You're funny Declan; I'm hungry. Is everyone ready to eat?" I brushed off the fatherly concern as I walked past him into the dining room where everyone was gathering.

"You look lovely this evening Leah, was Valerie coming down?" Shrugging at the question I sat down beside Sonia, she winked at me, and I pretended to know what the wink was for as I laughed a little before turning to Trisha, waiting to see what would happen.

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