Bella's story Day 1; Part 2
#2 of Bella's story
Day 1; part 2
I sighed softly as I looked up from where I was sitting, Listening to Jake drone on about how a spot welder gets over 2100o F and could cook your hand in a few seconds. Kira was laughing at him as he pulled down one of the overhead spot welders and clamped in around his neck and started spaz out. I laughed at Jake's usual antics, as he switched over to talking about the arc welder I stole a quick glance at Kira, my eyes caught her's in the act of looking at me, staring back into her Green eyes and her starting onto my own blue ones.
This Lasted till Jake interrupted, "hey lovebirds...er cats."
We both blushed brightly at the comment and both turned away, Kira was lucky her orange fur hid her blush, while my white fur turned a shade of pink. I still knew she was blushing though because the insides of her ears turned a bright red.
I looked up at Jake and shook at him before looking up at the clock above the white board, seeing we only had about five minutes left in the day. Leaning back in my seat I watched the clock for a minute before starting to pack my things up, not that I had much out aside from a binder and a pencil. The bell rang in same shrill syncopated way, prompting a collective sigh from the class, me included as we stood up from our desks. I looked over at Kira who's shoulders had slumped as she looked out the window.
Walking up behind her I said, "You know I could always just give you a ride home."
I swear it was only a fraction a second before she had turned around and was hugging me so tight I could barely breath. "thank you"
after letting me go I smiled back and said "I do have to make one stop on the way there though."
"wheres that?" She asked as we started down the hall towards the student parking lot.
"I have to stop at the John Deere dealership and pick up the new tractor."
"Oh" she said as we stopped at the door to the lot, "How long will that take?"
"maybe an hour at the most." I said pulling my hood up over my head before I walked out in the rain to hitch the trailer back up to the truck.
After about five minutes I yelled from the truck over to where Kira was still standing in the doorway, telling her to come on and get in. Dashing across the lot she hopped in and be4lted her self in as I slipped back in from the window and closed it. I slipped the truck out of park and and started to gather behind the bus line that was waiting to leave.
"yeah definitely an hour..."
she just sighed and shook her head before smiling at me and reaching over to flip on the radio. The old speakers crackled to life with the local country station, well one of them. We sat there listening to music intermixed with an occasional pop or crackle from the speakers for a few minutes before the buses started moving, with us following close behind. Shifting up a gear I turned on to the main highway out of town and listened to low hum of the straight six under the sound of the radio. We made small talk as we drove, me asking about where she was from, and her asking about the town.
I learned she was from a city out in the mid-west, some where in Kansas she said. I nodded and slowed the truck down and pulled into the dealership.
"I should call my parents and let them know I'll be late" she said looking around in her bag she sighed and looked up at me, "Hey Bell...."
She didn't finish as I slid my phone into her hand and said, "just put your number in my contacts when your done." she nodded and dialed in her house number as I slid out and walked into the store. A loud chime sounded as I opened the door and walked in on the linoleum floor. The store followed the usual layout, service/parts counter in the back, isles of things to the right, and the main counter to the left. That's where I headed to the main counter.
My eyes took a quick glance of the gray haired man that stood behind the counter, his brown eyes regarding my blue ones, then in that characteristic southern drawl he asked, "can I help ya?
I simply nodded before saying, "I'm here to pick up the new tractor for Thompson."
"you Bella?"
"Yes sir."
"Your daddy called and took care of all the paper work over the phone," He said as he pulled a clipboard out with some papers on it and a pen, Handing it to me, "All ya need ta do is sign 'ere an 'ere"
I did so and handed it back to him. "how longs it gonna take to load it?"
He stretched a bit before saying, "Bout 30 minutes at the most."
I nodded as I heard the chimes and a not so dry Kira walk in. She walked up to me and handed me my phone before walking off down one of the isles. Chatting for a few minutes I learned that the harvest season was supposed to be short this year, that bothered me slightly considering the size of our farm, thought the new tractor would help a lot. I said goodbye to the man and wandered off down an isle to find Kira.
When I did find her she was starting at some hats on the wall. She didn't notice me as I walked up behind her leaned over to ask "Want a hat?"
She jumped and spun around nearly taking my head off as she did so. I jumped back a little to keep from being hit. When she realized who it was she blushed softly and rubbed the back of her head, "yeah, but there really expensive."
I glanced at the price tag and did cringe slightly at it, "yeah they are bit pricy."
Her shoulders slumped a bit as she sighed and started to walk down another isle, following behind her I though about something for a minute or two as she stopped to look at a hoodie that was hanging on the back wall. Black with a large John Deere emblem in the middle. I looked from her to the jacket or a second and sighed myself as she started walking off.
'My wallets gonna regret letting me do this' I thought to my self as I grabbed the jacket from the wall and snuck up behind her with it, As quickly as I could I slipped it on her. Spinning around to glare at me, obviously peeved, she met my grinning face as I looked her over with the jacket on. The black the jacket off setting her orange fur nicely in my opinion.
"Bella what are you doing?" she asked as she looked down at the jacket.
"What I figured you need a better jacket for the rain than the one you have." I said as I smiled at her and leaned against a wall. She did look good with the jacket on to me, I couldn't help my self as my eyes drifted over her body, settling for a bit longer then they should have on her chest. I looked back at her furred face as he started to object to this, but I cut her off saying, "Don't argue I need something to spend this $200 burning a hole in my wallet on, and why not spend it on a friend who needs something."
'Hat $25, jacket $70, The look on her face...... Priceless' is what ran through my mind at her surprised look.
She babbled for a second before saying, "Two....two...hundred?"
I simply nodded, "Yup."
She noticeably cheered up and smiled at shaking her head before taking off the jacket and handing it to me. "Fine I'll take it."
I smiled as well walking back up to the counter to have him ring up the jacket. Once he did and I paid him I handed it back to Kira, who put it on and flipped up the hood on it as we walked out side to wait for them to finish loading the tractor. "So what prompted your parents to move y'all way out here in the sticks?" I asked as we watched them roll the tractor up onto the trailer.
She sighed softly and looked over at me before looking back out at the loading of the tractor, "I'm not really sure why, Dad came home one day and just announced we were moving."
I was mildly shocked at that and looked down at the orange furred tiger next to me and thought why would her father would do that. "don't you miss any of your old friends?"
She looked up at me with those green eyes of hers and sighed looking away muttering something
"what was that?"
"I said I have no old friends!" She yelled as she looked away from me at the ground.
I recoiled as my ears laid back when I heard her yell at me. 'I guess I struck a nerve on that one,' I thought as I watched her shudder slightly_, 'I mean its gotta be tough not having any friends, not to mention moving and all.'_ I looked from her to the truck where they were tying down the tractor, and then back. I stepped closer to her and wrapped my arms around her, resting my head on her shoulder. "I'm sorry if I brought up something you didn't want to talk about" I said as I hugged her trying to calm her down.
She stiffened up when I first put arms around her but then sighed and relaxed into my arms, turning her head to look at me, before sighing once more. "It's okay.... I'm sorry I didn't mean to snap at you....." She hung her head as she spoke , "It's just I never really fit in at my old school, and I guess its going to be the same deal here."
hearing this was like a low blow to me, "no it won't."
"what?"
"you'll have friends, or least a friend..."
She looked up at me and smiled, "thanks Bell."
"your welcome." The little smile on her orange face made me smile as well and let her go to look up at the loading of the truck, noticing it was done. "well lets get a move on."
She nodded and put up the hood on her new jacket as we walked across the lot, past all the display models that were there.
My bare feet getting wet in the rain as I only guessed hers were as well considering we couldn't wear shoes. My foot stepped in a fairly deep puddle as we got to the truck, soaking up about half my lower leg with water. "dang it." I muttered to my self as I climbed into the truck, Kira doing the same on the other side.
Sighing I leaned back in the seat and noticed a new green John Deere baseball cap sitting on the dash. Remembering that Kira was looking at them in the store I grinned as I snatched it off the dashboard and set it in the back, where I fished my old tattered cap out of the clutter on the back seat. I glanced over at Kira who was busy fiddling with the radio, trying to dial in a station on the old manual receiver. smiling a bit as I quickly stuck my cap on my head, my ears sticking up through the holes I had cut for them, pulling the new cap out I cut two slits in it with a claw. Looking over at Kira who was still fiddling with the radio I grinned as I quickly put the new hat on her head, her one ear sticking through the hole for it the other one not so much.
"Hey!" Kira yelled as she looked up at me, "ears are sensitive you know."
"What you said you wanted one of the hats." I said pulling it back off her to adjust the cut for her ears.
"did you buy that?" Kira asked accusingly as she pointed to the hat.
Smiling I shook my head and said, "Nope."
"then how did you get it," she asked, " I know its brand new just from looking at it."
"yes it is brand new," I said still smiling. she tried to say something, but I cut her off saying, "Though I didn't buy it, and no I didn't steal it either."
She glared at me for a second before asking, "okay where did you get it then?"
"it came with the tractor." I said as I slipped it back on her head, her ears fitting through perfectly, flicking still slightly in annoyance. Laughing softly I started up the truck and started to pull out of the parking lot, the engine straining a bit trying to get the trailer moving.
She just sighed and shook her head as we headed back into town. The ride back passed mostly in silence between us, the only noise coming from the engine. As we drove I snuck glances at her every now and then.
"So where do you live?" I asked turning onto main street, the green truck not really looking out of place among all the vehicles that lined the street in front of stores.
Her ears perked at the question as she looked over the people walking along the sidewalk, before she turned to look back at me, "2 Creaton road." she turned back to the window as I nodded and turned off main street.
A smiles found its way to my face to overtake the look of surprise that was there a moment ago. "So your my new neighbor huh?"
"What?" she asked as she turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Your the family that bought the old Johnson place."
"yeah we just got settled in yesterday."
I nodded as I turned onto the road before saying, "that place sits on a good 250 acres you know, and it also makes you my closest neighbor at about half a mile away."
"Oh, How the hell did my parents afford that much land?"
I just shrugged and slowed turning down the drive way to her house, "I have no clue."
we sat in silence for the few minutes it took to get to the front yard of her house, the old two story farm house right ahead of us, a small barn off to the one side. I pulled up and turned so was parallel to the front porch before putting it in park and killing the engine. Just as the motor went silent the front door swung open as a small tiger dashed out only to skid to a stop right before the steps.
Kira jumped out grabbing her bag before walking up the stairs saying, "Tommy you crazy cub."
I just chuckled softy as I shut down the motor. As its stilled I opened the door and jumped out landing I a crouch before I stood back up and shut the door. As I walked around the front of the truck I couldn't help but smile at what I saw. Kira was tickling her little brother like crazy. I climbed the steps to lean my back against one of the columns. As I watched her play I could barely keep my self from laughing as I said, "you didn't mention a brother Kira."
Just then the front door swung open again as out stepped two more tigers. To say the look of shock on their faces was humorous would be a massive understatement. I could barely limit myself to just chuckling at it before just smiling and saying, "Trust me the shock is mutual."
The male recovered first and walked over to me extending an hand in greeting, "So your the one who gave our daughter a ride home." I simply smiled and nodded shaking his hand before his eyes wondered over the tractor, then to the new jacket and hat Kira was sporting and then said, "With one obvious detour."
I nodded again letting go of his hand and adjusting my hat a bit to keep it from bothering my ears as I said, "Yup, Had to get it in today. The harvest starts in a month." He nodded in excepting that for a reason and started looking over the tractor from the porch. While he did so the Female walked over, she was slightly taller than me by an inch or so and shared the same orange fur as her daughter.
"Hello, Thanks for giving Kira a ride, I didn't think it was gonna rain like this today." She said as Kira ushered her little brother inside.
"Evening ma'am, and it was no problem. I just live right down at the end of the road." I said as Kira came back out ans leaned against the railing near me. I glanced over at her and smiled before looking quickly down at my watch. "well it was nice meeting ya'll but I must be going" I said as I started down the steps waving good bye, "Its supposed to be raining again tomorrow Kira, You want me to give you a ride in the morning?"
She smiled and nodded happily saying, "Yes please Bella."
I nodded and hopped in the truck and started it back up, shifting into gear I waved to them all as I pulled out, glancing in the mirror I saw Kira's little brother run out of the house again waving. I chuckled to my self as I turned back onto the road and headed for home. As I drove the 2 miles I let my mind wander. 'Hmm tomorrows friday, wonder what im gonna do this weekend since dads not tending the fields. I guess I'll figure something out, hmm maybe Kira wants to do something?' I thought as I turned onto my driveway. My phone went off next to me, it was a text from Kira asking what time to be ready by. I sent one back saying 6am. Just as I hit the send button and was pulling to a stop, the engine started sputtering loudly and shaking, cursing repeatedly I reached for the keys to shut off the engine, but was to late. A loud CLANG! Resounded from the motor as I finally shut it off. With a sigh I jumped out and pulled the hood release. Walking around the front I opened the hood and jumped up on the bumper as my dad walked out of the pole barn.
"Bella what was that?" He yelled walking over
I sighed at what I saw when I looked in, "The Cummins threw a rod through the block."
He jumped up on the bumper as well and looked in shaking his head muttering, "Now I'll be damned, how the hell did that happen?"
I jumped down and landed back on the ground and sighed in frustration grabbing my bag and phone from the cab I walked back to the house and sent Kira a text saying I couldn't pick her up in the morning.