Saddle up continued

ooc: continuing where we were before what we were posting up and went missing.

Harry was sitting at the table eating some left overs that he had salvaged from the fridge, " so what did the big kids talk about." he said mockingly around a mouthful of food. That was it. in a few smooth motions Jed crossed the room garbed Harry out of his chair and shoved him towards the stairs.
"what the hell?" Harry snapped

"Go to bed Harry!" Lucy snapped, coming inside after her big brother.

Hearing the shouting, Marshall came in from the family room. "What's he done now?" He asked, looking from Lucy to Jed.

"Shut up squirt!" Harry snapped
Harry get our of my sight," Jed growled. his hands began balling up at his sides. Harry took a second but decided to do as he was told

Marshall backed out of the kitchen as Harry stomped upstairs.

Lucy poured herself a glass of water and turned back to her older brother. She was at a loss.

Jed stood there for a moment taking in a few deep breath before he spoke, "i'll be in the barn." he said as he headed out

Lucy nodded and went back to the office to look at the books.

Ooc: skip to the next day?

oo: ok I'm skipping a few

Three days had passed and Jed had hardly said a word to anyone. that wasn't that uncommon for him. Harry on the other hand was griping about just about everything and took every oportunity to get at summer

"Oh my god! Leave me alone!" Summer snapped at her brother. "You're the worst!" She stomped into the house, away from where Harry stood, taunting her.

"Back outside," Lucy directed. "You've still got chores."

"But Harry won't leave me alone!" Summer whined.

"Ignore him. You've lived with him lob enough to know he's trying to get a rise out of you."

Summer glared at her and went back outside, her head held high.

"Howq am I the worst?" Harry started up the second she was in view, " you that much better than me?"

"Ugh you're so annoying!" Summer snapped. "Why don't you go find your girlfriend, she seems to be the only person who can stand you."

Marshall tried not to listen to their bickering, instead focusing on the stall he was cleaning.

harry's face went hard, " at least I have someone who can stand me," he barked, " when was the last time a man could stand being more than five feet from you sober?"

Summer wasn't as strong as he was, but she managed to punch him across the face hard enough to make him reel back.

"you b..." he spat out a little blood
Kate poked her head out from around the barn.
Harry started walking right towards summer, " you might want to run." he hissed

At the sound of the punch, Marshall looked up and over to where he knew the two were standing.

"No." Summer said. She wasn't going to run.

Harry got right up in her face. if she were a man he would have dealt out some blows already but no matter how he felt about his siter he couldn't hit her, " fine...you little whore."

Summer put her hand back to smack him, but her hand was grabbed by Lucy. "Not okay," the older woman said, glaring at both of them. "Harry, go help Jed. Summer, with me." Summer ground her teeth.
"Did you hear what he said to me?"
"Yes I did." her older sister answered shortly. "Now come on," she said, leading Summer out of the area, back to where Lucy had been weeding and cleaning out the small side garden.

Harry glared at the two of them walking away then went to help jed....

wiping the sweat off his brow sarge checked the steadiness of the post he had just put in. he could see the Walkers ranch house from there though it was faint.

Summer grumbled as she knelt down to start weeding. Lucy did her best to block it out but with the heat, she was quickly growing annoyed with both Harry and Summer.
"Why do you let him get to you like that?"
"He called me a whore, Lucy! Can't you at least see it from my side?"
"I do. I really do. But you can't just hit him for saying that stuff."
Summer mumbled something that Lucy didn't catch.

Kate walked up to her sister and knelt down iwth them with a small smile on her face.

"What are you smiling about, midget?" Summer snapped.
"Summer," Lucy warned her, but gave a smile to Kate.

Marshall, finishing with the stalls, moved on to help Jed and Harry.

Kate took it with a grain of salt giving summer some room, " its just a nice sunny day. its something to smile about."


Jed pulled out his cigarettes and lit up as Marshal came around. he nodded to his little brother. a good greating for jed...no words

Summer grumbled something about it being too hot, but Lucy voiced her agreement with Kate. "It is a beautiful day."

Marshall nodded a greeting and went about helping Jed with the chore.

Kate smiled again, " how was your date last night?"

Ooc: is there anything story line wise that I need to know about to play Kate?

ooc; not that I can really think of. everything is in her profile and she hadn't been a really big player up to this point

ooc: not really...

ic: "It was nice," Lucy replied. Had it been a date? She wasn't sure. "I had a good time."
Summer rolled her eyes, she didn't get the whole "Sarge" thing Lucy seemed crazy about.

"What'd you do?" Kate asked, hoping to keep the mood positive .

"We just went to the diner. It was nice until Harry got back," Lucy's smile faltered, thinking about the attitude she'd had to deal with from him. "He's a really nice guy," she added.
Summer rubbed her face, bored just by the description of their night. That was hardly a date. Lucy bit her lip, holding in a laugh as she saw Summer's face smeared with dirt from her hand.

Kate grinned, "that's great, I'm glad you had fun"

Lucy nodded. "Me too." She stood, checking her watch. "Bout time for lunch. Kate, can you run get the guys? Summer, help me take this to the back," she motioned to the pile of weeds they'd pulled.

Kate jumped up, "yep." She headed for toward the barn.

Harry noticed Kate coming towards them but his bad mood was still toxic, "here comes the cheerleader."

"Ya hungry," Kate asked as she walked closer. "Almost time for lunch."

Once the weeds were tossed, Lucy led Summer inside and they began to put together a simple lunch. To be honest, Lucy didn't have much of an appetite.

Jed nodded and looked at kate, " thanks. be in in a minute."

"Kay", she smiled and headed back towards the house.

Lunch was set out and Lucy called for the guys. "Get cups please," she instructed Summer, who had been little help.

Marshall started to head in, wiping his sweat y forehead.

"I can't deal with her." Harry hissed as he and Jed headed to the house. Jed barely looked at his brother but he was listening.
"she is the most disrespectful, annoying, bi-"
"I'm going to stop you there." Jed said quietly in his deep Clint Eastwood voice.
"why does everyone always take her side?"
"not taking sides."
"really because it feels like it a hell of a lot of the time." Harys voice was building in anger and defiance. Jed stopped dead in his tracks a few yards from the house and actually looked at his brother.
"did you ever consider that maybe that's because you're acting like such an ass?"
"what!?" Harry was full on pissed and yelling, "who are you to tell me I'm anything? At least I'm trying to live done dirty of life! You just buried your head in the ground and call it good!"
"watch it." He was starting to get on his nerves.
"why because you'll hit me? Go ahead! Summer already beet you to it!" He was dining and the swelling on his face was beginning to pissed him off even more.
"you know what Harry I'm not perfect, I'm not even a very good brother most of the time, but I'm what you've got." He viewed his bottom lip trying to think of what to say his hands on his hips. Words weren't something he was really used to any more, "I'm all this family's got and I'm doing what I can. I ain't got my head in the ground. Just 'cause I don't pick a fight with every sibling I have dissent mean I ain't trying." His grammer was going the way of the swine but he wasnt going to worry about that right now.
"all we've got? No one asked you to take up being everyone's dad! No one handed you the freaking flaming baton!"
"No! It was thrown at me two years ago when summer was off who knows where and you couldn't be bothered to get your head our from under all the skirts in town! Lucy had too much talent to worry about running this place, and Kate and Marshall...they need better than this so they ain't got a choice but to stay in school! Who does that leave? Me. I didn't ask for thus but I got it, damn it, and I'm doing the best I can." He brushed pat his neither but stopped a few steps later, "if you don't want to be here you ain't got to stay...but if you leave...you may not be able to cone back." It wasn't a threat it was just fact.

Lucy felt on edge all through their short lunch break, ready for Summer and Harry to start fighting again. She'd never seen Summer reducing to blows before and though it was completely inappropriate for her to hit Harry, Lucy honestly couldn't blame her. Harry was really toeing the line and Lucy couldn't believe the things he kept implying about his sisters.
Summer barely ate, she was still fuming at Harry.

The rest of the day passed in mostly silence. Jed was glad his yalk seemed to have an effect on his brother. He had no patience for harry but today he had mustered to talk to him instead of busting his lip again. Jed chocked it up to a little personal growth. Pouring over the files that were strewn across the desk in the office made his head and heart hurt. A few hard months and there they were behind on payment. If only that secondmortgage hadn't been taken out