As the four girls continued to study, the day wore on. Nothing surprisingly interesting about that. In fact, conversation between the four friends was mostly dead. Any noise would come from a random whine or growl from Tym, usually followed by her jumping up, grabbing her book and flinging it as hard as she could, then immediatly chasing after it and retrieving it, attempting to brush off all of the grass and dirt stains as she'd sit down and once again open it. This earned an odd look from Sabs and Amber multiple times, while Chelsea remained unphased.

"Cheezus, Tym!" Sabs furrowed her brow in wonder as she shot her friend an odd look. "What are you doing, playing a game of fetch by yourself or something?"

Amber let out a giggle, the feathers on her tiny wings fluffing in amusement. "I'd hate to be the person who has to use that text book next year. They're going to be opening it up and wondering why it's all green."

"Oh that's nothing." Chelsea let out a mild snort, not bothering to look up from her book. "Some kid in my math class has a book where nearly half of the pages are orange." The stallion's friends all turned and stared at her, awaiting an explination. Chelsea didn't notice as she flipped the page in her Psychology book, and finally, unable to handle the mystery any longer, Amber spoke up.

"... orange?"

"Yea." Chelsea continued casually. "He was complaining that it smelt sorta syrupy too."

"Orange pages. You know..." Tym's tail beat against the ground slightly as she wagged it, her tongue hanging out in amusement. "That's just one of those things where you wish you were there at the time it happened, just so you know what happened."

"As opposed to those things that you're glad you weren't there for because you don't want to know how it happened, huh?" Sabs' just gave Tym a flat stare, causing the wolf girl to shrug.

"Well that depends." Tym grinned a fully-fanged grin. "Do you have something in mind?"

"I do." Chelsea gave a snort. "Two days ago in one of the more unused arenas at the colosseum, Dad heard some of the cleaners complaining about a pair of underwear they found hanging off of one of the ceiling supports."

Once again, the three girls all turned and stared at Chelsea, trying to decide if she was being serious or not. The stallion just looked at her friends and shrugged.

"Well I don't know about you three, but I don't really want to know what happened."

"Good.... point.... ... underwear, huh?" Amber's expression was that of almost painful wonder.

"Don't think about it, hon. It looks like it's making your head hurt." Sabs put a hand on her friend's shoulder. Amber just continued to look bewildered.

"... how?"

"The question is," Tym's grin returned, "do you really want to know?"

"Yes and no!" Her voice sounded almost distressed. "I don't really want to know what happened, but the only way I'm going to be able to stop thinking about it is if I do know what happened!"

"And such are the trials of life." Tym panted. "Just like I want to go home but I don't."

"Oh?" Chelsea glanced at her friend briefly. "Why's that?"

"Well..." Tym scratched behind her ear for a moment, thinking. "On one hand, I know I'm going to have to return home eventually today, but on the other hand, as soon as I set foot into my house, I'll be sucked into cleaning."

"Cleaning?" Sabs gave a quick and abrupt laugh. "You? Clean?" Her response was countered by q quick growl.

"Mom says it's time to clean house, alright? And whenever that happens you can bet that there's nothing else I'll be allowed to do until the house is clean."

"Nothing at all??" Sabs smirked. "Oh come on now, you can't really mean nothing. What about sleep and school?

"Well you know.." Amber tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, Tym was absent for an entire week last year at about this time."

Tym just flashed a lolling grin. "I rest my case."

"Oh it can't really be that bad." Chelsea snorted as she continued to read over her chapter.

"You want a bet?" The wolf let out another light growl. "I bet even you wouldn't be able to stand all of the cleaning we have to do!"

"Well," Chelsea rolled her eyes. "I'm not a cleaning person but I really don't see how it could be that hard. So what's the bet?"

Tym blinked absently. She wasn't expecting that response. "Um... .. how about, if you come clean house with me, and last for more then a few hours, I'll ... do your homework for you?"

"I don't think so." Chelsea snorted and shook her stiff mane. "I know how you do homework. How about, if I clean house with your for more then a few hours, you'll owe me a favor left to be decided until later?"

Tym thought about that for a moment, running her tongue along her teeth before panting contently, her tail beating against the ground. "Yea sure. And if our house work proves to be too much for you, then you owe me a favor!"

Chelsea snapped her book shut. "Sounds fair. Let's go." The stallion and wolf-girl packed up their things and headed off with a wave to their friends. Amber watched them go before turning to Sabs, her little wings fluffing lightly in the breeze.

"Sabs.... they just left us to go do house work."

"I know." She shook her head. "I'm still wondering if I should have my feelings hurt about this or if they're just pathetic."

************************

The minute Tym opened the door and set boot into her house, it was as if an alarm had been flipped. Out of nowhere, Mrs. Black came flying into the room, barking out a couple of orders (literally), waved a hello to Chelsea and flashed her a sweet smile, then grabbed a broom and dustpan and vanished once more. Immediatly afterwards, Tim could be heard whining loudly at whatever new task his mother had given him.

"Dang.." Chelsea snorted as she looked around the house. Furniture was moved to be cleaned behind. There were large piles of paper and cardboard, items strewn about everywhere, waiting to be sorted for recycling. "No offense but it looks like a hurricane hit this place or something."

"Yea, sure." Tym let out a little growl as she scratched at her spiked collar. "But a hurrican with cleaning intentions... anyway, mum said I've gotta crush the cans." She let out a sigh and headed over to a pile of aluminum cans. "Shouldn't be too hard." Tym began setting up can after can, crushing them easily under her boots. The wolf girl was on can five when she suddenly hit problems. "Hum..." Tym was putting all of her weight on one foot as she balanced on one of the cans. ".. this is not working." The wolf hopped up and down once or twice. Chelsea just snorted.

"Here, let me try." The forestclanner made way for Chelsea as she walked up, stomping her hoof roughly down on the can. It barely dented. "Steel cans..." she shook her stiff mane. "That explains a lot."

"No worries." Tym walked over to the garabage can, reached behind it and produced a sledge hammer. "We'll get that dratted can yet." She picked up the item and headed outside. Chelsea gave her an odd look as she followed.

".. your family keeps a sledge hammer behind the garbage can?"

"Well.. yea." Tym gave her friend a funny look as she set the can down on a large, flat rock. "Who doesn't?" She punctuated her sentence with a hard swing from the hammer as she began to beat the can flat.

And the day wore on...

Back to Main | Back to Chapter Index