Chapter One: Aleyna

Chapter 1

“Aleyna, can you get over here? I told you about a thousand times, you’ve got to do your work!" Mother yells from the barn. I’m still in bed, but she doesn’t know. She thinks I’m up, just avoiding my chores. When I don’t respond she yells, “Aleyna?” “Coming!" I shout. As quickly as I can, I jump out of bed, and pull on my work clothes: a white but stained shirt, my yellow overalls with the metal chain strap, and my brown boots. I try to fix my dark brown hair, braiding two dutch braids and wearing my sun hat to cover the embarrassing hairs sticking up, but nothing can fix the bird nest living on my head. I stare at myself. “Aleyna, I’ll make Jack go get you if you don’t come down here! ALEYNA!" Mother calls. I jump out of bed. Not Jack. His style of waking me up is yanking my blanket off and then picking up my bed and tipping me over. He's fifteen, and honestly, such a jerk. He bought this old, junky car and calls it his limo. If I got to get rid of one of my siblings, he would be the one. And consider I have three other siblings besides him, making five of us. “Aleyna, IF YOU-" Mother starts. “COMING!" I shout. I dash down the stairs, and meet Mother, who is standing with her arms crossed. Her sandy blond hair is perfectly tied back into a motherly bun, with fresh blue eyes fixing a stern stare on me. “Let's get to work. Jack is gone, and Lrya is preparing for her surgery. Your father is out in the fields, farming, and Jacob is helping your father. Heaven knows where Lily is. I need you to get to work.” My nine year old sister, Lrya, is getting surgery on her gallbladder, because of some weird problem. I never pay attention to details that don’t interest me. And this, certainly doesn’t. Lily, Lyra’s twin, are like besties. So I guess she gets to sulk. Jacob, on the other hand, is the youngest, being six years old. But he acts like he is as old as Jack, so he helps with the farm, saying it’s his duty or whatever. So I’m also expected to help out. Just because some demented six year old does it, why does that mean I have to? But I do know we really need this farm to work out. My parents can’t afford to pay for most of our food, so we grow it. We sell half of our food, and eat the other half. Then when winter comes and we can’t plant crops, we use the money to have food, and pay for our house. We had a car, but since we have five horses, we all just learned to ride and sold our car. It was the easiest thing to do after we started going downhill financially. Mother also makes a lot of our clothes out of sheep and alpaca wool, and she has her own brand, which she sells clothing. We make money from that too. Mother hands me a list, written on Lyra’s My Little Pony notebook paper. Mother looks annoyed, her thin eyebrows scrunched together. “Here’s your list. Feed the pigs, and milk the cows. Father has a delivery for this month, and we just need five more bottles of milk. And the slope is in the fridge.” To not annoy her again, I try to rush off to work. I stuff the list in my pocket and bolt through the kitchen. Instead I knock the table over. Mother looks at me with sad eyes. “What?" I ask, although I’m preparing for an argument. I pull the table back over. “Well, if we hadn’t decided to move on to this farm, I would’ve taught you how to be a good-natured young woman. It’s sad that you turned out like…" Mother looks me up and down. “Nevermind. I’ll be in my sewing room if you need me." She says. Feeling hurt and cruddy, I stomp into the kitchen, and grab the slop. I run outside, and the heat nearly knocks me over. Our thermometer says it is 95 degrees out. I walk across our front garden, and race towards the pig area. They have a little coop sort of thing for sleeping, and a large fenced off area for the day. Right now, they are all big and fat piggies. They see me coming, and crowd near the troughs like swarming bees. I giggle, and pour the slop in each trough. The pigs grunt and snort as they gobble up the slop, getting it all over the ground and on their faces. Pigs are always one of my favorites. I love the way they enjoy life and live it the way they are happiest. I sit in the grass, and let the refreshing breeze find trails through my hair as I watch the pigs eat. At least there’s a cool wind to come every now and then to whistle away the heat. As I watch the pigs, I can’t help but let my mind wander to what Mother said. Maybe she is right. Am I not normal? Is this not the right life for me? I have always felt out of place, with my family, at school, and even at the barn. There’s not one thing I can think of that brings me true happiness here. "Hey Aleyna, whatcha doing just sitting there?" Jacob’s voice is right next to me. "I dunno," I say. He sits down beside me, brushing his blond hair out of his face, and squinting. “Are you thinking?" He asks. “Yeah." I reply. Jacob always asks me this. I think he likes to observe people. “Why do you always just sit and think?" He asks. I turn to look at him. There's a lot I could tell him. I could tell him I feel like I don’t belong anywhere, and people say I need to focus. And that I have black hair and don’t look anything like my family, and everyone says it’s just a coincidence. And that I’m not good at anything, and I’m a failure to Mother and to everyone. And that I have so many thoughts and feelings that I could never tell people because they would say I’m stupid and ungrateful and that sometimes I have to bottle it up and I just want scream! Jacob can tell I am pained by my face, so I try to smile, but I know it looks pathetic. “Are you okay?" He finally asks. For a six year old, why is he so wise? I shake my head. “I’m not okay, Jacob. I’m not." Never have been, never will. I don’t know why I told the truth. I always make up that I am testing myself for a quiz at school, or I’m thinking up another riddle for him. I tell him one weekly. But today I just forgot to keep my shield up. “Okay then." He gets up and runs back to where he was coming from. I sigh, and pick myself up. I head towards the herd of cows, the same old routine.