Summer Freedom

“School’s out….”

“For summer!”

“School’s out…”

“Forever!”

Twin trouble one and twin trouble two, better known to their mother and Silas and Daniel took turns singing the old Alice Cooper riff as they made their way home from school.  Johnny thanked Lupa he was nearly done with this portion of his community service.  After his stunt over at the supper club months back, Dante had taken a shine to putting him through his paces.

Dish washing, garbage hauling, cleaning the bathrooms and taking all manners of crap from his fellow employees all for peanuts, but he deserved it.  He’d done the crime now he paid his time.  Somehow, Dante had gotten into his head and cleared out the delinquent trouble-maker ideas.  Johnny was damned uncertain of how he’d done it, but he had and for that he was thankful.

This was the last day of trailing the dippity duo, along with their sweetly sensitive sister home as well as his last day of school.  He’d graduated through hard work and much tutoring from the crew at the supper club.  Dante himself had instructed him/rode his ass all the way through math and for the first time in his life, Johnny had an A to go with all the effort he’d put in.  Dante had promised him a better position with better pay if he graduated and got an A in math.  He’d done it and he was stoked.

“I’m gonna grow the biggest shitt’n pumpkin you ever saw.”

“No way, my squash is gonna kick your pumpkins ass all the way up the mountain.”

“Dick face!”

“Shit breath!”

“Hey now,” Johnny growled, cringing at the language these two were spewing. “Enough with the swearing, your sister is right here.  Do you really want to teach her all that foulness?”

“Sister smister.”

“Who cares about her, she’s just a girl.”

Johnny looked over at the sweet, toe-headed little human she with a big frown on her face.  He’d always been leery of humans, but Rosie was different.  She looked at him and all the shifters in town like she could see right through them down to their animals and loved them all just the same.  She didn’t fear them.  Rosie was the ethereal being every shifter wanted to protect and coddle.  He, himself, thought of this little being as the sister he never had and it pissed him off that her biological brothers treated her so badly.

“Hey…”

“Ouch…”

Both boys complained when Johnny reached out to palm them both around the back of the neck and pointed them toward their sister.  “Apologize.  Now!”

“Sorry.”

“Geez, sorry.”

Johnny let them go and they all resumed their walk.  He might need to be around a bit this summer just to make sure these two towed the line around Rosie.

“Excuse me.”

The soft, puff of air voice accompanying the small little hand he found sliding into his nearly broke his heart.
He looked down at the big eyes looking up at him. “Yes.”  Any request she made and that would be the same answer he gave.  Play dress-up, come to tea, eat worms…yes, yes and yes.

“Do wolves eat little girls?”

“Ah…no.”  Holy Lupa, no, never ever would his wolf hurt her either physically or emotionally.

“Good, then would you help me grow a big vegetable?  Something bigger than my brothers?”

Johnny broke out in a sweat.  She really did see his wolf and she wasn’t afraid.  She wanted his help in growing a big herbie treat.  Gack!  “Sure, what would you like to grow?”  As if he had any skill in growing something green and leafy.   If she’d asked for him to bring down an elk for a juicy steak, well, he’d still need help, but that would be more along his lines.

“Anything bigger than a pumpkin or a squash.”

Huh, what the hell would that be?  This sounded like a problem for a herbie, or hey, maybe Digger.  He was all into that healthy stuff.  Plus, rumor had it he was helping Manscape with a problem similar to this.  He’d check and see what he could find out.

“Let me look into it, Miss Rosie and we’ll see what we can find.”  He squeezed her hand but held onto it the rest of the way to her home at the hotel.

Once there, Johnny watched as trouble one and two went screaming through the front doors, but Rosie still held his hand and looked up at him.

“Thank you for helping me.”

“No problem.  It’ll be fun.”

He watched her walk up the sidewalk then turn back to him and smile.

“Tea would be nice if you’d like, but I would never make you eat worms.”

Johnny couldn’t believe his legs held him as she ran up the steps and through the door.  How had she known his thoughts?  What exactly was his little human friend?
~~~

Schools out indeed!  Darling Diva is now free for the summer which means for me our annual Harry Potter week and this year, her new fascination...Dr. Who.  Not that I mind, of course, our HP event is always a pleasure and as I've found out, so is watching the doctor!  ~Whew~ Hottie alert!

If you have young ones at home this summer, enjoy your time together.  If not, squeeze in a little Who time for yourself.


Serena