Breaking Free Read Online Free Page B

enjoyed her food.
    “So, Kelsie, since you were sleeping when we selected chores, you are stuck with what was left,” Chris said.
    “Fine, whatever.”
    “You’ll be washing dishes this morning.”
    “Great.”
    “And you also have grunt work.”
    I pause d mid-chew.  Why did I have grunt work?  And what was grunt work?
    “What’s grunt work?” I ask ed, trying to sound indifferent.
    “It’s the result of not listening to me.  You didn’t eat lunch yesterday, you talked numerous times when you knew you were supposed to be quiet, you didn’t share something with the group last night, and you didn’t get up on time today.  So, you’ll be hauling up drinking water from the river.  Three containers for each offense.”
    “Sounds like fun,” I said with a sneer.
    After breakfast, Chris directed everyone to start their chores.  As Bling and I washed dishes, I kept an eye on the other teens.  Juicehead and Neeky were chopping dead trees for firewood under Jason’s supervision and Mia was talking to Chris and rummaging through a collection of food.  They seemed to be in decent moods, talking a little.  Mia even laughed at something Chris said.  I looked at Bling who was aggressively scraping burnt pancake off the bottom of a pan.
    “W here are you from?” I tried.
    “Where do you want s me ta be from, darlin’?”  He had a similar accent to Juicehead, but it was much thicker.
    I tried again, ignoring his response. “How old are you?”
    “Old enough.”
    Old enough for what?  I gave up asking him anything else, afraid of what the answer may be.  Instead, we finished washing dishes in complete silence.
    Chris noticed when we were done and approached me with two large plastic containers.
    “These are for water.  Each one holds five gallons and you need to fill up twelve of them,” she told me.
    “Where do I get the water?”
    “At the river, down the hill,” she said pointing to her left.
    I look ed to where she was pointing, but didn’t see anything.  “Where?”
    “It’s about a quarter mile down the hill.  Just follow the trail, you can’t miss it.”
    After stuffing a few toiletries into the pocket of my hoodie, I took off with the containers.  Behind me, I heard heavy footsteps and the rustle of leaves as someone with very little grace followed me.  Turning around, I saw it was Neeky.
    “What are you doing?” I ask ed.
    “Grunt work.   Just like you.”
    “Why do you have grunt work?”
    “Because I talked during our hike yesterday.”  At least Chris was consistent.
    I turn ed around without another word.  As I walked, I calculated my total distance for all twelve containers.  If I carried two each trip, it would be three miles total.  With my blisters and soreness from the ten miles yesterday, I had very little motivation to do this.  What was she going to do if I refused? Give me more grunt work tomorrow?  Hopefully I’d be on a plane back to California then.  The one appealing part of the chore was the river.  I needed to wash my hands and face, so I continued down the trail, figuring I could fill up two containers and tell Chris that’s all I was doing.
    U nfortunately, the trail was not cleared nearly as well as the one from the day before.  After a couple minutes, I was knee-high in weeds and had to bushwhack my way through.  To really top things off, the last fifty feet or so was steep.  I had to hold onto low-hanging branches so I didn’t fall face first onto the jagged rocks lining the trail.
    Once I finally arrived at the river, I dropped the containers and squatted on the shore, dipping my cupped hands into the cool water and splashing my face.  Reaching into the pocket of my hoodie, I pulled out my face wash and went to work scrubbing away the grime that had accumulated.
    While I was preoccupied with hygiene, Neeky waded into the water and submerged his containers.  When all the air bubbles disappeared, he tried to haul them out, but they