"Zac, I need your help." Carter looked up from her seated position on the front porch and sheilded her eyes from the sun. "Because after we're finished painting the floor, we get to paint the balcony!" She faked enthusiasm.
"I'm busy." Zac muttered. He was sitting on the large, wooden banister with one leg hanging over each side. His attention was focused at his task at hand. He carefully positioned what looked like a baseball into the center of the balcony. "Ok, here we go." He reached down next to him and grabbed a large, metal meat mallot.
"What are you doing?" Carter put her paintbrush down. "Zac... Zac, what are you doing? What is that?"
"Meat mallot."
"Yeah, I got that part. What's the ball?"
"Jawbreaker."
"It's too big!"
"Exactly." Zac grinned and bit down on his tongue before raising the meat mallot above his head and bringing it down as hard as he could onto the jawbreaker. The jawbreaker didn't break, instead, it shot across the porch and almost took Carter's head off.
"Holy shit, Zac."
Zac's jaw dropped and he looked down in front of him. "I broke it."
"Broke what?"
He lifted up the two pieces of the meat mallot, the end, and the handle, broken in half. He frowned and set them down.
"Wow, I didn't think that was possible. Nice going." She laughed and continued to paint.
"Hey, Car... you really shouldn't do it that way."
"You wanna help?" She smiled and scooted back a little bit and continued painting.
"No, I'm just saying. You're just gonna..." He smiled and shrugged. "Carry on, Carry on." He gave up when he realized there was no helping her anyway. She was finished, well, she was as far as she could get.
She scooted back again just enough to hit her back on the banister of the porch. "Uhm." She turned around and stood up. "Problem." She looked all around her to see wet paint on the floor. "Yeah, I painted myself into a corner."
"Yes, yes you did." He laughed.
Carter whimpered. "Zaaaac, help!"
"Ok, ok." Zac jumped up and ran off the porch. He went to the other side of the house and yelled up at her. "Ok, just climb over the banister and jump. I doth shalt catch you! And stuff."
Carter rolled her eyes and climbed onto the banister. "Ok, here I go."
"Wait, be careful, the ground is kind of wet..."
Carter jumped before she heard him and landed in a wet patch of mud. Her feet slid out from under her and she landed flat on her butt.
Zac tried to stifle a laugh but he couldn't resist. "Ok, this whole thing could only happen to you..."
Carter stood up and tried to position herself so she could see how much mud covered the back of her jeans. "Yeah yeah, Mr. 'I'm just going to stand on this here basketball... woops I fell and now my head is stuck in the wall'."
"Totally different situation."
Carter smiled. "Same team of stupidity."
"Who else could possibly plant a dresser twelve inches into a wall without barely lifting a finger?"
"Hey, Carter, what happened to your pants?" Taylor asked, while painting the floor of the balcony behind the house.
Carter growled and Zac was about to warn Taylor about painting himself into a corner before Carter shook her head. "Let him figure it out himself." She laughed and began painting the wall. "This really sucks."
"Nobody asked you to be here." Taylor flicked a paint chip at her.
"Yeah well, nobody asked you to..." Carter mumbled. "Shut up."
"Nice." Taylor laughed and moved his paint can over, deciding to wait to paint the other half of the floor until the first half dried, preventing him from painting himself into a corner.
"Dammit." She growled.
"TAY!" Isaac yelled from the backyard. He had Zac's dresser halfway out the back door. "Come help, mom wants me to take this up to the garage. It's stuck. Then she wants you to help me patch that giant hole in the wall."
Zac blushed. "Oops." He shrugged.
Taylor jumped up and climbed down the balcony by way of the fence in Carter's yard. He jumped down and began surveying the area.
"Look at him trying to be all smart." Carter whispered to Zac. "Yeah..."
"Uhm, you have a weird look in your eye."
She nodded and grabbed the full can of yellow paint.
"What are you doing? Carter..."
Carter ran her fingers through her shoulder length hair. "My hair would be down to my butt by now if Taylor hadn't dumped paint in it two years ago. So now I get sweet payback and dump paint in his hair."
"Yeah, but I don't think all payback is sweet."
Taylor looked up at Carter. "Dude, Paint! Be good for something other than fashion tips and painting nails."
Zac held out his hand. "Dump away. He deserves it."
Carter nodded and smiled. She waited for the perfect moment when Taylor was bossing Isaac about just how to get the dresser out of the doorway. She lined up the can, crossed her fingers, and dumped it over the edge.
Taylor stood still for a moment after the paint hit him. He stared straight ahead before running around to the front of the house. Carter knew he was going for the front door to come after her.
"Uh oh." She jumped up and grabbed Zac, positioning him in front of her.
"Car, you missed his hair! You just got his back."
"I wasn't aiming for his hair. I'm not that cruel."
Taylor burst through the balcony door and jumped in front of Taylor and Carter. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!?!"
"Accident?" Carter ducked down with Zac still in front of her. "I WAS AIMING FOR IKE!"
Isaac yelled up. "Leave me out of this!"
Taylor reached behind Zac and grabbed Carter by the arm.
"DON'T KILL ME!" Carter screamed as loud as she could and got ready to stomp on his foot.
Instead, Taylor reached to his left and dunked his hand into the other can of paint, blue paint. He brought his hand up and while Carter was screaming, smeared it all over her face. Then, he wiped his hand off on her white t-shirt.
Carter gaped at him and grabbed the paint can. "YOU WANNA DIE?!"
"BRING IT ON!"
Zac jumped between the two of them and took the can away from Carter. "ALRIGHT!" He yelled and stared at both of them. "Tay, you deserved to be painted. Carter...You look really funny." He laughed as he looked at the blue paint dripping off of her eyelashes.
Carter glared for a moment and then broke into a smile. "So, does blue make my teeth look whiter?" She grinned widely.
Taylor laughed also and held out his hand. "Now you got me back for killing your hair however many years ago. Do you have it out of your system?"
Carter shook his hand. "Truce. For now."
"For now." He grinned. "Now if you excuse me, I have a wall to patch up."
Carter laughed and handed Zac her paintbrush while she went to go wash her face and change her clothes.
Carter
Adora Lane
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