She had decided there was no point in this. The heat was stifling, there was no air conditioning, and there wasn’t anything in town to distract her from the constant pounding of the sun’s vicious waves. Perhaps she was whining – but she hadn’t chosen to come here! Oh no, she most certainly hadn’t. Dragged into the middle of some plains state – she wasn’t certain which one – by her parents, she moaned and pled sickness every step of the way, and not one moment was she there voluntarily. Now, of course, it had all been and exercise in futility, and her tantrums had done no good, but it didn’t mean she hadn’t tried. Soon she was sitting on the porch of her great grandmother’s old, rundown shack of a house, petting the smooth fox terrier they’d rescued a year ago that had bonded with her. A dry, hot wind blasted her, causing the dog to yelp even as she closed her eyes against the wall of grit that washed over them. Hot, dry, and dirty. Really, was there anything worse? She finally stood, muttering, and stalked into the dead corn field a few yards out, to the west. The terrier trotted after her, bright yellow collar gleaming in the sun, showing the Sharpied on name – Jack. She paused to pick him up, stroking his head gently as she pushed through the tall brown plants.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t realize this was someone’s land! They all said it was abandoned.” The girl hadn’t been expecting to find someone else either, and said so. The other girl beamed at her.

“So, you live up the way?”

“Not really…My parents are making us ‘visit’, even though my great grandmother’s been dead for years, we’ve never visited before, and we don’t know anyone here.” The girl tilted her head, and gave her another bright, wide smile, showing all of her perfect teeth.

“I could be your friend! My name is Helia!” The other girl raised an eyebrow, and gave her a sardonic smile.

“Rachel. Nice to meet you.” Helia nodded excitedly, and Rachel rolled her eyes.

“So…wanna go do something? It’s kind of boring out here.” She couldn’t help but pray the girl knew about something to do. She beamed, grabbed her hand, and pulled her deeper into the field.

“Sometimes the older kids hang out in here around midday, but they don’t really like me. Maybe they’ll like you! I hope so. It must be so lonely to be out here all day, all alone. Your dog is really cute!” Rachel forced herself not to jump in surprise at the sudden change in topics and her dog’s reaction. He snapped at the small girl’s reaching fingers, growling.

“Oh jeez. Hey, dummy, stop it, she didn’t do anything. I’m sorry, he’s never like this. He must be tired or something.” Helia eyed the dog warily, her bubbly attitude suddenly disappearing as  she pulled her hand back slowly. For a moment, it seemed as if she might even growl back at the dog, when she suddenly shrugged, and beamed at her again.

“I’m sure he just doesn’t like how I smell – I work at the local Humane Society.” With that, she skipped off, laughing brightly, but Rachel was beginning to feel odd. Jack was normally the most amiable dog in the world – he got along with everyone and everything, including other dogs, cats, horses, and chickens of all things. He never snapped at anyone, and he normally liked kids a lot. With a sigh, she hugged Jack closer and slowly followed the white clad girl.