The Last One Standing: Chapter 1: Me, Myself, and Flowers

"Rose, dear! It's time to go shift the daisy's!"
"Coming, mother!"
I shouted back to her. Shifting, was a prosses we Quell's called for pruning, and changing the color of petles on flowers. That's what we did on my family's farm, grow flowers, and raise chickens, and cows.
"Rose, hurry! Mr. Dickons order of daisy's is due soon! I need you to shift them, now!"
My mother, Rachel, is very impasiant.
"Well, that's my mother calling, David. I'll see you later."
If your wondering, David is not my boy friend. He just happens to be the farmer clan's royal child's brother. Which means his older brother, one day, is either going to die, or kill a lot of people...or both. See, In Quell, the Emperor is sent one suter from each of the 10 clans. The children then, are assined one tutor, and one body guard, and are to be given anything that they want. Then, when the royal children from each clan are 18, they are sent off to the arena to fight, and whoever is the winner, becomes the next Emperor. My mother and father think that the whole idea is very stupid, but it's the law, and we are just poor farmers, so what can we do?
"Uh, I don't want to go back to Domino...he get's everything he wants, and doesn't have to do any work, at all!"
One of David's favorite things to do was to complain about his brother. I don't blame him, because I've met Domino once and he was a spoiled brat.
"Rose! Don't make me come down there!"
"Sorry, David, I have to go!"
I brushed my dark red hair out of my face. The grass on the hill was starting to itch my bear legs. While, most ladies in Quell were required to wear dresses that went down, covering their ankles, and their hair up, the farmers were an exeption. Even though, after we turned 16, we were suppost to put our hair up, few did. We normally didn't wear dresses, either, because it was harder to do the work.
So, today I was wearing my dirty-white top, and a long, brown pants. My shoes were simple leather, boots. We had gotten the leather from a neighbor's cow, who already had plently of it. They, obviously, had a lot of cows.

"I'm here, Mom!"
I told my mom, as I walked into our little cottage. My feet made loud noises as I walked on the wooden floor.
"...Mom...? Where are you?"
She wasn't in the kitchen, or in the dining room.
"Mom?" I said again.
"Out here! I started without you!"
Yea, that was my mom. I dropped my sachle on the table, and go out the back door, and it opens with it's usual creek, and then some straw from our roof falls on me. Typical.
"Mo-om! Couldn't you wait for me? Mr. Dickon told meto shift his daisy's!
"Yes, honey, I know, but you were to busy talking to David. Here," She hands me some blue water. "Pick the flowers over there, and put them in this. He wants blue and purple."
Mom has her brown hair up in a bun, she's one of the people who decide to follow tradition, and grow their hair out really long, not cutting it until after they die, so we can sell her hair for money. I, on the other had wanted my hair managable, so I kept it right below my neck.
There was some dirt on mom's face, so I could tell she'd been out here for a while. As I walked over to the patch of daisy's that I was suppost to pick, I told her.
"Uhm, mom? You've got a little something," I point on my own face where the dirt was, "Right there."
She takes her glove, and goes to wipe it off, but instead, simply smuges it more, and puts more on. We both laugh.
"I'll wash it off later, once were done. Now, go pick those flowers, like I told you!"
For Mom's sake, I acted like I enjoyed shifting, but actually, it was my least favorite chore. It could take from sun up to sun down, pruning, picking, and puting all of the flowers in colored-water containers. But, someone had to do it, and I guess it just had to be us. Like, David's family grew fruit tree's. I always loved being in their orchard, eating a fresh apple under the tree. Then, Domino would come and chase me and David away, telling us that we were ruining perfectly good merchendice.
Late on in the day, we were almost done shifting the flowers.
"Mom, isn't Dad coming home today?"
"Sorry, honey, I forgot to tell you, but I got a letter from dad today. He says that Ms. Bellsalot is being difficult, and he woun't be home until next week."
Ms. Bellsalot is an elderly lady, who lives in the big city of Quell. Dad knew her before her husband had died, and he told me she used to be really nice. But, after he passed, she became really mean and grouchy. Dad, then, felt that he was responsible to help her out, and he went to the big city once a month to help her out a little.
I gave a little sigh, and finished up shifting. By the end of the day, my head was sweaty, and my hair was sticking. My underarms smelled bad, and I knew that I was going to have to run the water for me and mom.

Life was hard being a farmer, but someone had to do it.