The windows of the car were caked with dust as Scott pulled up to the farm house and slowed to a stop.

"All right you two, I'll be back around six." He looked in the rearview mirror, peering into the back seat at the two taggers.* Jubilee was giving him puppy eyes and Angelo was staring out the window, muttering vile sounding words in Spanish.

Scott glared at Jubilee, ordering, "OUT!"

Jubilee raised her bottom lip and tried her best to look innocent for Scott.

"NOW!"

"Ah, maan!" Jubilee sighed and stepped slowly out the door, then slammed it as hard as she could. The whole car rocked, and Scott was sure she'd used her fireworks. He'd have to check the paint job when he got home.

"Angelo," Scott said as the boy opened the door. "Jubilee doesn't normally do thing this immature, and I'm sure it was your influence. Make sure it doesn't happen again. Now go work off your debt!"

Skin said something that sounded like a threat in Spanish, then stepped out. Scott sped off.

"Well looky here, looks like I got myself a pair a pen lickers, heh heh (cough, spit, burp)," Old Man Barnes said as he peddled up.

"Eeew!" Jubilee said under her breath while taking several steps back.

The short, beer bellied pig farmer seemed to give off a scent that made Artie, Leech and Franklin's room smell like "Channel number five."

"Sir . . ." Jubilee improvised as she limped up to him, "I fear that my newly sprained ankle will limit the amount of manual labor I can do, and I think that you should just send me home, lest I get in the way and do unnecessary damage to it."

"Miss,{spit} I don't care if every bone in your body is broken, I'll find you somethin' ta do {cough, spit}."

Jubilee promptly turned and hit Angelo's arm, hard.

"Ow!" He pulled back, rubbing his shoulder. "What was that for, chica?"

"This is all your fault, Skin! I could have been home watching "Beavis and Butthead" last night and VH1** right now, but nnnnno, *you* had to go and get caught, didn't you?" The irritation she'd felt was full blown, and Jubilee's face was red. Her voice had risen to a high pitch that could accurately be described as a shriek.

Angelo simply lowered his head and let the words go in one ear and right out the other. "Whatever. Where do we start, homme?" he asked humbly as he followed the man, Jubilee still ranting behind him.

"Well, miss loudmouth here can start by milkin' all hundred an' fifty a the cows out back, and you can start by repaintin' the barn over yonder." The short fat man lead Jubilee around to the back, where two long lines of smelly, fly infested, tail whipping, mooing, got milk?, milk does a body good cows were chewing on cud and giving Jubilee depressing looks.

"Oho, no. You don't expect me to . . . no way in--"

"Yes you will." The man shoved Jubilee into the barn and slammed the door shut behind her, locking it. "Now you ain't comin' outta there until I see alla those purty lil buckets are fulla milk, ya hear?"

The next thing he heard was a purty lil bucket smash against the barn door.

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3:00 slowly rolled by as Jubilee sat under Slappy The Cow's (she had named them all Slappy The Cow) butt, milking her. She had flies buzzing around her, her wet hair was plastered to her forehead, and she had been in there long enough to not notice the smell anymore. In other words, she wished she were in jail.

"Mooooooor," a cow cried as Jubilee squeezed too hard.

"Oh, shut up, you under cooked hamburger patty!"

The next thing she knew, the bucket had been kicked over, the milk running down her face.

"AAGGGGHHHH!!!!"

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Angelo wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued to make long, up and down strokes with the brush. He could clearly hear Jubilee's scream of anguish and frustration all the way over here, and he paused to chuckle.

"That's right fine, son. When you're done there I have a job the two o' ya can do tagether."

Angelo turned from him and kept painting.

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It was five when Jubilee was allowed out of the barn and was put to work at Angelo's side, where he was shoveling horse and cow dung into wheel barrows and dumping them about 100 yards away down a ravine.

Jubilee was handed a shovel.

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When six rolled around, Scott still hadn't shown up, and the two of them were quickly getting impatient.

"Where is he?" Jubilee grouched to herself, sitting on the ground near the place where Scott had dropped them off.

"It wasn't that bad," Angelo said as he pulled out a cigarette.

"WHAT??!" Jubilee roared, jumping up and seizing Angelo's throat, shaking him so hard he dropped his smoke. "NOT THAT BAD?? YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO PULL ON COW LIMBS FOR THREE HOURS. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE LOOK ON A COW'S FACE WHEN YOU MILK IT?! ITS SCARY! I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT BLASTED COW IS THINKING!" She took a deep breath and let him go, stepping back to tick points off on her fingers. "YOU didn't have to mush pig slop with your hands, then run for your life as they chased the bucket that you were holding! YOU weren't stampeded with a flock of angry sheep who just happened to decide that they didn't want you to cut their wool! And YOU didn't have to come out of a barn smelling like some squirrel eating, ear picking, inbred hillbilly reject, did you?! No, I don't think so, so not another word about how easy it was! In fact, not one more word AT ALL!" She took a few deep breaths, her hands clenching and unclenching by her sides.

Angelo started laughing.

Jubilee whirled back around to look at him, murder in her eyes. "What are YOU laughing at?!"

"Man Chica, you should have seen the looks on your face all day! You looked so funny!" Angelo couldn't say anymore as he fell over, tears streaming down his face as he clutched at his sides.

"Oh yeah??" Jubilee pounced on the boy, intent on doing major bodily harm. Angelo sobered enough to keep the kicking, spitting, clawing girl away, but then started laughing so hard again he had to let her go. She wrestled with him until they heard the beep of a car horn, at which point they reluctantly broke apart, Jubilee still fuming.

"All right, you two, come on."

Jubilee stood up and brushed herself off as Angelo lay on the ground still, laughing.

"Let's leave without him, Scott! Please!"

At that sound Angelo slowly made his way to his feet and staggered over to the car, plopping himself in.

The car became silent as they drove away, then Scott could be heard saying, "Now see, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Angelo started laughing.

Eight days left . . .

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*Jubilee & Angelo "tagged"--sprayed graffiti--on "Old Man Barnes'" farm. Last chapter.

**sorta like MTV used to be. Music videos.

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