The Punishment (Closed)

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin checked her reflection in the mirror one more time before running out of the house. Her auburn colored hair was hanging loose and flowing around her shoulders. She had enhanced her green eyes with a minimal amount of makeup, and put on a little lip gloss. Her 5'2, 115lbs frame was encased in a pair of skin-tight jeans and a form-fitting blue sweater that hugged her curves to perfection. She had slipped on a pair of black Nike tennis shoes to complete the look.

With a shouted goodbye Erin grabbed her books and headed towards her truck. It was a good forty minute drive to the local college and she was pushing it on time. Erin was attending college to get her degree in Early Childhood Development, and was in her sophomore year. She was a great student; always attending class, never getting lower than a B, making the Dean's List every semester. This year was rough on her. She was taking five courses as well as working on the family ranch and felt like she rarely had time to take a breath.

***

Erin made it to class with three minutes to spare. This class was a college algebra course, and she had it with a bunch of hockey players who were always goofing off and getting into trouble. She ignored them where they sat in the back of the room and headed towards her seat up front.

 

[Taranis]

James ran his fingers through his short curled brown hair and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he cursed looking at the time. After yet another night drinking he had about 15 minutes to run across campus to get to an algebra class he wish he had taken his freshman year. Pulling baggy jeans onto his 6'3" muscle frame and a t-shirt on and grabbing his bag and running out of his just off campus apartment.

He jogged in a minute late to the class and quickly took a seat in the back with a few of his fellow hockey playing buddies. Unlike most of them James actually had a brain in skull... usually. Typically got good grades,B's and A's and still managed to be one of the captains and goalie of the college's accomplished hockey team. He was studying biology and was hoping he'd get picked up by the NHL or any minor team and wouldn't need to worry about the degree to much. There were many scouts looking at him and he was close to graduation and only needed a few classes. All he had to do was not mess up.

He sat there taking notes, wishing his headache would go away as his fellow team mates sat there muttering about some elaborate plan to prank some sororities. James chuckled to himself as he figured they would clue him in later.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

The class passed slowly. Time seemed to drag on endlessly. Erin's eyes were blurry from being up studying and she rubbed them vigrously trying to wake up. Finally class was over and she stood up with the rest of her classmates to leave. She heard all of the jocks in the back of the room laughing together and talking loudly. She walked towards the door, bumping into one of the tall hockey players, James, she thought his name was.

"Sorry," she muttered briefly before continuing outof the classroom, her ass swaying as she walked.

 

[Taranis]

Class dragged along and it was all fairly easy. James had taken other classes that basically covered this but it was required before he could graduate and was then forced to take it. The class ended and he went to leave getting bumped into by the stunning red head who always sat in front. She apologized and he just smiled slightly at her and watched her walk away. She was quite attractive, he didn't know her name but had seen her around. He shrugged and walked off with his buddies laughing and going to get ready for practice and the inevitable goofing off they would do later.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin hurried from class to class, and by the time the day was over she was exhausted. Her phone rang just as she was climbing into her truck. She looked at the front display and it said "Daddy".

"Hey Daddy, what's up?" she asked as she backed the truck out of her parking spot.

"Hey hun, I just wanted to let ya know that I was about to leave but I just got another call right there around the college". Erin's dad was the sheriff in the town they lived in, as well as owning and running their family ranch. "Everything OK where you are?" he asked.

"Yeah Daddy, I haven't seen anything out of ordinary" she replied as she drove towards home. She was curious now as to what was going on.

 

[Taranis]

The rest of the day went smoothly, a few other classes, hockey practice, and now he was being dragged out by part of the team. What they had planned tonight would trump many other stupid things they had done in the past. James was 23 and when he went out with a few of the boys from the team he felt like he was 16 again. Their plan was to go wreak havoc on some of the sororities, nothing bad just go, drink, and knock on doors and try to get laid. James wasn't really the type to go and just chase tail and hook up with whoever. Though he had in the past, it wasn't really his thing anymore. But it never hurt to flirt and try.

But tonight would be different. They didn't want campus security to get in the way, so they had a plan. Hook a chain through the undercarriage of the campus police cars so that when one went to drive off, they would all get messed up! No one would get hurt, just cause damage. They all dressed in black and James went to work on the cars with the others. It was all finished and then they ran off to go be boys.

Later in the night, and many beers later, and after getting slapped by a gal friend of his he swaggered across campus and heard the familiar sounds of sirens and then saw blue and red flashing lights. He groaned and was about to run, tripped and his friends bolted without him. He figured it was Officer Jones, a campus cop but saw it was the local police, he groaned and sat down looking at the Sheriff.
"Son... we got a few questions for ya..."
James nodded and realized even in his alcohol addled brain that if the campus police couldn't take care of it, local, city police would. And they were much harsher. He sighed as he stood up looking around at the dark campus and lack of friends. This would be an interesting night for sure.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin headed home and got started on her work around the ranch. Her main job was to take care of the many horses that they had there. She also worked with some of them, helping their main trainer out. She fed and watered them all before heading in to work on some homework. She glanced at the clock. 11:30PM. Wow, something really must have been going on if her father still wasn't home.

Erin's mom had died when she was young, so it was just her and her father who lived in the main house on the ranch, although many men worked there and slept in the bunkhouse which was only a couple hundred feet from the back door. Erin could hear all of the men out there hooping and hollering; it was a Friday night so they all mostly had off tomorrow.

Deciding she couldn't concentrate she shut her books and stood up to stretch. She was really getting curious as to what was keeping her father working so late but she didn't want to call him and bother him if he was busy, so she headed up to take a shower instead. The hot water soothed the tense muscles in her back and she felt much more relaxed afterwards. She went down and flipped on the TV in the living room, stretching out and eventually dozing off on the couch.

 

[Taranis]

It was now approximately 1 am and James was sitting in a plain room at the police station across from the Sheriff while he drank coffee and looked at a manilla envelope with James' name written in it. The man looked rather unpleased with him and James had already been told the amount of damage he had done and tried to convince him to give up his friends. He wouldn't explaining that he should let the blame fall on him since he was the oldest and should have been the voice of reason to all of them. The sheriff seemed to find this honorable but also frustrating.
"You know you've got a bright future... and a few of the boys here are a fan of the team which is good for you."

James nodded and mumbled a thanks after the sheriff spoke and kept his blue eyes down and avoiding the older man's. There was a long pause before the man sighed and wrote a few things down and then began speaking again.
"I know losing your father years ago was tough, and your transcripts show you do well in school, and of course your hockey career... I've got a little idea. I know you're a good kid, just need some discipline, and well I know how horrible this kind of thing looks on your file. You do some community service, and help pay for the damage we can make this little infraction go away."

James's head shot up and he nodded willing to do damn near anything, though he didn't like that the man brought up his dead father. People seemed to think he acted out because he didn't have a father in his life since he had been 13. He didn't like thinking about it and now just listened to the man who determined his fate.
"You'll come work for me on my farm, doing chores and the like. You can move into the bunkhouse on my property and of course you'll need to write a formal apology to campus police and since you've said you are a mechanic you will be helping them fix their vehicles."

He didn't know what to think he sat there just looking at the man now thinking that jail time might be better. But at least with this he could still go to class, practice, and live on some hick farm doing labor for free? He nodded his head and took a deep breath.
"Thanks, I appreciate this. I think..."
The sheriff nodded at him and explained that he would get him directions and after class and practice he would move to their place and be shown around and his daily duties. Of course his class schedule and practice/game schedule would be taken into account and this would be cleared with his coach and mother. His mom didn't need to give her approval since he was above 18 but she needed to know and James knew that was punishment in itself. He never wanted his mother to be disappointed in him and hopefully this wouldn't happen again.

James was then driven home where he immediately crashed out with a bunch of paperwork in hand and directions. The next day was going to be a loooong day.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin awoke around 2am to the sound of the door shutting. She sat up on the couch, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"Daddy?" she called out softly.

"Yeah darlin its me" her father answered in return. She heard his gun belt jingle as he hung it on its peg on the wall and then his booted footsteps as he walked towards the living room.

"What happened? You are really late" Erin said when he entered the room.

"Yeah a bunch of hockey players decided to play some pranks on campus" her father replied.

The words hockey players got her attention. She wondered if they were the same as in her class? What a bunch of jocks. She had a feeling they were the same as the ones in her class- those boys were ALWAYS joking and laughing during class.

"But we didn't arrest them", her dad continued. "We caught one but I offered him a little community service to keep it off his record".

"Community service? Doing what?" Erin asked.

"Well... He's gonna be coming and working here for a while. I was wondering if you'd... Ya know... Show him the ropes?" her Dad asked.

Erin rolled her eyes. "Daddy you are too soft" she replied. This would be truly annoying. Not only would she have to do her own work as well as homework now she got to babysit a college-aged kid. Wonderful.

"He better be ready to work" Erin muttered softly and her Dad laughed. He ruffled her hair and then headed towards the stairs.

"Go to bed darling" he said and Erin stood up. Yeah these were definitely gonna be a fun few weeks. Not.

 

[Taranis]

James woke up with a groan and from a phone call from his mom. He got a long lecture from her and a severe guilt trip. Not a great way to start the day but, he just kept reminding himself on how he'd never do this again and he was kicking his friend's asses. He went through his day with classes and then coach came up to him and gave him an "I'm disappointed in you lecture, you are better than that" speech to him and the whole team. James told his buddies they owed him hard and they agreed but still weren't going to come clean and turn them selves in.

Once practice was over he made his way home and started to pack all of his things together and take a shower. He told his roommates, who were on the team, what the deal was and there were fine. One of them was going to get his girlfriend to move in to cover his rent so it worked out pretty well. He packed his stuff and headed over around 5pm. He got in his jeep and followed the directions feeling like he was driving out to the middle of no where.

He got to the ranch on time, about 45 minutes later. He drove up to what he figured was the sheriff's house and just reminded himself that this punishment was nothing compared to what it could have been. He parked and ran his fingers through the mess of brown hair on his head and knocked on the door.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin's classes passed slowly the next day. She got home around 4PM and went to change her clothes. She had just pulled on her boots when she heard a vehicle pull up. Peeking out the window she saw a Jeep she didn't recognize. Must be the new "help" she thought, rolling her eyes.

She took the stairs at a jog and got to the door just as the boy raised his hand to knock. Erin opened the door, surprised to come face to face with the boy she had bumped into the day before. Go figure. She folded her arms across her chest as she looked at him, unknowingly making her boobs stand out prominently.

"You the one who fucked up yesterday?" she asked bluntly. She eyed him critically with an eyebrow raised. He was cute in a college boy way. Looked like he had a nice body so he probably worked out- at least that would be good for working on the ranch. She stood there waiting for him to answer.

 

[Taranis]

He expected a large burly man to answer the door and instead got the hot red head from his math class. To say he was shocked was an understatement. Her statement through him off and he just nodded, looking down at the smaller woman.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that... is the sheriff here and please don't tell me you're his daughter."
If she was he was in trouble. It'd be hard to not stare at that amazing body of hers while working and living there. He tried not to stare as her chest got pushed together and he quickly looked away.
"Uh so I kinda forgot your name, what was it? I'm James, by the way."
He said extending his calloused hand to her.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin smirked at James' comment. She took his large, calloused hand in small one. "I'm Erin. And I AM the sheriff's daughter. You being here is a real pain in the ass. You know that right? If I had any influence at all over my father I would have tried to talk him out of this" Erin said, pulling her hand away from his and looking at him.

"But once he's made up his mind that's it. So looks like you're on horse duty... With me" she said. "Ready to do some actual work with those muscles?" she asked.

 

[Taranis]

He said nothing, obviously she was upset with the whole situation. It's not like he asked for this but the sooner this was all over the better, and hopefully she'd less bitchy about it. James just nodded and then told her to wait a minute as he grabbed his work gloves out of his truck shoving them into his back pocket and tying his steel toed boots a bit tighter.
"I guess I'm ready. I've never worked with horses before... I'm better with fixing stuff. Anything around here need fixin'? Besides your attitude?"
He finished with a cheesy grin and then stood there waiting for her to lead the way.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin raised her eyebrows at his question. She placed her fisted hands on her hips. "My attitude? Honey you aint seen an attitude yet" she said giving him a sarcastic smile. "Look, I've got better things to do than babysit a delinquent all day. You wanna fix stuff? Fine. We haven't been using the back pasture recently cause the gates broke and noone's had time to fix it. Somethings up with the hinges. Think you can handle that?" she asked as she gestured for him to follow her.

She led the way to the back gate, which was indeed sitting at a weird angle and then she gestured towards it. "See if you can figure out how to fix it, ok?" she asked. "I'm gonna go saddle up on of the horses and I will be in that pen, next to this one" she said, gesturing the pen just to the left of where they were standing.

 

[Taranis]

He got under her skin and he suppressed a chuckle. James followed her out to where the fence and gate was having issues and he looked at it and nodded inspecting it all. His Dad had been a handyman and mechanic and he learned everything he could from him before he passed away and continued to do all that around his house for his mom as much as he could.
"I think I can get this to be functional again, not necessarily tonight but Probably get started tonight and finish tomorrow. Let me just grab my tools..."
He inspected it and then looked back at the fiery red head and nodded on where she said she'd be riding. She walked off and he went back to get his tools and began to work on the fence seeing that some of the hinges were just rusted the wrong way and it had been kicked by what he guessed was a horse. Not to bad a shape he thought but he might need to go out and get parts.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin walked away and into the barn. In there she saddled up one of the horses, a black gelding that she had been working with recently. He was a smart horse, but a bit head strong. Once she had him saddled she mounted up and urged him towards the side pen. She leaned down from his back to open the gate and they walked in.

Erin started him off at an easy canter, getting him warmed up a bit and then she urged him to do some tricky maneuvering. She had a feeling once he was trained well he would make a great cutting horse. Her body moved easily with the horse's. shifting to acomodate his sharp movements. She rode for a while, and her gaze kept straying over to where James was working on the gate. He seemed to know what he was doing, which was a good thing. She found herself easily distracted by him which bugged her. He was hot in a jock-ish sorta way. She forced her mind back to the horse though, refusing to give into those thoughts.

Eventually Erin figured the horse had worked enough and walked him back into the barn where she brushed him down and then gave him some feed.

Erin walked back over to the back pen once she was done. She had worked up just a bit of a sweat from the riding, and shivered as that sweat was cooled down by the air that was just a bit chilly. She rubbed her arms briskly.

"You getting anything done?" she asked James as she walked up.

 

[Taranis]

James worked and hammered and tried to get the hinges off and eventually he did. They needed to be replaced. The gate itself was fine but the parts keep it on were busted. It didn't help that the wood fence keeping it together was old and rotting a bit and also needed replacing. As he worked he couldn't help but look over at Erin from time to time. She was quite attractive and from what he could tell she was quite a talented rider. He didn't really know anything about it but the way she did things seemed professional. He kept working and sweating and after replacing some nails in boards he looked over at the petite girl walking over to him.

"Well, I did but a lot of things needs replacing. I know a guy at the hardware store that can give me a discount and I can pick up some wood and hinges tomorrow..."
He wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm and then threw his pliers into his tool bag.
"Some of these boards and posts need replacing as well. I can fix it with what you've got but this problem will happen again and the gate is a bit compromised from the rust and might break. So, yeah... I got things done, don't seem so shocked."
He smiled and then lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat off his face and revealing a nicely muscled abdomen and chest. Not too much but just enough muscle.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin couldn't help smiling at him. She had to admit he wasn't as bad as she had thought. He actually was working pretty hard. She nodded at his words. "Ok, you let Daddy know what you need and he will get it for ya" she replied. He wiped the sweat from his face with his shirt and her eyes were immediately drawn to his abs and chest. God, he really was hot.

Erin's body reacted a bit and she crossed her arms over her chest again to hide it. "Its good to see all them muscles are good for something" she said, smirking at him. She actually kind of enjoyed their banter. She watched him as he cleaned up around him.

"You sit in the back of that math class, don't you?" she finally asked, even though she knew the answer.

 

[Taranis]

She had a sweet smile, he had to give her that and he laughed at her comment about his muscles. He earned those for sure. He took hockey pretty seriously and always took "around the house" jobs serious as well. This was supposed to be punishment and it was someone's home, the sheriff's home so he couldn't half ass it, plus it wasn't really his style to do that.
"Yeah I sit in the back, with the rest of the hooligans, you're in the front and have all the answers."
He smiled at her. At that moment his stomach made a noise and he chuckled again.
"I guess I worked up an appetite. I guess I should go unpack my stuff and figure out dinner. Or do you have more work for me Miss Erin?"

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

"I don't have all the answers... Trust me. Yall would probably have answers if you did more than play hockey and pranks" she said, eyeing him closely. She felt attracted to him and it kind of pissed her off. She didn't wanna feel attracted to him.

She heard his stomach growl and gave him a tiny smile."I think you've done a lot for the evening... And we have a cook who prepares meals for the guys. You can eat with them if you want" she said.

 

[Taranis]

He loved her attitude and was happy when she said he was finished. Honestly it wasn't really up to her, it was up to her father but at that moment she gave him the go ahead to be finished. He picked up his tools and looked and looked at the house where the other guys were.
"I guess I'll just grab my stuff and see ya at class tomorrow."
He went to walk away but then turned and looked at her.
"I have some of the answers, and an A in the class. Don't be so quick to judge..."
He finished with a wink.

With that he walked back to his jeep and grabbed a large bag full of his stuff and walked back to the bunk house. He meet the other men, who had been told about the situation and showed him he'd be staying in the attic room and dinner would be ready soon. He nodded and started unpacking some stuff. There was a small cot, a table with a lamp and a light in the ceiling. It was clean but very empty. He had to share a bathroom and went and showered then put on shorts and a t-shirt again and sneakers and went and ate dinner with the rest of the men. He'd make a list of materials for the fence for the sheriff and give it to him in the morning.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin felt herself blush when he made that parting comment. He was right, of course. She didn't know what it was about him that made her so judgemental. She really usually wasn't that way. She sighed as she watched him walk away. Eventually she made her way back to the house. Homework was her goal that night and she did get some did.

The next day she woke up and got a shower. She styled her hair to frame her face in flowing strands and then got dressed. She chose a pair of jeans again and a t-shirt which she put on under a denim jacket. She took her time doing her makeup, wanting to look nice even though she knew she shouldn't care.

The campus was bustling with activity when she got there and headed to class. She wondered if James would already be in class and if so, if he would talk to her in front of his friends and teammates.

 

[Taranis]

The next day James woke up and left a note for the sheriff on the door with an explanation of what he had done and the parts he needed but had been found by some of the other workers. After that he drove to school in just jeans, t-shirt, and his hockey jacket. He walked into Algebra and threw Erin a small smile as he sat down in the back with his buddies who he did not speak too. To say he was still upset about the whole ordeal was an understatement, they left him there and he should have named every last one of them but didn't.

Besides being annoyed with his friends, class went smoothly and afterwards he went straight to the next on and practice. He didn't feel like explaining to anyone else what the hell happened. Hockey practice ended around 3 and he was exhausted. They had a game that Saturday, which was 3 days away and coach wanted to make the work their asses off one more time before having a more gentle practice the days before. He wanted to sleep but knew he had yet more work back at his "house". He climbed in his truck now just wearing basketball shorts and a wife-beater. The drive was long and he was really wishing this would all go away.

 

[twelvegaugegirl1989]

Erin smiled back at James when he walked in. They didn't speak any during class as usual and Erin didn't know if she should feel disappointed or not. Her mind wandered during class and she missed half of the notes that she should have taken. She hoped she wouldn't be lost doing homework tonight.

She was driving towards home when she looked in her mirror and noticed James' Jeep. Talk about good timing, she thought to herself. Her truck rolled smoothly through the gates to the ranch a while later, followed by the Jeep. She parked and got out, holding her huge stack of books. She turned to call out to James but found he was already right beside.

"Oh hey. Uh... How was your day?" she asked softly.