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"Your neighbor's lawns are so clean," Jade remarked as the four kids (tweens? teens?) headed toward John's house. They were planning this hangout for a while, as it was pretty rare that none of them had plans and were willing to have fun and hang out. Nevermind that it was after a school day, people can have sleepovers after school days! Not like it's illegal.
Dave raised his eyebrows, hands shoved in his pant pockets. "Oh shit, she's right, John. Your neighbors are clean as hell, never seen a neighborhood this clear of leaves."
The four of them walked on the sidewalk; Rose and John leading in the front, Jade and Dave following close behind since the sidewalk was too narrow for all four of them to walk side by side. Well, they could manage, but they'd have to be squished together, and someone'd be walking on the road.
John's friends were right. The streets weren't this clean when he walked to school this morning. "Huh," he said, eyes widening slightly. "Yeah, you're right, what the hell?"
"Is it not normally like this?" Rose turns her head to face John.
"Yeah, it's kinda weird- Ohhhhhh."
The group had been approaching John's house steadily. Jade followed his gaze, a smile forming on her face as she realized what he was looking at.
John's dad had a blower, and he had cleaned out the neighbor's lawns for them. It resulted in a large pile of leaves on John's front yard- it was huge. Like it covered 80% of his lawn in size. He did this every year, John didn't know how he managed to forget. Ah, whatever.
"Woah, there's so much this year." John blinked, his attention firmly on the pile of shed leaves. He gaped in awe at the towering hill.
While his guard was down, Rose pushed him. He fell into the leaves, spluttering and coughing. "What the- Rose!"
The reply he got was a bunch of giggles. John stood up pouting (dusting himself off first), before grabbing Dave's wrist and dragging the other boy down with him.
"The fuck did I do?!" Dave yelled as his sense of smell was overtaken by the scent of the leaves. This time, John was the one laughing, snickering at the look on his friend's face. His laughter was cut short, however, as Jade had thrown off her backpack somewhere and was now hurling herself towards the two of them.
"Oof- Jaade!!" John whined, the sound of Jade's giggling enough to stop his complaints. Her laughter was contagious.
Rose followed in as well, though she didn't launch herself in, merely ran into the mountain of leaves. She laid on the hill of foliage, smile etched on her face. Although the same couldn't be said for Dave, who was basically buried under the shrubbery and had poked his head out of the pile. His hair was riddled with leaves, and his shades had been knocked off. He groaned, before pulling Rose under with him, forcing her to be buried with him. John burst into laughter again as Rose tumbled down onto the grass.
Jade rolled off somewhere, and was now throwing leaves at Dave like confetti as Rose squirmed her way out of the pile, a few stray sticks having ended up in her hair. John tackled down Jade playfully, the two rolling around on the grass. The leaves were everywhere now, not in the neat pile it had once been, but no one really cared. Dave was now somehow completely caked in the foliage and dirt, dried-up grass sticking to his cheeks. The sight of him made Rose snicker until she was yet again buried under the mountain. Jade had joined her out of pity, but yet was also wrestling with her? Kind of?
Most of it didn't really make any sense, but they had fun most of all. They played until John's dad had caught Dave playing dead and John kicking at him.
They were forced to take a shower and change into their pajamas shortly after. Jade was still sneezing up dirt the next day.
