“Go mow the grass.” My mom said. I looked up from homework I was finishing. I knew she wasn’t serious. Did she forget that she was talking to her daughter who was afraid of hard work? I slightly nodded my head and turned back to my homework. “I was serious.” She said when she saw I had no intention of getting up. The slight smile that had appeared on my face disappeared. I took the earphones from my ears. “You can’t be serious.” I replied. She crossed her arms and gave me the look that meant she was getting annoyed. “We don’t have a yard anymore mom.” I told my mom, “We have a jungle the size of the Amazon. If you want me to live then you won’t let me near it.” She wasn’t buying it. “The lawnmower is in the garage and the gas is sitting on the tool rack.” She replied leaving. “I want it done before tomorrow.” She was serious. She wanted me to cut the grass. What did she think I was? Cinderella? No I was not. I would not cut that grass. “Della, cut that grass or your phone is gone.” She shouted from where ever she had gone. Now, that was low. My phone, really? Parents do not play fair. I got up and marched angrily outside.

I swear I hadn’t been in that garage since I was five. The lawnmower was at the back, just sitting there taunting me. It knew that I didn’t want to touch it, but my phone was in jeopardy. I took a deep breath and bent down to check the gas. Of course it was empty. It wanted me to suffer as much as possible. I grabbed the gas off the rack and poured it into the mower. It really stunk and of course I ended up spilling some of it on me. At least if I caught on fire I could blame my mother. Ha how would that feel? Knowing that the death of me would be all her fault. It would serve her right.

I had been right about one thing. The front lawn was a jungle. I’m pretty sure I just saw a tiger. Too bad it didn’t feel the need to eat me. Well it was now or never and I preferred now. I started it up. That wasn’t so hard but the hard part would soon come. I started walking. The cutting and throwing of the grass kind of made me smile. It was funny to think of the stupid bugs trying to avoid the churning blade. Soon I was laughing every time I saw one jump. Those idiots. Before I knew it I was half way done. My jungle was actually just a lawn in desperate need of a trim. After I stopped paying attention to my jumping foes, I started belting out song parts. I looked kind of silly but who cares. They would just blame my mother for my very weird behavior. She really should pay more attention to me and not our ugly lawn. I didn’t know I was talking to myself until my neighbor started looking at me. Now that was beyond crazy. This was why I didn’t cut the grass. It made me do weird erratic things. I shut my mouth and finished the grass. Then I put the dreaded machine they called a lawnmower in the garage. Then I closed it and walked inside. My battle with the lawn was over and I had again won. Well until the next time my mother forced me to do something as stupid as mow the lawn again.