Chapter Text
Wednesday
Melissa had practically worked her fingers to the bone on her farm all week long. Inside and out, she had scrubbed her house from the floors all the way to the ceiling, and set up a trap for her new friend in the basement. Of course there was only so much she could do without hiring help, she could put it off as long as she wanted but eventually she would have to hire a contractor. She hadn’t had a steady income since she quit her job, and had been coasting by on her savings all month long, so dishing out a few hundred for a repair job was out of the question. The handyman alone was already going to set her back quite a bit, it didn’t help that she’d also likely need to hire a lawn service, that is if she can’t find someone with a bush hog that wouldn’t mind lending a hand out of the goodness of their heart.
She spent the better part of her morning cleaning brush from around her grandfather’s old shed. She had almost made a path from it to her porch. There was a scythe and pair of hedge trimmers left in the basement when she arrived, which is what she used to make the small dent in the overgrowth of her lawn, though it was proving to be exhausting. She stopped and sat on her front porch step to catch her breath. She wiped sweat from her forehead, before taking a long gulp of her bottle of water. It was the middle of spring, the air still had a cool bite to it, but she was burning up from exhaustion.
She had never done such strenuous physical labor. The closest thing to heavy lifting she had ever done at her office job was carrying a few boxes from time to time. Nothing compared to this. She was completely out of her field, she had never even used a lawn mower before, how did she expect herself to use a tractor?
She didn’t like sweating, she didn’t like mosquitoes, she didn’t like sunburns… It’s not as if she didn’t like nature, she loved nature, she loved animals and plants, she loved watching the sun rise, she loved the ocean, and lush green trees, but in the summer time… Nature was to be appreciated from the other side of a window, where there was air conditioner.
By then it was eleven a.m. Melissa sat back on her step looking out over her yard, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ She thought.
The thrill of her rash decision began to wear off, she was starting to think she may be in over her head, ‘Oh God, how am I gonna do this all by myself?’
She couldn’t exactly clear off a few acres of land with just a scythe, setting it on fire was out of the question, as old and dry as most of it was, it would go up into flames in seconds, and likely set the woods on fire with it.
But then she closed her eyes, she felt the soft spring breeze blowing against her wet skin, which sent a chill all over her body. She smelt the air, and it smelt like… nothing. Sweet, glorious, nothing… Not smog, not asphalt, or a burning landfill, if anything it smelt like dirt, like Earth. And where was she? Her home. Hers. She owned the land, and the home. Here, she didn’t have to pay thousands in rent each month. She didn’t have to waste hours a day sitting in front of a desk in an office with no windows, for a place that did even have a health plan. She didn’t have to deal with her snide coworkers or cruel boss anymore. She was never going back. Just the thought of having to step foot in that damn building again made her sick. It didn’t matter how long it would take, or how hard it would be, she’d turn this run down old hunk of dirt into a home. And she’d never look back, not even for a second.
‘I’ll get this place fixed up, one way or the other, even if it takes all year…’
Still though, she felt she deserved a break. She wasn’t too keen on meeting anyone else just yet, given what happened the last time. It wasn’t just the spat she witnessed between father and daughter that put her off, but that ass-hat at Jojamart. Which she still couldn’t believe. She wanted to be offended, but it was just too damn funny. It hardly made any sense.
‘What kind of a self deluded prick do you have to be to think someone is hitting on you because they asked you where to buy rat traps?’
He would be easy to steer clear of, she didn’t plan on shopping at Joja unless it was one hundred percent absolutely necessary, regardless of him. And he didn’t strike her as a social butterfly, so running into him in town probably wouldn’t be a problem.
Where should she go now though? She didn’t want to sit at home all day, even someone like her gets cabin fever after a while, well barely anyways. There was a bar in town, of course it wasn’t open at this hour, and she wasn’t a drinker. Didn’t the mayor tell her there was a library in town? Maybe she could go there. She was in the mood for a new book to read anyways.
After cleaning herself off and changing into clothes that weren’t covered in sweat and grass stains, she found the library on the other side of town. She noticed a couple of people staring at her on her way over. She kept her fingers crossed none of them would stop and talk to her, and luckily none of them did.
The library was this little green building by the river. Since it was a rather small library, it likely didn’t have the best selection to choose from; but the smell of books made her feel nostalgic, so she couldn’t complain. There was an older gentleman in a blue suit sitting behind the counter. He looked up from his novel when she came through the door and simply smiled at her before going back to his reading. That was the kind of greeting she liked.
She walked through the library overlooking the shelves, scanning what options there were. She was correct in there not being much to choose from. The shelves were arranged like normal, fiction was sorted first by genre, then by the author's last name. She scanned the romance section and grabbed the first book she saw. While reading the back of it she heard a faint voice speaking. She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but the voice suddenly grew agitated.
“ Vincent! Stop blowing bubbles in your juice, you’re going to make a mess!” It must’ve been a young woman, she sighed, “as I was saying, do the two of you remember what we talked about last week during vocab? T-H and S-H words? Do you remember the sounds they make?”
Melissa peered over the book shelf, there sat a young girl with auburn hair, and two little kids, a boy and a girl. The woman looked like she couldn’t be more than twenty two or so. She must’ve been tutoring them. The boy was squirming in his seat and fidgeting with his pencil. The girl seemed perfectly behaved.
The adult woman sighed, “Either one of you? What sound does S-H make?”
The little girl had blue doe eyes, when she answered her teacher, her voice was barely above a whisper, Melissa couldn’t hear what she said.
“What was that?”
“Shhh like in ‘ship.’”
“Yes, shh like in ship, that’s correct. Do you remember what T-H says?”
The little girl's voice was inaudible again.
“Jas, sweetie, you’ll have to talk louder I can’t hear you.”
“Thh like in ‘thank you.’”
“Yes, I’m glad you’re paying attention.” She said and smiled.
Melissa didn’t want to interrupt their lesson, she’d scoot by, grab her books and hope no one wants to introduce themselves.
She held the romance book in her arms. She picked a few more of various genres, enough to keep her occupied a week or two. Once she had what she wanted, she tried to scoot past the woman and kids unnoticed, to no avail of course.
“Hey!” She heard from behind
‘Damn it…’
“Yes?” she turned around.
“Are you, uh, the new farmer?” She asked.
“I don’t know if I’d call myself a farmer exactly… I’m the girl if that’s what you mean.”
“Sorry to bug you, it’s just, we don’t get a lot of new people here. So it’s kind of a big deal when we do.”
“So I’ve gathered.” She said nervously
“I’m Penny by the way.”
“Melissa.”
“If you come to the library often you’ll be seeing a lot of me. I tutor Vincent and Jas here on weekdays.” She pointed her pencil to them respectively.
“I probably will, I take it there isn’t much to do in this town?”
“Not particularly.”
“Then I guess I’ll stick to the library. Besides, I’m not big on crowds, or bars so I’d probably wind up here at some point anyhow.”
“I’m not really a bar person either.” Penny said, with a somber look in her eyes that Melissa recognized all too well.
“Well, I really hope you enjoy it here.”
“I’m sure I will.”
“I’ve lived in Pelican Town my entire life. I’ve never gone anywhere else and I can’t complain.”
Suddenly, Vincent let go of the juice box he had been blowing air into, the pressure inside caused the grape juice to squirt out of the straw. Shooting clear across the table.
Penny gasped, and stood up from the table suddenly.
“ Sorry Miss Penny! ” Vincent pleaded.
His grape juice had splattered all over Penny’s yellow shirt.
“Shhhhooot!” she laughed nervously, trying not to swear or lose her temper.
“Vincent, dear, I told you, you need to be more careful with your food and drinks!” Penny looked around seemingly for something to clean herself off with, but was surrounded only with the children’s work sheets.
She looked up at Melissa, “I’m going to the restroom to try and clean myself off. Would you care to sit with them until I get back? Make sure they don’t run off or cause any more trouble.”
“Uh— Okay?” Melissa didn’t have time to think let alone respond before Penny ushered herself off to the bathroom.
Both of the children’s eyes followed Penny to the bathroom, and as soon as she closed the door behind her, they darted towards Melissa. Both of them were wild eyed. Of course, they didn’t like being left alone with a stranger. They had never met her before, it made sense they didn’t know what to think of her.
“Hi.” Melissa said meekly and waved. She made herself smile. The silence felt awkward. She didn’t dislike children, it was just that she hadn’t been around kids much and didn’t know how to interact with them. Eventually the little boy grew brave enough to speak up.
“Do you have any piglets on your farm?” He asked excitedly.
She chuckled, “I don’t have any animals yet.”
“Jas has a bunch of animals at her house! She’s got pigs, and bunnies, and cows and goats and horses and—”
“It sounds like she has a lot of animals!”
“Chickens! She’s got a million chickens.”
Jas was shooting him a look that could kill, Melissa couldn’t tell whether it was from embarrassment or anger. Jas didn’t like being the center of attention, not with people she didn’t know.
“Do you live on a farm too?” Melissa asked.
Jas stayed silent, Vincent chimed in, “Uh-huh! She does!” Melissa smiled at Vincent, but looked back at Jas. There was something about her, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something told her that that little girl had so much going on behind those big blue eyes.
“Do you like living on a farm?”
She shook her head yes.
“That’s good, maybe one day my farm will be as big as yours. What about you? I’m guessing you don’t live on a farm.” She asked Vincent.
“No.” He said disappointedly, “I just live in a stupid house, with my mom and my brother, ‘cause my dads deployed. Jas’ dad and my brother work together.”
“He’s not my dad.” She whispered.
“Oh yeah, I forgot. Jas lives with her uncle.”
“Shut up!” she whisper yelled.
“What? I don’t live with my dad either.”
Melissa could tell that Vincent was making Jas uncomfortable. Children had this gift of never knowing when to hold their tongue, or what was and was not socially appropriate. She tried to shift the subject, “So what does your brother do for work?”
“He’s a janitor at Jojamart, sometimes when he comes home from work he brings home a bunch of empty boxes and we make forts with them!”
‘Jojamart? If his brother was the janitor then that probably means… oh God, that asshole has a kid? Who’s bright idea was it to leave their kid with him? No wonder she seems so shy.’
Melissa smiled, “That sounds like lots of fun.”
She was running out of things to say, and it was clear that Jas didn’t like having to sit there with some lady she had never met before. She wondered which one of them was more uncomfortable, her or the girl. She couldn’t wait for Penny to come back from the bathroom. Just then, as if she read her thoughts, the bathroom door creaked open. Penny’s shirt was still stained purple, but she had dried herself off with paper towels.
“So sorry I had to leave you with them. I just wanted to make sure they didn’t get into any they weren’t supposed to while I was gone, I didn’t mean to hold you up, you can go now if you want, it was nice meeting you.”
“You too, I think I am going to head out, I only came to maybe grab a couple of books.”
“I’ll see you around!”
She sat her books on the counter, “Find everything alright ma’am?”
“I think so. I wanted to check these out, but I need to set up a library card first.”
“Absolutely! Do you have a form of ID and proof of your current address?”
“Umm… no. Gosh, I haven’t got my address changed on my license yet.”
“That’s fine, do you have a piece of mail?”
“Not with me.”
Gunther tapped his fingers on the counter. He clicked his tongue, “You’re that new lady aren’t you?”
“Yes?”
“Ah hell, just take ‘em. It’s not like I can’t find you if they’re overdue, small town y’know?”
“Thank you!” She said bewildered, “I promise I’ll bring these back in time! And when I do I’ll bring everything I need with me to open my card!”
“You have a great day Miss!”
Melissa left the library carrying the books in her arm, that was the first nice interaction she’d had since moving here. Well the lady who came and brought her a goodie basket was pretty nice, but she could do without the unexpected visits in the future. The people in this town were proving themselves to be more and more… unique the longer she stayed here.
“Okay kid, what do you want for dinner?” Shane asked, leaning one arm on the counter.
She tapped her pencil on her chin, chewing her lip “Hmm…Grilled cheese!”
Shane sighed, “You’ve ate grilled cheese for dinner three days in a row, you need to eat something else.”
“Why?” She groaned.
“ Because, you need some variety! You need proteins and fruit and… other stuff.”
“But I like grilled cheese.” She remarked.
“I know, c’mon now, there’s bound to be something else that you’re willing to eat.”
He popped open the door to the freezer, “We’ve got everything a kid could dream of in here,” He pulled the items out of the fridge one by one offering them to her, “Dino nuggets, pizza rolls, tater tots, kid cuisine… my parents never got me kid cuisine, that’s fine dining right there kid!” he joked, Jas’ face suggested she was less than interested.
“What’ll it be?”
“I want a grilled cheese.”
“What’s up with you and grilled cheese?”
She shrugged her shoulders, “I dunno.”
“If I make you half a grilled cheese and dino nuggets will you eat them?”
She made a sour face, “Mmm… no .”
“What’s it gonna take for me to get you to eat something different?”
“I don’t want anything different.”
Shane rubbed his eyes, “If I make you a grilled cheese tonight , will you eat something different tomorrow?”
“I guess…” She pouted.
“You promise?”
She shook her head.
“Okay, I’m gonna remember that, when tomorrow night comes if you’re still insistent on a grilled cheese, I— tsk, guess you’ll just have to starve.” He said sarcastically.
Jas cut her eyes at him, “You think I’m kidding, if you get hungry you’ll have to go outside and hunt down your food, like a caveman.”
It was an empty threat and she knew it. It would take her all of five minutes of making puppy dog eyes and begging ‘ pleeeease’ to have him make her whatever she wanted. She had him wrapped around her finger.
He pulled a skillet out from the cabinet and began heating up the pan. He asked her about her day while he assembled her sandwich.
“What did you do at school today?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? You didn’t learn anything?”
“We just talked about a bunch of stuff I already knew.”
“Oh really? Like what?”
“Letter sounds.”
“Oh psh, you’ve got that down pat, you’ve been reading since you were three and half.”
“I know, I’m really good at it.”
“Thanks uncle Shane for teaching me to read!” He said mockingly.
Jas giggled.
He dropped her sandwich into the pan, the butter made a loud sizzle sound, “What else did you do?”
“Mm not much… We went outside… we talked about math a little bit… I met the new lady that just moved here.”
Shane whipped his head around, “You what? When— did she talk to you?”
“At the library, Miss Penny said hi to her ‘cause she was getting books.”
“Yeah? Did she say anything to you?”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Jas, did she talk to you?”
“Well Vincent squirted grape juice on Miss Penny on accident, so she had to go to the bathroom and Miss Penny asked the lady to stay there with us until she got back. And when she was gone Vincent started asking her about her farm and wanted to know if she had any pigs on it.”
“ Okay , but what did she say to you?”
“I’m getting there! She said that she didn’t have any animals yet, so then Vincent told her that I had a whole bunch of animals at my house cause I lived on a big farm too. And she asked me if I liked living on a farm.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing, I just shook my head.”
“Did she say anything else?”
“Not really, Vincent talked mostly.”
Shane turned back around, flipping her grilled cheese over, which almost burnt because of his distraction.
“Mm, I’m sorry if she scared you, or made you uncomfortable."
“She wasn’t mean.”
“I know, but I know that you don’t like talking to strangers, I’m sure you didn’t like being left alone with her.”
Jas shrugged, she wasn’t really sure how she felt. Her and Shane were alone for a long time before coming to the valley, she didn’t get to be around kids her own age often, and Shane didn’t have much of a family to bring her around, that accompanied by the fact that she’d been bounced from one babysitter to the next before coming to the valley, made her unsocialized. She didn’t like being left in the company of strangers. Shane was the only consistent person in her life. And the only person she could truly open up to, though she was slowly warming up to Marnie.
“I hope she’s nice.” Jas said.
‘Don’t count on it.’ He thought.
“I hope she’s nice to you.”