A Second Chance

As we made our way to Honey Milk Farm, the mayor showed me different places we passed on the way. Honestly, it really was a cute little island, it felt very homey. Actually, more homey than my old home with my parents sometimes. I knew I would settle in here nicely.
We approached the farm in quick time; it was only about eight minutes away from Bell Fall Town. The place was mildly big, it had many open fields for crops and flowers and such, while off to the side there was a small little shack where I’m guessing the people stayed.
“Well Mallory, this place is gonna be your home for a few days. It might look a bit small but I’m sure you’ll adjust fine. Why don’t you go inside and introduce yourself to the owners?” The bobble-head mayor suggested perkily. I gave a tiny fake smile to him and begrudgingly wandered inside. Don’t get me wrong, the mayor was a nice person and I liked him, but I just wasn’t that fond of bubbly people. Never have been.

As soon as I walked in, I was face to face with a mid-forties man wearing a long green coat and a hat on his head, probably to cover the gray that was seeping out from under it. On his face he wore a deep, set in plastered frown which had clearly been there for years.

“Uh, can I help you?” he said in monotone with a slight ‘I’m bored’ attitude.

“I’m Mallory. I’m gonna be staying here for a few days while my house is being finished.” He snickered and mock laughed at me, I saw his frown go to a smile if only for a moment.

“Huh, says who kid?” I cocked an eye at his stupid attitude. I didn’t deal with people who gave me attitude very well.

“Uh, the mayor?” His smile and games soon wore away and he looked at me kinda serious, although with him I didn’t know if he was looking serious or just looking normal.

“Wait a minute,” He said to himself as he thought. “You’re that new rancher that everyone’s talking about?” I looked at him surprised with one eyebrow raised.

“I’m being talked about?” I saw some light come in the old coot’s eyes.

“Never mind that. You’re working for me for the next few days. I’m James, your new boss.” He looked at me from head to toe, like he was checking me out. I suddenly felt really uncomfortable. “Hm, you’re skinny, and you don’t look very strong. But I don’t care; I’ll make you build up muscle. Come on scrawny, you got jobs to do.” James turned around to walk out the door. I hadn’t even been here a day and people were already openly mocking me and ordering me around. Yay for being the new kid. Against my will, began to follow James when someone called his name. We both turned around to look at who called.

“James? What are you doing with that girl?” I turned to see a tall brown haired lady in a long dark blue dress. Her hair was shoulder length and she too had a deep set frown. God, I didn’t like bubbly people, but that doesn’t mean I was into the whole emo kid crowd.

“Oh Marie, this is Mallory. She’s the new rancher that’s staying with us while her house gets done.” He turned and looked at me. “This is my wife Marie.”

“Nice to meet you.” I said strictly being polite. She gave a tiny smile to me, shortly before it disappeared.

“Don’t you make her work too hard; she’s only a kid, and a skinny one at that.” Well, I felt openly insulted, once again.

“Yeah yeah.” James said as he walked out the door. Having no choice or say in the matter, I followed behind.

James’ work wasn’t hard, it was just majorly tiring. He made me pull weeds from all his crop fields, plant seeds, water crops and harvest the crops that were ripe. It took me till the end of the day to finish everything. I didn’t want to openly admit it to myself, but I did notice how weak I was. I was able to do all the work, but maybe if I was a bit stronger I wouldn’t have had so much trouble. When I was finished James told me to go inside and get some sleep, which I had absolutely no problem with considering I was about to collapse any second.

When I walked inside I noticed a girl about my age walking around. She had amazingly beautiful long hair that eked its way all the way down to her waist. She wore a loose white shirt and a colorful loose skirt. She reminded me of a hippie. She must have noticed me standing there because she came walking over to me.

“I’m sorry, but the store isn’t open right now. Please come back tomorrow.” She had a sweet gentle voice.

“Oh, I’m not a customer. I’m Mallory; I’m staying here until my house is done.” She looked at me happily.

“Oh, of course. My mother told me about you. My name is Chloe, my parents own this farm.” She looked at me with a less of a smile. “I hope my father isn’t being too hard on you. He can seem heartless but he really does like you being here.” Yeah, because I’m doing all his work.

“No worries, it was only the first day. I’m managing just fine.” I smiled. Chloe grinned happily.

“Ok, just don’t let him work you too hard. He can be a bit of a pushover.” Never would have guessed. She began to walk away, I called after her.

“Hey, where am I sleeping?” She pointed to a guest room right next to her. “Thanks see you in the morning.” She smiled as she walked away. I wandered into the cute little room and plopped right down on the bed like an enormous brick. I fell straight asleep.

--

“Hey! No sleeping in slacker!” I awoke the next day to James yelling at me to get up and throwing pillows in my face. I looked at him with no expression as I plainly said,

“Well, I guess that beats an alarm clock.”

“Hey, don’t you wisecrack me or I’ll make you work double time.” I got to my feet and yawned loudly.

“Yeah yeah.” I brushed him off.

“Kid, go see Marie before you come outside, she fixed a small breakfast for you.” I looked at him, surprised.

“You’re actually feeding me?” I said with a bit of hope that he was doing something nice for me. He spoke bluntly.

“You work on an empty stomach in this heat, you’ll puke,” I smiled. “And I don’t need that for my crops.” I un-smiled.

“Thanks so much for worrying about my wellbeing.” I said sarcastically. He turned and walked out of my room to the main area or their little shop.

“Eh, shut it.”

The breakfast Marie made for me was simple but nice. It was a cheese omelet with a glass of orange juice. I politely thanked her when I was done and walked outside to my wonderful boss.

“You’re late. Slacker.” His attitude was really starting to piss me off.

“Sorry I didn’t wolf it down just so I could get out here in the blazing heat and do your damn chores! What was I thinking?” I bit back at him, to my surprise he smirked.

“Heh, bout time you started sticking up for yourself. You’re ok Mallory. You know, for a kid.” I just stared at him, a bit lost at his sudden change in attitude. “Alright, now you’ve got some deliveries to make. Here,” He shoved boxes of what looked to be strawberries in my hands.

“Now, get going. And come back as soon as possible.” He started to turn and walk away when I called to him and stopped him, suddenly angry again.

“Wait! I just moved here! I don’t know where these people live!” James didn’t even turn around to answer me, he just kept walking.

“Hmm, sucks. Just figure out a way to do it.” He went back inside Honey Milk Farm. Damn, the guy was a real jerk sometimes. Not even knowing where to begin, I started walking toward Bell Fall Town.

As I made my way to the tiny town I began to see some houses outside of the actual town. I began to wonder if maybe any of these houses could be the people I was looking for. The piles of strawberries in my hands obscured my vision of my feet, so I really didn’t know where I was walking or stepping. I trotted down a little hill when suddenly I tripped over something, most likely a root or even a nice ladybug out for a walk at my luck. The strawberries flew everywhere, and when I expected to smash my face into the ground, I didn’t. Someone, I didn’t know who, but someone caught me. I was facing the dirt so I couldn’t see their face. By the feel of their arms and grip on me it was a guy.

“Hey are you ok?” They asked as I began to get myself to my feet.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m—” I looked at the person who caught me. I was right, it was a guy. An amazingly cute guy. “Really fine.” I finished.