-Chapter 1-

Day One in Thornville

June looked out the window of the train as it went past fields and cities and forests. She was on her way to Thornville, a town she knew barely anything about. She sighed as she adjusted her thick-rimmed, green glasses. She hoped she could get better clothes and accessories than those glasses and her flower-patterned dress. Her short, brown hair, however, she was happy with. What she wanted more than any of that, though, was a home, friends, a life.

"Hey! This seat taken?" She turned and saw a blue and white cat in the aisle.

"Uh…" just like that, her shyness had taken over.

"Sweet!" the cat jumped up in the seat across from her.

She fidgeted uncomfortably and took off her glasses.

"Hey, those are pretty cool rims. Did you get those at the Able Sister's?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, sorry. You're probably not from around here, are you?" The cat smiled. "Let's start with introductions. I'm Rover. What's your name?"

"Uh… June."

"Cool to meet you, June! So, where are you headed?"

"Thornville."

"That's what I thought. Been there before?"

"Uh… no, actually."

"Oh, there to visit a friend?"

"Uh… no…"

"Well?"

"I'm moving there…"

"Oh, sweet! What's your house look like?"

"Well… I, uh, haven't actually bought it yet."

"WHAT?!" The cat looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head. "Your moving to a place you've never seen to a house that may not even exist?!"

"Gee, thanks for sugar-coating it for me…" the girl mumbled under her breath.

"Wait! I think I can help."

"You can?"

"Yeah, there's an old buddy of mine in Thornville. Owes me a couple favors, and if anyone knows about paying up, it's him. Anyway, he runs the store there. Oh! I'll give him a call! Just a sec!" He jumped off the seat and went to the back. June glanced over and saw him dial through the window.

She couldn't hear anything, so she just went back to looking out the window. "Hope it all works out…" She could see her nervous brown almond-shaped eyes showed little more than hope. She kicked her feet back and forth.

"Welp!" She jumped at the cat's voice. "It's all great! Turns out he has another house available. How about that?"

"Another?"

"Oh, yeah. Say hey to Andy for me, won't you? It's been awhile since he rode to Rosetown on this train."

"Andy?"

"Looks like we're here! Good luck, June!"

The train screeched to a stop. June jumped down from her seat and walked to the door. She waited as it opened.

"Welcome to Thornville!" a monkey greeted. "Eek! Eek! Hope your trip was wonderful!"

"Uh… yeah. Thanks…" She walked past him and down the stone stairs. She noticed a map beside the train station and looked at it. "Wow… this place looks huge…"

"Excuse me, are you June?" a voice behind her.

She spun around. "Uh… yeah, that's me."

The brown raccoon grinned a showy grin and waved. "Name's Tom Nook. I'll be showing you to your house now." He wore a striped shirt, orange, white, and blue, and a small orange and blue hat.

"Ah, Rover's friend?"

"Ah, we met on the train one day when I rode to and from the city. I'd call him more of an acquaintance. At any rate, I owe him and that's that. So follow me."

He led her down the stone path as she looked around at the beautiful red, orange, and yellow trees that grew around. "This house will be 19,800 bells."

"N-Nineteen thousand?" June blushed.

"Why of course. It has everything a house requires. A freshly-painted, green roof, a living room with wood floors and plain white wallpaper, and a gyroid."

"HeLlO!" the gyroid danced.

"Is there any way I could… um… knock the price down?"

"How much we talking?"

"Uh…" June mumbled, "18,800 bells…" but Nook heard her.

He started laughing. "You must be out of your mind!" He turned serious. "Come now, how much money do you have?" He held out his paw. She shyly handed him a bag of bells. He looked inside and started laughing again. "Oh this isn't nearly enough!" He chuckled. She hung her head, then looked longingly at the house. "Though… I can't just not let you live there. Winter's coming, and it'll be quite cold…" She looked up at him. "I'll tell you what I'll do. You can live in this house, but you're going to have to pay off your debt."

"How?"

"Come to my shop. I'll have a job for you."

She watched him walk off to his shop. In the meantime, she went into her dark home. One thing she would definitely need is a lamp. She saw only a crate and what looked like the oldest cassette player she had ever seen. "Well… at least it's not completely unfurnished…" She wandered back outside, where the air was getting brisk as the sun was going down. She went in the direction that the raccoon left earlier, eventually coming across Nook'n'Go, a store of decent size. "This must be it…" She stepped inside.

"Ho, ho! The raccoon was laughing as he spoke with someone. He looked like a blue dog, from what June could distinguish. "Oh?" the raccoon looked over his customer's shoulder to see June. She had walked over to an exotic lamp she liked. "Uh-huh, June!" She jumped. "No shopping while apprenticing, my dear."

The dog turned to see the girl blushing and walking sadly away from the lamp. He wore a black shirt with a picture of a white dog with thick black eyebrows on it.

"Now, in that closet there, you'll find a uniform. Put it on and come on out when you're done." June hurried in the back as Nook continued to talk to the dog. She found the green shirt that had a leaf symbol on it and put it on quickly. When she stepped back into the store, the dog was gone. "Ah, lovely. Like you were born to wear it!"

June scratched at its biting material but forced a smile.

"That was Pawpi, my best customer, I'll have you know." Tom Nook dug for something under the register. "'Course, anyone could be a good customer if they just came! …but I digress. Ah! Here we are!" He pulled up a basket. It held potted flowers and a small shovel. "Your first job is to plant these flowers around the store. I never got the time to do it, but I've been meaning to." He held them out. "Hop to it!"

June quickly grabbed the gardening stuff and hurried outside. "He does realize that these flowers are just gonna die come winter time, right?" she mumbled to herself as she tried to break the hard dirt with the shovel. She looked up at the sunset and smiled. "Beautiful…" she whispered under her breath. She just sat to look at it for awhile, then continued her chore. When she was done, she dusted off her shirt and went back inside.

"Ah, I trust you made it look lovely out there?"

"Yessir."

"Still… you did take a little longer than expected… I'll give you… 60 bells. Mighty generous if you ask me." June looked at him anxiously. He started to laugh. "I'm not going to physically give it to you! Your payment goes toward your mortgage, June!"

"Oh…"

"Well, I suppose I should give you the rest of the day off. Be sure to introduce yourself to the neighbors, as you are new here to Thornville. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow, got it?"

"Yessir!"

"That's what I like to hear. Now, move along. And don't you come back in here unless you're wearing that uniform!"

"Yessir."

"Good. As in good-bye. Goodnight… See ya!" He practically pushed her out the door.

She shivered as she got outside and hurried home to change. She left the house and saw another house in the distance. "Well, he's right… I should say hi to the neighbors." She walked to that distant house. "I wonder how many people live in Thornville?"

"Arf! Hey!" June stopped as she saw the dog from earlier coming toward her. "June, right?"

"Uh… yeah."

"Cool. Name's Pawpi!"

She smiled back at him. "It's nice to meet you, Pawpi."

"Arf! You too!" He rubbed his chin, obviously lost in thought. "Say… wanna do me a favor?"

"Uh…"

"Can you give this to Chip for me?" He handed her a small package. "Come back here when you're done. Trust me, it'll be worth your while."

"Uh… sure." June wasn't one to turn down someone in need, but she didn't know why he was asking this chore of her. "Where can I find… um… Chip?"

"Ah, he lives near the wishing well. You don't have a map, do you? What a shame. Well, it's acre F-2 if that helps."

She shrugged and headed south. Before she could go very far, she had to walk down a steep ramp. She treaded carefully, not wanting to slip. As she walked, she came upon a police station. A dog was standing outside the door. "Good evening!" he barked.

June merely smiled in response as she passed by.

"You're not lost, are you?"

"Uh… no… just… finding my way… just fine."

"You don't have a map, do you?"

"Well… no. I'm kinda new."

"Here." The officer handed her a town map, folded neatly.

"Thank you so much, sir!" she took it and opened it up. She could see the police station. South of her was the museum. East of the museum was the wishing well. Below the wishing well was a house marked in non-permanent ink with a label: Chip.

With this information, she was able to continue easily to Chip's house. When she got there, she noticed the light on in his house. She knocked lightly and heard a squeak bid her to enter.

She came into a house of color. All the furniture looked like it belonged in some sort of daycare. Everything from the bed to the dresser was painted in the primary colors.

"Who are you, Chi?" she jumped at the voice, coming from a big-eared, yellow animal. Chip was a mouse.

"I'm s-sorry to intrude… I just… I…" June held out the package. "This is from… Pawpi…?"

"Oh yeah! He promised me a new outfit!" The mouse ripped the package from her hands. "But who are you? I figure you're not his maidservant!"

June blushed. "My name is June."

"Ah! Nice to meet you, Chi! I'm Chip!"

June nodded and smiled. "Well… I'll… go now… Pawpi wanted me to come back when I was done."

"Well you have a good night!" Chip was hurriedly opening the package. "I'll see you around, Chi!"

June left the house and followed her map back to Pawpi's place, another non-permanent house marked on the map. The blue dog was waiting to greet her. "Wow! You're pretty fast, June! You're a natural! You know, a lot of the neighbors here are too lazy or too busy to do some chores and might ask you to help. Never turn them down, because we're also very generous." He handed her a package. "I think you'll like this. It's that lamp you saw at Nook's. I noticed how you had your eye on it, so I thought I'd buy it before he changed stock overnight."

June was shocked as she took the furniture. "Wow… Pawpi… that's so generous of you… Thank you…"

"Go 'head take it back to your pad. And introduce yourself to the other animals around town. I'm sure everyone will be thrilled to meet a new face! It gets kind of boring around here, you know."

"Thanks so much, Pawpi! Thank you!" June ran off to her house to set up the lamp. She put the lamp on the wood crate and moved the tape deck to the floor. When she turned the light on, she was so much happier. Her little house lit up well. She wasted no time heading back out with her map to visit the other houses marked.

She crossed a bridge south of her house and followed the river east to the home of someone named Eggbert. She saw the yellow chicken walking around outside his house. Upon seeing her, he approached. "You're new, Cluck."

He didn't say anything else, so June took that as a question of who she was. "I'm June… I'm new here."

"Ah, of course. That makes sense, Cluck. Nice to meet you. I'm Eggbert."

"Nice to meet you too."

It was clear that their conversation would go no further, so she left east then north to the next house. A dark brown cat was talking with a black bunny in front of the house. June just stood awkwardly to the side, unsure of what to do in this situation. To her relief, the brown cat saw her.

"It seems we have a guest, Huey," the cat smiled.

The bunny, Huey, turned where she was looking. "Hey! Lookie there, Hippity-Hop! She is new!"

"I'm Ginger, and this is Huey. What's your name, Sweetie?"

"June." She felt very comfortable around Ginger. It must have been her sweet demeanor.

The bunny literally bounded over to her, "Welcome to Thornville, Hippity-Hop! You staying long?"

"I actually moved here… just today."

"Well that sounds splendid, Sweetie. So nice of you to come introduce yourself to the neighbors."

June smiled. She noticed that the two of them were wearing the same shirt. Not only that, but Pawpi had that shirt on as well. It was the one with the white dog. "Um… why's everyone wearing that shirt?"

They instinctively looked down at their outfit. "Oh, of course!" the bunny sprang up. "This t-shirt was made by K. K. Slider himself! It's for his debut at Brewster's."

"Who?"

"You're confusing her, Huey," Ginger shook her head. "K. K. Slider is a famous singer. He sings out at the train station on Saturdays. We've always listened to him. It's a big deal here at Thornville. So, in Rosetown, the next town over, he's debuting at a coffee place called Brewster's. He gave us these t-shirts to advertise around Thornville."

"You're… good friends… with a famous singer?"

"Well, I wouldn't say good friends… He's just a very nice guy. He always gives us his song that he sings at the station for free. He just loves to travel around and talk to his fans. You should go to his debut at Brewster's with us!"

June's heart lifted. "Really?" She felt wonderful to be invited to an outing so quickly after making a friend.

"Yeah! Yeah!" Huey bounced up and down. "That would be great, Hippity-Hop!"

June smiled widely. "Well… when is the debut?"

"Tomorrow, actually. That's what we were just discussing. We need to catch the 6:00 train out of Thornville. It's a pretty short ride to Rosetown, but getting a seat at such an event will be a nightmare, Sweetie."

"But it's going to be a weekly thing, this Brewster's concert!" the active bunny noted.

"True. But for this debut, it's a special occasion, so he's giving out two songs and playing everyone's request!"

"Sounds exciting!" June could hardly wait.

"Sure is! Just meet us at 5:50 at the train station. You'll see Pawpi, Chip, Huey, and me."

"Sounds like a plan!" June waved good-bye to her new friends and went south past Huey's house and west down a ramp right into Vivian's yard.

The long-necked, purple bird was out tending to flowers. "Um… hi!" her shyness had somewhat lifted since her talk with Ginger and Huey.

"Don't trample my grass, Hatchling!" the bird scolded. "What do you think you're doing to my beautiful lawn?"

"Oh… I'm sorry… I…"

"You're new, aren't you? Figures."

"I'm June."

"That's very nice and all and my name's Vivian, but I'm very busy! I can't have my beautiful reputation smashed by some dying flowers, can I? And Ginger had promised me some tulips! Where is that cat?"

"I could get them for you," June suggested. She remembered how Pawpi told her that the other animals may need help. She figured she could earn another gift.

"You could? Really?" Vivian tilted her head. "Fine then. Hurry along."

June didn't waste any time. She ran back up the hill and north to Ginger's house, where she saw her still talking with Huey.

"Back so soon, Sweetie?"

"I'm actually picking up… for Vivian."

"Oh! Goodness! I completely forgot about those seeds I bought her! Oh dear… she's not too angry, is she?" She hurried in her house and came back not a minute later with a shopping bag full of seed packets. "Oh, do please hurry! Thank you so much, Sweetie!"

June hurried back to Vivian's house.

"Wow, you are quite quick, aren't you, Hatchling? Thank you." She took the bag of seeds. "Well, such a chore mustn't go unrewarded, am I right? Perhaps some stationary will do. Yes, that's perfect. Here you are." She handed her some vine paper.

June took it and put it away in her pocket. "Thank you, Vivian."

"Now I know who to turn to when I have something that needs doing." And with that, she continued planting her flowers.

June walked back home. She smiled at her gyroid and went into her house, where she was cozy and comfortable. "What a day… And Nook expects me to come in tomorrow morning… probably at opening time. Better not be late… or I'll owe him even more." She turned off the lamp, causing the room to become pitch black. "I really need a bed." She sat down to lay on the cold, hard floor. Luckily, she was tired enough to fall asleep.