Author's note: Hello, all! This is my first fic under this new account, and I wanted to write something that would hopefully inspire me for the serious project I'm working on right now. Since all I seem to do in the summers other than work is play Animal Crossing: Wild World on my old DS lite, I thought this would be the place to start! Thank you for reading!
It was a rainy morning, and a dark one. The sun should long since have risen, but Britt had no way of knowing whether it had or not—it had been raining ever since she awoke at six AM, and clouds hung over the usually ravishing town in greater number than she had ever seen before.
She sat in front of the TV, rolling the handle of her green umbrella in her hands. It was six forty-five now, and according to the weather forecast, the rain would not let up until two in the afternoon. But this news didn't affect the fact that Britt was craving coffee, and not just any coffee—the house blend from the Roost, with pigeon milk. And ordinarily she'd be up for the walk to the museum, but the rain and the early hour had left everything feeling so cold and gloomy, and she wanted company…
Company. That was it! Surely one of her sisters would be willing to come along. She had three of them, after all, and they all shared a bedroom up in the attic. She'd just sneak up there and see who looked…maybe not most awake, but least asleep, and maybe they would want to come along for some java.
So she went upstairs, surveying the sleeping figures of her sisters, deciding which one would be awake enough to accompany her to the Roost. Bree, the eldest, was kind of a night owl, and had stayed up until midnight the previous night, making a run to Nookington's just before it closed at eleven PM, and then spending some time with one of her best friends, Goldie. She would want to sleep in until at least eight, maybe nine, and Britt decided to let her, pulling the cover up to her sister's shoulder and patting it gently.
And Amber? Amber was the second-oldest, and she was more than a night owl. It could be argued that Amber was nocturnal. Last night, at maybe one or two in the morning, Amber had decided that it was a great idea to write long, heartfelt letters to everyone in town. And so, she did. It took her an hour to write all the letters, another hour to pick out presents for everyone and attach them to the letters, twenty minutes of arguing with Phyllis to get her to mail that many letters so late at night, and twenty minutes to get to the post office and back from the house. So if Britt's math was correct, and if she was right to assume that Amber had read for about twenty minutes before she went to bed, as was her habit, she guessed that Amber had only been in bed for about three hours. So she, too, was allowed to stay.
But Codie?
Britt turned slowly towards the bed of the youngest sister, whose blonde hair fell in unruly patterns across her pillow. Codie was a disciplined girl, and was on an oddly regular sleeping schedule for one so young. She must have gone to bed a little before ten the night before, meaning that she had had plenty of sleep. Also meaning that she just might be willing to go on a small adventure with her favorite sister…
So Britt sat on the edge of her little sister's bed, and shook her gently, trying to wake her as unobtrusively as possible.
She roused fairly quickly, and raised her head. "Britt?"
"Hey, do you wanna go get coffee with me?"
Codie blinked her still-tired green eyes, and attempted to move some of her hair from her face. "What time is it?"
"Should be almost seven by now," she answered.
Codie looked briefly out the window. "But it's raining."
"I know. But we have umbrellas."
"And it's gonna be cold," Codie mumbled.
"You have a coat, don't you? And even if you don't know where it is, you can borrow mine?" Britt forced her face into an exaggerated pout. "I wanted sister time. I'll even pay for your coffee."
Codie sighed. "Okay, fine. Let me go get dressed, I'll meet you in the living room."
Britt went downstairs, quickly got a bundle of money out of the dresser, and waited by the record player until Codie came downstairs, sporting a warm jacket and carrying a colorful umbrella. She took her glasses off the end table by the sofa, put them on hastily, and approached the door, steeling herself as if she was going into battle.
Britt laughed. "Codie, it's just rain."
"I don't like rain," Codie answered, unfolding her umbrella and lifting it over her head in record time. "Will you pull my hood up? I don't want my hair to get wet."
Still chuckling, Britt pulled Codie's hood over her hair, and unfolded her own umbrella. "Rain's kind of nice sometimes, you know?" she commented. "If we never had rain, how would we know how wonderful sunny days are?"
Codie shook her head. "You have had one too many conversations with Pascal, sis…"
They walked the rest of the way to the museum in relative silence, walking through the town, listening to the rain and watching as two of their more athletic neighbors, Kid Cat and Frobert, enjoyed their usual morning run together, regardless of the rain. Kid Cat was speeding ahead of Frobert that day, and instead of gloating, had taken up the role of personal trainer.
"Come on, dude! You're faster than me and you know it!" He yelled, running backwards across the bridge. "Sprint! Sprint! Sprint!"
"I'm working on it, bro!" Frobert puffed, chasing after him with a noticeably tired stride. He waved toward the girls as he passed, and made a face that could have been interpreted as either a smile or a pained grimace.
"Hey," he puffed.
"Go, Frobert, go!" Britt cheered, pumping her fist as he went by.
"Show them how it's done!" Codie yelled after him.
They saw him roll his eyes, pretending not to like the attention, as he started to catch up with his friend. Kid Cat, also, looking up and seeing them, waved a paw in excitement, and the two girls returned the gesture.
They walked past the town hall, peering in the windows to see what was going on. It seemed that Phyllis and Pete were having some sort of discussion—Britt would have bet that she was telling him about the massive stack of letters that Amber had brought in at well near 3 AM, and that he was either grimacing about having that much mail to deliver on a rainy day or laughing at Amber's quirkiness. It looked more like he was laughing, which was good.
Codie giggled, and elbowed Britt. "You know, I hear those two are official now."
Britt turned around, shocked. "What? Phyllis and Pete?"
"Yeah. They're a thing now."
Britt's eyes grew wider. "But what about Pelly?"
"Pelly?"
"She's had a crush on Pete for years, Codie! Didn't you know?"
"Aww, no, I didn't know that." Codie frowned. "That's so sad. That would be like if Johnny Depp asked you on a date instead of me."
Britt couldn't help but guffaw at the absurdity of the analogy. "I'd turn Johnny Depp down for you any day, sister," she replied after regaining her composure.
"Yeah, you would," Codie said with a sigh. "It's a shame that Pelly wouldn't."
At this, they had arrived at the museum. Blathers was asleep at his post, as he generally was, so the girls folded away their umbrellas and left them by the door wordlessly. They slipped down the stairs as quietly as they could, and saw something that surprised them.
There was Pelly, sitting with a cup of coffee, stirring it with a small spoon, watching despondently as the stirring motion made little whirlpools. Brewster looked very uncomfortable, which suggested she had been there a while.
"You'd…better drink it before it gets cold…" he said timidly.
"I'll wait a little while longer. Thank you, though," she sighed.
Brewster checked over his shoulder when he heard the girls' footsteps and very nearly ran to greet them. "Britt, Codie. Glad to see you. Maybe you two could sit with Pelly…she's feeling a little low today," he whispered. "I would try and comfort her, but…"
"No problem." Britt nodded. "Watch the master at work." She settled into the stool on one side of Pelly, and nodded towards the one on the other side, for Codie to sit in. "Hey, Pelly!"
"Hi, Britt. Hi, Codie." Pelly forced a smile. "You two are so chipper this morning. Even on such a rainy day, you both have smiles on your faces…"
"Do you mind if we keep you company for a little while?" Codie asked.
"I would like that very much," she answered. She was not yet her usual self, but she already seemed to be feeling a bit better.
"What'll it be for the two of you?" Brewster asked, putting down the coffee cup he'd been polishing.
"The house blend, if you don't mind. Pigeon milk in mine, no sugar, pigeon milk and sugar in Codie's." Britt pulled 400 Bells from her pocket and slid it across the counter.
"Whatever you say," Brewster murmured, taking two cups from under the counter. "I was experimenting with the house blend today and—"
"It turned out a little differently," Britt finished.
Brewster gave her a wry smile. "It certainly did…" He fixed their coffees and slid them across the table to his two favorite customers. "Enjoy. Show this one that you have to drink it while it's hot to appreciate the flavor."
"Will do." Codie nodded and lifted the steaming mug to her lips to take the first sip.
"So what's been happening in your life?" Britt asked Pelly, taking a drink from her own cup.
"Oh, I shouldn't complain, but…I got some bad news recently. Someone that I have, er, strong feelings for has, er, strong feelings for someone else, and that someone else returns their feelings." Pelly stopped talking to lift the coffee to her beak and take a drink. "So I've been left alone."
"You're not alone, silly girl!" Codie promised. "My sisters and I all love you so much. The townspeople adore you. I mean, Tortimer wouldn't even be able to function if you weren't holding down the fort at the civic center!"
"Yeah!" Britt agreed. "I mean, just because one boy of questionable intelligence—"
"Questionable?" Pelly interjected.
"He's obviously not that smart if he'd pick someone else over you," Codie pointed out, taking another swig of her drink.
"Exactly. Just because one boy, who we have apparently established is not all that smart, doesn't see what you have to offer, doesn't mean that you're not an amazing girl, who deserves the whole wide world," Britt pointed out.
"Besides," Brewster commented, "I hear pelican guys are losers…Pigeon guys are the way to go…"
Pelly looked up at Brewster in astonished surprise. The other two girls giggled.
"I-I'll remember that…" she said, blushing lightly.
"Hey, by the way. Codie and I are about to go look at the paintings, do you wanna come with us?"
"No…" Pelly smiled gently. "I think I'll stay here. Thank you though."
Britt and Codie looked at one another with narrowed eyes.
"Another coffee, then…?" Brewster asked, the tone of his voice changing.
"Yes, please," she smiled.
The two sisters laughed to themselves, high-fived briefly, and walked up the stairs together, their mission accomplished.