A bright ray of sunlight stole through the ornate curtains of a luxuriously furnished bedroom, shining directly onto the tightly lidded eyes of a young man. The fellow groaned in annoyance and turned onto his side, pulling the blanket further over him. He drifted peacefully back into his sleep until a loud banging jerked him out of his pleasant dreamscapes. The banging, quite honestly, was not at all loud nor was it anywhere near a bang, but any sound to awake this particularly irritable fellow would be classified as such by him.

"Gill! Hurry up or you'll be late to work! Today 's especially important, remember?" a chipper voice chimed merrily from the other side of the regal bedroom door. Gill glanced over to the clock standing on his nightstand. 5:01 am. Gill grumbled angrily under his breath. He usually woke up at 6 and was at work by 8:30. He was nowhere near late for anything! He sighed irritably and flopped back into his still warm bed to rest quietly for a few moments. After a while, he pulled himself out of bed to prepare for this "especially important" day that awaited him. He dressed in his usual choice of garb: a blue sweater vest, a long-sleeved shirt, a crisp pair of shorts, black socks, and brown dress shoes. The usual. After deftly tying his tie on, Gill grabbed documents lying on his desk and made his way downstairs for breakfast.

His father had already prepared breakfast for the two of them and was currently enjoying his portion rather hurriedly. Gill paid no heed to this fact, already knowing its cause, and settled down alongside his father, turning on the television with the remote which had already prepared been for him on the table. Gill took a slow sip of his coffee. It was very sweet. He grimaced.

"Ah, Gill!" his father turned to him, trying to cover his mouth to prevent food bits from pelting his son. He began to rise from his seat as he spoke. "I'll be off now. I want to get an early start and make sure everything is perfect before our new neighbor arrives!" he chuckled with satisfaction at the thought. Gill, however, was not as pleased and focused less on his father's drabbling and more on the local news. His father ignored the silence and continued.

"Pascal told me the boat should be here around 10:00. If you're not too busy, you should come down and greet her, too!" Gill nodded his head absentmindedly.

"Excellent!" His father clapped his hands with more eagerness than Gill deemed necessary. "Well, I'm off! See you at ten!" And with that, Gill was left to himself in the quiet of his home. He munched quietly on his breakfast as the weather girl chattered on happily about Indian Summers and rain.

"Do you all know what an Indian Summer is? It means that little bit of summer that comes at the end of fall right before the cold of winter," she said as she beamed happily.

"During that little bit of summer, the Indians would hunt for winter. So that's why they called the Indian Summers a gift from the gods, or in our case, a gift from the Goddess." Gill rolled his eyes as he took another bite of his scrambled eggs. A gift from the Harvest Goddess? Please. Considering the current state of the island, the Harvest Goddess had obviously left Waffle Island to rot in his opinion.

"This fall's Indian Summer has been accompanied by unprecedented amounts of rain. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see if these rains turn out to be a real gift, eh, Mr. Gill Hamilton?" the weather girl giggled and continued on with her report. Gill, on the other hand, had nearly choked on his food. Of course she would've known his doubts to her report. He grumbled angrily as he quickly flipped the television off. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning illuminated the kitchen to a stunning level, followed by a great crash of thunder. After that, everything was suddenly very quiet besides the deafening onslaught of raindrops pouring on the roof.

The house was still and dark. Very dark. Gill sighed in frustration.

Today was most certainly going to be a wonderful day.

And there it is. The first chapter. All nicely tied up with a red ribbon. :3c

Hope you all liked it! The second chapter should be uploaded fairly soon (and hopefully 'll be able to speed up the pacing….=3=;;)

S/N: I do not own HM:ToT or Secret Garden. :P