Summary: Chelsea's life on Sunny Island was pretty quiet, until a handsome young Gourmet moves in. As Chelsea struggles to understands her feelings for the culinary genius, a tragic loss leaves her heartbroken and confused. Soon, she'll come to realize that life is sugar and spice, and she must appreciate every sprinkle of it she gets.
It was such a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining with not a cloud in the sky, which after almost a whole week of rain was seemed like a blessing to Chelsea. She stood at the edge of her field, glaring down at the place where her crops should have been growing.
The darned rain had washed away most of the seeds she'd planted. She pouted, crossing her arms.
In her two years of being a farmer, growing crops had been her weakest point. Oh, her ranch was doing very well, but that was mostly due to her animals. Chelsea thought plants must have some sort of problem with her; it was a miracle that there was even any grass on her property.
She crouched down, taking a closer look at the soggy mess of land. Swirling her finger absentmindedly around in the mud, she decided that there was no way she'd be able to replace the seeds until the ground dried up. She stretched, standing back up, and then glanced at her watch.
6:30. She glanced over towards her barns and coops. The animals could wait just a little while to be tended to. She began to walk, enjoying the cool breeze as it touched across her faces, shifting the hair that had fallen out of her red bandanna's hold out of her face. She strolled down the bricked road that led out of her farm and into the ever-growing town.
Even after almost three years of living there, she still marveled at the changes that the island had gone through since she and Taro's family first landed there. Once abandoned and desolate, the island was now a beautiful community, with almost anything and any type of resident you could think of.
She glanced at Taro's house as she passed. Seeing that no one was outside yet, she assumed they were still enjoying breakfast.
I'll drop by later and check up on things, she thought. After a few more minutes of walking, her serene smile grew as she spotted her destination.
Gannon's house.
When she first met the mountain of a man, he was the last person she thought she would befriend. At first glance, he was intimidating and unfriendly. Then, however, Chelsea had actually gotten to know him and discovered that she couldn't have been more wrong about him. He was incredibly sweet, always greeting her with a smile and a compliment, and he was incredibly funny and easy to talk to. He had actually become one of her closest friends.
"Good morning, G!" She said, swinging the door open. Gannon was situated behind his desk, as she always counted on him to be. He grinned as Chelsea hopped up to her normal perch on his desk and sat Indian style facing him.
"Mornin' Chelsea." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Ya know, bet I'd get a lot more customers if you sat up there all day, knowin' they'd see such a pretty face."
"Aww, I would love to hang here all day, but you know I'm a hard working single woman. Animals to feed, crops to gr- er well, try to grow."
"More trouble?"
She pouted. "The rain washed all my seeds away."
"Don't pout, you'll get the hang of it eventually." Chelsea stared at him.
"Gannon it's been three years."
"...Buy more animals?" She laughed.
"Good plan! But my buildings are filled to the brim with animals." She tapped him on the nose. "I'm probably gonna be needing some expansions soon. Are you up for it?"
"Course I'm up for it!"
"Alright, we'll set something up for next week then."
They chatted for awhile longer, about the rain and the town and anything else, when Gannon first brought up the subject the would begin the change of Chelsea's quiet life.
"So, you met the new guy yet?" Chelsea tilted her head, frowning.
"New guy? The last 'new guy' I met was that weirdo that stalks Lanna, and that was months ago.."
"No, we got a new one yesterday."
"Oh! Really? Tell me about him."
"He's eh, very... wha's the word I'm lookin for?...Eccentric. Yeah."
"Eccentric?"
"Err, yeah. You'd have to meet 'im to know what I mean... He's some sort of food critic, the whole darn family is. They're pretty famous." Chelsea gasped.
"You don't mean he's a Gourmet!" Gannon snapped his fingers in recognition.
"That was the name."
Chelsea gagged. She had met a Gourmet once before, about a year ago when she went back to Mineral Town with Karen and Popuri to attend a festival. He was incredibly large, with a flat face and the largest most repulsive mouth she'd ever seen in her life. This wouldn't have bothered her, had be been nice; however, within the first ten minutes of meeting her, he stole the corn dog she been nibbling on, ATE the corn dog, and then insulted the corn dog while at the same time, insulting her character.
"Urgh, this is absolutely ghastly! What kind of person would eat such slop! Bleuuuurgh!"
And then he walked away, as if she had offended him.
She hadn't been back to Mineral Town since.
"Oh thats great. Juuust great." Chelsea made a point to get along with everyone on the island and, with the exception of Natalie, who Chelsea sometimes didn't see eye to eye with, she was good friends with most of the residents. However, one of her flaws was grudge holding, and she held a big one against that Gourmet guy.
She happened to love corn dogs, thank you very much.
"Don't worry, just cause yer not the best cook in the world doesn't mean he won't like ya." Chelsea looked highly affronted.
"If my cooking isn't so good, then why do you eat like five helpings of it every night?"
"Now, I didn't say tha-"
"Daddy! Chelsea!" Chelsea looked over her shoulder as the door slammed open. Chelsea chuckled as the bubbly blonde child bounced up to her, holding out her arms to be lifted onto the desk.
"Hey treasure." Gannon said once Chelsea had helped the girl settle in next to her. "Ya have fun with Charlie?" She nodded, blonde curls bouncing around her face. She turned to Chelsea, who tugged on one of the golden tussles.
"Chelsea, how long have you been here?" She asked, a tiny frown pulling at her lips. "You aren't about to leave are you?"
Chelsea gazed affectionatly at her. The first day Gannon introduced her to Eliza, and his daughter looked up at her with those big blue eyes and smiled that endearing smile, Chelsea was smitten. She'd always loved kids, but never really got the chance to be around them before she moved to the island. Now, she had Eliza, who she honestly thought of as a daughter. Of course, she never told this to Gannon or Eliza because she didn't know the situation about Eliza's real mother; Gannon never talked about it. She didn't want to insult any one. But she loved that little girl, and she also loved her father, platonically of course. They were the closest thing to a family she'd ever had.
"I'm afraid so, kiddo. I haven't fed the animals yet, and I'm probably gonna have to get Denny to take me fishing, since I won't be making any money off of crops anytime soon."
"Oh," Eliza said, sighing sadly. "You'll come back tonight though?" She asked, blinking those beautiful blue eyes at her. Chelsea chuckled.
"Of course! I'll be back in time to make dinner. You know I would never make you eat your father's cooking." She raised an eyebrow pointedly at Gannon.
"Hey! It's not that-oh, okay. It's that bad." Chelsea chuckled, and then glanced at her watch. 11:30. She sighed, hopping off the table.
"I've gotta go. The animals are probably already mad at me." She gave Eliza a quick hug and kiss on the forehead. "I'll be tonight, be thinking of what you wanna eat, kay?"She grabbed her backpack and made for the door.
"Chelsea." She turned.
"Yeah, G?"
"Watch out fer the scary Gourmet."