So here we are! My first 'published' story! I hope that I do well and you guys like it. c:
I would really like some criticism, if you guys want to give any. I want to improve my writing, but I can only do so much on my own! Thank you in advance if you do happen to help me. 3
R
You could say my trouble started about three months ago. It wasn't anything big that happened, but it just snowballed out of control. She had just come in and ordered a drink.
"Do you mind?" Ash grey eyes glared at me from behind the tea cup. It wasn't very often that I had to help out in the café, and it wasn't very often that Lillian visited. It just happened to be my luck that both of these things happened to line up like some celestial 'Fuck you'. I quickly shifted my gaze from the black cup she was sipping out of to the wall. Honestly, it's not like I was actually looking at her. I was just staring out into space, trying to pick out my flower selections for the next day, when her voice rattled me from my thoughts. I bit back a sharp reply. It wasn't professional to argue with clients, no matter how ill-mannered or rude they were. It was bad for business. When that she-demon left, I don't think I've been so happy in my life. Or relieved, for that matter.
My patience tried for the day, I went ahead and closed up shop. It still took a little while to clean up the dishes and put away the leftovers for dinner, but I had enough time left to go and visit Ash. Locking up, I left for his house. The walk through town was quick. The square was mostly deserted at this time of the day, with people making their ways home to eat with their family or whatever they did. I spotted Georgia leaving but she didn't see me, so I didn't bother to wave or anything. She was Laney's friend anyway, and the few times I had talked to her had been with my blond cousin as a buffer. When I finally got to Ash's house the sky was turning orange as the sun set. I hopped the fence out back and made my way to the barn since I knew he would be there. As expected, there he was, sitting on an old stool and brushing one of the baby sheep of the season.
"Hey, Cam!" He called out when he saw me. I nodded and threw up my hand in reply. Putting down the brush and patting the sheep to go join it's mother, he grinned and jerked his thumb in the direction of another stool. I picked up the thing from its hiding place in the corner, where it was always at, and plopped down next to him. "So, how was the 'day off'?" He chuckled at his joke and I shot him a look. Normally I would have been preparing for the coming work week by getting all of my ribbons and paper in order- taking inventory. Howard and Laney had to go into the city today, though, and it was sort of unexpected. Something about Howard's ex-wife or something, I didn't really catch it. All I knew was that I had to run the place for the afternoon and all of my work would have to be crammed and rushed tomorrow. It wasn't going to be fun, especially since the first Cooking Contest of the year was going to be the day after that.
"Bad." I reached into my pocket and pulled a cigarette out from my case. A nasty habit, and Howard had pretty much said he would kick me out of he caught me, but I just couldn't seem to break myself of it. Thank the Goddess for close friends. As I lit it up and took my first puff, Ash put on one of his practiced frowns and shook his head.
"That bad of a day, huh?"
"I got a visit from Queen Harpy."
I could have laughed at Ash's face when I said that. Could have, but I didn't. His mouth rounded out into a perfect little 'o' and his eyes widened. Looks like he was just about as surprised as I had been when the bell chimed and she walked through the door. Of course, he wouldn't have to deal with the dread of seeing her sit down, the pain of her ordering, or the frustration of her staying there for almost thirty minutes while she glared a hole through him. It had been a real fun time.
"W-what did she want?" With her it was always something bad. Always. So I understood his concern. In the last three years, everyone knew that. Even the people who lived in Konohana knew it and she never even saw the people from that trash hole.
"Milk Tea." My blond friend gave a sharp intake of breath- disbelief. It was alright, I had felt the same way at the time.
"You mean she didn't come in and rip your head off and lay eggs in your throat or something?! I find that hard to believe, Cam." I honestly couldn't tell if he was joking or not. He just looked so damned earnest. After a moment I couldn't stop myself and smiled, letting out my wheezy version of a laugh.
From then we fell into usual patterns. Conversation turned into mostly his talking about his animals or something Cheryl, his kid sister, had done that day. Occasionally he would ask me questions or I would give little grunts to show I was listening, that kind of thing. I only said goodbye and parted ways two and half more cigarettes later, when a calf butted Ash and knocked him over. It was dark when I made my way back to the café, and I could see from the lights that Howard and Laney were back. I gave the two a wave when I got inside, but decided to skip dinner and the conversation and go straight to bed. Thoughts of cream skinned women clinging tight to me lulled me to sleep.
I awoke the next day tired and craving a smoke. Something told me it would be a bad day, like it always did. I rolled out of bed and went to shower before locking myself into my workshop. It would be a long and busy day, but I might be able to get all of my work done if nothing interrupted me. The moon was in the sky before I was done, and when I finally left my flower- filled tomb I was hungry and cranky and just wanted to go to sleep. I ignored Laney when she spoke and just went straight to the fridge, digging myself out something to eat. Cramming a hastily made sandwich into my mouth, I called it a day and retired to my room. Not all days can be very interesting, after all, no matter how much we want them to be.
Laney roused me awake the next morning. The sun was shining in my eyes, but she had an omelet waiting for me next to a cup of coffee, so I guess it was alright. Howard was already in a frenzy, baking and frying and sampling and then deciding what he had fixed wasn't good enough and starting over. Contest time was usually like this. Everyone who entered always wanted to prove how good the food was and make the very best they could, after all. Not to mention that Konohana had pretty much swept us under the rug the last three Contests in a row, so this meant a lot to everyone.
Before long I found myself carting bowls and pots up the mountain. Tradition stated that if you didn't enter yourself, you carried something or help set up the mountain top in preparation. I was loaded down with both Howard's and Laney's dishes but I didn't complain or anything. Ash was there and suffering with me, as always. He talked my head off until we reached the top; at that point we dropped our loads on the judging table and parted ways to set up the clearing. It wasn't a very strenuous task, but it was stressful. We were alongside the Konohana men and we never exactly saw eye to eye, even when just unfolding tables and chairs.
"So is it true?" I raised my head up from my task when I realized that whoever was talking, it was to me. It was that Konohana horse guy, Kana or something. I grimaced and shook my head.
"I have no idea what the hell you're talking about." I prepared myself for some type of smack talk, like 'that you guys are gunna lose four times' or some shit like that. The reply I got surprised me a little.
"I heard from Dirk that Rancher is entering this time. The really hateful one. Is it true?" I looked at him in confusion. He frowned and shook his head. "Guess that's a 'no' then…." He backed away and went off to go do something else. Puzzled, I looked around and quickly spotted Dirk. The postal carrier was speaking to a raptured audience of Ash and that doctor kid, flailing about like a madman or something as he spoke. I walked over and listened in.
"…. Swear it! I was getting done delivering mail in Bluebell, and when I was coming up, I passed her and she was carrying some food! Honest guys, I wouldn't lie about this!"
I didn't really buy it. Sure, Dirk was an alright guy and I didn't see any reason for him to not tell the truth, but it just seemed weird. After all, this would be the first time that Lillian had even attended a Cooking Contest, let alone enter one. Just seemed very farfetched to me is all.
At some point Kana had wandered up next to me. He seemed to be skeptical about this too, but some flicker in his eyes betrayed that he believed and sucked into it as much as Ash was. A small gasp from the doctor and his nudging Ash on the arm and pointing also made me look. Guess that Dirk had been telling the truth.
There she was in all of her glory. Lillian Jones, the local woman who everyone seemed to know and nobody liked. Her eyes were concentrating on the ground, presumably to make sure she didn't trip with her food, and face was pinched up in a frown. Hair pulled back and under a bandana, her skirts and the folds of her shirt were clean, but showed evidence of the hard work she had done that morning. She placed a large wooden bowl on the Bluebell entry table and then went to sit down. One of the metal chairs that were away from everyone else, but close enough to see, she crossed her hands over her lap and glared at nothing in particular. I'm sure that everyone in the clearing was looking at her, watching her to see what she would do. I wouldn't know, though, because I was too busy staring like everyone else.
Eventually the tension broke and a few quiet mutterings of conversation started up. I hadn't even noticed how quiet it had been until Ash whispered into my ear that it was almost time and we went to sit down. "What do you think she made?" He hissed in my ear, but I couldn't answer because Pierre was moving through the crowd to the front with Rutger and Ina. The typical speech was given by the two mayors, as well as a little competitive talk. The Gourmet moved to the Konohana table and began to sample; one bite from each dish. He said his 'oooos' and his 'aaaaahs' like he had the last three times, and Ash sighed and I heard him mutter something about losing again.
Everything was still when he moved over to the Bluebell table. The wind was taken out of our sails when he made the same noises and exclamations as last time. He stepped up, about to announce Konohana the winner when Lillian stood up. The very purple fellow seemed to have overlooked a dish, though, and it was made known.
"You didn't try mine." Hands balled into fists, the look she was giving the Gourmet could have killed him if he wasn't careful. A look of mild panic showed up on his face, very flimsily concealed with a fake smile. He scuttled back to the table like a scolded child and looked over all of the dishes. Quickly, he shoved his fork into her bowl and scooped out a bunch of green veggies. He shoved them in his mouth, then his eyes widened before he chewed and swallowed. My first thought was 'she poisoned it', after a moment his nervous look faded and he gave a genuine smile that had to have hurt his face.
"It's spectacular! Like the Harvest Goddess made it herself! Bluebell wins! They win by a mile!" I could never had been more ready for that in all of my life. I managed to take my eyes off of Pierre, who had by now taken the bowl and as scarfing the entire thing down, and look at Lillian. She was just sitting there, arms crossed, with that bored, sour look that was always on her face. There was no happy smile or even pride there. It was like this meant nothing to her.
A heavy silence followed. After a few minutes Lillian collected her, now empty, bowl and left. No one else said a word after that, not until Rutger finally seemed to realize that Bluebell had won and began boasting to Ina. The woman looked furious, and she and all her villagers picked up their share of the mess and left in shame even before a lot of us could even grasp and let sink in what had just occurred and start to clean up ourselves.
"Cam, what happened up there?" Later in the barn Ash was still dumbfounded, his eyes wide and pure shock on his features. I couldn't answer him because I didn't know. I just sat there and twirled my cigarette between my fingers, pondering on the strange occurrence myself. Things like that didn't happen. Gourmets didn't take more than one bite at things like this- let alone eat the entire bowl. A girl no one knew or even liked didn't make dishes that turned cooking festivals around. Hell, girls like Lillian didn't even enter cooking festivals. The fact as to why was an enigma in of itself, without all of that other stuff that only made it so much harder to explain.
I was broken from my train of thought when I heard the barn door open. I quickly stamped my smoke into the floor and covered the butt with my shoe. It was a good thing, too, since it was none other than Laney and Georgia that walked in. "Hey." The due approached, looking around and taking mind of the animals that were now sleeping wherever they had dropped. "Sorry to intrude, but we wanted to talk to you guys." I scoffed at the way Laney said 'intrude'. She was always trying to imply that I was gay, or that Ash was, and they we were dating or something.
"Yeah! About the Cooking Contest today and Lillian!" Georgia jumped in before we could say anything, and with more enthusiasm that needed. A nearby cow mooed in annoyance and did the cow equivalent of rolling over. The red haired girl jumped slightly when it did, and tried to shush her voice into a whisper. It didn't work, as it seems to never do with people who talk loud all the time, and she just sounded like she was hissing through her teeth. "We need 'tah get her to come to the next one! If she can do what she did today again, we'd be 'uh sure win!"
Ash frowned and shook his head. "Like that would ever happen. We don't even know why she entered today!"
"I bet we can find a way! I mean, why would she have even tried if she didn't want too for some reason?" Georgia met his response with one of her own.
"Because who knows what that reason even is! She could be conducting some experiment to see which poison acts the slowest or something! Do you really want to be involved in that?"
"If we can't find a reason then we'll give her one! It never hurts to ask, does it? You never know until you try!"
"Oh, sure, you go ahead and do that. I bet you two can't find out or do anything. You're all talk and no game; I know how you two are. Can and I would have a better chance at it then you two ever could." The matter of fact tone Ash was using made Georgia's reddening cheeks flush all the brighter. Laney hadn't said much, but had her hands on her hips and was staring us down with all of the force she could muster.
Taking a deep breath, Georgia smiled, but it was one of those angry ones that told you hell was coming. "How about this? We'll make you two a bet. If either of you can convince her to come to a Cooking Contest, you win. If we do, we win. Sound fair?"
I shook my head at Ash, but he either ignored me or was too caught up in the moment. "What do we get if we win?"
"If you guys win we'll…. We'll do your work for a month… and we'll streak through the square during the day, and yell about how great you guys are. But if we win, you two have to do the same thing for us! Streaking and work and all!" Georgia looked proud of herself. Laney was going along with her…. Until she mentioned streaking. My cousin tried to get her attention to tell her that, no, she was not okay with that. It seemed she was having as much trouble as I was getting Ash's attention to tell him the exact same thing.
"It's a deal!" He stood and they shook hands on it. I sighed and rubbed my temples; I could feel a headache coming on and this would be a great time for a smoke. "I hope you ladies are ready to strip down, cause we aren't going to lose!"
This was the official start of my downfall.
R
I hope you guys liked it! I don't know why, but Cam has always seemed like he would smoke to me. I think it might be the vest and the hat or something.
If you guys spot anything I did wrong, tell me! I'm dyslexic, so I tend to 'eat' words and letters sometimes. I also tend to swap them around or add extra ones, so keep an eye on that, too. Using word does help a lot, but it's not perfect! Don't use my dyslexia as an excuse to hold back, though! It should be obvious in most places where I couldn't see what was wrong over just having bad grammar. I would really like you guys to give me honest reviews, and if anything confuses you I'll try my best to make it clearer!
As for the chapter itself, I like it overall. There are a few places that I think I rushed it some, but it was only because I wanted to hurry up and get all of this first chapter, introductory stuff over with, so I hope it's not so bad.
Next chapter we'll learn more about Lillian, as well as how Cam responds to this bet that's been thrust upon his head and what he plans to do about it. See you guys next time. 3
