Mom,
I don't understand how all of this could have happened, and I don't want to believe it. I can't fix it anymore. There's no reason for me to stay.
Thank you, I'm sorry.
XxX
It was a couple hours past dawn on the collection of islands. There was no hustle and bustle that would have inevitably woken her up earlier if she was back in the city. Up late on the first day? Taro expected more. Goddess, she was probably going to get an ear full. Chelsea rose from her bed, immediately dreading what was to come. Her feet hit the cold wooden floors and she tried to come up with an excuse that Taro would accept. He was a stickler for punctuality, the likes of which she was not.
A little "Mew" came from the corner of the small room and Chelsea was reminded of her tiny white kitten, Persia, that had come with her from her home back in the city. It was morning, so breakfast for the both of them would be a good thing. She was already a couple hours late, there was no sense in getting worked up over a few more minutes of tardiness.
After gulping down a small breakfast of sticky rice and bread, Chelsea got some pet food for Persia that she had bought at the local animal store. She placed it in the middle of what would become a kitchen. On the floor by Chelsea's feet was a magazine sprawled out in which one lovely picture was circled in red ink. 'You just have to work for it,' Chelsea thought. Earning the money for the kitchen would be the easy part. The hard part would be coming up with enough wood to actually build it. "Oh well," she said to herself, "One of the down sides to living in the middle of nowhere is gathering the materials to build things."
After she dressed in her usual red bandanna, blue jean capris, and red cowgirl boots she felt ready to start the day. The day, however, didn't seem quite ready for her.
Chelsea spent the majority of the previous day learning about all the basic skills required for farming, and re-learning after Taro had finished lecturing about what she did wrong. She was just having a difficult time being able to 'properly' grasp all of the techniques necessary to do an adequate job. Eventually, Taro himself had given up trying to teach but, Chelsea on the other hand kept working at it whilst becoming more and more frustrated with herself as time passed. Today, she was paying the price.
She couldn't grasp her axe properly, and consequently couldn't break the small logs covering her field. She over watered her crops, so they sat in a soupy mess of dirt around her feet. While trying to break the some of the smallest rocks in her field she hit her toe with her hammer, and subsequently broke out into a fit of profanity. Hoping fishing would be something she'd actually be good at she wasn't paying attention and caught her finger on the hook of her fishing rod when trying to apply the bait. The only skill she had mastered to Taro's standards was tilling her field, but even that was taking its tole on her energy, not to mention patience. Chelsea silently chastised herself for not being competent enough to run a meager farm with no one else's help. Her father had been a farmer, and even though she never knew the man she hoped that she might have a natural knack for it. As usual, she was wrong.
After Chelsea decided that she'd had quite enough of farm work, she went to town to pick up more seeds to make up for the ones she'd just killed.
"Good morning Taro," Chelsea said as she walked past the old man, feigning innocence and hoping that he wouldn't notice her blazingly obvious lateness.
"Aye little lady you're out late; it's already 2:30" he said, obviously disappointed.
"I'm really sorry," she said honestly, "I accidentally slept in, and I had sort of a hard time with my chores."
"On your first day? My girl, you ain't ne'er seen a hard day's work in your life! I'm gonna have ta whip you inta shape,"
"Sorry Taro I'm just-"
"Ah! No excuses. I'll send m' boy Elliot over there to get'cha up out of bed," Elliot glanced towards his grandfather after his name was mentioned.
"Grandpa, I'm seriously not-" Elliot cut in before he was forced to do more things he didn't want to and was quickly shushed by the glare on his grandfather's face.
"And Missy, you're gonna have ta work harder if ya want ta do well here, thats that." Chelsea nodded sorrowfully to Taro, she was far more disappointed in herself than Taro was with her, "Hun, why don't ya familiarize yerself with the other rancher on the islands, I'm sure he wouldn't mind giving you a few pointers. His name's Mark,"
"Thank you so much, Taro!" Chelsea called, wondering when someone was going to mention that there was another rancher on the islands.
"Oh and by the way Ms. Reynolds, please try not ta be late again tomorrow!" Taro called after her from down the dirt road.
Chelsea nodded again, a red tint emblazoning her cheeks. She needed to get over this morning's incidents and give herself a fresh start. Stressing herself out over the little things wasn't going to help her at all. Without hesitation, she decided to visit Mark and have him teach her how to use her tools.
XxX
That's the end of the prologue! Sorry there's no romance yet, but it does get better no matter how cliche that sounds. Thanks SOO much for reading! Reviews and favorites are not mandatory, but greatly appreciated. In fact, that one review I recieved gave me the motivation to churn out the next chapter the same day I wrote this one.