Chapter 1: Bella and the Bear
Omni
Mr. and Mrs. Parker, and the rest of the Candle-Light Valley and Starlit Town saw a glowing object flying in from the night sky and began to panic. Luckily, the falling object landed somewhere in the forest on the hill that separated Starlit Town and Candle-Light Valley. The two towns weren't rivals; they worked together in a lot of situations. They were just separated by a hill. Mr. and Mrs. Parker, who lived on the edge of Starlit Town, were the only ones who ran to the fallen object. Once they got to the oversized ditched created by the object, they saw what was inside. The married couple were blinded by a shining light. Mrs. Parker opened her eyes before her husband, and saw what the object was.
"Go home and get a towel!" She told him.
He did as he was told, running as fast as he could.
The twenty-four year old wife jumped into the ditch and slid down the curves to the naked, shining girl. The girl had long, blonde hair that went down to the back of her knees and an hourglass-figure body. She appeared to be seventeen.
"Ma'am?" Mrs. Parker shook the girl's shoulder.
The girl's eyes opened. "Where am I?" She managed. Mrs. Parker held her up by her back and more glowing came from the sky. The same event was happening again, but four more were falling at the same time. They hit the ground in the shape of a pentagon, or when you looked at it a certain way, a star.
The twenty-six year old husband came back with a towel in his hand and a shocked look on his face when he saw the girl.
"Landon," Mrs. Parker said to her husband, "get four more towels."
Damien
As I saw four more shooting stars fall from the night sky, I wanted to run to go see the fallen star, but my brother, Joel, saw me trying to leave and said "go back to sleep; it's two in the morning." In the news paper the next day on the front page, I saw Mrs. Parker saving girls; she said they were the objects falling from the sky. She must have woken up to the shining, just like the rest of the Town.
Joel said I could leave to ask Mr. and Mrs. Parker some questions about it once I watered the crops. I had a quarter acre of cucumbers, but we had just bought a hose. My sister, Olivia, took care of the strawberries. It took me about two hours from six in the morning, then rode over on Aurora, my horse, to Mr. and Mrs. Parker's house. Joel said he and my sister, would feed the animals for me, but I would have to milk the cows and get the eggs from the chickens when I got back.
Once I got to the Parker's house, I tied Aurora to a tree next to the large-ish house and knocked on the door. Mr. Parker answered the door, with a smile on his face.
"Damien, how have you been?" He asked, gesturing me inside. "Come on in."
I nodded, smiling, and walked inside, taking my shoes off. I put them by the entry.
"What do you need?" Landon asked.
"Well…" I began a little nervous on the subject. "I was wondering about you two housing the five girls…"
"Oh!" He knew what I was talking about, of course. "Emma!" He called his wife.
Emma Parker walked into the entryway and had a shocked, yet happy look on her face. Emma was one of my childhood friends, even though she was six years older than me. Our parents knew each other. I never liked her more than a friend though.
"Damien!" She exclaimed and came towards me with a hug. "What are you doing here?" She asked, not in the bad way, squeezing me. Landon looked a little annoyed.
She let me go so I could answer. "I was wondering about the five girls you're housing."
"Ohh." She said in an understandable tone and nodded. "Did you see that small meteor shower last night?"
"That was seriously them?" I answered with another question.
"Yeah," she sighed, "and–"
A blonde girl who appeared seventeen walked out of a room upstairs and interrupted her. "Emma, can I borrow your–" She stopped when she saw me in the room. Her curly, blonde hair was so long, it went down to the back of her knees. "Sorry," she apologized, "I didn't realize you had company." She was wearing clothes that were probably Emma's because they were a little too big on her slim body.
"Bella," she introduced us as the girl seemed to dance down the stairs towards me, "this is Damien. Damien, this is the first girl I found." Her feet didn't even make a sound as she tip-toed across the floor.
We shook hands. "I'm Bellarina, but you can call me Bella."
Bellarina. That's an odd name.
Up close, I could see that one of her eyes was a dark blue, and her left eye was a dark purple. And even closer, I could see that her pupils were kind of in the shape of a heart. She had what looked a tattoo on her forehead that was in the shape of a star. She was about four inches shorter than me. She looked like a princess. The most beautiful girl I had ever seen.
But if I focused enough, I could see something sparkling on her back.
"I'm going to go take a shower," she told Emma. "Can I borrow your brush?"
"Yeah, it's in the top drawer."
Emma began walking upstairs and looked back at me. "It was nice meeting you."
"Nice meeting you too…" I mumbled.
"Is Layla still sleeping?" Emma asked Bella before she went into another room. Bella nodded and Emma sighed. "She was asleep when we found her." Emma explained. "We're going shopping for clothes for them later, so I hope she'll wake up."
I nodded and thought where they were going to stay for the rest of their lives. If they stayed here long enough.
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Emma asked. Landon was being pretty silent this entire time.
"I mean, you can't house them forever. Where will they stay?"
They looked at each other.
"We're not sure," Landon finally said something.
I thought about it. "What if they lived on the farm with me and Joel?"
They both looked at me funny, their eyebrows raised.
"I'm sure Joel wouldn't mind helping out… them." I wasn't quite sure what to call them. "They would just have to work on the farm a bit to help pay their expenses of living there."
"Are you sure? I mean, that's a lot to take on."
"Not really. Where else are they going to stay?" I reminded them.
"That's true." Emma looked at her husband.
"Why don't you go over it with your brother and sister first, and then come back here?" Landon took a step next to his wife.
"Sure." I said, heading towards the door. "Thanks." I smiled back and left; they waved at me.
I rode back through the small town on Aurora. For a small town, we had a fairly large town square. We used it for small get-togethers, since it was either hot or regular temperature here. It hasn't rained here in decades. It was currently spring. If the event was too big, like a dance, then we would go to the town square in Candle-Light Valley.
I jumped off Aurora to find my sister to spray me with a hose and glaring with me. Me and my sister we're really close. We weren't the kind of brother and sister that hated each other, but we did pick on and mess with each other a lot. And we would help out each other no matter what.
Everyone tells us that me and my brother look almost like twins, but me and my sisters don't look much alike. The only thing that tells people we're related is our eyes. Our family runs with blue-gray eyes, but the hair colour can vary between brunette and blonde. Me and my brother we're brunettes while my sister was a blonde. She was cute though.
Olivia was three years younger than me, so I was protective over her. She also likes to be called Ollie, but I call her Olivia just to pick on her. Joel called her Olivia just because they're brother and sister. They aren't as close as we were though.
"What was that for?!" I said, shaking the water from my hands.
"Joel made me do your chores and went to the Blue Bar. You've been slacking off a lot lately."
It was true; I had been cutting work so I could go do something else, but usually it was for a good reason. A lot of the times, though, Joel would slack off doing my work and make Olivia do it.
"That's the last time I do your work!" She exclaimed, spraying me with the hose again.
I took it from her and sprayed her back.
Our dog, Kiwi, came running into the sprayer. She loved playing in the water. But she had to pee every ten minutes if she drank it. Technically, Kiwi was Olivia's dog, but we all do our part in taking care of her. She's a boxer, so she's a big bundle of muscle. She was a birthday present to Olivia a year ago, and we got her when she was only eight weeks. And now she's full grown. My brother had a cat, Yoyo. We had her for about seven and a half years. She was pretty fat. She stayed in Joel's cottage though.
By the way, we all lived in cottages on the farm. They included everything you needed: a kitchen, a table, a futon, a TV, and a bathroom. The futon was placed in front of the TV; the bathroom was behind the futon. The kitchen was around the table, which was in the entryway. The cottages were pretty small; my brother had the biggest one. It was about double the size of mine and my sister's.
In the back of all our land, there was the half an acre of crops. Then there was another half an acre in between. The next row, from left to right, there was the horse stable (that only kept three, even though we only had one), the cow and sheep shed (we had five cows and two sheep), and the chicken coop (we had six chickens). The reason why we had so many cows and chicken than sheep was because you had to wait a while before the sheep's wool grew back after sheering it, as the cows gave milk everyday and the chickens laid eggs every day.
The next row, from left to right, there was my sister's cottage, another five feet between them, my cottage, a giant gap because the opening to get into our farm was a little more forward than that. That was about fifteen feet, and then my brother's cottage.
Olivia started leaving towards the gate of the farm, walking. She liked to walk places and only used Aurora if she was in a hurry. Kiwi was following her on a leash.
"And where might you be going?" I picked on her, drying off with a towel. "Hanging out with Tristan?" I laughed at myself.
"Oh, shut up. He's the only guy my age around here." She looked back at me; her face was a tad flushed and she left.
Tristan was the paper boy of our town. He was also the guy that Olivia liked. He was Vietnamese. He had black hair, tan skin, and brown eyes. My sister was a whole foot shorter than me. He was only a few inches shorter than me. He was tall. Tristan usually would wear a tank top and shorts, like the rest of the guys and girls, but he ran around shirtless if it was hot. Even though a few other guys also did that when it was hot. He was muscular too. No wonder why Olivia liked him.
I put Aurora in the horse stable and knocked on my brother's door and opened it. He was reading. He only took care of chores if he needed to cover them for me or Olivia.
"What do you need?" He said, still looking at his book.
"You know that event that happened this morning, right?" I chuckled and make a nervous smile.
He looked at me, raising one eyebrow.
"Those five falling stars," I explained to him, "are actually girls. And they have nowhere to stay. And since we have a lot of room here on the farm…" I trailed off, hoping he would catch on before I would have to start explaining more.
"That's fine, but wouldn't that cost a lot of money to build five cottages?" He put his book down, slid over to the end of his bed, and crossed his arms.
"We have a lot of money saved up, and they'll be out on the streets if we don't take them in."
"Alright, but they have to work on the farm with us. They can help with watering the plants and maybe groom the animals since we don't do that too often."
That night, at around six, I went to go tell Emma the news and to meet the other girls. I took Olivia with me so she could meet them too. Joel called Gotz Construction so they could start building the cottages, and went over to Candle-Light Valley to go buy the furniture.
"Isn't five girls living with us a dangerous thing?" She asked as we rode over to their house.
"Dangerous how?"
"I don't want them starting a party in your pants."
I rolled my eyes.
When we got there, the girls were finishing up their dinner. Me, Olivia, Emma, and Landon engaged in small talk while we waited for them to finish. We also told them about them staying over at the farm.
"So they would just have to do some work to help pay off them living with us," Olivia finished for me.
"Are you sure you have enough money?" Landon asked.
Me and Olivia looked at each other. "We'll be cut down a lot," I told them, "but we can get the money back."
Emma nodded at Landon once and he went upstairs.
"What?" Olivia asked.
"I already bought clothes and toiletries for the girls, but you'll probably need money for extra food."
After waiting a minute or two, Landon came back down the stairs, writing something in a checkbook. He ripped it out and handed it to us.
Me and Olivia looked at it; our mouths dropped open.
"A check for five thousand dollars?" I asked. My sister was still speechless.
"You'll need money." Emma reminded me.
"Thanks!" I stuffed the check in my back pocket. I usually couldn't accept something like this, but we needed the money and I had known Emma for a pretty long time.
"Emma!" One of the girls called and raised her hand. "We're done. Where do we put the plates?"
"Landon will take them." She fanned off her husband. Me and Olivia laughed. The girls came over and sat on the couch next to the one me and my sister were sitting on.
"So," I began explaining, "the cottages will be done in exactly three days. They can move in three nights from now."
"Alrighty." She said. "They don't really have many things. Are you sure five thousand is enough to take care of them and buy them the necessities?"
"You make it sound like we're poor." Olivia said in a semi-sarcastic tone. I elbowed her without turning her way.
"So," Emma changed the subject, "I'd like you to meet the girls. You've already met Bella." Bella smiled at me. Emma pointed to a girl with black hair in the back, and red bangs. Her bangs were to the side. Her right eye was gold; her left was a pale green. She was a shade darker than me and Olivia. She looked Vietnamese, but not as tan as Tristan. "This is Lily." She next pointed to a girl with brown hair, and brunette strips. Her hair was up in a messy bun, some hair fallen down, and no bangs. Her right eye was pink; her left eye was red. She was about three shades darker than me, and Mexican. "This is Layla." Next was a girl who was barely smiling at all. In fact, I kind of had to look closely to see it. Her hair was a dark burgundy in the back, and a dark magenta in the front. Her bangs were to the side, and covering her left eye. Her right eye was a light gray; almost white. She seemed one shade darker than Layla, and Philippino. "This is Diane." The last girl was really smiling. She was the one who raised her hand after dinner; she seemed really playful and friendly. She had light brown hair in the back, and a few shades darker brown in the front. She was Korean; the same shade as Lily. "And this is DaeSung." She pronounced it like "day" and she "sung" a song. They each had the same star marking Bella had on their foreheads.
The next few days were bland, plain, and boring. I just wanted to have the girls move into the farm (not for the reasons you perverted people are thinking). I just had a good feeling when I was around the girls. My sister would always make perverted jokes every few hours. She'll bring it up, I'll say I'm happy about them moving in, and she'll mumble something like "party in your pants," and make me do a spit take.
When the girls moved in, all they had were clothes, toiletries, and I got a glimpse of "feminine items".
While I was showing the girls the cottages, I saw Kiwi running around with my green stuffed bear from when I was a little kid in her mouth. She must have dug it out of an old box.
"KIWI!" I started running after her. "DROP IT!"
Kiwi was mostly obedient, so she dropped the green bear and walked the other way. She had dropped the stuffed animal a little ways away. One of the girls got to it before me and picked it up.
"Is this yours?" Bella asked.
I laughed nervously. "Yeah…"
She giggled. "What's this orange circle right here?"
Teddy (I had named him that when I was about six, once I realized I had never given him a name) fell out of my arms when I was sleeping once and got burned by a lamp that was on the floor. He ended up having an oval-shaped, light orange, mark on him that was about an inch in diameter. Now he was also covered in dog slobber.
"He fell next to a lamp when he was little and got burned." I walked over to her slowly to get the bear.
"He's cute." She handed him to me.
As she handed Teddy to me and both our hands were on him, I felt a connection between us. I was already falling for someone I had just met a few days ago.
I held him in both of my hands and looked down at him. She turned around to start walking to her cottage.
"You want him?"
"What? I couldn't keep him."
"Don't worry about it. He just sits around in an old box now. I stopped hugging him in my sleep when I turned seven."
She laughed. "I can't. I–"
I handed it to Bella. She looked up at me, shocked that I gave him up so easily. I really didn't care much about the bear. It's not like some dying relative gave him to me. My parents just bought it for me when I was two. I stopped sleeping with him when I was seven; he would just lie around my room. I put him in a box when I turned ten.
After looking at me for what seemed like a lifetime, she broke the silence.
"I-I should go to bed now."
"It's only eight." I told her.
"I like to…be alone before I go to sleep." She hesitated.
"Well then, good night."
"Good night." She walked back to her cottage; I walked back to mine. Damn. She was like the perfect girl.