Felicity sprinted through Echo Town under the warm late-spring sunshine. She was panting excitedly, and clutched five notes for her five best friends, Rachel, Tina, Iroha, Michelle and Yuri. She stopped to jam a note into each of their postboxes when she got to them, and then took off again. Yuri was the first to hear the commotion, it being her day off, and peeked outside her door to see Felicity's blonde curls bobbing away in the distance. She checked her postbox, and found a little note written in Felicity's familiar neat cursive.
'To my dear friend Yuri,
Exciting news! Come by to Chez Clement this evening at 7. Free food provided!
Lots of love,
Felicity"
She had included a little doodle of herself waving at the end. Yuri considered it. On one hand, she really wanted to work on a new dress design she had been thinking about this evening. On the other hand, free food. In the end, free food won out. Besides, maybe Felicity had something interesting to tell everyone.
"Hiya, Clement." Felicity heard Tina's familiarly cheerful voice, and buzzed with excitement.
"Bonsoir, ma jeune fille," Clement replied as Felicity rushed to the front.
"Hey-ho, Felicity," Tina grinned, sticking out her tongue. "What's this fascinating news you're planning on brightening up my dreary journalist's life with?"
Felicity hugged her. "Oh, you're going to have to wait for everyone else to arrive!" She giggled. "I can't wait to see the looks on your faces."
"If you say so," Tina said mockingly. She looked over at Clement. "Thanks for giving us the free food, mister Clement."
He sighed dramatically. "Oh, mon dieu! Free food for six girls! You are all so lucky that I would do anything for mon petit Felicity."
The girls giggled. "Sorry, mister Clement," Tina apologized.
"Non, non! Don't mind me! I shall just slave away for some ungrateful children who won't even pay me for my troubles." Just then, Iroha, Yuri, and Michelle came in. Clement raised his eyes to the ceiling and threw his hands up. "Mon dieu!" he cried, bustling into the kitchen. Felicity and Tina laughed while the other three girls looked on in confusion.
"W-what were you laughing at?" asked a concerned Iroha as the girls sat down at a table by the window.
"Oh, nothing. Anyway, where's Rachel?" asked Tina.
"...Late," said Yuri softly.
Michelle sighed, exasperated. "I swear, that girl is late to absolutely everything. We could always just start without her."
Felicity laughed. Although Michelle did a great job of keeping up a cute and demure image around the village men, she showed her true colours around her friends. It was incredibly refreshing to see the difference between public Michelle and private Michelle.
While the others were chatting, Iroha glanced out the window. She squinted, and then her eyes widened. She gently tugged on Tina's jacket and pointed. Tina followed Iroha's gaze, and then her eyes widened too.
"Is that..." she asked slowly.
"Is what?" snapped Michelle, turning around to look out the window. Upon seeing, she spluttered with laughter. "Oh my Goddess. That's Allen."
Yuri and Felicity looked to see Allen clinging on for dear life to one of Rachel's cows in the distance. It looked like he was screaming. The cow was charging along the road from Rachel's farm with Allen on her back. Rachel herself could be seen racing after the runaway cow, shouting and waving.
Michelle cackled. "This is too good. We can't miss this one. Let's go." The five girls got up from the table and went outside to watch the spectacle.
The cow had already done a full lap around town, and Rachel looked exhausted trying to keep up. Even from a distance, it was clear to see that Allen's knuckles were white from clinging on to the cow's pelt.
"Poor Allen..." said Felicity worriedly.
Tina choked back laughter. "Y-yeah, poor Allen."
The cow came to an abrupt halt in front of Neil's wall, sending Allen flying over her head. Unfortunately, it had been raining the night before. Allen landed on the muddy ground, skidded for about twenty metres, and crashed, rear-end first, into Rebecca's fence next door. Neil, hearing the commotion, poked his head outside. He saw the scene and immediately withdrew into his house and shut the door.
Michelle was in hysterics, gasping for air. "What an idiot!" she spluttered.
The girls ran over to the scene, where Allen had picked himself up and was angrily shouting at Rachel.
"Oh, no! Allen! Are you hurt?" Michelle asked sweetly, doing a very good job of feigning concern.
Yuri was studying his expensive designer suit. "Your clothes... are completely ruined... Not even a dry-cleaner could help..."
Allen gave the girls a dirty look, and stormed off home. They turned their attention to Rachel. She looked as if she was about to cry.
"Rachel... What happened? Are you all right?" asked Iroha, taking her hand.
"Yeah, I..." She sighed. "Allen came to the farm and asked if he could ride the cows." The girls stared at her. "I said no, of course," she said hurriedly. "That's stupid, they would hate that! But he said something like, 'oh, I'm going to be the world's best cow jockey'... or something. And then, he just... hopped on Candy." She looked over at the cow, who had already seemed to have forgotten the experience and begin to wander home. "And then all that happened, and he started shouting at me, and..."
"Ohh, Rachel, cupcake," said Felicity softly, pulling Rachel into a hug. "Forget Allen. Come on over to Chez Clement, and I'll have Clement make you a nice milkshake."
Rachel smiled and sniffed, hugging Felicity back. "Thanks, Felicity."
"Oh, yeah!" Tina said, looking at Felicity. "What was it you were going to tell us?"
"Oh!" said Felicity. "Hmm... Let's go back to Chez Clement first."
The six girls were seated with their drinks. They all had a milkshake each, except for Michelle, who had a cup of strong black coffee, and Iroha, who'd ordered some oolong tea.
Tina took a slurp of her orange milkshake, and then waved her straw at Felicity. "So, come on! Out with it! What's the big secret?"
"I mean, you kept us waiting long enough," muttered Michelle.
Felicity smiled secretively and sipped at her strawberry milkshake. She loved all this suspense. "Okay. I suppose I'll tell you." She took another long sip of her milkshake.
The other girls looked apprehensively at her as she drank. She exhaled once she had finished drinking, and opened her eyes and looked at each one of them.
The tension in the restaurant could have been cut with a knife. Even Clement stopped cleaning down the counters to watch.
Felicity took a deep breath. "Oh, I need the bathroom now."
"Felicity!" shouted Rachel, banging her chocolate milkshake on the table.
"Please, tell us!" cried Iroha.
Yuri sipped on her mint milkshake.
Felicity giggled. "Okay, okay! Clement gave me seven tickets for an around-the-world cruise!"
The other girls' mouths dropped open.
She looked around at their gobsmacked faces. "Well, I was expecting more of a reaction."
Tina was the first to snap out of it. "A-a-around the world?" she stuttered.
"How did you get a hold of them, mister Clement, sir?" Iroha asked him, shocked. He chuckled, and flicked the towel he was holding in their general direction.
"Nosy, nosy! But yes, I can see why you would be curious," he said, smiling coyly. "I do have my ways, you know."
"Madeleine won them from a competition, but she can't go because of work," Felicity explained.
"And my kind little flower decided to give them to her old Papa! Is she not so sweet?" he giggled, laying one hand on his cheek and flapping the teatowel with the other.
"But, you know, my dears, there is no way that I could close up the restaurant for so long. And who better to give the tickets to than my lovely Felicity?" Felicity smiled at him.
The girls (mostly Tina and Iroha) made some flustered and overwhelmed attempts at thanks, which Clement lapped right up. When they had finished showering him in praise, he shushed them and flourished the tea towel.
"So, mes cheries! Your ferry leaves in a week. Although it pains me to say farewell to my dear Felicity, I promise I shall see you off with a feast fit for a king!"
The girls cheered, and fell into chatter. Clement set about closing up the restaurant while the girls spent the rest of their evening discussing the trip. At around nine, the exasperated Clement shooed them out of his restaurant. They all said farewell to each other and dispersed home to pack.