Chapter 3

"Shit! I'm gonna be late for work!" Gray said as he looked at the clock.

Gray missed his alarm, he was supposed to get up at 6 a.m, but it was past 7. He starts work at 7:30. So he quickly got dressed and ran to work. He made it on time, and was "politely" greeted by his grandfather.

"Oh look at you, you were almost late!" yelled Saibara with a little anger.

"Well I'm not late, so why are you angry?! I really don't want to argue about this, so I'm just going to get working." said Gray.

"Fine." said Saibara.

Gray was kind of surprised that his grandpa didn't try to continue the argument. A couple hours went by since he first arrived to work. He heard the door open around 10 a.m.

"Hi, you're back. Can I help you?" said Saibara.

"Yeah, I'd like to upgrade one of my tools, if you could." said Claire.

Gray heard the familiar voice and turned around.

"Hi, Gray!" said Claire cheerfully.

"Hi, Claire." said Gray.

"So, which tool would you like upgraded?" asked Saibara.

"My hammer, please." Claire responded.

Gray just stood there and listened to the entire conversation.

"What ore would you like to use?" asked Saibara.

"Oh, I'll check my bag to see if I have some in there." said Claire

Claire swung her orange bag off of her shoulders and dug around to see if she had any ore in there.

"Shoot, I don't have any left over . I guess I shipped them all them all this morning. I can run to the mine real fast to get some." Claire said with a faint frown.

"Gray, why don't you go help her at the mine? I needed to go down there anyway to get some more copper." asked Saibara.

"Um..sure. I'll go." said Gray softly.

"Okay, let's go!" said Claire happily.

Gray grabbed his hammer, then they both headed to the mine. Claire said that you can get there faster if you cut through her farm. The mine is located on the lower left part of Mineral Town, right next to the Goddess Spring.

"I think this will be fun, I have never mined with someone else before!" Claire said with excitement.

"The only other person I have mined with is my grandpa, but I'd rather go by myself than with him." said Gray.

"Why is that?" asked Claire.

"My grandpa just isn't fun to be around." said Gray.

"I think he's nice." said Claire

"Well to everyone else he is, just not me. He yells at me for everything I do, even when I think I'm doing it right." said Gray.

"At least he is telling you the things that you are doing wrong, I know that I am doing things wrong, but no one tells me since I'm by myself." Claire said.

"I mean, a little criticism is okay. But when it is all the time, that's when it gets on my nerves." said Gray.

Claire paused before she responded.

"Maybe he does it out of love. Sounds like he wants you to succeed, so maybe that's why he is so hard on you." said Claire with a shy smile.

"Maybe you're right." Gray said as they both walked into the mine.

They mined for about an hour, only finding a couple pieces of silver and copper. Trying to find ores isn't easy. You are not always going to find them when you smash your hammer against the rock, it's a game of chance. After they collected their tools and ores, they made their way back.

"That was really fun!" said Claire.

"Yeah..it was. Mining is a great way to let out all of your frustrations, at least for me it is." said Gray.

"Guessing you come here a lot then." Claire said with a laugh.

"Only sometimes." Gray said with a chuckle.

"Should I come back to the blacksmiths with you? So I can get my hammer upgraded?" asked Claire.

"I can just take the hammer and your ore if you'd like?" asked Gray.

"Are you sure? That's real nice of you." said Claire.

"Yeah it's no problem, it just saves you a trip." said Gray.

"Well here you go." said Claire as she handed Gray her hammer and silver ore.

"Thanks, this should be ready in the next couple of days. I could drop it off then?" asked Gray.

"Sounds great! Thank you, Gray." she said with a smile.

"No problem." said Gray as he left Claire's farm.

Gray then made his way back to the blacksmiths with plenty of time to work on Claire's hammer. He was first greeted by his grandpa, Gray was surprised by the cheery tone in his voice.

"Have fun?" asked Saibara with a smile.

"Yeah..I really did." said Gray.