Yay! CH 4 already! I thought it would take longer... I managed to sneak onto the computer! I think this is my longest chapter yet! So you guys are lucky ;) Hopefully the next chapter comes soon... but I think I'm going to work on a oneshot first, to take a break from this. I did this chapter in different POV's where I thought it would be better in a certain perspective. Hope it's okay!
Thank you to my reviewers, whom I love so much XD
Icefire149: Well, here is a peek into Ann's thoughts!
Shimmerleaf: Hope you like the way Ann torture's Gray
Tinkies: I purposefully made Claire exaggerate a bit... Just so I could have them have a mini fight. :)
Evilgiggles13: Thank you, I can't wait to see what you thought of this chapter.
I do not own Harvest Moon.
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Claire's POV
I glanced over at Gray nervously. I opened my mouth to say something, but soon after I snapped it shut, just as I had been doing ever since we returned from the Inn. He looked at me curiously, but said nothing as well. I stared down at my plad pajama pants, thinking about what to do.
Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and blurted out: "Gray, run! Run far, or you will face a dreadful death!"
He stared at me dumbly "What?"
"Ann." That one word said it all. He looked horrified.
"W-what's going to happen?" Gray whispered.
"You know how it's girls night? Ann is coming in 5 minutes."
"Crap. Crap. Crap! CRAP!" He panicked.
"There's still time to escape! You can just sneak out the door right now and she'll never know!" We ran to the door and frantically tried to unlock the door.
Ding! Dong! The doorbell rang. We froze. Gray mouthed 'What do I do?'.
"Turn on the water in the bathroom, I'll pretend you're showering." I whispered.
"Thank you!" He tip toed to the bathroom.
Gray's POV
The voices outside of the bathroom door were slightly drowned out by the running water of the shower. I sat down on the plastic bench right beside the shower. I wasn't going to actually shower; that would be going over board. I cringed at the sound of Ann yelling. Must have found out that I was not available for torture.
And then I heard her voice getting closer to the door. Oh no, please, no! "I don't care if he's in the shower! He's coming out now." I gasped. Before I could climb into the shower, a livid Ann had banged down the door and was standing in the doorway. A vicious smile spread across her face as her searching eyes found me.
"Why hello, Gray. Surprised to find you here...showering." Claire was standing behind her shaking her pretty head.
"I was uhhhh...I was warming up the water! Now if you could please-" I started pushing her out the door.
"You look fine to me Gray. Quit hiding like a scared puppy and get out here." She dragged me out the door and pulled out a pair of pajamas from my drawer, and made me go and change into them. As I changed into the plad pants and the white shirt she had given me, I thought about all the different ways I could run away. I could just tackle her and run but then she would track me down. Hmm...
As I came back out of the room I had been shoved into, Ann spoke once more. "Now we wait for the girls to arrive. And then...the entertainment begins!" As she finished, I was half expecting her to break out into a maniacal laugh. Shockingly, she didn't. She must have been saving it for later.
The girls arrived one by one in their pajamas, until all but one invitee had yet to arrive.
"Hey Mary!" Ann and Claire greeted their last guest. Or rather, second last guest.
"Oh, hello! I brought along someone Claire, to um...help with the situation." Claire smiled gratefully at the kind librarian.
Through the door came my hero, my saviour, my one true lo-, wait no, not the last bit. Through the door came Cliff.
Ann's POV
Cliff? What was he doing here?
Dammit! There go my supah-dupah-mega-ultra-awesome-ingenious plans! I can't do anything evil with Cliff around... I quickly composed myself and smiled at Cliff pleasantly. "Hello Cliff! How are you today?"
"I'm fine. How are you?" He said, without stuttering. Recently, he had been finally coming out of his shell.
"Just peachy." I said, glaring at Gray as Cliff turned. He was saved from my wrath...for now. He doesn't realise that it'll just make it worse later.
"I think it's time to get this party started!" Claire said.
We pulled out the board games and played monopoly for a short while, before we got bored and decided we'd play truth or dare. For foiling my plans, either Gray, Claire, or Mary were going to get what was coming to then.
"I go first!" I called. I stared at the fearful trio. To get the best out of my truth or dare, I would have to try to get two of them involved. Gray and Claire were the perfect targets.
"Gray. Truth or Dare?"
He eyed me suspiciously. "Truth."
I had been hoping he would pick dare, but I couldn't change his choice. I stared around the room thinking. And then I saw the bed. Perfect. "Do you and Claire sleep with each other?" All the girls giggled, except for Claire, who was assuming the colour of a cherry.
Gray paled and blushed at the same time, leaving his face looking rather blotchy. "N-no! Not...th-that way. In the same bed yes, but not...you know..."
*****
As we moved pillows around for watching the movie, I desperately thought of a way to get Cliff out of Claire's house, so that Gray had no protection. But as if my silent prayers were answered, Cliff suddenly declared that he was tired and that he needed to go home.
Gray's face contorted into utter despair as he watched his only hope fade into the night. Claire and Mary glanced at Gray anxiously. Karen and Elli looked confused.
"Now...the real fun begins!" I smiled dryly, and walked over to Claire's kitchen. I picked up the biggest knife I could find and let loose an evil cackle. Everyone gasped.
"Just joking." I muttered simply. "I was just doing it for the effect. You know I'm not that mean...right?!" They avoided my demanding glare.
"Ummm... yeah! Sure Ann! We all know you wouldn't..." Claire said not very convincingly.
I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, I was just thinking...what if Gray becomes Grace."
Karen, Mary, Elli and Claire smiled. "That could be fun." Karen said.
"No! Please! Mercy! I swear I'll never steal the fresh cherry pies out of the oven again! It was 4 years ago!!"
"Too late. We've already agreed." And with that, we pulled out accessories and make-up.
*****
Gray's POV
I stared bemusedly into the mirror that had been placed in front of me, so that I could see how they were disfiguring my face.
"Should we try to use this hair paint on his-um, I mean her-hair?" Elli suggested as she touched my red hair. The females all nodded in approval.
"Blonde should look good on Grace" Claire grinned. I scowled. She was going to pay for it later.
Elli hummed to herself happily as she gelled my hair into a hair style that looked like her cousin's, Angela. My hair was a bit shorter than it should be for that style but somehow, Elli pulled it off. Then they sprayed my hair a colour almost identical to Claire's. Once my hair was finished, Karen applied make up. She put some shimmery eye shadow on my eyes, light blush on my cheeks, and lipstick (who's, I don't know). She even applied mascara. I shuddered as I looked in the mirror. A blacksmith should not look like picked out some lovely (urgh) earrings with hearts.
Suddenly, I realised that my shirt was being pulled off. Claire giggled as she pulled out a lace-trimmed bra.
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I am a MAN! I need to be MANLY! I have an ego here! Spare me!" I wriggled so they couldn't put it on.
"Excuse me, Grace, but we need to put this on...SO STOP FIDGETING!" Ann screamed.
I sighed in defeat. I didn't know what was weirder. The fact that I was wearing a bra, stuffed with paper towel, or the fact that this was Claire's bra, stuffed with paper towel.
Next thing I knew, I was in a pink tank top, and a white frilly skirt. I stared shamefully into the mirror in front of me.
Ann smirked and pulled out a camera. "You look simply...lovely."
*****
All the girls stood in front of me, their hair done up and their make up on.
"So who's the prettiest girl in the room?" Karen asked me, grinning.
I stared between the girls, unsure who to pick. Any choice would create a small fight. Then the idea hit me. "Me."
Claire caught on first, and laughed her head off, followed by the other girls. Once everyone had regained their composure, Elli said, "Are we going to watch Angus, thongs, and perfect snogging?"
"Yup" Claire cheerily put in the DVD, and we all settled onto the couch. I was between Claire and Mary.
The movie went pretty well, until the moment 'Robbie' came up. The main problem was that he was being called a sex god. I mean, what the heck? The second problem was that all the girls sighed dreamily.
"Are you serious? He's still in school! He's waaayyy too young for you!" I said.
"A girl can dream!" Mary sighed, her mind in another dimension.
"You're just jealous." Claire grinned at me, knowing fully how much I was not jealous.
I had nothing to say back, so the movie continued. I shifted uncomfortably as the girls in the movie were talking about their...chest area. How many times that came up, I don't know, but it was way too much. As 'George the laugh' (is he really that funny?!) talked about noticing a girl's 'nunga nungas' (a name for boobs that the sick idiot came up with) first, instead of their eyes, all the girl's eyes involuntarily shifted towards me. They were probably thinking: are guys really that perverted? The answer is yes. At least, for Kai.
I rolled my eyes at the cheesy ending of the movie. I looked over to Claire and noticed that she was smiling way more than she should have been. Weird...
Since everyone was staying over, we all slept on the floor to be fair. We were arranged strangely to fit into Claire's living room. Claire was beside me, Mary's feet were very close to my head, Elli kept accidently brushing my feet with her arm, and Karen was trying to squish herself between Mary and the couch. I almost laughed when I realised how uncomfortable everyone was. But before I could say anything, the girls started gossiping about everything, and saying how cute Robbie was. I muttered "women..." under my breath a few times.
Ann turned towards me suddenly, cutting off all conversation. "We are about to talk about guys from here. If you tell anyone outside of this room, anything about what we are about to say, I will show everyone your pictures, and throw you off of the mountain. I would torture you first, but seeing as you are Claire's best friend, I will try to hold back. Note, try. So watch it mister."
"Okay?" I muttered, a bit scared of the things Ann was threatening to do. What could really be that bad?
"Cliff is hot." Ann suddenly declared. Oh... that bad.
"No way! Kai is wayyyyy hotter."
"Nuhuh. Doctor is the hotest." Elli said.
"Pshhhh, you ain't seen hot till you've seen Chase." Mary said.
"Oh my goddess. Why would you think they are hot, when you've got me around?" I joked.
"You gotta admit, Gray is pretty damn hot. Show us your muscles!" Claire grinned. If only she were serious...
I smiled, and flexed. "That looks kind of wrong. Mainly because you are dressed as a girl." Karen muttered.
"One moment, I need to go to the bathroom..." I sneaked off, and rubbed off as much make up as possible, and stealing back my pajamas. The only problem was that the lipstick was sticking (so that's why they call it lipstick) and the mascara wouldn't come off. It was waterproof. I groaned, but there was nothing I could do about it. I found the lipstick that they had inflicted upon me, and put it on excessively, so I kind of looked like the joker from batman.
Satisfied with what I had done, I stalked out of the bathroom and jumped into the middle of the circle of chatting girls. I laughed like a lunatic while they screamed.
"Gotcha." Everyone grumbled as they realised it was just me.
Eventually everyone got tired of talking and we got back into our own sleeping bags. Just as Claire was turning off the light, she grinned. "You know, you looked kind of cute as a girl." A series of giggles erupted from the different corners of the room. I glared and pulled the sleeping bag higher.
"Good night."
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I hope you liked this chapter!