Chapter 10: Just as things were beginning to look up…

I dumped the bag down and carried the only parcel I had to deliver to the door. I knocked loudly, noticing an orange cat walking around with a shovel. Serial killer sprang to mind. The cats' black shirt had a bone pattern on too. That only increased my suspicion.

I heard grumbles behind the door, grumbles from two different voices. They seemed to be agreeing that it was a pain to be rudely interrupted. Fine, I'll just dump your delivery off here and leave, fine by me. I didn't however. I didn't dare.

"Yes?" A green elephant sighed impatiently, glaring at me. Behind her I could see a koala, giving me an equally hateful stare. They both had an air of smugness, I had a feeling they were rather full of themselves. I couldn't stand people like that, so I wasn't convinced I could stand animals like it either.

"Delivery." I replied, meekly. I felt rather foolish that my voice had decided to back down and cower, letting the elephant and koala think that they were superior. Especially when my mind wasn't. It shouted muted insults that my voice refused to echo. So much for standing up for myself.

"Humph." The elephant stood rather triumphantly over me, or maybe I was just shrinking. I wasn't sure, exactly, of why I was so intimidated by these snobs, but I was. I guess it reminded me of school. They ruled supreme, making my life hell if they wanted, just for the fun of it. It was better if I was deemed invisible. I think that's what my body was trying to do now.

"Who or what is it Opal, Tsk, tsk." The koala, rather rudely, asked, shuffling forward, Her dress didn't suit her. She was a rather bland grey colour and her dress shirt was bright yellow with bright orange criss-cross decorating the bottom. Unusual choice. Mind you, the elephant was no better. She was green, but she was a darkish green. Her clothes were dark too, black or grey, some tartan pattern. Surely if they were all that, they would have heard of coordinating? (Dare me to say that out loud?). She appeared to have bright blue eyeshadow as well.

"Just some delivery person, Snoot." I didn't know if Snoot was the koalas' name, or Opals' phrasey-thing. I wasn't particularly bothered about finding out. All I knew was that I didn't really want to meet these two again. I wasn't sure as to why they were looking down there noses at me (in Opals' case, quite literally!) or if they did that to everyone. All I kept thinking was that I now had another thing to deal with. Bullies. Great.

The door slammed in my face and I heard shrill shrieks of laughter from the closed door. Was my attire or just me in general so amusing? Whatever. I was stuck with more tormentors. I had to suffer through secondary school with them so it seemed highly unfair that I had to now. And I had thought that things were taking a turn for the better too. Nope, the world had decided to keep things balanced out. I wasn't sure how it worked. I had two friends, and two snobs who seemed to think I was beneath them. I had a house, but I had to work to keep it. I occasionally received gifts as a sign of gratitude, but only after I had trekked a-ways to deliver parcels. I had met some freaky characters and had suffered a hit on the head, but I was yet to find an upside to that. I was yet to find a major upside to me being dragged into this crazy place.

I received a mini lecture from Nook as well, once I had arrived back at his shop. It turned out that that stuck-up Opal had marched over here to complain about being kept waiting for a lamp. Apparently she had had plans and had to cancel them, because the new, incompetent delivery girl (me) was incapable of handling a simple task. Which was delivering goods on time. I wasn't aware that I had been given a time limit, or had been told that her delivery was urgent. I just did what the list told me to. Albeit, it had been in my own time.

"…This is not good for business!…" He ranted on, thankfully it was mostly about lowered standards and not about me being inept. I thought I worked rather well, considering all he did was stand at the front of his shop all day, waiting for customers who didn't appear.

"Sorry." I mumbled an apology, mainly just to shut him up. He instantly turned back to his cheery self after that. He issued me with the task of writing a written apology to Opal. And then after that I was supposed to write another advertisement on the bulletin board, outside the Town Hall.

"Oh! And once you have finished, you can take this medicine to Goose, yes." He chirped, stuffing a little bag into my arms. "Kody was supposed to do it, but he got sidetracked by looking for Punchy." I was expecting to be told off by this too, but I realized that no-one (other than me and Punchy) knew that I had been involved with that. "Maybe we should make it a daily thing, until he gets better, hm?" Intent on punishing me, Nook pushed me out of the shop, hurrying me to finish my tasks.

The first one I was absolutely adamant that I wasn't going to do. So much for my 'not making enemies' plan. She and her koala friend seemed set on hating me whether I tried to change it or not. I wrote a letter of apology, and then threw it in the recycling bin. I could always say that I hadn't put it there. As long as Pelly hadn't seen me put it in. I pulled out an item of furniture (a red sofa) to make it look like that was what I had been doing all along. Pelly continued to smile at me, I don't think she suspected.

After, I stood in front of the bulletin board, stuck on what to write. The orange cat with the shovel appeared beside me. It was grinning. I tried to ignore it by picking up the pen, looking like I was busy trying to write. I was, but I couldn't think of what to put. 'Come to Nooks' store, the most boring place on the planet, where you have an annoying shopkeeper follow you until you leave'? I didn't think so.

"Writing something?" The cat purred. Was it customary to state the obvious here? "I can help, Me-wow." She was swaying about energetically, but she seemed as nice as Lucy and Punchy. Maybe a mix of them, combined with Dotty? Nice and peppy. Couldn't be too hard to handle. At least it wasn't horrible. "I'm Tabby. You're Aimee." I didn't bother asking her how she knew my name. I waited for her to disclose more information, like everyone else usually did, but she said nothing more. Today was full of surprises.

"I have to write an advertisement." I explained. "For Nook." She smiled brightly, like most inhabitants of this town did, and took the pen off of me. She wrote;

'Nooks' Cranny is awesome. You should shop there. You'll get to buy awesome stuff that changes daily. Nook also buys from you. He buys everything. It really is a convenience store that fits your every need.'

I couldn't be bothered to change it, seeing as I had no bright ideas of my own. I smiled back, in gratitude, and offered her the red couch I had snaffled from the bin. Everyone else seemed to give gifts to return favours, so I thought I'd do the same.

She declined it with a laugh. "Actually, Me-wow, I'm the one who just put that in there." Boy, did that make me look foolish.