Chapter 2 (originally 4 and 5) of Touch the Stars.
"Gilly?" Hamilton's voice lures me back to consciousness. I open my eyes to see his face looming over me. I scramble back. "Don't do that!" I gasp. "You scared me!" Hamilton's eyebrows knit together with confusion.
"It stopped scaring you years ago!" he says. "Well, guess I aged down in my sleep." I mumble grumpily, my heart beating painfully in my chest. After another moment of perplexed silence, he shrugs. "Anyways, Gill, you slept in." he says.
"I did?" I ask, looking at the clock on the wall. "Oh, man, I did! Shit!" I tear off the covers and send Rhiannon scrambling off the bed, meowing angrily. "Gilbert, what have I said- Wait, since when have we had a cat?" Hamilton asks as I shoo him out of the room.
"I'm pet-sitting for Molly." I say, closing the door. I quickly rummage through Gill's closet and dresser and throw together an outfit- which I'm pleased to say looks like something Gill would coordinate- and run a comb through my newly-blonde hair, styling it as I had the night before.
"I'm leaving now." I call, walking out of Gill's- I mean, my- room. Hamilton is sitting at the kitchen table, reading The Castanet Times. "Without breakfast?" he asks, looking up from his newspaper.
"I'm not hungry." I say, as my stomach grumbles. He raises his eyebrows. "Alright, fine, I'm hungry." I admit. "But I'll just eat at the inn. It's fine." He wipes the lenses of his reading glasses on his shirt before returning to his paper. "Alright. Have a good day, Gilly. I love you!." he says.
"You too, father." I reply, and then head off towards the inn. Calling him father reminds me forcibly of all the times Hamilton had treated me as his own child, back before they moved here. My real dad had left during my mom's pregnancy, and I've never known him. But Hamilton filled that role to the point where I started sarcastically calling him Pops.
When Gill's mom died, I was secretly concerned that he might marry my mom and become my step-father. It wasn't as far-fetched as it seems. Hamilton and my mom were friends before Gill and I even existed. Upon sharing this idea with Gill, he had just waved it away. "Please. Mom told him not to remarry ages ago. And besides, you would become my sister. He wouldn't put me through that." He smirked, and I threw a pillow at him. They moved shortly after.
Before I know it, I find myself pushing open the door to the inn. The smell of maple and, in my opinion, happiness greets me as I walk in, courtesy of Yolanda and her wonderful cooking. "Welcome to the Ocarina Inn!" Colleen chirps from behind the desk. I nod in acknowledgment as I pick a table and lower myself into the seat.
Maya walks briskly over to me, a huge smile on her face. "Hiya, Gill! You never come here! What would ya like?" I pause, trying desperately to remember what I ate the last time Gill and I ate here. Coming up with nothing, I glance behind Colleen and order the first thing I read. "Buckwheat pancakes, please and thank you."
"Wow- I didn't expect you to eat pancakes." She gawks. I'm about to wholeheartedly agree- Gill eating pancakes? Not a chance- before I remember that I'm supposed to be him. I give her my most disgruntled expression. "What am I supposed to eat? Salad, seaweed, oats?" I ask sarcastically, drumming my fingers impatiently on the table. She laughs.
"If you wanted to!" I rub my temples, warding off a pretend headache. "Well, I don't. Can you please just do your job? I'm in a hurry today." She nods and flounces off to Yolanda. So far, so good. Hope I'm making you proud, Gill.
"Here ya go! Fresh outta the frying pan!" Maya says a few minutes later, placing a plate down in front of me. "Eat it while it's hot!" I happily cut off a piece with my fork and begin to eat. "Hothothot!" I yelp, forcing it down my throat. Maya laughs again, and it infuriates me. Now I remember why I couldn't think of the last time Gill and I ate here; we never did. He'd always warned me of the annoying waitress.
"I didn't mean that quickly!" She giggles. I glare at her. "Well next time, either be more specific or don't say anything at all." I snap. The smile vanishes from her face. "You're so mean!" She pouts.
"Yeah, well, bite me." I say under my breath. Half of me didn't expect her to hear that, but that half was proven wrong. She gasps and her eyes fill slowly with tears as she storms away. I shrug and begin to eat my pancakes. "I certainly won't be leaving a good review for service." I mutter to myself.
My irritable mood followed me out of the inn and to the town hall, where I realized I needed a key and spent half an hour searching for one instead of going back to the house to grab it because, I told myself, it would be quicker to find the key, which it wasn't. I knew Gill had told me where it was years ago, but I'd completely forgotten. I finally found it behind a loose brick.
Turning the key in the lock, I push open the door and walk into the dark building. I run my fingers along the wall until I find the light and flick it on. "Now where- ah, that was easy." I say to myself as I spot a desk in the corner. A wooden block on the desk says, "Gilly". I snort.
"So, this is what I have to do, huh?" I ask, shuffling through a pile of papers. "...nah." I say, pulling out the journal. I rummage through a mug of pens and pull one out.
Spring 9
Day one in the life of Gill. Pretty boring, to be honest. Sorry G, but it's true :P Last night when I was going to the house, Luna invited me to do Sun Salutations. I figured you wouldn't want anyone to see you doing tree poses or whatever, so I turned her down. Plus, I know you're trying to avoid her because of your dad.
And today, I was dumb enough to go to Ocarina Inn for breakfast. Maya is SO annoying! But now you're a pancake eater, by the way. I know you prefer royal jelly and stuff, but I was kind of thinking on my feet. And I like pancakes, so it turned out fine anyway. But I'll be nice and eat spaghetti (with extra sauce-mmm) for dinner for you, kay?
That's all so far, really. Between you and me, I should be working right now. But that's YOUR job, I'm just PRETENDING to be you. So this should be fine, right? And all the paperwork looks really boring.
Heart, Molly
I close the book and sigh, wondering what to do now. "Well, there's no WAY I'm doing Gill's work." I say to myself.
"Good, then you can talk to me, Molly!" A voice says. My mouth feels dry as I turn around to see a certain pigtailed girl standing behind me. "Luna?" I say. "What are you even doing here?" she crosses her arms.
"I guess Gill forgot to mention that I have a spare key. But why are you here? And why's Gill avoiding me?" she says, sitting down on the desk. I decide that there's no point in hiding from Luna. My cover is blown, at least when it comes to her, so I might as well explain.
"It all comes back to mayor Hamilton, really." I start. "He's gone into a 'matchmaking phase', or so Gill says. So while he's off enjoying a nice vacation on Toucan Island, I have to pretend to be him. According to Gilly here, Hamilton really wants you two to fall in love. In fact, I'm pretty sure my main mission while I'm here is to avoid you both like the plague." I lean back in my chair.
"So he doesn't, like, hate me or anything? We're still good?" Luna asks. I nod, and she smiles. "Good. And don't worry, Gill, your secret's safe with me." she says, right as the door opens. "Secret? What secret? Is there something going on, Gill? Wait…" Hamilton says, waltzing into the room like he owns the place. Which, I remind myself, he does, until the whole situation sinks in.
Looking at the situation from Hamilton's point of view, Luna and Gill are having an intimate conversation in a building that can only be accessed by someone very close to father or son. It's a bit of a stretch to assume something romantic is happening, but I'm sure Hamilton's matchmaking little mind is thirsty for any kind of implication, no matter how far-fetched.
Sure enough, his face brightens and he says, "Gilly, have you… after all this time… finally…" Next thing I know, Hamilton is wrapping me in one of his hugs, something I haven't experienced in , I awkwardly pat him on the back. Luna shoots me a look that clearly says, what are you thinking?!, but whatever. I survived the Ocarina Inn by thinking on the spot, so this will probably work out, too. I hope.
"Gilly, I've been hoping you would find love for years. You don't know how happy I am. And Luna, too. Not a better choice out there. Well, Molly's a good one, too, but I'm not sure she'd be the right fit. Anyways, I'm so proud of you, son." He actually wipes a tear from his eye.
"Um." I say, not quite sure how to get out of this. I look to Luna for help, but quickly know it's not coming. "You don't know how happy I am, Hamilton. Gill's absolutely amazing." She gushes. Hamilton beams and claps her on the shoulder. "Well, I've gotta get to work. I'll see you both soon." he scurries over to his desk, watching us out of the corner of his eye.
"Come on, Luna." I say, grabbing her hand and leading her to another room. I shut the door behind us and we both collapse into simultaneous giggles. "Why-" I wheeze. "Hey, there was no turning back once you hugged him." she says. "So much for avoiding me like the plague. Gill should've stayed here and handled his own problems."
"Gill." I mutter. "We've gotta let him know what we've done." Luna's eyes sparkle with mischief. "He's gonna kill us!" she giggles. I shrug and pull out my phone. "He should've known better than to let me take over his life. If it's anyone's fault, it's his." I say. After a moment, Gill's voice crackles through the phone.
"Molly? What's wrong?" he says. "I'm here too." Luna pipes up. Gill's voice rises a full octave. "Luna? Molly, what the he-" I cut him off. "Careful what you're saying, Gill. I'm at the town hall. Who knows when some unsuspecting child will walk in and overhear you." I smirk. There's a moment of silence, and then, "I hate you." Gill says.
"You'll hate both of us once you find out what we did." Luna giggles. Gill groans. "Just get it over with." he says. I giggle nervously. "Well, Hamilton kind of thinks that you two are dating." I say. "And we kind of went along with it."
"WHAT?!" Gill shouts. Luna and I burst out laughing again. "THIS ISN'T FUNNY! I GAVE YOU ONE JOB, MOLLY!" he fumes. "Actually, you gave me three." I correct between gasps for breath. "One, to take your place. Two, to avoid your dad. Three, to avoid Luna."
"I notice that you've completely ignored the last two." He says. He's not shouting anymore, but the icy tone of his voice is actually more threatening than when he was. I shrug defensively, even though he can't see it- old habits die hard, I guess. "Hey, it was Luna who was like 'Oh, you don't know how happy I am, Hamilton! Gilly here is an angel!' I don't see you confronting her." I say.
"I didn't say that!"
"You might as well have!"
"At least I didn't just sit there like an idiot."
"I didn't-"
"Both of you, please. Just stop talking." Gill says, cutting off our argument. "Thank you." he says a moment later. "There's no point in fighting over who's fault it is, because both of you are completely insane and you're equally at fault." He pauses for a moment. "Luna, we have to break up."
"Seriously? But we literally just got together 5 minutes ago." Luna points out. I nod furiously. "Yeah! What is this, middle school?"
"I don't give a- I mean, I don't care. Just make sure that the whole 'Luna and Gill are in love' thing is over by the end of today." He sighs. Luna and I glance at each other, sly grins on our faces.
"...Alright." Luna says finally. "Consider it done." "Good." Gill says, and hangs up without even a good-bye. But as Luna leaves and I go back to "Gilly's" desk, I can tell that it's far from over.