…Ok, so maybe when I put up the "on hold" disclaimer in the summary, I thought I was really discontinuing this fic. I had lost some of the ideas and the beginnings on chapter 4 on a disk which became corrupted, saddening me greatly. I never really thought I'd be continuing this story 3 years later. O.O It's kind of miraculous, when you think about it.

So, just a few notes: I'm trying to keep my writing style close to what it was originally, 3 years ago. Although I think it's a bit sedate in places, I'll just go with it. Overall, it's not bad, but not "wow." However, I think suddenly writing in a totally new style would kind of make this fic a little weird for people who may start reading it now. So I'll try to keep it sedate. Yes, sedate. I'll try not to embellish it too much.

Anyway, this is the chapter where things start to happen. Have fun with the intrigue. : P

What kind of saddens me is that it has been three years, and I STILL don't own Animal Crossing. Bummer.

-Skylar

Chapter 4: Timmy is Tommy

Monique and Coco quickly selected their articles—a tartan shirt for Coco, and some panda stationary for Monique—and left. Skylar shivered. She trusted the owner of the store, but she didn't like being all alone with him. The habit he had of blocking your way when you were standing in the doorway irked her. It seemed like something a bully or shady figure would do. She was relieved when a young tanuki entered the store from a back room.

"Hi Skylar!" Timmy coughed loudly. Skylar looked toward him in concern.

"Tommy…?" she wondered.

"Of course it's me," Timmy lied sedately. "Can't you tell?"

Skylar gave him a rather bizarre look. "You look like a carbon copy of your brother," she explained.

"Oh."

"Where's Timmy?" she wondered.

"He's preparing my medicine."

"Oh." Skylar craned her neck towards Nook, who was neatening up some items in the corner. "So, um, are you going to come with us on the camping trip?"

'Tommy' nodded. "Of course!" he said, trying to smile. It was hard, Timmy thought, to judge whether his smile looked fake or not, unless he was looking in a mirror. Skylar seemed to buy it well enough.

"You look kind of tired," she commented, and Timmy cheered inside his head.

"I am feeling a bit bushed," he answered. "Flu, you know." He added, defensively: "You didn't write me a thank-you card."

"I didn't know," Skylar said before she apologized.

"I sent out flyers…"

"My mailbox must've been full," she said guiltily. Then she changed the subject to something a little more serious. "Are you going to be well enough to go camping?"

Timmy shrugged. "We don't know when we're going, so I'll probably be better by then."

"Whenever then is." Skylar laughed. At that moment a bumbling penguin slammed into the see-through door. At that moment, Timmy made a big point of coughing exaggeratedly to point out his 'illness,' so Skylar did not hear the thud as Cube fell to the ground, nor the shouted complaints Cube directed towards the door.

"Ow…" Timmy touched his chest. "I feel sick…"

Skylar's eyes flashed with compassion. "Well, you go back and take your medicine and rest, okay?" She smiled at him. "Just send Timmy out when you're done."

"Ok," Timmy agreed. He went back into the storage room, just as Cube waddled safely into the shop.

"Bye Tommy!" Cube chirruped. Timmy waved and shut the door. "Nook, I want to buy the Tanuki Box now, d-d-dude."

The large 'coon cleared his throat. "Very good! Very good! That will be 4,000 bells."

Skylar stared at the door that 'Tommy' had exited through for a moment, then outside at the dark acre, her eyes flittering across the white tulips and purple pansies, while her best friend flailed and accused Nook of being unfair.

"You did say that he could have it for 3,200 bells," she said when her opinion was asked of her.

"Surely I would not have bargained down to such a low price!" Nook defended fiercely. "3,500 bells and it's yours."

"How about 3,300?" Skylar asked absentmindedly, and Cube agreed. Nook adamantly denied this.

"I guess I don't need the box then…" Cube sighed.

Skylar turned to him. "You really wanted that silly box?" she laughed. Nook's brow twitched. "Who wants a box that screams every time you open it anyway?"

"Alright!" Nook shouted. "3,350 bells."

"Sweet, d-d-dude!" said Cube.

"Actually, 3,351 bells," Nook added hastily. The penguin shrugged, and handed the tanuki a few bags of bells. After Nook and Cube had completed the transaction, Nook politely told him that they had to leave.

"The shop should've closed hours ago," he explained. "Timmy will contact the two of you when you figure out when we'll be leaving…"

"Are you coming as well?" Skylar inquired. Nook shrugged.

"I might," he said simply. "But then, how would I make money while my two sons are out on the greatest adventures of their lives?"

"That's true," said Skylar. "Uhm, so Timmy isn't coming out? Tommy said that he would…"

Nook nodded, then shook his head. "No, no. Timmy's busy taking good care of his brother. You two run along."

"Ok, d-d-dude," Cube said. Skylar and Cube both said farewell and then exited the shop.

"That was kind of cold," Cube expressed when the two of them were an acre away, tip-toeing quietly past the house of a sleeping neighbor.

"Well, it must be grueling, running a shop all day," Skylar sympathized. "I mean, can you think of how sleep-deprived Mr. Nook would be if Nook 'N Go was a 24 hour store?"

Cube flailed. "I'm sure it could work somehow!" he declared, and Skylar shushed him, pointing out that it was much too late to be yelling.

"Sorry, d-d-dude" Cube apologized. Skylar shrugged and explained that it wasn't her she was offending.

"You don't want to wake up Monique," Skylar teased. "Even though you don't have a fish in your mouth, you look tired enough to be a zombie, anyway."

"No way!" Cube argued. "I'm the sun boy! But don't tell anybody."

Skylar shut her mouth. She didn't have the heart to tell her best friend that she'd been told this by at least three other buffoons in town, and even by a few that she'd visited in other towns.

"And I'm full of energy!" Cube continued. "It's because I work out, d-d-dude! I bet I could go to the Wishing Well right now and do a dance, and the sun would come up."

"Actually," Skylar said quietly, staring at a fish's shadow in the dark creek, "the sun comes up because the Earth is actually rotating—turning itself around, you know? So the sun is on the other side of the Earth side now, and when it's daylight over here, it's nighttime over there."

Cube looked at her in awe as they made their way over the bridge, their dull footfalls making a lot of noise. A light went on in the acre below them. They quickly scampered across towards Cube's house, and the orange trees next to it that were in Skylar's backyard.

"Where'd you learn that?" Cube asked softly, clearly impressed.

Skylar shrugged. "My hometown. We had a good school."

"Oh." Cube thought for a minute. "Wait a second…! There's no way that could be possible! You're making it all up, Skylar!"

Skylar grinned. "It's true!" she insisted.

"But if the Earth is spinning like you say it is, why aren't we all falling down?"

"Because it's spinning really, really fast."

"So why aren't we falling down really, really fast."

"Gravity."

"What's that?"

"A lesson for another day," Skylar said, reaching out to shake one of the orange trees behind her house. Three plump oranges fell to the ground. She picked two up, scarfing one down and offering the other to Cube. Her penguin friend shook his head.

"I'm tired," he said, "and now my head hurts." He glared at Skylar. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"'Kay. Bye!"