(A/N) – My goodness, I haven't updated this fanfic in a LONG time. But well, I'm back, and so is this story. For those of you that have been anticipating the next few chapters, never fear, Fairy Friend's writing is here... and is hopefully here to stay.
(I wouldn't count on it.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shelly's World
Chapter 14 - Surprises
It was dawn. Shelly found herself lying down in a pasture of sand and shells. A calm wave rose to her feet and cleaned her sandy legs. Feeling the sand, she looked around for Cliff with her hands. He was nowhere to be found.
Shelly groggily got onto her feet, dusted off the debris, then started her way out of the beach. As soon as she reached Town Square, however, she noted that it was eerily empty. A deserted feeling ran through her stomach. Where the heck is everyone? She thought. Her foot crunched over a fallen leaf as she continued her search.
Well, I might as well at least get dressed, she thought to herself. I probably look like a complete mess. As she continued walking around town, all she could hear was her own footsteps and the occasional hard wind blowing at the back of her hair, but she kept her pace. Once she had reached the Inn, Shelly tried turning the doorknob. It hardly budged an inch.
"Damn it," she cursed under her breath. "Locked." In a rage of fury, she kicked the door as hard as she possibly could, causing a loud banging sound.
"I'm coming, I'm coming! Sheesh!" a voice came from within the building. As footsteps could be heard coming closer to the door, the building seemed to shake with every step. The door then opened, revealing part of Ann's head. Her eyes bulged suddenly and she opened her mouth.
"Sh-Shelly! Oh, um… what brings you here?" Ann stammered stupidly. Shelly raised her eyebrow.
"…I live here," she remarked lamely. "I was out at the beach all last night and I need to get dressed."
"No you don't! 'Scuse me for a minute." Ann paused for a moment, closing the door slightly to talk with somebody inside the building. "What? …Okay. Yeah, yeah, I'll tell her!" Ann yelled. She peeked her head back outside. "Um… why don't you come back in an hour, okay? The house needs cleaning. See ya later, navigator!" Before Shelly could get any words out, Ann saluted then slammed the door in front of her face.
"Oh, yeah, thanks Ann. Best friends forever," she spewed sarcastically to nobody in particular. "What do you expect me to do for an hour, buy my own clothes at the supermarket?" After pondering over what she'd just last said, she realised that she'd actually brought up a good idea. She quickly checked her watch. It was only eleven, so she figured she'd have enough time to buy something really quickly and make it back to the Inn at noon. She started her way there. Once she made it to the supermarket, she opened the door, which jingled as she walked inside. She saw Jeff and remembered him from the last time she came to visit. And, like last time, he was clutching his stomach and groaning in pain.
"Urggg… can I HELP you with ANYTHING?" he moaned, accenting his words when his stomach pains came to him.
"Uh, yeah, I'm in need of some clothes," Shelly replied.
"Clothes? We don't SELL clothes here!"
Shelly paused for a minute, not believing what she'd just heard. "You're kidding me, right? You mean to tell me that you run a supermarket, food, seeds, backpacks and all, but you don't, for the love of Goddess, carry ANY clothes whatsoever?"
"Um, well…" Jeff started, "we do have this PLAID cover-up jacket THAT Sasha never wears anymore." He threw it over to Shelly. "I suppose I could GIVE it to you for 100G."
100G? Shelly's mind screamed. I don't have that kind of money! However, Shelly's mind ran back to her visit at the supermarket with Ann.
"Oh, people never pay here!" Ann's voice played in her head. Shelly looked up from her thoughts then grinned eagerly at Jeff.
"Why don't you just… put it on my tab?" Shelly said slowly. Before Jeff even had the chance to get a word out, she quickly ran out of the supermarket with the jacket under her arm. Once she reached the Inn, she rested against a brick wall and slid the blue jacket over her arms. It didn't match her clothes, but she didn't really care at the moment. For now, she was just happy to be wearing something else.
Shelly briefly looked at her watch again. It was now 11:50. After having been in the village for well around one season, she already knew that time flew by quicker there than it did in the city. All she had to do was wait for a few more city minutes and she was welcome back into the Inn. Sitting there, she traced back to previous memories of the town. She really had enjoyed herself. Why she hadn't seen it before, she didn't know, but she realised that she never would have met Ann, Cliff, Popuri, and even Karen if she and her father had gone on the right plane. She had to admit it: she was going to miss the village life.
The village's bells rang. Shelly knew what that meant. She sauntered her way up to the door, knocked, and waited. Footsteps approached, and the door opened. Ann, who was standing behind the door, grinned at her.
"Hey, Shelly! We finally finished tidying up the place. You can come in now." Shelly walked into the room and up the stairs to her room. But, she pondered, something was eerily different about the place. It seemed quieter and darker which was quite unlike the Inn, which was usually buzzing about with customers. Ignoring her gut feeling, she opened the door to her room and turned on the light.
"SURPRISE!" Millions of voices rang throughout the room. Shelly screamed and leaned up against the door. All of the members of Ann's party, aside from Karen, Mary, and Ann herself, came out from underneath desks and the beds.
"What the HELL are you guys doing in my room?" she shrieked.
"It's a surprise party!" Popuri exclaimed anxiously. "We know you'll be leaving us soon so we wanted to do something nice for you." She came up to Shelly and gave her a hug.
"Damn, you guys scared the crap out of me," she said, still jittery from the shock she had received. Everybody laughed.
"The rest of the party is downstairs," Kai said as if nothing had happened that day at the festival, "if you want to join up with everybody, that is. I'm gonna go down there and grab me a beer. You want some wine with sugar, sweetheart?"
"Uh, no thanks," Shelly laughed. "No repeats of last time." Kai snickered, understanding exactly what she meant, then got up to leave the room. Everybody got up with him and since Shelly didn't want to be alone in her room, she followed the crowd downstairs.
She didn't even recognise the Inn anymore. It was bustling with people and laughter, a sight that she had never seen even after all of her days there. Doug was in his best attire, standing behind the counter, and sitting there were people she had never even met before. They were all happy and cheerful, and so was Ann, as she passed out alcoholic beverages to everybody in the round tables. She made eye contact with her and walked over to give her best friend a hug.
"Thank you so much, Ann," Shelly said in awe, letting go of her. "You really didn't need to go through all the trouble, I mean... this is just..."
"It's nothing," Ann interrupted, smiling. "Thanks for coming here. It was really such a joy to have you here. I'm...gonna miss you." She trailed off. The two just embraced in another hug.
Meanwhile, over at one of the tables in the Inn, Karen and Rick sat alone, drinking glasses of wine. The newlywed couple was arguing over Shelly.
"Dammit, Karen, at least try to enjoy the party," Rick said, scowling. "You're ruining it all for me."
"I can't," Karen said glumly. "I'm thinking."
"About WHAT?" yelled Rick.
Karen sighed and swallowed the lump in her throat. When she regained the ability to speak, she bowed her head. "About... how I've treated Shelly the whole time she was here. Face it, Rick, I wasn't exactly nice to her."
"Well, yeah," he commented.
"And," Karen continued, "she's leaving in a short amount of time. Once she's gone I'll never be able to live with myself and what a jerk I've been."
"So go apologise to her," Rick said dryly. Karen sunk her head into her arms.
"I can't."
"And why not?" Rick remarked.
"Because," Karen whined, "what if she blows me off?"
"Why would she blow you off?"
"Why do you think, Rick?" Karen snapped. Rick only looked at her, his eyebrow quirked. She grimaced, glancing away from her husband and looked down at the floor, kicking her feet. She sighed wistfully and said, calmly, "I guess you're right."
Rick smiled and replied, "When have I never been right?" A smile grew on Karen's face too. She punched Rick playfully on the shoulder. "You jerk, I love you."
"I love you too," he whispered, leaning in to kiss her. He planted his lips on hers slightly, then said, "Good luck."
Karen got out of her seat. She spotted Shelly, who was talking with Ann. "I can do this," Karen mumbled to herself. Slowly, she walked over and waited until she was at least five feet away from the two. Ann looked over at her former best friend and smiled and waved to her.
"Hey, Karen, what do you need?" Ann chirped. Shelly turned around and looked at her, trying hard not to stare.
Karen glanced back at her. "I, um, need to talk to Shelly for a bit, if that's okay with you." Ann seemed surprised, but backed away from the conversation.
"Sure, go ahead," she said in a fake, cheery voice. "I need to go help Dad wash some of the dishes anyway." With that, Ann rushed toward the kitchen.
"What do you want?" Shelly said apathetically.
"Look, Shelly, I... I wanted to apologise for my behavior these past few weeks," Karen said.
"What makes you think I can trust you?" Shelly replied. "You pulled the same shit on me at Ann's party then betrayed me at the festival; how do I know you're not going to do that again?"
Karen's lower lip began to quiver. "Because I won't, Shelly." She cleared her throat, trying hard not to cry in front of everybody and ruin the party. "These past few days... I've just been thinking about everything. I... I know I haven't been very nice to you and I'm really sorry about that. I've been a complete jerk."
"Yeah you have," Shelly mumbled.
"The thing is," Karen continued, "that I saw you as a friend-stealer at the time. I never really stopped to think that you had no idea that you were doing such a thing... and then it occurred to me. Why should Ann and I stop being best friends? Who ever said that you could only have ONE best friend, you know?" Shelly nodded her head. "Jealousy... it really took over me, Shelly. I've learned to conquer that feeling and I'd, well, I'd like to be your friend. If you can't trust me when I say I'm done being jealous, then at least trust me when I say that I'm sorry."
Shelly stopped to think for a minute. Did she think she could take Karen seriously, especially after all she had done to her? Karen apology seemed sincere. However, Shelly hadn't really been nice to her either. She knew she had anger problems, but she realised that she had gone too far, especially when she punched Karen in the face. She looked up from her thoughts into Karen's eyes.
"I forgive you," Shelly began, "but I'm leaving soon. There's just... not enough time to become friends, you know?"
Karen looked down at the ground. "Yeah," she whispered.
"I'm sorry." Shelly was hushed.
"No, no, it's fine," Karen said, tears still welled in her eyes. She gave a sad smile. "I just wanted to stop the tension between us... and now it's gone. I feel so much better now." Karen said nothing more and walked away. At that moment, Ann came from within the kitchen.
"Details," Ann whispered, nudging Shelly.
"Karen apologised to me and asked me to be friends with her," Shelly replied. "I forgave her but declined her friend offer because I'm leaving soon."
"I see," Ann said. "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah. Everything's good."
-----
At around 2:30 PM, a couple could be heard yelling outside. Doug noted the noise. He walked slowly to the door and put his ear up against it.
"Quiet!" He yelled harshly to all the party members. Everybody shut up.
"What the hell are you doing, man?" A voice called out.
"I hear something," Doug grumbled. "Something's going on outside."
More of the party members encircled Doug to see what they could hear.
"Don't you hear that?" Doug asked.
"Yeah, sounds like people fighting," Rick pointed out. "Open the door and see what's going on."
Doug did as he was told. His eyes wandered over to a blonde-haired woman in a flattering green dress, a man in a plain white shirt with jeans, and a young brunette boy with the same attire as the older man.
"Hello," the blonde-haired woman said cheerfully, "we're looking for Shelly, our daughter. By any chance have you seen her around here?"
