Woohoo! I made it through November. I ended up with about 52,000 words, and I wrote 34,000 of them over my Thanksgiving break. xP

Here's the update I promised! It's decent, I think. I don't know how NaNoWriMo affected my writing, but I feel like it's less... deep. I dunno. I'm not sure i like it.

Anywho, on with the story!

CHAPTER STATS

Word Count (excluding A/N): 1890

Date Updated: 12/3/11

Current Review Count: 521

"Hey, Jules—what's the date today?"

Julia turned from her spot behind the counter of the animal shop, meeting Chelsea's gaze. "Did you really forget?"

"It's not like I have a calendar," Chelsea frowned, rolling her eyes. "It's, what? The thirteenth?"

"Chelsea," Julia exclaimed, shocked. "It's the fourteenth—spring thanksgiving!"

"Oh, right," Chelsea said, sighing. "I thought that was coming up."

"It's Wednesday," Julia said, smiling slyly. "Do you think Vaughn is going to give you chocolate?"

"Yeah, right," Chelsea laughed. Vaughn would never. Even if he did have feelings for her—which was very unlikely—he definitely wouldn't show it by participating in a festival like this. "Could you actually see him doing that?"

"No," Julia snorted. "But he's probably considering it!"

"I doubt that," Chelsea mumbled, feeling her cheeks heat up. She was still uncomfortable with the whole 'acknowledging her feelings for Vaughn' thing . Julia always made it sounds like Chelsea was in love with him, which was probably not the case. Well, Chelsea had never actually been in love, but she was pretty sure she didn't love him. Just liked him. A lot.

"He really might be," Julia said, rolling her eyes. "Have a little more faith in him."

"I still don't think he even thinks of me like that," Chelsea rolled her eyes.

"Well, you're wrong. But even if he did only think of you as a friend, he could still give you chocolate. There's not necessarily a romantic implication with that. It's when you get chocolate cookies that you have to start wondering."

"Speaking of cookies," Chelsea said, jumping on the opportunity to change the subject. "I saw Elliot leave his house pretty early. Was he coming over here to deliver something?"

"Ugh," Julia groaned, placing her head on the counter. "Don't remind me."

"What happened?" Chelsea asked, glad Julia took the bait.

"He came over here at six in the morning—honestly, right on the dot—and was a beet-red, stuttering mess. I could smell the cookies he had behind his back," she rolled her eyes. "But he left without giving them to me, mumbling some lame, incoherent excuse."

"Aw," Chelsea said, frowning. "Poor Elliot. He was probably so nervous."

"You think?" Julia grimaced, sitting back up. "I mean, that's the main reason that I'm not really into him anymore. He's too shy. Back in summer I would have thought it was adorable, but now, it's just kind of annoying."

"You shouldn't be so harsh," Chelsea pursed her lips. "I mean, it's not his fault. He probably really likes you, and he's just afraid of rejection."

"But he should still man up enough to actually give me the freaking cookies," Julia rolled her eyes again. "You're lucky. If Vaughn ever wanted to give you something for spring thanksgiving, he would never wuss out like that. He's manly. I think that's one of the few qualities about him that I can appreciate."

"I guess you're right," Chelsea said, leaning against the counter. "Vaughn would never chicken out like that."

Ooo

Vaughn flinched as the loud speaker on the boat announced that they were docking. He was back at Sunny Island once again. He glanced down at his bag, swallowing hard. The bag of cookies Riley had insisted on Vaughn bringing was tucked away in one of the side pockets, driving Vaughn crazy.

He picked up the bag gingerly, walking down the pier and onto the beach. He glanced back down at his bag, his face hot. He was about to chicken out.

No, he thought, scowling at the sand. He had to do this. Riley was right. Spring Thanksgiving was the perfect opportunity to get a little hint at how Chelsea thought of him. But maybe actually giving her chocolate cookies was a bit too blatant an expression of his feelings...

"E-Excuse me," a timid voice said, startling Vaughn out of his reverie.

"What?" He asked sharply, looking up. A very pale girl with dark hair and glasses stood before him. She had a dignified air about her. He'd never seen her before.

She flinched at his tone. "Uh, a-are you alright?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, not answering. Who was she to ask?

"Uh," she flushed at his lack of answer, her head drooping. "I-I'm sorry."

Vaughn rolled his eyes. She didn't need to apologize for asking if he was okay. If anyone needed to apologize in this situation, it was him for being mean. Of course, he wasn't about to apologize because he didn't even know this girl. She was spineless. He hated that.

He rolled his eyes and left the beach, almost forgetting about the cookie dilemma—until he walked right up to Mirabelle's shop and the door opened before he touched the knob.

"Oh," Chelsea said, looking up at Vaughn in surprise as she walked out of the shop. "Hey, Vaughn."

He saw her smile and began to panic in his mind. Her face was pink—was she blushing? What did that mean? He felt the overwhelming presence of the cookies in his bag. He swallowed, glancing down at the pocket, making sure they weren't visible. He realized he hadn't said anything and Chelsea was still standing in front of him. His throat was too dry to make a sound when he opened his mouth.

"Are you okay?" She asked him, tilting her head in concern as her smile faded. "You look awful—er, well, that sounded bad. But you know what I mean. You look like you haven't slept in ages. Are you feeling alright?"

He slapped himself mentally, trying to snap out of it. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Chelsea asked, clearly not buying it.

He nodded once, his hand twitching slightly. He had to do this. He had to do this. He had to do this.

Just as he was about to take out the bag of cookies, Chelsea blinked, looking over his shoulder. "Oh, Sabrina! Hey!"

Vaughn turned behind him, seeing that girl from the beach walking by, close enough to have heard their conversation. She cautiously walked over, keeping her gaze away from Vaughn's.

"H-hello, Chelsea," Sabrina said quietly. She seemed afraid. Vaughn figured that their last encounter was probably a bit jarring for someone who didn't know him.

"Sabrina, have you met Vaughn?" Chelsea asked, glancing over to the cowboy.

"N-not… really." Sabrina looked up, still avoiding Vaughn's gaze. She smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, I need to be going—but it was nice to meet you."

Vaughn saw Chelsea narrowing her eyes slightly, analyzing Sabrina's demeanor as she hurried off across the bridge. She glared over at Vaughn. "Were you mean to her?"

He frowned. "I ain't exactly a people person."

"But you can't go around offending people," Chelsea said, grimacing. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothin'," Vaughn shrugged with one shoulder.

"Well, you clearly did something to freak her out," the farmer sighed, giving Vaughn an exasperated look. "What happened?"

"She came up to me on the beach, started stutterin' at me, and I came over here."

"What did she stutter at you?" Chelsea frowned.

"I dunno," Vaughn rolled his eyes. "Somethin' about if I was okay or not."

"So exactly what I just asked you," Chelsea said, raising her eyebrows. "But instead of answering her, you just walked away."

"It ain't her business," he shrugged.

"Well, it's not exactly my business either, but you answered me," Chelsea said, blinking as something appeared to click in her mind. She shifted her rucksack on her back, suddenly seeming preoccupied. "Hey, uh, I have to… uh, feed Daisy. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Wait," Vaughn said, regretting his instinct to stop her as soon as he said it.

She turned back to face him. "What?"

"Uh," he said, blanking. He couldn't believe he was about to do this. He reached into the pocket in his bag and pulled out the bag of cookies, tossing them to her. "Here."

She blinked down at the bag and Vaughn wanted the earth to swallow him up as he waited for the agonizingly long pause to end and for her to react. He thought about running into the animal shop, but that would defeat the whole purpose of giving her the damn cookies. He felt his neck go cold with sweat.

She looked up at him, her eyes a mixture of emotions. "Thank you, Vaughn. I…"

"Oh, there you are! Vaughn, can you help me with the chickens? They're especially feisty today." Mirabelle said, walking around the side of the shop.

Vaughn and Chelsea froze for a moment before Vaughn nodded to Mirabelle. He tipped his hat to Chelsea, surprisingly keeping his cool as he followed Mirabelle into the coop.

If only he knew what she was about to say.

Ooo

Chelsea watched Vaughn disappear into the chicken coop, the bag of chocolate cookies sitting carefully in her hands. She looked back down at them, wondering if she'd just dreamt that hole scenario up. Vaughn hadn't just—he couldn't have—he wasn't—

"Chelsea," Julia said excitedly, opening the window of the animal shop and leaning out. "Oh my Goddess—he really did it!"

Chelsea blinked. She hadn't imagined it. She felt her lips tug up into a smile. "He did, didn't he?"

"Does this mean—?"

Chelsea shook her head, looking at Julia. "I don't know what it means."

"Well, he gave you cookies, Chels," she said, her voice lowering to an excited whisper. "I'm sure he knows what that implies."

"I don't know if he cares what it implies," Chelsea said, her eyes falling back down on the cookies. Her heart fluttered. What if it did mean that Vaughn really did feel for her? She shook her head again. "It's probably some sort of prank or something. I mean, think about it: is Vaughn the kind of guy that would give someone like me cookies on Spring Thanksgiving?"

"Apparently," Julia said, smiling cheekily. "You should go with your gut. I can distract my mom and let you two have some alone time in the coop."

Chelsea's eyes widened. "No—I don't think—"

"Aw, c'mon," Julia whined. "Just go ask him out or something. Or, y'know, kiss him."

Chelsea shushed her, her face heating up. "I don't know about this—it seems a little fishy to me. I mean, Vaughn doesn't seem like he would do this on his own. What if he was put up to it or something? I don't want to end up admitting something to him and getting rejected over something he thought was a joke."

"Sure, Vaughn doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd do anything for this holiday," Julia said. "But does he seem like the kind of guy who'd manipulate a girl because he was put up to it?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Forget it," Julia sighed. "Tomorrow's another day. Just in case he was being serious, though, the worst thing you could do is avoid him. Make sure you talk to him tomorrow, even if you have to go out of your way. If you don't, he'll think that you didn't like it and he probably won't take it too well."

"But I do like it," Chelsea frowned. "I love it. I just…"

"I understand," Julia said, offering a reassuring smile. "Just make sure he does, too."

I'm quite impressed with Vaughn's guts. If only he'd known what Chelsea really thought about the cookies before he had to work.

Thanks for all your reviews! I'm so sorry about the lack of review replies last chapter - FF was giving me 404 errors for all the reply links and they weren't showing up on the website for me. Hopefully it's fixed now!

Here's to the crazy plot coming up!