Sharp barking startled Leigh awake. She sat up in bed with a gasp, looking around wildly for the source of the monstrous noise. Her heart felt like it was flopping around inside her ribcage like a fish out of water. Why was there a dog near her?! She didn't own a dog!
It took almost a full minute for reality to sink into her sleep-fogged, caffeine-deprived brain. The barking was coming from outside. Oh. Right. It was her uncle's dog. She wasn't at home anymore. Hopefully, she'd never go back there again. She was staying with Uncle Frank in Westown for a few days and he'd relegated his dog to the back porch on her behalf.
But why was that mangy mutt yapping his head off?
Figuring the dummy had caught a glimpse of his own tail or something, Leigh threw the covers off of her and swung her legs over the side of the bed, grumbling under her breath the entire time. "Dumb dog..." she growled, trying to wipe the sleepy gunk from her eyes. Where were her glasses? It was bad enough her left eye had virtually no vision left in it, her glasses were the only thing that helped her right eye compensate.
Amidst the energetic yelps coming from outside, Leigh could hear the rumbling sound of her uncle's snoring coming from his bed. How had she slept through that? The man sounded like a hibernating bear. Evidently, he slept like one, too, if he could sleep through all the racket outside.
Speaking of outside... Leigh shoved her glasses onto her nose and looked out the window. She gave a frustrated groan almost as loud as her uncle's snoring. The sun was just barely up. She could still see the remnants of fading stars in the sky against the backdrop of blue slowly giving way to pink and orange. It was too damn early to be dealing with a hyperactive dog and she hadn't had a cup of coffee, yet.
Leigh didn't bother to pull on shoes or get dressed. She stomped outside with mussed hair in her ratty tank top and girl boxers to give that aggravating creature a piece of her mind. "Will you shut the hell up, you mongrel?! It's too early for th—"
Leigh stopped mid-sentence. There was someone on her uncle's farm. That's why Lucky was going nuts.
There was a strange woman in her uncle's crop field, acting as if she belonged there, but Leigh had never seen her before in her life. She looked much too young to be Frank's girlfriend, too, though admittedly, Leigh had never really cared enough about her uncle's love life to ask him about it. For all she knew, he could have a spunky young lady friend in his life. Age was just a number, right?
Leigh's fleeting benefit of the doubt evaporated into the hazy sunrise as quickly as her short span of patience did when she witnessed the woman make her way in between the ripe rows of veggies and begin plucking all the produce straight out of the ground. This intruder was helping herself to Uncle Frank's hard-earned harvest! The nerve!
Maybe if Leigh hadn't been the victim of a rude awakening at the crack of dawn and maybe if she'd had her morning caffeine fix, Leigh would have had a less... confrontational reaction to the situation. Maybe. But probably not.
She grabbed a rusty pitchfork leaning up against the wall of her uncle's house and marched into the field in her bare feet, brandishing her farm tool like a mighty battle sword. "HEY!" she shouted, jabbing the pointed end of the pitchfork forward so that the menacing prongs pointed straight at the woman. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Those are my uncle's crops! You can't just help yourself to someone else's property, you... you... you crop thief!"
The woman dropped her basket, the turnips she had gathered rolling away in all directions. Her eyes widened and she threw her hands up in the air at the sight of the pitchfork, taking a step back. "Whoah! I think there's been a misunderstanding here!" she tried to explain herself, then glanced between the raised pitchfork and the irate brunette with a mildly amused expression. "Even if I was stealing crops... which I'm not!" she added quickly when Leigh thrust the pitchfork forward. "Don't you think impaling someone over some turnips is a little over-the-top?"
Leigh opened her mouth to fire off a retort but she was interrupted by her uncle hopping out of the house on one foot, trying to tug on one of his boots. His overalls were crooked and he'd forgotten to don his signature straw hat so Leigh guessed he had dressed in a hurry when he woke up and saw the scene outside from his window.
"Leigh, what in tarnation d'ya think ye're doin'?" he hollered. Having managed to get his boot on properly, he jogged the rest of the way into the field and confiscated the pitchfork from his niece.
"This psycho was trying to steal your crops!" Leigh protested, putting her hands on her hips. "I was trying to stop her!"
"Psycho? Look, I'm not the one waving pitchforks around," the other woman pointed out. Somehow, the fact that she looked more bemused than angry only made Leigh more furious. She just about burst a blood vessel when her uncle broke out into hearty guffaws, leaning back and grabbing his round belly. What exactly did everyone find so funny?! She might be short but surely she was at least a little intimidating when she was angry! She felt intimidating, anyway.
"Leigh, Shan here wasn't stealin' my crops," Frank revealed the stranger's name. "I've been puttin' job postings up in town fer some help around the farm lately an' bless Shan, she's always the one showin' up ta help me look after things. I guess ye're here doin' that harvestin' job I posted about yesterday?" Frank asked Shan. Shan grinned and nodded.
"Sure am!" she told him. "I figured if I got started bright and early, I'd have some extra time to help Miranda out at the shop and maybe give Omekichi a hand over in Tsuyukusa later. He's had a hard time pulling up the weeds in his rice fields on his own," Shan explained. "I didn't want to wake you up, though, so I was just going to leave the turnips by the front door with a note saying I stopped by." Frank rubbed his stubbly chin and nodded.
"An' poor Yuzuki's still on the frail side, ain't he? No wonder Omekichi needs an extra pair o' hands on his farm. Ye're a good soul, Shan, always lookin' ta help whoever needs it," he praised her, then turned to his niece. "This here's my niece, Leigh," he introduced her to Shan. "I know she can rub ya the wrong way at first, but she's movin' here an' I'd love fer her ta make friends. I hope ya won't hold a grudge against her fer this."
"I'm standing right here, Uncle Frank," Leigh grumbled. Shan grinned and held out a hand for a handshake.
"Sure thing, Frank. It was just a big misunderstanding. Nice to meet you, Leigh," she extended an olive branch to the other girl. "Looks like I woke you up," she commented on the fact that Leigh was still standing out here barefoot in practically just her underwear. "Anyone would be cranky about that. Sorry."
Leigh took Shan's hand and shook it. "... I guess. Sorry for almost stabbing you with a pitchfork."
Shan and Frank both laughed at that. Seriously, why was everything that came out of her mouth so damn hysterical to these people? She was genuinely agitated right now and no one seemed to care! She wished she had a cup of coffee in her hand. It would make her less... murdery.
Leigh looked down at her clothes (or lack of clothes, rather) and sighed. "I'm going to go get dressed," she announced.
"Good plan. We're already behind schedule with yer trainin'," Frank told her. Right. Farming. Livestock. Crops. Learning the ropes. That's what she was here for. Maybe having some work to do would help her cool off. Even better, maybe her uncle had a coffee machine in the house she could take advantage of while she got dressed.
There was no coffee in the house (of course), but Leigh managed to get inside and change into something decent while avoiding the dog, so she supposed that was some sort of small sign that the day might turn around in her favour. She expected Shan to be gone by the time she came back outside. After all, she technically had done her job. The turnips were harvested, they were just... all over the ground instead of in a basket, but Shan and Frank were still standing outside talking when Leigh opened the front door. She caught the tail end of their conversation.
"Leigh's had a rough time lately," Frank told Shan in a hushed voice. "Things aren't so great fer her back home. That's why she's here. She's a good girl, she's jest dealin' with a lot. I know she can be difficult but it'd mean a lot ta me if ya made her feel welcome."
Leigh had heard enough. She stormed past the two of them into the barn, but called over her shoulder before she disappeared inside. "I don't need you spreading my business around to a bunch of strangers, Uncle Frank!" How dare he?! Her business wasn't his business to share with anyone! She was here to work, not to gossip about her problems with people she barely knew.
Blinking the moisture from her eyes, Leigh made her way to the tack room and grabbed a grooming kit. Horses were the one thing about farm life she was familiar with. She used to take horseback riding lessons in grade school, then she worked on a horse farm part-time during the summer in high school. If Frank was going to gossip with the neighbours instead of show her how to run a farm, Leigh might as well do the only work she didn't need any help with.
"Hey there, well aren't you the prettiest thing," Leigh smiled when she saw a handsome black gelding munching on a flake of hay in his stall. He looked up at her with a snort and Leigh opened the stall door to lead him out into the aisle by his halter. She tied him up and picked out a rubber curry comb to get the grit out from underneath his coat. She liked the curry comb. There was something soothing about running it over the horse in a circular motion. The horses enjoyed it, too, especially in the summer when they were itchy with sweat and bug bites. It was like a massage for them.
Leigh wasn't sure how long she stayed with Uncle Frank's horse, but it was long enough for her to get lost in the enjoyable work and allow herself to relax. She'd almost forgotten she was upset until she was interrupted.
"Leigh?" Leigh turned around to find Shan leaning against the barn doors. Her face darkened and she turned back to the horse, carefully teasing the knots out of his long mane.
"What do you want?" she asked curtly.
"Your uncle was telling me you're a coffee lover and I happen to know where to get the best-tasting cup of coffee in town," Shan offered. "I think Frank still wants to show you around the farm but when you're finished with chores for the day, some friends and I like to get together at this place called the Garden Grill for lunch. You're more than welcome to come join us there."
Leigh sighed and dropped her comb back into the grooming kit, turning around to face Shan with her arms folded across her chest. "Look... Shan, is it? I'm sure you're as great as my uncle says you are and I really am sorry about the pitchfork thing, but if you're just being nice to me as a favour to my uncle or because you feel sorry for me, let's just not, okay?"
"I might not have been clear enough," Shan smirked. "Let me rephrase. There. Will. Be. Coffee," she repeated, enunciating every word.
Leigh couldn't help herself. She smirked back with a dry huff of amusement. She really did need a caffeine fix. Her head was pounding and she could feel the shakes setting in.
"Alright. I'll meet you there. For coffee.