This is the second chapter, it's kind of short, the story is going pretty slow right now. 1000 thank you to Libra1, for being the only one that reviewed, I fixed the mistakes she mentioned, and it was a really big help! Please excuse any spelling mistakes, for I am only human. I hope you enjoy the very short second chapter.

CHAPTER 2

I arrived home from the tour completely EXHAUSTED. Hours of saying hello, and acting like I enjoyed meeting strangers. Ugg, all I wanted to do was get home and turn into a vegetable for the next ten hours. Unfortunately as I entered through the path to my

farm, I found a man standing in the middle of my yard. We hadn't met him on the tour, how was I suppose to know he was even a person living in the town. He couldn't want to break in, it was quit obvious from the outside of the house there was nothing worth stealing.

"Who are you?" I called across the farm; I didn't want to get to close.

He looked confused for a second, then called back.

"I'm Zack, I'm here to collect your shipments for today", shipments? Know one ever mentioned shipments.

I walked cautiously into my farm, still not completely convinced this guy was here to collect some sort of shipment. He smiled and explained that I was to collect and ship items from the mountains, he would collect them at five o'clock and I would get paid for what I collected.

Great, I sighed, another responsibility, that's just what I needed. He seemed to sense my aggravation, and told me I didn't HAVE to ship things, it was my own choice. That made me feel a little better.

He finally left after explaining to me all that I needed to know, it had to be at least seven o'clock, I walked into my house and flopped down onto the bed, not bothering to change into my pyjamas.

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I woke up at six AGAIN. This time a strange feeling made me dress a little nicer, I actually combed my hair! Why was it all the sudden I actually cared how I looked? Shrugging off the thought I quickly went to work. Breakfast could wait, I could not stand another second looking at this damn pigsty that they called a farm. the first thing I should do was pull the weeds, a daring task, especially someone who has never done yard work in there life.

Grasp the weed firmly; pull hard, weed comes out. Simple enough right? Not really, after several unsuccessful tries, and many blistered fingers I gave up on trying to pull the weeds out. I decided to use one of the tools I had seen earlier in the chest. What tool would you use to kill weeds? I decided to try an axe. Quit quickly learning that was a bad idea. I tried to chop one weed, but instead of hitting the weed it collided with a large rock. Pieces of steel went flying in every direction, luckily missing me. I stared down sadly at the few pieces of metal clinging to the wooden pole.

Great now I had a broken axe, and seven blistered fingers. I sighed, this obviously was pointless. I would have to fix my axe, Saibara said he could upgrade my axe… were upgrade and reassemble the same thing? I could try, it would give me excuse to see Gray again, and maybe say a proper hello.

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Saibara sighed and stared down at the virtually destroyed axe. Gray stood silently beside him observing his grandfathers reaction.

" You, Miss. Claire, are the only person I have ever met who was able to completely total one of my finest axes", I wasn't sure if he meant it as I joke or not, so I stayed silent

"I'm afraid I can't fix it, I'll have to make a new one for you, but you'll have to get the supplies, I can't do everything." He laughed at his own awful pun, then took out a piece of brown stained paper to right down the list of things I would have to get.

"Gray can show you were to find the mine, he isn't doing anything here." Saibara said as he finished writing down the last of the supplies. " You better get going."

I glanced at Gray; he was already on his way out. I hurried after him.

"So where's this mine?" I asked trying to keep up with him; one of his footsteps was about three of mine. I was small for my age, and wasn't exactly an athlete.

"It's where were going next, hurry up." He said it with a hint off aggravation, more them a hint, he said it with ALOUT of aggravation.

We walked for at least ten minutes, stopping in my farm shortly to pick up my hammer. We finally arrived at a large dark cave in the side of a hill. I panted for breath, ten minutes of jogging was tiring.

"This is it, hit the rocks and take the silver you find in them to Saibara, try not to total the hammer to, we don't need more work." He snickered, "I'm gonna get going I have better things to do."

"You can't leave me, I have no clue what I'm looking for! I don't even know what silver looks like!" he just ignored me and kept walking.

I watched him leave. I wanted to cry, how could someone be so mean? Boys back in my own town used to tease me when they liked me, but that obviously was NOT the message Gray was trying to get across. The only thing I could see him trying to communicate was "leave me alone". I hoped the whole town wasn't like this. I stared off into space thinking about how nice the people had been in my own town. I missed them so much…

I sniffed and wiped the tears from my eyes. The less I thought about my family the more I missed them. I peeked into the cave. I didn't feel like going into there, who knew what could be in there? Rats, spiders. I shuddered I hated them both. I could come back tomorrow with a flashlight. I didn't think I would have the energy to collect the amount of silver Saibara had told me to today anyways, not after trying to keep up with that jerk Gray. I turned and slowly walked back to my farm. All I wanted to do was go to bed, I didn't care that it was only two in the afternoon. I was mentally exhausted.

I pushed open the door and walked into the cramped closet that I was supposed to call my house. Is it possible it looked even smaller, and more disgusting? I flopped down on the bed, and shut my eyes tight, not wanting to look at my horrible surroundings. I tried to think of happy things, and even after all he had done and the things he had said. Grays smirking face still made me want to smile. Thinking of him I managed to pass into an uneasy sleep.