Sorry about the HUGE wait, everyone, I've had three other inspirations that led me astray from my beloved first fic.
Enjoy!
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Brzzt. "There's no-" Crrk. "one like you-" Prkft.
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Jeffery had struggled to pick himself up the previous night, due to his visit with Jade. His feelings made him numb, and all sorts of emotions swirled through his body and mind. She had kissed him, plain and simple. The new feelings he felt were extravagant-and terrifying.
"Ugh...Why do you have to do that?"
He looked at the tape deck, which died a few seconds later.
Jeffery flopped back down on his bed, his head dizzy. He yawned.
Trying to ignore the butterflies in his stomach, he sat himself up and stretched. He pulled out a change of clothes and a towel from his new drawer and headed down to the river, where he tried to be sly about stripping down to his undies and jumping into the brisk water. He washed up quickly, and after drying himself off and changing, walked back up to his house.
"I SAID shut your trap!"
Wolfgang's voice could be heard up the hill, towards Jeffery's house. Jeffery jumped, startled. He scrambled up the hill and peeked around a tree to see what kind of trouble the tenacious duo were causing now.
"Whatever, Mr. Jealous," Hopper shot at Wolfgang, shaking a colored can. "Not my fault you can't control your raging hormones," Hopper mocked, laughing.
Wolfgang's eye twitched and he threw his paws around Hopper's throat.
"YOU STUPID FEATHERHEAD! Why I oughta-" Hopper's gags drowned out Wolfgang's threats.
"Bah. Useless." Wolfgang threw Hopper down onto the concrete. "Just shuddap and help me already."
Hopper growled and picked up the can, shaking it again.
Jeffery looked at them worriedly. What were they trying to pull?
"This'll teach the little jerk..." Wolfgang muttered and pulled out a can of his own. With a quick shake, Wolfgang sprayed pink paint all over Jeffery's door.
Jeffery gasped. "Hey!!! Eep!"
Jeffery threw his hands over his mouth. What was he supposed to do? Run up to them and tell them to stop? Tell them it's the wrong thing and get his butt kicked yet again?
"Now!!"
There were whizzing sounds above Jeffery's head as three slingshots appeared from the branches above. Three big rocks pelted Wolfgang suddenly, all of them hitting the side of his snout.
"YEEEEOWCH!!!!! What the???"
"Again! Attack!"
Jeffery looked up to see Adam, Eddie, and Goose angrily shooting rocks at Wolfgang and Hopper.
"OW! What are you- Stop it! ARGH!"
The whole scene lasted about 10 seconds. Adam and Goose continued to pelt the retreating Wolfgang and Hopper with more rocks, while Eddie stayed behind to talk to Jeffery.
Confused, Jeffery asked what was going on.
"Big Brother and Hopper spraypaint on everyone's house," Eddie explained, pointing out pink doors all around the neighborhood.
Goose and Adam leapt out of the tree they were attacking from. "Supposedly ol' Wolfie's mad about somethin'," Goose told Jeffery.
"But why would he do this to everyone?" Jeffery asked.
"If one person makes him mad, he blames it on everybody," Adam said. "Natural wolf nature, if you ask me."
Jeffery looked down. "Well why is he mad? Anyone know?"
Eddie hopped up and down a few times. "Ooh, ooh, uh...I think something 'bout...girl?"
Jeffery, thinking quickly for once, pulled out his map Tom Nook had given him, and he studied it quickly. "Hmm...says here there are only 2 girls in town. Jade and some other girl..." There was a drink stain on the map where the other girl's name was.
"Oh, uh...whatsername..." Goose stuttered.
"Hmm," Adam thought. "I know she went on a trip somewhere. I guess everyone forgot about her."
"So that must mean he's mad about Jade," Goose said. "But we all know she hates his guts. So why...?"
Jeffery quickly buried his red face in his map.
"What do you think, Jeffery?" Adam asked.
"Ack! Uh..."
Jeffery was definitely caught with his pants down this time. He didn't want to tell anyone what happened yesterday! He'd rather chop his arm off.
"Uh..I..uh, have no idea um..."
"I see Jeffery walk with Jade!" Eddie blurted out, making Jeffery jump.
"I don't understand though," Goose concocted, scratching his chin feathers. "If Jeffery was walking with Jade, why would that give Wolfgang any reason to be mad? I mean I take walks with all of my pals every now and then and not once has some angry wolf boy complained about it."
Everyone, except Jeffery of course, was into deep thought.
"W-W-Well uh, I sure have NO idea," Jeffery stated, out of breath. "Jade and I were just um...discussing my new er...interior..decorating." He finished off the sentence quietly.
Adam shrugged. "As long as he isn't terrorizing us for some dumb personal problem, I'm alright." He stretched his arms behind the back of his head.
"I reckon we better get to followin' him," Goose told Adam and Eddie, holstering his slingshot. "It'd be best not to let those two wreak some more havoc."
Goose and Adam began to walk towards the D-acres, strategizing some clever plan. Eddie trailed, looking at Jeffery. "Jeffery be okay?"
Jeffery smiled, and patted Eddie's head. "Uh, yeah. I'll be fine."
Eddie readjusted his brown beanie and walked off. "We take care of Brother!" he called, waving back. Jeffery waved back, smiling weakly. As soon as they were out of sight, he scrambled for his house. He slammed the door, locked it, and started to bite his fingernails nervously.
Oh NO! They're on to me...Jeffery thought. Soon they'll find out I'M the reason Wolfgang is mad! But wait...if Wolfgang is mad, he's probably jealous...and if I made someone jealous, then that means...
"I'm significant!" Jeffery jumped happily.
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Jeffery had almost completely forgotten he had work today, and Nook wasn't too pleased. The raccoon suspected something when Jeffery ran in the door half-naked and covered in dirt. So, Jeffery had twice as many deliveries today.
Jeffery snorted on the way out of the shop, his arms bursting with deliveries. Nook had agreed to let Jeffery use the store's transportation (a rugged bicycle) for today. He hopped on, dropping most of the deliveries right off the bat, but eventually set off.
He pedaled through the bright forest path, the wind wrapping around him elegantly like the warm embrace of a soft tortilla from a cheap taco stand on a hot summer day. It sort of cheered him up, and before he knew it, Jeffery had a smile on his face. It felt good to let loose and just enjoy the sunshine of the day. The cool air, the wonderful scenes and smells, the rugged vibrations, and the pain from the sharp rocks digging into Jeffery's chest.
Wait, what?
Jeffery groaned, lifting his face up from the dirt. He had drove the bike through a hole in the path and now the deliveries were scattered everywhere. The bike lay in a scrambled mess in the grass just off the path.
"Aww...Shucks."
Jeffery dusted himself off quickly and gathered all the parcels together. He remembered why he couldn't enjoy days like this. He had to watch himself more closely.
He sighed and counted the parcels. "Let's see, 1, 2, 3...8...okay, that should be..wait a sec..."
He was missing one important item. Where could it be?
He looked at the ground. Grass, dirt, bugs...nothing brightly colored or fancily wrapped. Jeffery tried to retrace his tracks, walking backwards to where he crashed. Upon further inspection-
"Ah-Ha!"
A bright orange gift was sitting alone on the bank of the creek. Jeffery, feeling like he had just solved a mystery, went to go pick it up. But his luck rang in again and he tripped right over it, faliing into the brisk water. The chill of the water shocked him, and he cursed incoherently, bubbles shooting out of his mouth. He rose to the surface, and crawled up onto the shore. He sputtered, and then searched for the gift.
Oh no! It was just here a second ago!
Jeffery looked around frantically to spot the orange gift drifting downstream. Jeffery fell to his knees, shaking his fists and cursing the heavens, and then dove in after it.
The water was especially cold today, and the current was swift. The orange parcel seemed to get smaller and smaller every time Jeffery thought he was getting closer.
Gah! Stop...moving! Jeffery thought as he sawn donwstream.
The parcel then disappeared from sight. At first Jeffery thought it had sunk, but then he realized the truth a little bit too late.
"WHOAAA!" The roar of the falls drowned out Jeffery's cries as the stream threw him over.
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The train was buckling along at a slow pace, rocking Rover to sleep. He was almost snoozing when the conductor announced something over the speakers.
"And to the right is the lovely Darsinae Forest, where you can now see the town idiot careening over the edge of that magnificent waterfall! Look at that rainbow, folks!"
Rover snapped to attention and pressed his snout to the window. He could see a small figure garbed in a yellow paw shirt tumbling over the edge of the falls, screaming its little heart out.
"Jeffery?"
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Jeffery practically witnessed himself fly out from the stream.
Don't look down, don't look down...
Jeffery looked down. The water below him was just a great white mist.
"Oh NO!!!"
Jeffery flapped his arms in a daring attempt to save himself, but the waterfall overcame him, and he plummeted to the water below.
Time seemed to stop. Even while screaming and flapping his arms wildly, he noticed everything around him kind of slow down. The waterfall seemed to make a face and laugh at him, mocking his stupidity.
Life came back at him hard a few moments later.
Jeffery landed square on his back, the stinging reaching him instantly. He moaned and groaned and groped at his back in pain. Millions of white-hot knives seemed to dig into him all at once. He twisted around in the water, just hoping it would stop the stinging.
Jeffery thrashed up on shore a few moments later, his back still on fire. He cringed and moaned, and after a few more painstaking moments, the pain began to erode. Jeffery layed back on the cool sand, sighing in relief.
"Whoa there, whippersnapper!"
Jeffery opened his eyes to see an extremely aged turtle wag his cane at him.
"Er, I'm Jeffery...sir," Jeffery added.
The turtle eyed him warily, the bags under his eyes crinkling every which way. "Can I ask ya a question, sonny?"
"Yes...?"
"Are ya stupid?"
Jeffery scratched his head. "I uh, um..."
"It takes one heck of an idiot to jump off them falls, boy. Why'd ya do it? You coulda got yerself kilt!"
Jeffery looked up at the falls, and then remembered why he had fallen off them in the first place.
"Oh no! Uh, sorry sir, I gotta-"
"Now wait just a dern minute! I wasn't finished talkin' to ya." The turtle wove his cane at him.
Jeffery started jogging off. "I can't talk! I gotta work!"
"I reckon you wouldn't git very far without this!" The turtle shouted at him.
Jeffery spun on his heel and found the old coot was holding the orange gift. Jeffery ran back to him.
"Now that's what I thought," the turtle chuckled. "Now whatcha need this perdy thing fer, sonny?"
"I need to deliver that to someone! Like right now! So if you could just uh, hand it over..." Jeffery reached for the gift.
The turtle held it away from him. "Oh, yer workin' for Nook, are yeh? Well, I'll let ya go-"
'Bout time! Jeffery thought.
"If ya answer me a question first."
Jeffery groaned angrily. "Fine, fine, what is it?"
The turtle cleared his throat. "Er-hem, now, who do you respect the most? Yer mama, daddy, grandma or granddad?"
Jeffery let his mouth hinge off his jaw. Here he was, getting interrogated by some old bag when he really needed to get that gift back. Quickly, Jeffery though up a random answer.
"Uh, grandpa, I don't know...Can I have my gift back now?"
The turtle sighed, but was smiling happily. "Good ta know some of the youth out there ain't spoiled. Here ya go sonny." The turtle tossed him the gift, and Jeffery caught it(surprisingly).
Without further ado, Jeffery took off. He rounded the hill that went up to the forest path, and rushed to make his way back to the bike and other gifts. A few minutes later, Jeffery panted to his previous location. He gathered up all of the gifts lying on the ground, and went to go stuff them on the bike. But there was something wrong.
The old bike was beyond repair, various pieces of it scattered about. The tires were flat, the spokes were broken, and the seat was nowhere to be found.
Jeffery dropped to his knees, dropping all the gifts to the ground. He was shocked, speechless. There was no hope of him finishing his work on time. Nook was going to fire him, and then he'd have no way to pay his house off, and then...
"I'd be homeless," Jeffery said quietly.
He sniffled a little bit, and then started to gather up the gifts again. He then made his way down the hill, to a gift recipient's house.
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The sun had began to sink low in the sky, filling the town of Darsinae with a mellow gold. Sunlight filled Jeffery's back with shame as he moped into Nook's acre.
The raccoon was sweeping the front walk when Jeffery walked up. Nook dropped his broom, and gazed at Jeffery.
"Jeffery?" Nook questioned.
"..Yes sir?"
"Where have you been?"
"Making the deliveries."
"What took you so long? And where is the bike?"
Jeffery sighed and then began his story. He explained how he was driving along when he crashed and one of the gifts fell into the river, and how he chased after it and fel down the waterfall. Nook's face remained emotionless as Jeffery spoke. Jeffery then acted out his run-in with the old turtle, and how he held him up. Then he told Nook when he went back to the bike and it layed there, destroyed.
"So I had to make all of the deliviries on foot. I'm really sorry sir. Please forgive me."
Nook didn't seem mad at all, actually. "So you got to meet the mayor, eh?" Nook chuckled. "You did tell him 'grandpa' when he asked you the quesion, right?"
Amazed, Jeffery nodded. Nook laughed.
"Well it's a good thing you did! Otherwise you would've been there ALL day and you'd have some REAL explaining to do! Ho ho ho!"
Jeffery's shoulders were relieved of a great weight and a smile crept on his face. Nook wasn't mad!
Nook laughed off the rest of the giggles and patted Jeffery on the back. "At least you got the job done. Don't worry about the bicycle, I was meaning to throw it out anyway."
Jeffery nodded, and waved to his employer as he walked home. "Thanks Mr. Nook! See you tomorrow!"
Nook waved back. "Ah, just take the day off, boy!"
Jeffery smiled and trodded home. "Awesome!"
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The sun was just peeking over the edge of the horizon, skimming the last of its daylight over the open blue waves. Jeffery could see a few townsfolk walking along the shore.
The cobblestone rattled under Jeffery's feet as he walked into his acre. He walked up to his house, and opened up the door. It sure was satisying to Jeffery to finish off the day with a nice house to come to. That made him think of Jade a little bit, which brought up the whole Wolfgang dilemma. Jeffery decided to save it for another day, and he went to shut the door behind him. Except the door didn't stay closed, and on his front walk a familiar blue feline stood, looking in.
"...Rover?"
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It's been so long since I updated this last, I'm glad I fianlly got around to it. Sorry about the long wait, I really hoped you liked this chapter.
R&R, let me know how I'm doing!
-Much thanks,
-SOTR