Forget It
Chapter 2: A thief?

Jill lay stretched out on her bed, sleeping deeply when the phone rang. She groaned and rolled over onto the floor.

"Owowow," she muttered under her breath, clutching her head. She stumbled over to the video phone and tapped a button. "Whaddaya want?"

"Jill, Jill, Jill!" Lumina's face appeared on the screen. "Phantom Skye's coming to my house tonight! What am I going to do?"

"Huh? Who's Phantom Skye?" Jill blinked and yawned.

Lumina glared at Jill. "What, did you just wake up?" The brunette nodded. "It's like, 10 AM. I thought farmers woke up at 6."

"Guess I'm no-o-o-ot a farmer yet." Jill covered a yawn with her hand.

"Well, you have to come to my house tonight. I can't keep any thieves away from the house and he might steal a piece of my jewelry. And I heard that he's very flattering. Be on your guard."

"What kind of guy would flatter me? I'm just an oddball farmer that has no idea what she's doing."

"Well, can you come anyways? Please? I think he'll come around, like, 10 tonight."

"Sure, no prob. I'll just have to remember to bring Syrup home before then."

"Thanks. Bye!" Lumina reached over and pushed a button on her screen, turning both of the phones off.

Jill stretched and almost tripped over her kitten. "You ready for an adventure?"

Syrup mewed at her and stared with large eyes. "All righty, then. Let's go see if anyone likes flowers. You know, those ones all along the paths? I swear, they must be weeds or something, the way they sporadically appear."

Jill put her hand out for the kitten, who dashed up the girl's arm and around her neck. The pair walked out of the house and off the farmland. "Here's a flower. Isn't it gorgeous?" The teen tucked it into a bag slung at her hip. "Who do you think likes flowers? I'm sure Muffy would, but might Carter?" Syrup mewed solemnly.

"Let's just give him one anyways. Oh, here's another!" She darted across the pathway onto a small piece of farmable land. Jill held up her prize: another beautiful flower.

"All right, to the mine!" After tucking the flower into her bag like the other one, she walked over the creaky bridge toward Vesta's farm and headed north for her visit with Carter.

"Good morning, Jill!" Celia called. She was already hard at work, watering almost infinite rows of plants.

"Hi, Celia!" Jill waved at the petite farmer girl and continued on her way. She soon spotted the cave where Carter and Flora worked, so she ran up and looked in. "Hello!"

Carter looked up from his work. "Oh, hello." He resumed his attention on whatever he was digging up.

"I have something for you…" Jill reached into her bag, feeling only one flower. "Oh, no," she whispered. She knelt and opened her bag wide. The flower was floating, and it had a small number 2 next to it. "What the?" She tapped the flower lightly, and the number disappeared, resulting in a flower in her hands and one still in the bag. "That's cool."

"Here. I thought you might like it." Jill held the blossom to the archeologist, who took it.

"It's nice, but I don't have much use for it. Thanks anyways." He shoved the beautiful flower roughly into his pocket.

Jill winced at his roughness, then decided to take her leave. "I'll see you guys later."

"Bye, Jill. Have a good day," Flora called, not taking her eyes off of what she had found.

The brunette sighed and exited the cave. "Who else might like a flower?" Syrup lifted herself up slightly and seemed to whisper in her ear, though in reality just brushing her whiskers against Jill's ear. "Muffy and Rock, of course!" She took off running towards the bridge over the river and headed north after she crossed it. The path brought her to a pond where both Muffy and Rock were pacing and praying.

"Hey, Muffy! I have something for you!"

"Oh?" the blond looked at Jill. "What do you have?"

Jill pulled out the remaining flower. "Tadaa!"

"Oh, thanks. I guess it's nice. I'll keep it." Muffy tucked the flower behind her ear, complementing her hair perfectly.

"Okay. See you later." A bit disappointed in Muffy's reaction, Jill shuffled over to a nearby patch of farmland and plucked another flower.

She shuffled back over to the pond and stood next to Rock. "Hi. I thought you might like this, but you probably won't." She thrust the flower at him and sat on the grass.

"It's beautiful! Thank you so much. I really like this kind of flower." Jill glanced at him, to see if he was faking it. Instead, he was holding the flower high and seemed enchanted by it.

The brunette gave a half-smile, pleased that he was so happy. "I'm glad you like it. I better get going. Farming stuff can't wait too much longer."

"Right. Good luck, cutie."

Jill snorted. Yeah right. Like she was cute. She walked along the path and followed it back to her farm where Takakura stood waiting.

"Well, are you ready to learn?" he asked.

"Sure." Jill held herself tall, prepared for anything thrown her way.

"Okay. The first thing you need to know is how to cut down weeds. Get out your sickle."

"Huh? What's a sickle? And can't I just throw the weeds on the ground?"

"No, that would be littering. Your sickle is a long curved blade on a stick. Come on, hurry up."

"All right, all right." Jill opened her bag and, to her surprise, saw that there were a variety of tools. She grabbed what looked like Takakura described and closed the bag up.

"Hold it with both hands and swing it from right to left, like this." He demonstrated, holding the teens arms the proper way. "Now you try."

"Okay." Jill swung with a little too much vigor and the sickle went flying through the air.

Takakura raised an eyebrow. Embarrassed, Jill retrieved the tool and tried again.

"Ow!" she howled in pain. The sickle had gone too far and sliced her left arm almost from her elbow to wrist.

Takakura ran into his house and back out in record time with yards of cloth. He began wrapping it around the girl's arm tightly, staunching the blood. "I think that's enough teaching for one day."

Syrup, who had been resting atop the shipping crate, mewed in agreement.