My alarm clocked beeped at me to wake up, making me thrust my hand at it to silence it as I sat up in my bed. It was 5:00AM, and I was still tired. Groaning, I walked over to the bathroom and took a quick shower. The cold water made me have goosebumps on my skin, but it woke me up as I splashed it on my face. Drying myself off, I looked at myself in the mirror. My long, black hair was damp and wavy, making my brown eyes pop out even more than usual. Turning around, I had to smile as I remembered what a good figure I had. With curves and hips to die for, many girls envied me. All the same, I rather disliked the attention I got from boys. Hence my disliking to Rock.
Pulling my hair up in a towel, I dressed myself in a pair of jeans, a red sweater, and my large blue parka. I brushed out my now dry hair before putting on a cream hat over top of it. As I started pulling on my knee-high boots over my jeans, I heard a knock on my door.
"Jade?" I hear a groggy voice that sounded like Ruby's from the other side of the door.
"Yes?" I say, opening the door to see her in a silk kimono, holding a cup of coffee in her hands.
"Oh good, you're up. Jack had me come and wake you up to tell you to get up." She says, yawning, "I'm going back to bed now."
I chuckle at her tiredness, and follow her back downstairs. The room is chilly with cold air seeping through the door cracks, so as I pull on my gloves, I hold my jacket closer to me before opening the door. The ice cold breeze pierced at my skin like knives, so I hurried out of the Inn to save the warm air inside.
My feet plundered through the snow, each step harder to take than the last. It must have snowed an extra foot last night, because the snow is up to my ankles now as I walk into the farm entrance. Looking around, I call out, "Dad!"
"Over in the pasture!" I hear Jack yell back at me, "Hurry, the goat needs milking."
Rolling my eyes, I jog over to the fence, hopping it with ease. I see my father on the other side, milking a large brown cow with his bare hands. Looking around, I spot the goat right in front of me, speaking constantly. "Yea, yea, I know." I mutter, bending down to milk it with the pail that was lying next to it. Despite the animal moving around constantly and trying to bite my hat, I managed to get the pail full.
"Where do I put it?" I say to my father as he walks over with two pails full of milk.
"Over in the shipping bin. I'll do it today because I have to package it, but now I want you to go and feed the chickens. And later I need you to brush the horse." He says without even looking at me. Next thing I know he's gone, along with my pail. Muttering to myself, I walk over to the tool shed next to the barn, I pick up the brush and a back full of bird seed before heading off to the chicken coop.
Inside, the hens and roosters are swarming around me, nipping at my boots for the food. I keep trying to shake them off, but in the process, I manage to fall down, knocking the seeds all around the floor. "Oh well." I mumble to myself, standing up and brushing myself off, "They eat it like that anyways, I suppose." Walking around the coop, I see a small egg lying on the ground over in the corner. I bend down to pick it up, when suddenly a hen comes swooping down on me, pecking at my ear.
"Alright, alright already!" I exclaim, throwing it off. "I won't take the goddamn egg." The hen looked rather pleased with itself as it places it bottom on top of the egg, glaring up at me. I clench my fists together, holding in my anger; who knew that chickens could piss you off that much?
Walking back into the cold, I hop back into the pasture to search for the horse. To my surprise, it was already waiting by the trough, ready to be brushed. "Hello there." I say, patting its neck gently. It snorts at me, looking down at me curiously. I smile, letting it smell my hand before brushing it. The horse was rather patient with me, seeing as I fumbled and splashed the cold water in the trough at it by accident once. I managed to get it clean, and when it saw me take off the brush, I swear it sighed in relief.
"Oh come off it." I laugh, rubbing its forehead, "It wasn't that bad."
"Well how do you know?" Says a voice behind me, making me jump. Turning around to the culprit, I see a man with curly black hair leaning against the fence. His jaw is set in a frown, but the glitter in his brown eyes told me he was amused.
"Well why do you care?" I retort back, walking over to him.
His lips twitched into something like a smirk. "Someone's a smart ass." He says, his tone light and cheerful.
I fold my arms across my chest as I scan his features. He's tall, pretty muscular, and looked a heck of a lot like me. I had to admit, he was pretty good looking, too. "Someone's mysterious." I say with a lame comeback.
"I'm Marlin." He says, but doesn't offer his hand, "I thought that you would be here."
I cock my head in confusion for a moment, but then realization strikes me. "You work at Vesta's farm, right? I'm Jade."
"Right. And I just wanted to make sure you were okay."He replies, making me raise my eye brows.
"Well as you can see, I'm not dead, nor bleeding, no thanks to you."I give him a sarcastic smile before walking over to my father's house.
"Wait, Jade, can I meet you sometime at the bar tonight?" Marlin calls, rushing to my side.
I pause for a moment, taken aback by the random invitation, "Uhm. Sure?" I say in a daze.
"See you then, then."Was all I heard him say before he disappeared.