Shane's P.O.V.

Four… Five… Six… Holding as many bags of wheat seeds as I could carry, I made my way over to Pierre's counter. It was the day before the Valley Fair and almost surprisingly, Morris had given everyone the day off to prepare. How gracious of him, I would have thought, if I wasn't wise to the fact that this probably meant forced overtime later in the week. Marnie and Rain were busy preparing the goods for our display, so I'd been tasked with buying wheat seeds for the cows. "Ah, good afternoon, Shane." Pierre nodded, counting the bags of seeds as he pushed his glasses back up his nose. His eyes were uncharacteristically lined with subtle dark circles.

"Afternoon," I mumbled back, my hands in my pockets.

"Preparations for the Fair going well, I take it?" he tapped at the cash register. I nodded, and he smirked slightly. "Well, let's hope it stays that way."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," he yawned, falsely nonchalant, "but it doesn't hurt to be prepared, you know?" there was an unpleasant glint in his eye as he bagged up the seeds. "Sixty gold."

I handed over the money, my eyes never flickering from his and vice versa. Then, grabbing the handles of the thin plastic bag, turned heel and walked briskly out of the doors. What the hell was that…? I felt it in the pit of my stomach. Something wasn't right about what Pierre had just said. I mean, I barely knew the guy, but that was definitely out of character. Out of the corner of my eye as I crossed the square a figure emerged and I almost jumped out of my skin. "Afternoon, Shane!" A chipper voice called to me.

"Oh… afternoon, Mayor." It was just Lewis… I was getting jumpy. I just needed to get inside and calm myself down.

Before long, I was comfortably away from the town into the forest. Pushing open Aunt Marnie's front door I heard girlish laughter - Jas was helping Rain decorate the practice display, all the while Marnie overlooked the situation contentedly. As the door clicked shut Jas noticed me, a grin beaming on her face from ear to ear. "Shane's home! Shane's home!"

"Hey, Jas," I smiled calmly. I didn't want to let on that something was wrong with Jas in earshot - I would not ruin this for her. Rain looked happy, too. "Hey! I think we're about ready for tomorrow," she said, signaling the display behind her. Spools of silk were furled up at the top with vegetables and bottles of milk shining in the dim light. Large white eggs were assembled at the bottom and the centrepiece was an impressively large pumpkin. "What do you think?"

"Woah," I gasped to myself in awe, "not bad at all."

"I'll say!" Marnie chuckled. "Shane, dear, could you go into the coop and feed the girls?"

"Sure." I glanced over at Rain. "Come with me?"

"Wha..?" She tilted her head. "Can't you manage by yourself?"

"Please." I lowered my voice, covertly looking over at Jas. "...I need to say something." Rain looked pensive as I said this. "Oh… okay," she followed me, waving to Marnie. "I'm gonna go help Shane!"

"Thank you, dear!" My Aunt shouted after her. I closed the coop door so that it was just the two of us, alone in the quiet darkness - other than the chickens of course. "So? What's wrong?" She stared up at me, full-faced, full of concern. The green of her eyes still seemed to glimmer, even in the dark of the coop… she was truly breathtaking, there was no denying that. It would've been the perfect opportunity for a confession, huh? I could've told her right then and there how I felt about her. The mood was right. I was mostly sober. As always, she was beautiful… believe me, I considered it. But Pierre's words were pressing hard against my skull. The nagging feeling wouldn't stop… I knew there was something more imminent. "I… I think someone might be out to sabotage our display."

"What?" she whispered sharply, checking behind her for signs of Marnie. "You're joking, right?"

"I wish."

"Well… Who? And why?"

"I was at Pierre's earlier," I sighed, "he was acting weird and kind of implied something bad could happen to our display."

"Hmm…" Rained frowned, her forefinger's knuckle on her chin like one of those Greek statues. "And you're sure this isn't just a misunderstanding?"

"Well, I…" I stuttered. I guess from Rain's perspective, it just sounded like paranoid rambling. But I was there. I could feel his animosity. "I don't think so…"

"Listen, I know you really want to get this first place ribbon for Marnie. I've been getting more paranoid as the days go on too, that I'm gonna knock over the display, or something just won't be quite right… You know?" She reassured me. My stomach dropped - she didn't believe me. No, I suppose that makes sense - the more I thought about it, the less sense it made that Pierre would be out to get us. "...Yeah. Sorry." I rubbed my face tiredly. "I just… I want Aunt Marnie to be happy."

"I know." she smiled sweetly. "So do I. We'll do our best, okay?"

"...Yeah." I averted my eyes. I probably sounded like a total idiot. Wordlessly we headed back inside. Jas was admiring the giant pumpkin, eyes full of glee. Aunt Marnie looked excited too. I shook myself out of my paranoia and joined them.

Please let me be wrong about this… Marnie deserves to be happy...

Author's Note: Ahh this is kind of a short one, sorry about that! I want the Fair to have its own chapter though. :3

Also, STREAM ANNOUNCEMENT! I'm doing a 24 hour charity gaming stream starting tomorrow (3rd December) at 12pm GMT. My Twitch is Nyannygiri if you're interested and if you're feeling generous please donate to the charity cause!

Bye for now! ~Nyannygiri