"Alright, here we go…"

"Jeez, Shane, don't drop it!"

"I won't, I won't…" Shane rolled his eyes holding one end of our grange display whilst I held up the other side. "Remind me again why we have to carry the whole thing as is?"

"Don't ask me. Marnie wanted to save time and do it this way. Now quit slacking on your side!" I was buckling under the weight of the giant pumpkin and Shane was taking his sweet time. Jas was giggling, dancing around us and the giant pumpkin. Cute, but she nearly knocked me over three or four times just on the way out of the door. I'd never noticed before just how bumpy the ground in the forest was until just then, and it really didn't feel like the best of times to be finding out. The edges of the display were digging into my palms. I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to hold out, but I was decidedly not about to drop this thing after how hard we worked on it. Not a chance.

The paved path into town really wasn't any better than the bumpy ground in the forest - in fact, it was a total mess to walk on and I nearly tripped up several times. Note to self: find Lewis and make him get this fixed. Weaving around all the people was no easy task, as well as the attractions and tents all over town. Why, oh why didn't we just get up early like I wanted to?! Well, I know why. Shane couldn't get his lazy butt out of bed. But I digress. The display, to my horror, knocked against a lamp post as we walked and I heard Shane groan on impact. We wobbled a little, but thankfully we managed to keep our balance. "Good morning, Mira!" I heard the Mayor's voice behind me.

"Hi, Lewis. Can't talk. Gotta put this down." I grumbled, straining to talk. We'd finally reached the space for our grange display, and with one final heave we set it down. "Whew…" I'd never been so relieved to put something down in my entire life. "Okay, now what?"

"Buffet." Shane shuffled off toward a long blue table covered in all sorts of different dishes. I sighed. "Jeez, you're so boring…" Looking around, the Mayor had really done a number on the town. Colourful streamers, brightly coloured tents, even tourists! I was actually pretty impressed. As I walked around, I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Good day, Mirabelle! Would ye care for a try, lass?" I turned toward the gruff voice to see a thick bearded man with a pipe in his mouth. With all the people around the pipe wasn't lit, of course - maybe it was just a comforting habit. "Oh… Willy!" I looked up at the red striped tent and saw a crude wooden sign with what I guessed was probably a fish on it. "Sure, I'll give it a try!" Willy led me inside, where there was a small pool of water. Carp were just visible. Willy handed me a tattered old rod and blew a whistle. I kinda wished I could use my own rod, but hey, no need to sweat the small stuff. With a great swing I cast out my line.

"Whew…" I'd managed to catch eight fish in two minutes. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

"Wow, lass, ye be a natural!" Willy looked impressed when we left the tent. I waved my hand, rubbing the back of my head with the other. "Nah, it was just a lucky-" from the corner of my eye I could see a head of bleach blonde hair. Uh-oh. And it wasn't just Haley - Leah, Alex and Sam were with her too. It didn't look like they'd spotted me yet, but they were heading my way. "A-anyway, I'd better go. See you later, Willy!" I abruptly turned heel and ducked into the next nearest tent - the slingshot contest. It was a little dark, but I could just about make out several targets lined up on the far wall behind a wooden barricade. Three slingshots were resting atop the barricade, and a pot of small stones was beside each one. Cautiously I picked up a slingshot and the tent sprung to life; the lights flashed on, carnival music started blaring out and the targets started to move. "Gyaaaahhh!" I exclaimed in surprise. Just then I heard a soft chuckle from beside me. Oh great. Someone saw my soul leave my body over a fairground attraction. Kill me now. I looked up and froze in place. It was Sebastian. Was he with the others? No… He was alone. But… Was it really okay? The last time we spoke was…

"You playing?" He said at last.

"Oh… Sure!" I looked down at the slingshot in my hands. "I didn't take you as the type to come out and play fairground games."

"I'm hiding from my family," he mumbled and rolled his eyes - or, at least, I could see that he was rolling the eye that was visible from under his fringe. "What about you?"

"Oh… Yeah, something like that too…" I laughed awkwardly, wondering if the Haley crew had seen me hightail it away from them. Sebastian grinned, put his pack of cigarettes down on the barricade and started the timer. He grabbed a stone, lined up a shot and hit one of the high point targets like a total natural. Feeling confident, I tried it myself. I pulled the elastic back as far as it would go, and- oh. I completely missed. And again. And again. "Maybe I'm not cut out for this," I laughed. My breath got caught in my throat when I felt two hoodie sleeves gently drape over my arms. Sebastian's slightly cold hands gracefully guided mine. "It's about precision, not strength," he spoke softly and his voice lifted the hair covering my ear ever so slightly. Given our height difference he was almost definitely crouching, but he still clearly knew what he was doing. "You don't need to pull the elastic back all the way." As much as I hate to admit it, I was barely even listening to his instructions. It was all I could do to keep my hands from trembling. Was it just me, or did Seb smell really good? His scent drove a flush to my cheeks and I could only hope he wasn't looking at my face. Even so, we let go of the elastic in unison and the stone hit the dead centre of one of the lower targets. "Hey, not bad." Sebastian mused. But he didn't let go. And neither did I. I turned my head just a little to the right and our eyes met. Our faces were so close together that our noses were almost touching. I wasn't sure how long for anymore, but neither of us had said anything for a while. His deep brown eyes seemed to be drawing closer as the blood whooshed around in my ears.

"Sebby?" Robin's voice shattered the atmosphere. Sebastian's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he started to look through me rather than at me.

"Sebby, where are you? It's family picture time!"

"Oh, for god's sake…" he stepped away, hanging his head. "I'm coming." he shouted outside. He looked at me again, just for a moment, before averting his eyes. "I gotta go. I'll… see you around."

"Oh… Okay!" I finally caught my breath, shaking myself out of my trance. and with that, he was gone. "Oh," I said to myself. He'd left his packet of cigarettes on the counter. Not a habit I particularly approved of, but it wasn't really any of my business. Slipping them into my pocket, I made a mental note to return them to him before the end of the festival.

I slipped out of the tent and walked over to the buffet table. I'd caught sight of some of Gus' famous chocolate fudge cake with my name all over it. Not literally, obviously, but that would've been great too. Just as I was about to dig into a slice the size of my head, a certain pepper popper eating Joja Mart employee scoffed at me. "Sure that's a big enough piece?"

"Not nearly," I jested. "I'd eat the whole thing if no one was looking and you know it."

"That's true…" Shane smirked. Before long, Marnie and Jas appeared beside us. "Marnie! I wanna go look at the tents!" Straight away, Jas' excitement gauge was at one hundred percent.

"Okay, dear…" Marnie looked exhausted. She was probably worried about the grange display.

"We could take care of Jas for a while if you want us to. Right, Shane?" I gave the oblivious oaf a nudge and he nearly choked on a pepper popper. "Wha…? Oh, er, yeah, sure." He probably didn't even hear the question.

"Oh, would you? Fantastic! Thanks so much, Mira." Marnie clasped her hands together with joy.

"No problem!" I beamed back. "So, where do you want to go first, Jas?"

"Hmmm…" Jas looked around pensively before her smile broadened again. "I want to look at… That one!" Shane and I both followed Jas' gaze and fell into silence.

"...Um."

"Is that… In the graveyard?" We were doubtful, but it was no good - Jas' excitement didn't budge. We turned to Marnie for moral support but she was already neck deep in a bowl of soup. Sigh. "Okay, well… It's worth a look, right?" I tried to stay optimistic, but Shane looked doubtful. We walked cautiously over the the graveyard and took a look at the tent.

"A fortune teller!" Jas gasped in wonder. Shane rolled his eyes and gave her a hundred-gold piece.

"Fine, go ahead. We'll wait out here."

"Are you sure?" I whispered to Shane as Jas happily skipped away. "It looks a bit sketchy."

"Nah, it's fine," Shane shrugged. "We're right out here. Besides, the mayor might be an idiot, but he's not enough of one to hire questionable attractions. Well… No worse than the clown over there, anyway."

"I guess that's true…" I laughed. Barely a few moments later, Jas skipped out of the tend, clearly satisfied.

"I wonder what garbage line they fed her." Shane whispered to me.

"Wow!" Jas exclaimed when she reached us. "That was fun! You go get one too!" She pulled at Shane's sleeve.

"Er…" Shane clearly wasn't feeling the idea.

"Aw, c'mon," I teased. "I'll even go with you. It'll be fun."

"Fine," Shane sighed, giving into Jas' puppy dog eyes no doubt. We headed into the tent. Inside was an elderly woman clad in a dark blue cloak, a crystal ball sitting on the table in front of her. Shane reluctantly handed over his gold, and the mysterious woman began to cast her hands over the crystal ball. I was entranced by the performance. I'd never been to a fortune telling booth before. "There once was a young goddess by the name of Albina…" a raspy voice began to stir from under the cloak, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. "She fell for a young god by the name of Liber, and he fell for her." Her hand motions became more violent. "However, their love did not go without challenge… The sea goddess Llyr grew jealous and resentful of their blooming romance. She lunged toward Liber with all the ferocity of the ocean waves!" Her hands were still now, but stiff, atop the crystal ball. "Albina threw herself in front of Liber and took the brunt of Llyr's attack, sacrificing herself in the name of love…" The woman grew silent for a very long moment before whispering, "May this story light the way for your future…"

"...That's it?" Shane said skeptically. "How does that story have anything to do with me?"

Silence.

"What a surprise, the con artist doesn't even-"

"Come on, Shane, let's go…" I forced a smile and dragged him out of the tent by the arm, my eyes readjusting to the soft sunlight. I thought the story was kinda cool, to be honest. Shane, however, wasn't buying it. "I don't know what I expected, honestly."

We were teaching Jas how to play the fishing game when a bell tolled. "Ten minutes until grange display judgement time, everyone!" Lewis called, cupping his hands around his mouth like a megaphone.

"Ooh, are all of the displays set up?" I glanced over to where our display was sitting - our giant pumpkin looked great. Directly next to it was Pierre's display with an even bigger pumpkin, however, but ours was clearly superior in quality. I was so excited!

But… Wait. What was Pierre doing? He was skulking around behind our display with a dark expression, and as soon as he caught sight of me looking at him, he quickly glanced away and scurried over to Gus' burger stand. What the…? Jas' excitable squealing and Shane's apathetic sighs were being drowned out by doubt. Was Shane right after all? Without another word I hurried over there. Marnie called out to me but it barely registered. I squeezed past Clint's ingot stall and briskly walked behind our stall and…

Oh.

Oh no.

Shane's P.O.V.

I was getting bored. Those ten minutes could not be going any slower. Whilst Marnie took Jas by the hand to go look at the creepy clown everyone somehow seemed to be totally unfazed by, I wandered over to the buffet table. Looks like Pam's been messing with the punch again. Perfect. Good old Lewis put an alcohol restriction on a lot of these festivals, but Pam was an expert when it came to smuggling it in. I stared down at the bowl full of crimson liquid and took a big sniff. Yep… That's whiskey, alright. It's not beer, but it'll do. I smirked to myself devilishly, poured a cup and knocked it back. When I lowered the cup out of the way of my vision, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw Rain right in front of me. "Jeez! Were you a ninja in a past life?"

"Sh-Shane…" Rain's voice was barely a whisper. Her face was pale, like she'd just seen a murder. Her eyes were wide as ever, but not bright - it was as if they were screaming.

"What… What happened?" I took her by the shoulders and lowered myself to her level.

"It… It…"

"It? It?"

"We…"

"We?"

"Our display… Sabotage… Shane, you were right! Pierre, he…!" She sprung back to life, looking like she was about to cry.

"Wha…" The tension left my body. My shoulders dropped with a sigh. "Are you that tired?"

"No, I mean it!"

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" I tried to smile. This was obviously my own fault. "I know I was on edge about Pierre before but we talked about that, remember? You're just being paranoid." Oh boy, did she look offended when I said that. She averted her aggravated expression to the side and didn't look back at me. Jeez, I wished I'd never opened my mouth in the first place. "Hey, why don't we just let this go-"

"We don't have time for this!" The tiny whirlwind of rage grabbed my arm and before I knew it I was being whisked through the crowd.

"S-slow down! Hey-"

"Look."

"Huh?" I looked. Oh, did I look. And I couldn't look away. The big pumpkin that we'd spent so long growing… Harvesting… Polishing. The back of it was covered in slugs. Someone had sabotaged us, and I knew exactly who. "Oh god."

"See?" Her tone was breathy and almost cutting. "Paranoid, am I?"

"Shit…" The damage was bad. They'd eaten through the rough exterior all the way to the stringy orange flesh. Huge visible holes riddled the back of the pumpkin like some sort of horrible mosaic. "What… What are we gonna do…?!"

"Sheesh…" Rain looked over to where Marnie and Jas were. Jas was clapping excitedly at the weird clown's tricks. Even Marnie was glowing… She was none the wiser. We did this for her. For her birthday, for the first place ribbon… My heart dropped. It was all falling apart. Rain stared at the pumpkin with intense eyes. "We need to get them off. Now."

"Y-yeah. Okay." I'd never seen her so serious. Not that it was a bad thing - if I was dealing with it alone I'd probably have just ran off to drown my sorrows. Frantically we peeled the slugs off of what remained of the pumpkin, one by one, before Rain deposited them onto some nearby grass. She might've been mad, but she was still that same old bleeding heart farmer girl. Try as we did, though, even when the slugs were gone, the gaping holes still remained. It looked a complete mess. "Now what?"

"Now what…" she repeated in a murmur, staring over at Marnie again with slightly watery eyes. "Now nothing… We can't fix this."

"Right folks, it's about time for the judging to begin!" Lewis bellowed. Rain's back stiffened. I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. She was right - there was nothing we could do now. It was too late.

"Oh, is it time?" Marnie clasped her hands together and started to head over to the square. Oh god it felt like I was going to throw up. Rain was motionless. As the mayor made his way around the grange displays, time felt like it had been stretched, distorted, stopped. Finally, Lewis reached our display. Neither of us looked at him - or anyone. I would've preferred to be swallowed up by the damn ground if it meant getting out of there. "Well, let's see what we've got here…" he mumbled contentedly as he appraised the display. "Oh, wow. This corn is an impressive golden colour." He mumbled on as if he knew what the heck he was talking about. "And this pumpkin! Quite sizeable indeed!" he chuckled. Rain clenched her fist. "Oh, but what's this…?" Yep. He'd seen it. The pale orange flesh of the pumpkin was beginning to brown after being exposed to the air. "Oh, what a shame…" Lewis looked like he was about to take his hat off and pay his respects. Rain just looked ready to cry. "I did wonder when Marnie told me that you all would be entering a pumpkin as your main piece."

"...Why's that?" I managed to choke out a raspy grunt through my dry throat.

"Well, with how the weather's been, Pierre has been telling me that they've been struggling to grow any of decent quality."

"Is that right…" Rain's teeth were gritted. Oh boy, did she sound mad… But it was that kind of calm mad. The kind where you're not quite sure what they're thinking and it's actually even scarier than them just exploding. But I knew what she was thinking this time - a little, at least. Pierre - that sneaky bastard. Trying to make up for his own failures by sabotaging us…

"Unfortunately I'll have to mark you down," Lewis rubbed his moustache before moving on to the stall belonging to Captain Creep himself. Pierre held his head up proudly like the turncoat teacher's pet of the class. Disgusting. I felt my blood boil as Lewis' eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Wow, very nice produce as usual, Pierre!" But it didn't make sense. He had a giant pumpkin as his centrepiece, too. And it's not like he was in our shadow - his was bigger. Brighter. So why? Something just didn't add up.

"Colour me impressed!" The Mayor chuckled almost sickeningly as Pierre lapped up the praise like a filthy hound. Lewis pinned the golden ribbon to the front of Pierre's display. "I think this decides it."

Ouch. The injustice. The pain in my gut was more than I expected. And she was hurting even more than I was. Rain didn't even look up when Lewis pinned the silver ribbon on our display. "Ah well, these things happen, don't they?" Lewis smiled apologetically to Marnie, who'd just arrived on the scene. "There's always next year."

"You're right." Rain spoke nonchalantly, her expression an unreadable zen. Was she really not upset about this? Her gaze drifted to Pierre, and she began to walk casually over to him. "I'd like to congratulate the winner personally. The best man won." She smiled, but not genuinely - a smile like bitter dark chocolate, with an edge just sweet enough to fool everyone. She held out her hand to Pierre, who warily and silently shook it. He knew he'd just gotten away with the perfect crime. Asshole. He's perverted this festival. Dishonest little rat. As I cursed him to myself in my head I almost missed it; a sleight of hand so casual that, not knowing as much as I did, I would've thought it an accident. "Oops," Rain said sarcastically as Pierre's display clattered to the ground. Wow. She was out for blood. I stifled a laugh as the crowd gasped. But… They weren't gasping at what she did. The pumpkin didn't land with a splat - the initial impact shattered it, leaving a hole - the husk rattling to a halt. "P-p-p-plastic?!"

Pierre's eyes were wild with panic. His mouth moved but no words crept out. The jig was up. Rain had his number, and by god she was making a house call.

"Pierre…" Lewis spoke sternly with wide eyes. "Explain yourself."

"I… I… It…" Pierre raise his hands above his head rigidly with his fingers spread like a madman. He made Linus look normal. Anger and fear flickered back and forth in his eyes - no one was sure whether he'd throw a fit or burst into tears. It was pretty pathetic, honestly. Everyone silently looked on. "It wouldn't grow! The rain… It waterlogged! I had to! I had to win…!"

"So, winning's more important than honesty, is it?" Even old man George piped up. I always knew he loved a good bit of drama. "You young'uns got a thing or two to learn about respect. Hmmph."

"Pierre, how could you…?" Marnie looked personally hurt. Thankfully, Jas didn't seem to really grasp what was going on.

"N-no, I…"

"Well, I think we all know who really deserves this first place ribbon." Lewis hastily unpinned the ribbon from Pierre's pitiful display - or what was left of it - and held it out delicately in both hands to Marnie.

"Oh my…" She gasped. Jeez, Marnie, he isn't proposing. Take the damn ribbon. "We… We won!"

"Happy birthday, Marnie!" Rain lightly jogged back over to us, sunny as ever. How on earth did she know to do that? Note to self: Never. Ever. Get on Rain's bad side. Nevertheless, I grinned. "Happy birthday, Aunt Marnie."

"Yay!" Jas cheered, dancing around with the ribbon on her head. I looked over to Pierre, who was shakily scurrying inside. Attention was on Marnie now and everyone was cheering, but this wasn't the end for him. Oh, no. In a small village like Pelican Town, I guess people had a certain level of trust, and he broke that almost as hard as Rain broke his fakey pumpkin. Well, not my problem. Rain took one of Marnie's hands and I somewhat reluctantly took the other, and the four of us headed over to the prize counter to pick out something nice for my Aunt. All's well that ends well, or whatever it is they say.

Author's Note: Hi guys! Sorry it's been a while. I hope you enjoyed this (slightly long) chapter!

I also just wanted to say that the fortune teller's story is one I just made up, lol. It's not real mythology. I just picked some gods to suit so no offence was intended to anyone. :3

Also I'm going to be starting one (maybe two) new Shane fanfics soonish, but I'll still prioritise finishing this one We're in the last few chapters now.

Thanks for reading!

~Nyannygiri