Chapter Four:

Well, crap

Perfection. Mark was the perfect person to scheme with I mean, we both had the same agenda and little to lose. All we had to do was break up Lanna and Denny.

Okay, easier said than done, right? Especially considering that neither of us were very close to who were supposed to be sabotaging. We figured that we couldn't get under our crushes' skin by ourselves, no we needed each other to sneak into our rivals heads and plant the seeds of doubt for the other.

Like I said, perfect.

Here was Mark's plan; he'd borrow my fishing rod and ask Denny to take him out and teach him how to fish ("seeing how he's the best and all," boy Mark could be a real brownnoser), and I'd invite Lanna over to have dinner with Natalie, Julia, and I. The girl's wouldn't mind too much—or I thought they wouldn't.

"You want to do what?" Natalie asked that rainy Tuesday, I was lucky enough to catch the both of them in the Animal shop.

"Invite Lanna to dinner tonight," I repeated.

"No."

"But, Natalie! Why not?"

"I don't know, Chelsea. We don't know her very well," Julia said, trying to shed some logic on Natalie's opposition.

"Well, perfect time to get to know her," I said, "Besides, she doesn't hang out with anyone besides Denny."

"I think she prefers it that way," Natalie said.

My face flushed and I pouted, "Either way, she needs a couple of girlfriends."

"Let Sabrina do that—she needs to hang out with someone other than her dad anyways."

"It'd just be this once. If we don't like her we just don't invite her again. Come on guys!"

The two looked at each other and shrugged.

"Fine, Chelsea, but we don't have to enjoy it," Natalie finally agreed.

I cheered and hugged them both, "Thank you, guys!"

"I just want to know why later," Natalie added as I squeezed the life out of her.

"Yeah, yeah. Of course!"

I thought to myself that I'd have to think up a lie to tell her over dinner.

I can probably guess what you're all thinking: Wasn't it awkward inviting a girl you honestly dislike for dinner? Well, obviously it was. I went to her house after talking it over with Natalie and Julia and immediately got a response from the hyped up pop star.

"Oh, of course! I'd love to have dinner with you guys!" She was very excited. "You know, I always see you guys having fun and I've always wanted to join you."

I laughed and told her that we were happy to have her. I was getting pretty good at lying.

That night, Lanna was the last to come to our table. She said hello to Denny and Mark (who were having their own guys' night out).

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late," she said sitting down.

"No problem, so what's up?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing really…"

Surprisingly she wasn't very talkative.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Natalie asked.

"No, I have to keep my figure, you know?" Lanna said.

The three of us looked towards each other and I'm pretty sure we were all thinking the same thing: This was gonna be a long night.

Eventually, Julia left I wasn't expecting her to give up faster than Natalie. The three of us continued eating (or not, in Lanna's case) in conversation about the weather. Soon enough though, Lanna got fed up.

"Ugh, this is boring!" She yelled.

"Well, make it interesting then," Natalie said. I kept quiet trying to suck out the last of my third milkshake.

"Fine. Natalie, I think you need to go and just kiss Mark already!"

I finally got to do my spit-take, even though I hardly had anything in my mouth, so it mostly just dribbled against my chin.

"W-what?" Natalie was just as surprised.

I turned around to see if the guys heard and from the looks of it they hadn't.

"I've seen how you look at him, and you're constantly working with him. You so totally dig him!"

"You have?" I asked I didn't know this, "Should I be paying you then?"

"N-no no! I just wanted to help him," Natalie claimed, although her red face told what she was really thinking, "You overwork him!"

For 500 G an hour, of course I was going to overwork him. Boy was expensive.

I bit my lip, this wasn't a good thing. I wasn't too keen on the idea of helping the guy my best friend liked getting with another girl. "How are you so sure, Lanna?" I asked.

"Well, I just have a sixth sense about these things," she admitted.

"Really?" the sarcasm was dripping just like the milkshake was.

"Really," apparently, Lanna didn't catch it. She was dead serious.

Something about her face must have been funny because Natalie just cracked up. And eventually, I found the humor in Lanna's grave face and started laughing too. Soon enough, we were all laughing.

In all honesty, I was surprised at how well that night ended. It certainly went better than I thought, despite the earlier discomfort. It didn't take long for Julia to warm up the pop star either, and before I knew it, Lanna had become part of the Tuesday Diner gang (she was always with Denny Thursdays "It's our date night!" she would chime).

Don't ask me why, but I was beginning to like that girl, she was real sweet (even if she could get a little too energetic at times). I just couldn't bring myself to go through the plan.

After a while though, Mark grew impatient with me.

"Well?" he asked once day while we collected eggs.

"Well, what?" I asked.

"How's the plan?" he asked. He was always asking me how it was going and I always told him that I didn't think it was the right time to say anything. Well by then it was already Fall. Mark and waited long enough.

"I can't say, man," I told him.

"Chels! The hell?! I've been busting my chops for you with Denny and you haven't even started on your end of the deal!" Mark sure had a pair of lungs on him.

"Is that anyway to talk to your boss?!" me? Not so much.

"If you only did what you're supposed to then I wouldn't have to!"

"Fine! Fine! I'll do it tonight, alright?!"

"But it's Wednesday," Mark pointed out, no longer so loud but just as heated.

"I'll go over to her house and tell her I'm concerned and just tell her how I'm afraid Denny might be unfaithful, kay?" I asked. I didn't like the idea, but it was the best I could think of.

"Okay. You better do it, Chels. 'Cause the longer we wait, the less likely we can break them up."

"I got it," I said, and went back to collecting chicken eggs.

I can say with all honesty that I'm not proud of that night.

Author's Note: I'm late, I'm late for a very important date! Well, crap. Oh, see what I did there? I'm so very clever (--so isn't). Haha, okay, back to business, I really am sorry I'm late. Anywho, it's been brought to my attention that I've been spelling "definitely" wrong (apparently Word is as bad as a speller as I am). Thanks for the tip ImaginationFlow, and you were so nice about it too! Don't worry, I've fixed 'em all (at least I hope so). Enjoy chapter Four! And I had to leave it at a cliff-hanger. I'm so sorry (again, I'm so apologetic). I'm hoping to get in the next chapter tomorrow, but worst case scenario it'll be in early Saturday.

Disclaimer: Harvest Moon and all characters belong to Natsume