Just Another Side Character- Chapter 2
And so the scheming began.
Lillian "suggested" that Laney come to her farm at 1 o'clock, but Laney thought by suggested she meant "You must come because you have really nothing else to do".
So that night Laney snuck out and she was thrilled by how exciting it was. She had never snuck out after dark in her life, mostly because she never had a reason to, but also because she thought it would be more difficult than it was.
Laney went to bed at 10 o'clock, like always. But she didn't leave the bed until she was she her father, Howard, was asleep. Laney dressed in dark clothing, well, dark-ish clothing. Howard didn't believe in buying his daughter dark clothing because it was:"SOOOOOOOO depressing!"
Laney, being paranoid, didn't turn on her beside lamp to get dressed; she instead dressed to the light of her father's Hello Kitty nightlight from across the room. It was at times like these that she was glad her father was a little strange.
She carefully tiptoed down the stairs to the café. It looked strange in the dark, with the shadows playing games of tag by moonlight.
Laney knew her father could sleep through anything, but she wasn't so sure about Cam. He slept in a tiny storage room, which sounds bad, but isn't really that bad. And Cam didn't argue. She wasn't sure if Cam even could start a conversation. Let alone argue with Laney.
So Laney ran out of the café as quickly as she could, her last step on the wooden floor made the planks groan painfully. Laney hesitated for half of a second, but didn't stop running until she got to Lillian's doorstep.
Panting, Laney knocked on the door.
"What's the password?" A voice called from within, obviously Lillian's.
"Uh… Butterscotch?" Laney said, not remembering any password.
The door suddenly swung open to a smiling Lillian and, to Laney's surprise, Ash.
"If you're gonna mention butterscotches, you should have made some." Lillian said jokingly.
"Why is Ash here?" Laney said at once. Ash looked up at Laney and frowned. "Am I not wanted here?" He asks defiantly.
"Don't worry Ash, you're always welcome here. And Laney, are you trying to look like a ninja in those dark clothes?"
Laney's face reddened, she had felt pretty ninja-like sneaking around everywhere. She sat down across from Ash at the table, and Lillian took the seat next to him.
"So here's the plan guys." Lillian said, with a dangerous glint in her eyes. "So the Cooking Festival is tomorrow, right? Well, before the Festival begins, I will go around and ask people from both Bluebell and Konohana town if they'd like to play a dating game with us…"
"Wait, I'm confused, how do you know everyone will agree to play your creepy game?" Laney asked, suspicious of Lillian's intentions.
"Well, if they don't want to be part of my diabolical plan then that's their loss, but I figure that there is six dateable boys on this mountain, and six dateable girls, so if everyone plays this "game", one boy can be paired up with one girl, and then go on a super-romantic date, just for fun! We'll draw the names from a hat, maybe we can take Pierre's!"
"It's just crazy enough to work!" Ash chimed in, smiling brightly at Lillian.
Laney smiled; those two were perfect for each other. You could almost see the love radiating from them when they were together.
"But wait… Aren't you forgetting yourself Lillian?"
Putting Lillian in the mix messed up the entire equation.
Lillian thought for a moment, and said, "We'll just see have to see how it turns out."
"Where does Ash come in on this plot?" Laney said, rather quietly, as to not disturb the two lovebirds.
"Ash will help out just in case anything in the plan goes awry, and it probably will." Lillian said, her lips peeling into a mischievous smile.
"Lillian, how will this work out for me, I mean, what if I'm paired up wrongly with someone? And I make them mad, or even hate me?" Laney said, her voice rising louder and louder with hysteria on each word.
Lillian was about to say something, but Ash put his hand on her arm, which in their secret language meant: Let me handle this.
Ash slowly reached across the table and took Laney's hand, never taking his eyes off of hers.
"Laney," He said, in the most serious voice she had ever heard from him. "No one could ever hate you; you're too nice a person."
But no one could love me either… She thought sadly. She knew she shouldn't shoot down compliments, but she couldn't help herself.
"Lillian didn't ask me to be here Laney; I came up to her and asked if she could help me find a way to cheer you up. Because, Laney, for awhile now, you've seemed sort of… Hollow. Like a shell of your former self, you never smile anymore."
Laney's face went blank, and she gasped as unexpected tears started to trickle down her cheeks. She held her head down and told the table, "Thank you both, but Ash, I am here because Lillian asked, not for an intervention."
She looked up, wiped a tear off of her face and smiled. It wasn't a real smile though, it was a fake, but real enough to give Lillian and Ash the impression she was going to be alright.
-THE NEXT DAY-
Laney awoke. She mechanically lifted herself out of bed, and despite the few hours of sleep she got, her nerves made her feel wide awake.
Her father greeted her downstairs, just as bubbly as ever. And Cam just nodded politely when she made eye contact.
She was on edge, waiting for one of them to ask where she had been.
They didn't.
Today was the last Cooking Festival of the season, so there were desserts to be made.
Laney took her time getting ingredients, mixing things. It was quite relaxing for Laney. Cooking took her mind off of whatever troubles she might have and forced her to think only about she was doing. She was so enthralled in her work, that she didn't see Lillian enter the café. Although her father caught it immediately, he wasn't one to slack on the job.
"Well HEELLOOOOOOO! THERE LILLIANNNNN!" He cried cheerfully, his hands going up to his cheeks.
"Hello Howard! Hello Laney!" Lillian beamed. But when Laney didn't even look up she muttered about how Laney got tunnel vision when she cooked. So she stalked around the counter, took a big handful of flour in each hand from the jar and said: "LANEY!"
Poof.
And just like that, Laney became covered in flour
"WHAT!" Laney exclaimed, shaking flour off of herself every time she moved. Lillian was thrown into a fit of laughter, and Howard joined her soon after. And then Laney couldn't help but laugh with them.
When Lillian had her back turned to Laney, Laney in turn grabbed the entire jar of flour and hefted its contents at Lillian.
Lillian shrieked, and then laughed even more when she figured out what had happened.
"Whatever was that for Laney?" Lillian said, in her most comically shocked expression.
"I should be asking you the same question!" Laney giggled. Dusting the powdery stuff off her apron, and making the floor all white.
But Laney knew why she did it, Lillian was trying to cheer her up, and it worked. At least for a little while.
Lillian left Laney, she was a farmer after all, and had work to do too. Howard was still chuckling as he swept up the flour from the floor, and Laney finished her creation: Trifle.
She had made the stuff with ingredients from Lillian's farm, so she knew it was going to be good. The fruit in it was also from Lillian, who always gave when she could.
Laney set the dish on a cake display stand and put the lid on top. She had made Trifle before, and she knew from experience that Cheryl, Ash's younger sister, absolutely loved the stuff. And she probably wouldn't hesitate to steal Laney's dish if she saw it.
That's how good Laney's food was.
So Laney started her ascent to the mountain, nervous as to how Lillian's scheme was going to play out. She used to play on this mountain all the time when she was little. It was just Georgia, Ash, and herself. Cam hardly ever played with them.
Laney was never as active as Georgia or Ash, so sometimes they didn't even ask her if she wanted to play, or sometimes when they played hide & seek, they would purposely leave Laney hiding somewhere and run off to play a different game.
Children could be so cruel. But that was in the past, she was a grown woman now.
She spotted Rutger and Ina at the top of the hill, glaring at each other and making things awkward for the people coming to the festival.
"Aha! Laney dear! What have you brought us today?" Rutger said, trying to peek under the display case.
Laney jumped back and hugged the display case tight. "It's a secret Mayor, but don't worry, it'll be good!"
"Contest winning good I hope..." Rutger mumbled.
Laney set the dish down on the Bluebell table next to two others and went to see if Lillian had arrived yet.
She had. And she was already making a scene. Albeit the quietest one she's ever made.
What did she…? Good Goddess, she really took Pierre's hat.
The line dividing the Bluebell side and the Konohana side was smeared, and the youth of the two towns were bunched together in a tight circle, whispering.
Laney joined the group, which immediately accepted her. Laney was of course an old member of the community, but sometimes she didn't really feel like she was a part of anything. The feeling of being accepted was delicious. Lillian found her and said to her, but also the group, "Laney you're here! Say, do you want play a little game with rest of us?"
Laney's was confused; did she think Laney had forgotten about the meeting last night…? Oh! She was trying to get her to play the game like they planned, but she didn't want the other's to know she was in on it. She had probably done the same thing with Ash.
"Oh, um, sure Lillian, that sounds fun! Who else is playing...?" Laney said, choosing her words carefully.
Lillian smiled a knowing smile, which meant she knew Laney understood. "Everyone except Alisa, Reina, and Dirk. Reina is sick, and I think Alisa is cleaning the church, again. And no one rightly knows where Dirk is half of the time…"
Lillian handed Laney a slip of paper and a pencil and had Laney write her name. Lillian took the paper and dropped it into the hat.
"Uh, Lillian, did Pierre, um, willingly, let you take his hat?" Laney asked, feeling kind of like Lillian's baby sitter.
"Oh this thing? Ha! Pierre told me he's got tons of these silly purple hats. This is just his spare one. Oh don't look at me like that Laney, those were his words, not mine."
Laney giggled, and sat at the Bluebell side, so anxious for Lillian's game that she almost forgot about her dish. Laney looked about and saw that everyone else, well the younger people anyway, looked more distracted. It wasn't every day the two villages got to do this sort of thing.
Bluebell won the contest, but Laney only took a little bit self-satisfaction from it. She was just itching to see how this worked out, but she also kind of dreaded it.
After all of the "old people", as Lillian said, cleared out, Lillian walked away from the group and announced: "All right boys and girls, let's get this show on the road!" She made a very dramatic display of rummaging through the hat, slowly taking it out, and then taking a long pause before she said a name.
"Let's see now… Hiro….will be paired up with… "Lillian drew another name out of that ridiculess hat. "Nori!"
Nori blushed cutely, but Hiro turned outright red with embarrassment.
"Yeah go Hiro! WOO!" Kana exclaimed loudly, pumping his fist in the air and making the entire crowd erupt with giggles. Even Cam sort of laughed. It was hard to believe sometimes that everyone here were adults.
"Annnnnnd the next lovely couple issssssss!" Lillian exaggerated, drawing out her words. "Laney annnnnnnd CAM!"
Laney felt her chest tighten and her face turn red. Cam? Why Cam? Was the Harvest Goddess trying to tell her something? But… No, she remembered Lillian telling her something the other day.
"And what about Cam? He seems like your type. He's quiet."
Oh no. Had Lillian rigged the game? But more so, what was she going to do about her date with Cam?