Julia and Chelsea have one major thing in common, a love of animals. More particularly, cats. In fact, that's what the two bonded over on the first day that Chelsea had come into the animal shop.

"Excuse me?" the farm girl asked as she entered the animal shop.

"Hello, what can I help you with?" asked a vivacious blonde, "Sorry my mom's not here, but I can help you find what you're looking for,"

"I'm just looking for some pet food for my cat, Chen next door said that you guys would be able to help me,"

"Of course, it'll be ten gold," the young girl said with a smile, and handed Chelsea two bags of pet food. Chelsea quickly noticed the mistake, she'd only paid for one bag.

"I'm sorry, but I think you made a mistake, I only paid for one bag," Chelsea started, a little unsure of herself.

"Oh, don't worry about it. The second bag's on the house," the blonde winked.

"Thank you," Chelsea smiled, and after a bit of thought she added, "I don't really need the second bag. Would you mind taking it off my hands?"

"Oh I couldn't possibly accept a gift, I don't even really know you,"

"Well, my name's Chelsea Reynolds. Now you know me," Chelsea said.

"The name's Julia," Julia giggled, "Thank you for the present. So you have a cat?"

After that, the two girls hit it off and spent most of what was left in the day getting to know each other. Julia had told Chelsea about all the other people who lived on the islands, except for, conveniently enough, the man who she was sitting across from in Mirabelle's dining room. After completely embarrassing Chelsea in front of the cowboy, Julia invited him to have some milk and cookies with the girls. Right now, Julia was in the kitchen trying to bake the cookies and she left Chelsea and Vaughn to stare at each other across the table.

"So..." Chelsea started, trying to give Vaughn the opportunity to jump into a conversation. A gruff sounding Humph was all she got out of him. "You're an animal trader?" Chelsea asked trying to get rid of the awkward silence.

...

"Yes," he grumbled, and didn't continue.

"Do you like your job?" Chelsea asked after a moment.

"Puts food on the table." Chelsea nodded in response, and waited for him to say something else. When he didn't, she just started talking.

"I'm really excited to become a rancher," Chelsea stated, hoping Vaughn would ask her a few questions about herself. He just stared at her looking bored.

"You really think you got what it takes to be a rancher?" Vaughn asked. This tiny, five foot something, one-hundred pound girl wanted to be a rancher, and she seriously thought she could do it.

"Why wouldn't I?" Chelsea inquired, becoming slightly angry. Was he implying something? He didn't think she could do it? Hah! She would show him.

"Listen, you don't know the first thing about ranching, you don't know how to take care of animals, you obviously didn't know how to take care of crops or else you wouldn't have been asking Mark today, and you're a girl who's-,"

Chelsea slammed her palms on the table, she'd heard enough, "I may not know how to do all those things just yet, but Goddess! I will learn! But the thing I find inexcusable is the fact that you just insulted my gender to my face and said it like it made a difference in whether or not I can ranch!" Vaughn blanched, she had totally misinterpreted what he was saying, and she cut him off before he could explain what he meant.

"Listen, you inter-"

"No you listen! I will make a good rancher! I'd put money on it!"

"You don't know how to ranch!"

"I'll learn!"

"But you're so small, there's no way you're strong enough-" Vaughn started.

Chelsea was boiling mad, this guy doubted everything about her, and was judging her based on appearance! All she was doing was trying to be friendly, and this guy... He was just so sexist! Vaughn was more perplexed as to why this little girl was getting so defensive. Everything he had said was true. Maybe a little blunt, but true.

"I will be a successful rancher!" she said with a huff.

"Listen, little lady I ain't trying to offend ya-"

"Well you're doin' a pretty damn good job!"

"Fine! If you think you're gonna be an amazing rancher, then good for you. I'm just trying to getcha ta pull yer head out of yer ass and realize that it's gonna take hard work, do you think you can do it?"

"YES!" Chelsea yelled, "I'll be just as good as Mark! No, even better than Mark!"

"Do you know what yer sayin'?"

"Of course I do!"

Julia watched the scene before her unfold, Goddess, she'd only left those two alone for barely ten minutes and they were already at each others' throats.

"Guys," she said, trying to get their attention, "I've got the food," but the two kept ignoring her and yelling at one another.

"You think you'll be better than Mark? Do you know how much he made in his first year of ranching?"

"No, but I know that if I work hard then I can do it!"

"Guys?" Julia said once again, a little louder.

"Fine, if you can beat how much Mark made in his first year by Winter 30th then I'd be willin' to bring you animals for free. Even feed for 'em. Whatdaya say?"

"Guuuys?"

"Hell yes!"

"And if I win then you gotta pay me the difference of what you don't make, and help me out with the animals when I'm here."

"Fine with me, but I'm gonna win!"

"Guys!"

"Put 'er there," Vaughn said, extending his arm. Chelsea reciprocated, and the two shook while glaring one another down.

"CHELSEA! VAUGHN!" Julia exploded, tired of being ignored. "What is this! I leave you alone for ten minutes to bake the cookies and get the danged milk and you two are at each others' throats!" Julia huffed, calming down. Her eyes narrowed and she fixed a glare at Vaughn.

"You! Gender's got nothing to do with whether or not Chelsea can ranch! Don't be an ass! And Goddess, wipe that smug grin off your face! And you," Julia turned her glare toward Chelsea, "You're an idiot! Do you know how much Mark made in his first year? He made one-hundred-thousand gold! That's five zeroes, honey!" Chelsea paled. Now she wasn't so confident about being able to make that much money. Hurriedly, Chelsea decided that it was no longer appropriate for her to be there, she was out of place, and just made herself look like a complete moron. Perhaps Vaughn was right...

"Where are you going?" Julia asked, tapping her foot.

"Home?" Chelsea answered, even though it came out sounding like a question.

"Like hell you are, I just slaved over a hot oven for the past ten minutes and you are going to eat what I made," Julia was beginning to sound more like a mother, than a friend, and frankly, Chelsea didn't appreciate it. But, out of courtesy she grabbed one of the cookies off Julia's plate and sat back down.

She refused to look up and meet Vaughn in the eye. She didn't want to see the smirk on his face that just proved she wasn't thinking logically. She needed to learn to start driving with her head, not just go on auto-pilot and say the first thing that came to her mind. Was she kidding herself? She had totally sucked it up today while ranching. Chelsea furrowed her brow, deep in thought. No, she was determined. With hard work she'd get the hang of things. She could make that hundred-thousand. Or at least, she hoped she could. The last thing she wanted was to give that Vaughn the satisfaction of knowing she couldn't do what she put her mind to. And to make things worse, these cookies were awfully gross.

XxX

Vaughn stared at the girl sitting across from him. She seemed to be deep in thought, and wore a plain as day scowl on her face. He silently wondered about this girl, she was so different from the others he had met. Definitely not his type, she was too loud and needed to learn to think before she acted. He couldn't help but find it funny that she dove totally headfirst into his proposed bet, he hadn't even been serious about it. Now he just wanted to see where it all went. But for his sake, he hoped she'd lose. His boss would fire him on the spot if he knew that Vaughn had promised to bring some rancher girl animals for free. He's be even angrier if he found out that it was because of a bet, and to a girl that Vaughn wasn't even particularly fond of.

Vaughn took another bite of his cookie, Goddess these things were terrible. Julia was an awful cook. Grabbing his napkin, Vaughn spit the bite out and didn't eat anymore. He just downed his milk, then stood up.

"Look, this has been fun 'n all, but I got a boat to catch at five t'morrow morning. I'm goin' ta bed," with that, Vaughn walked silently up the stairs after putting his glass in the sink.

Chelsea stared at Julia, "Where's Vaughn going?"

"Vaughn is only here Mondays and Tuesdays, he lives out in the city and delivers animals from out there and brings them here,"

"Ah," Chelsea said knowingly. She glanced down at her cookie. In no way did she want to eat the rest of that thing.

"Jules," Chelsea started, getting the blondes' attention, "These cookies are seriously gross. I refuse to eat anymore,"

"Hey," said Julia in mock-anger, "I worked hard on those!"

"Then you really need another lesson in cooking," Chelsea giggled.

"Fine," Julia said, "You teach me,"

"Alright," Chelsea agreed.

"That wasn't the reaction I was expecting," Julia said, "You cook?"

"And bake, and clean," Chelsea added.

"Where'd you learn?" Julia asked.

"Well, I was really the only one to do it. My mom was never around, and when she was, she didn't have time for me,"

"Oh," replied Julia, a little unsure of what to say. She didn't want to pry, but she was curious.

"Don't ask," Chelsea replied, as if knowing what Julia was thinking, "How about I help you clean up, then give you a few pointers?"

"Sounds good to me," Julia replied, happy to not make her friend any more uncomfortable. "And you know, you're stuck in that bet. There's no way Vaughn will let you weasel out,"

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Goddess, he needs to learn to respect women! Plus, I think I can do it,"

"Chelsea, don't you think you might be a little in over your head? Mark is the best rancher these islands have ever seen,"

"Yeah, well, these islands haven't really met me," Chelsea retorted.

"Huh," Julia said, "Well at least you're confident."

With that, the girls cleaned up all the mess and Chelsea returned home to feed her cat.

Here's chapter two of Moving Forward, Growing Up. I hope you all liked it! I worked hard. Reviews and favorites are greatly appreciated, but certainly not mandatory. Enjoy! Thanks for reading!