Hey peoples! Updates will be very slow from now on ( blame my exams, I have 19! 19!!!!! ) but I will try to update when I get around to it. I'm going to answer some reviews this time ( I'll do that on some select chapters.)
Gamerzgal: Thanks for the review! I will correct my mistakes in this chapter and the following one(s), constructive criticism is always welcome!
kittykyo5467: Ha ha, believe it or not, my original plan was to make Jack a likable character, who is just a small bit over protective of his sister XD I like your line "If he knew what was good for Claire, HE would stay away from her." Mind if I use that in a later chapter?
Animelover09: That idea is good, but pretty far from what is actually going to happen. I like it though.
Anyways, thanks to my reviewers! Always review, I like reviews!
It was about a week after the whole 'Jack, Claire and Gray go out to dinner' fiasco. Claire had taken her day of rest, like the Doctor had said, but still hadn't confronted Jack about the issue at hand. The whole town was buzzing with rumors about the possible breakup of the towns only couple-to-be-married. Claire hated it, as she hadn't really been talked about behind her back since grade school, and she heavily disliked the feeling of knowing people where talking dirt about you behind your back. She and Gray were going to be meeting with Anna this weekend to discuss the wedding decorations, dress and cake. Claire wasn't looking forward to it, seeing as Jack had decided he would "tag" along with her and Gray to this meeting. That meant Jack and Gray would be in the same room together, and of course fighting would ensue- right in front of Anna, the center of all gossip.
On Friday night, Claire sat alone in her small house. Jack was out with Elli and Gray was working over time. Normally when in a fix like this, Claire would just read a book, or look over her farm's assets. But today wasn't like that. Claire felt almost... anxious. She wanted to go out, have fun, she wanted to do... something. At least something other than sitting on the edge of her bed looking at an ant crawl across her dresser. She thought about the people she could meet. Ann was working tonight, Elli was out with Jack, and Popuri's bedtime was an hour earlier. Claire went through the list of Mineral Town's inhabitants in her head. Nobody seemed to be free, except for Doctor. But would being with another man while she was engaged... weird? Or even... disloyal?
"Nah," Claire said out loud, as if just to confirm it. "Gray knows that me and Doctor are just good friends!"
Her mind made up, Claire stepped over to her closet, and picked out an casual pair of jeans, and a red shirt with matching sweater to wear. She slipped on her sandals and headed out the door. Once outside, a wave of cool air hit her. Claire hugged her sweater closer to her. She walked through quiet Mineral Town until she reached the clinic. She peered through the glass window, to see if Doctor was still in. Sure enough, Doctor sat in the blindingly white clinic behind the glass, working on a graph. Claire raised a fist a knocked on the door. Doctor looked up on the first knock, and walked towards the door. He pulled it open, and Claire came inside.
"Hey Claire!" Doctor said. "What are you doing here? The clinic is closed, you know."
Claire gave a nod. "Yeah, I knew that," Claire said. "I just wanted to see if you would come to the beach, or the church, or something with me. Would you?"
Doctor studied woman in front of him with a slightly quizzical look on his face. "Claire, erm... isn't that... kind of weird? I mean, you're going to be married."
Although Claire had thought the same thing only a few minutes ago, she still felt defensive. "Gray knows we are just good friends. Just because we're getting married doesn't mean we have to be joined at the hip!"
Doctor nodded, and the two stood in awkward silence for a bit before Doctor said, "I guess I'll go with you."
Claire smiled. " Then let's go to the beach, okay?"
"Okay, let me just get my coat," Doctor said. Claire followed him over to the table where a thick black parka lay on the chair, and glanced down at the graph.
"What does this show you?" Claire asked.
"That people are going to have to get very ill, very quickly, or the clinic's doomed," replied Doctor, and Claire laughed. The pair exited the clinic and walked down the road leading to the beach chatting about the latest town gossip, and (of course) the conflict between Jack and Gray. Claire felt very open with Doctor, like she could tell him everything. After Claire had finished her little trip to the beach, she returned home. Jack STILL wasn't home. Claire sighed, wondering if he was talking about her behind her back. Claire thought about eavesdropping on her brother's date, but dismissed the compulsive urge. Instead she tucked her self up in her soft covers and feel asleep.
What seemed like only a few minutes later, Claire's alarm clock started beeping. Claire unwillingly opened her eyes and prepared for the day ahead of her. While getting dressed in her overalls, she saw that Jack was back, and was snoring away on the couch, a small bit of drool dribbled from his lower lip. Claire gave a sigh and rubbed away the drool with an (used) napkin. The meeting with Anna was at 10:00, giving Claire a good 3 hours to tend to her animals and crops, an half hour to get ready, and another half hour to get to Anna's house. Was an half hour enough to get dressed, AND showered? Claire liked long showers. She thought about this for a small bit and rearranged the order in her head until she was satisfied. When she was she exited the farm house, she noticed that Jack hadn't stirred. Maybe, with some luck he would stay asleep. She crossed her fingers, and tried not to make any noise as she opened the door to leave. After the farmer was finished with her work, she reentered the house, holding her breath. Jack was still snoring away.
"This might just be my lucky day!" thought Claire as she turned on the shower.
After her shower, she got dressed in a plain shirt, and a sequined, polka dotted skirt. The polka dotted skirt was lucky to Claire. She had been given the farm in the polka dotted skirt, and had been asked out by Gray wearing it. She had nicknamed it 'Razzle Dazzle', maybe old 'Razzle' would work for her today. Claire needed all the luck she could get today. She looked at her watch.
"9:50," she read aloud, then looked at Jack and clasped her hand over her mouth.
Claire pulled on her white tights and tiptoed out the door. Glancing behind her, she could still see Jack snoozing away. Claire gave a grin. 15 minutes later Claire arrived at Anna's house, she knocked, and a woman of about 30 opened the door. The woman resembled a doll, with her porcelain skin; lipstick covered lips; big, dark eyes that were large and glassy; and her glossy, short black hair that looked more like a work of art than actual hair.
"Oh, hey Claire!" said Anna cheerily, her high voice piercing Claire's ears. "Won't you come in! Gray just came here a couple of minutes ago, we were just going to start!"
"Okay," Claire said, and walked into the house after Anna. When she came in, she was greeted with the overpowering smell of plants and herbs. Claire walked over to a table where Gray sat on a small fold up chair, next to him was an identical chair to the one he was sitting on. Claire sat down on it and noticed two other chairs that were filled. In one sat Manna, in the other Sasha sat, the two both had matching black notebooks in their hands, and looked extremely over-caffeinated.
"Joy," Claire muttered, so quietly that only Gray could hear her. Gray gave Claire a warm smile, and squeezed her hand.
"OKAY!" cried Anna perkily. "Let's start on the decorations! Shall we?!"
"Okay!" said Claire, trying to match the level of perkiness in Anna's voice. She failed. Anna turned around and grabbed a book from Sasha. The meeting ran smoothly for the first part, Gray and Claire had decided that the decorations would be light pink for the most part, but blue periwinkles were a must have for the wedding. When it was time for the couple to choose a dress, Manna had pulled out a large book of wedding dresses, and flipped through it.
"Okay, so what kind of dress do you want?!" Anna simpered skimming through the glossy photos of girls with pretty pouts on their small faces, modeling wedding dresses. Claire was about to answer when the door swung open. Claire and Gray both turned, and Claire's heart dropped. There in the doorway, Jack stood. He looked like a model himself, in his light white shirt, and 'distressed' jeans, his face was in a grin, and his chocolaty brown hair was ruffled. Anna gave a grin, and walked over to were Jack was standing.
"Hello!" Anna said happily. "You must be Jack!"
"Hey!" said Jack, "I'm sorry I couldn't come earlier, I slept in."
Anna shook her head. "Jack, thats no problem at all! Won't you come in?!"
Jack entered, and stood behind Claire. Anna started speaking again, "Claire, which one do you want?!"
"Erm... I was thinking I wanted something fun. But not too outrageous."
Anna jumped to a page and handed Claire the book. The dress was short with a light floral pattern on it. The selves were a little puffy, but they wouldn't be mistaken for a Cinderella dress any time soon. Claire smiled.
"I really like it Anna! I really do. I think it's-" But Claire didn't get a chance to finnish her sentence.
"I think we want something a small bit more traditional," Jack said. He leaned across Claire towards the book, and started to thumb through the pages.
"Claire can have the wedding dress she wants," Gray said cooly. Jack ignored the blacksmith, and kept on scanning the book.
"I said, Claire can have the weeding dress she wants!" Gray repeated. Jack nodded absentmindedly.
"I know you said that, I know, but I disagree, that dress would of looked terrible on her," Jack said, "I think this dress would look better!"
Jack pointed at a dress. It was big, and puffy, with a full skirt, lace, flowers, and a gigantic vail. To Claire, it conjured up the image of a tacky meringue.
"Jack," Claire whined. "I really don't like it."
"Now, come on. You would look beautiful in it," Jack informed Claire.
"Claire," Gray muttered under his breath. "I want your brother out of here!"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" demanded Jack, who had heard Gray.
"I said, I want you out of here!" Gray yelled. He pushed back his chair, and stood face to face with Claire's brother. Anna and her cronies gasped in unison.
"You have no right to tell me what to do!" Jack yelled, his face was turning red.
"You have no right to be here! This is our wedding! Claire and Gray are getting married, not Claire and Jack! We can do whatever we want!"
"NOT WITH OUT MY APPROVAL!" Jack was almost bellowing now.
"YOUR NOT MY DAD, YOU'RE JUST AN OVERPROTECTIVE JERK, WHO WANTS TO BREAK US UP!"
"I WANT CLAIRE TO GET A GOOD GUY, AND YOU AREN'T HIM! IF I WANTED CLAIRE TO BE MARRIED TO A LUNATIC, SURE, I'D LET HER MARRY YOU!"
Claire looked between the, and tears started to form in her eyes, "Jack... Gray..." Claire whimpered.
"WHAT?!" the two men spat at her.
"You're runing my wedding, thats what!" Claire cried, and with that she dashed out the door.
Ugh... that was wicked long.. what it's only 1893 words?! Felt like 3,000, it took me 2 hours, T_T
I didn't really stay true to my 'sneak peak' from last chapter. Because of that, my sneak peaks are discontinued! XD Sorry to all you people wanting one. I would of anyways, I think there is only going to be four or five chapters left. Anyways, as always, review, review, review. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Oh, one more thing. Please vote on the poll on my page, I know the subject is pointless... but I do want to know how old you think I am, heh, heh.
So, until next time, Lexi!