Chapter 2

A week has passed since Jack and Claire first moved in together at the Farm in Mineral Town. There hasn’t been any problems between them, so they figure that maybe they can get along and work together in the farm. Jack went straight to work clearing the field so he can begin planting crops. Claire on the other hand spent most of the week visiting the other Mineral Town residents and getting to know her neighbors. The town isn’t too big, but Claire is happy to know that it is filled with good people with diverse personalities. She hopes that she’ll make many friends over time and live a happy life.

Jack mainly stays in the farm, so Claire ends up representing for both of them around town. Everyone asks Claire so many questions, but she still barely knows Jack. There is only so much she can answer on his behalf. Even so, everyone in Mineral Town is still very welcoming to Jack and Claire and wastes no time sharing stories of Mineral Town’s culture, festivals, and history. Many people gives Claire tons of house warming gifts such as flowers, sweets, and home cooked meals. Seeing that the people of Mineral Town welcomes Claire so warmly makes her feel comfortable around so many new people.

After another day of chatting with the neighbors, Claire returns to the farm so she can rest and relax. But as she opens the door to her home, she finds a lot of boxes that were not there when she left. There is also furniture scattered around the house that she has never seen before. She opens one of the boxes to see where they may have come from. She finds books, magazines, old newspapers, and other reading material in one of the boxes.

As she continues to look through the box, she hears Jack in the bedroom. It sounds like he is moving some stuff around in the room. Curious to know what’s going on, she takes a peek in the room and finds him folding some shirts and sorting them neatly into piles. There is also new furniture in the room that wasn’t there this morning. Seeing how Jack is working so diligently with the new stuff, she figures that maybe Jack had his stuff delivered from his old home.

“Hey, what’s all this stuff,” asked Claire.

Jack looks up at her, then greets, “oh, hello there. This is stuff from my apartment back in the city. I know it looks like a lot, but don’t worry. I’m sending half of this stuff into storage to make room for your things once they arrive. I just need a day to sort things out.”

“Umm. . . Actually, I don’t have anything coming. All my stuff was in my rucksack when I arrived last week,” admitted Claire.

“Seriously,” asked Jack in a curious tome. “Where did you live before you moved here?”

“In a farm back in Flowerbud Village. I didn’t have much stuff there either.”

“Is that so? Then you don’t mind if I keep my furniture? I like to read, so I have a lot of bookcases and stuff like that.”

“Sure, I don’t mind,” answered Claire.

Jack nods, then returns to unpacking his things. He then asks, “are you busy right now? I could use some help.”

Claire agrees to help Jack. They then start working together unpacking Jack’s stuff and moving the furniture around the house. For Claire’s size, Jack is impressed at how strong she is. She can lift almost as much as he can without breaking a sweat. As each bookcase, closet, chest of drawer, chair, and storage box is moved in place, Jack instructs Claire what box goes with each piece of furniture. She then starts unpacking the things and loads them into each piece of furniture. As she pulls the things out of the boxes, she notices a few things about Jack. First is that the books he reads are classics. There is no manga or other materials commonly owned by young men. All of Jack’s clothes are farming or working gear, nothing casual or formal.

Jack also has lots of movies as well. Classic video cassettes and DVDs from the 70’s and 80’s. She wonders where could he have gotten them from. Nothing in his collection is anything modern that she recognizes. She also notices a lack of video games. Based on what she is noticing, Jack doesn’t like leaving the house too much.

Once the furniture is all set and filled, Jack and Claire starts setting out his collectibles. There are many old decorations like vases, statues, and artwork to hang on the walls. All of them look pretty old as well. Once everything is set out, the house doesn’t look like young people live there. It feels like living in an old man’s house.

Later that day, the house is all set up and ready to live in. Despite the old classic look, the house looks very comfortable to live in. She is impressed that Jack has such good taste in decorations. But as she walks around, she notices something odd. She can’t find a single picture or album of Jack’s family. She also notices that he hasn’t mentioned having any parents or siblings either. But she shrugs it off and tell herself it’s none of her business.

As a reward for Claire’s help, Jack cooks some food for them. Claire sits at the dining room table and watches Jack cook in the kitchen. She is impressed that he can cook, although not surprising based on what she learned about him. As soon as he is done cooking, Jack lays two plates of egg fried rice on the table. The delicious scent of the food makes Claire’s mouth water uncontrollably, she can’t wait to taste it. Jack takes a seat on the table to eat but he gets distracted by Claire shoveling food down her throat like if it was going to run away. He can’t help but to feel uncanny about how different they are.

Once they’ve finish eating, Jack feels that it is a good idea to discuss their living arrangements. “Since we will be living in the same house, I feel that we should discuss some basic rules. Lets discuss the chores and how we can split it.”

“I agree,” said Claire.

Jack takes a moment to thing, then continues, “I think we should take turns cooking. I cooked today, so you can take over and make something tomorrow.” Once that topic is brought up, Jack notices Claire cringing uncomfortably. “What’s wrong?”

Claire chuckles sheepishly as she fidgets with her fork, “well, you see. . . I don’t know how to cook.”

“Seriously?”

Claire then springs up confidently and announces, “but I am pretty good at cleaning! If you handle the cooking every day, I can keep the house clean!”

“Deal,” answered Jack. Cleaning is his least favorite chore to do, so he is glad that he no longer has to do it in exchange for cooking. “Now about the farm work. . . I can tell that you are an animal person. So how about I deal with the crops, and you take care of the animals once we get some in.”

“Sounds good to me,” answered Claire. They then shake hands sealing the deal. For a moment, Claire feels that living with Jack won’t be as much trouble than she originally thought. They also discuss some other minor rules, but they easily come to an agreement quickly.

The next morning, Claire wakes up as soon as the sun comes out, She stretches her arms and yawns. Jack is already up and out of the room. He always wakes up early to get ready for work on the farm. Claire always sleeps in a bit longer than Jack. She locks the door, then changes out of her pajamas and into her shirt and overalls. Once she is ready to greet the day, she walks out of the room expecting breakfast to be served. But she doesn’t see any food, or Jack in the house. Her tummy rumbles as she sees the kitchen empty. She sighs as she feels that Jack already broke their agreement.

She goes into the bathroom so she can freshen up for the day. She takes a long warm bath, brushes her teeth, put her shoes on, and takes a look in the mirror. As she brushes her long golden hair, her tummy rumbles again. “Where is that guy, I am starving,” she whined. Once she gets out of the bathroom, she hears Jack outside talking to someone. Hungry and annoyed, Claire walks out of the house scratching her head saying, “Hey Jack, I’m hungry. When are you going to start making-”

She finds Jack near the coop talking to a young woman named Popuri. They are chatting and giggling as Jack holds an egg. She has met Popuri at the chicken ranch before, but she was not expecting to see her in the farm so early in the morning. She quickly notices Popuri flirting with him. She giggles for no reason while swaying her hips left and right as her long red skirt dances. Her corset is tighter than she remembers it, making her curves a bit more noticeable. She even perks up her chest, giving Jack a real show.

Watching Popuri use her feminine curves to flirt with Jack makes her feel uncomfortable. She looks at herself and feels flat by comparison. No bust, no hips. She can pass as a child next to Popuri. She has always been very self conscious about her figure, and Popuri is not helping.

Popuri notices Claire standing by the front door of the house. She cheerfully waves at her yelling, “good morning Claire! How are you today!?”

“I’m fine,” said Claire in an empty tome.

Popuri then turns back to Jack, then asks, “by the way, I was meaning to ask you something. Is Claire your younger sister?”

“No, we’re not related,” answered Jack.

“Oh, so does that mean she’s your girlfriend or wife?”

Claire gasps in embarrassment, then looks away blushing. She knew that some people in Mineral Town might ask that question eventually, but hearing Popuri ask it somehow makes it worse. Jack laughs sheepishly as she answers, “no, we are not. We’re more like business partners. We bought the farm together, and we share the work.”

“I see,” said Popuri cheerfully. She then turns around and walks away, “well, I have to go back to the ranch and help my mom open the shop. Come by anytime, okay?”

She also says bye to Claire, but she ignores her. Jack then walks up to Claire holding the egg, “did you call me earlier?”

Claire leers at Jack sourly. She then looks at the egg in his hands and says, “I hope that’s our breakfast you got there. I’m starving!”

“Actually, this egg is fertilized. Popuri gave it to me as a gift to get our farm started. She wants us to hatch it and start a flock of chickens in our farm. Isn’t she nice?” Jack then walks into the house saying, “come on, I’ll get breakfast started soon.”

Claire follows him in, but her mood still doesn’t change. She sits at the table waiting for breakfast, but all she can think of is Popuri’s figure. She watches Jack, wondering if maybe a girl like Popuri is his type. All she can think of is how silly Popuri looks with her long pink hair. She imagines her dying it or wearing a wig for attention.

Once breakfast is served, Jack begins to eat. As he eats, he can’t help but notice Claire’s sour mood. She eats angrily making direct eye contact with Jack. “Is something the matter,” he asked.

“No, not really. I wasn’t expecting you to be THAT kind of guy, that’s all.”

“Excuse me?”

“I figured that you’d be more attracted to a more ‘normal’ kind of girl, like Karen or Ann. Considering how many books you read, Mary is more your type. Not the chesty girl next door.”

“Sounds like you’re a bit jealous of Popuri,” Jack said sarcastically. “She’s just a friend, that’s all.”

“And the fact that you’re trying to change the subject is telling me that your some kind of pervert,” said Claire with some angst.

“Pervert!? Why you little-” At that moment, their conversation is interrupted by a knock on the front door. They both stare at the door curiously as Jack asks, “who could that be, I’m not expecting guests.”

“I’ll get it. It might be your little girlfriend again,” said Claire.

She hops off the chair, then answers the door. Outside the house, Claire finds a bunch of men outside carrying gifts. Claire looks around, feeling intimidated that so many men has come to the farm all at once. She has no idea why every young male in Mineral Town is outside her door.

“Happy Spring Thanksgiving Day Claire,” they all shout. They then stack their gifts on Claire’s hands, overwhelming her. She collapses, and all the boxes bury her in sweet chocolate chip cookies. All the guys then leave the farm as quickly as they came.

Jack can’t help but to laugh as he stands over the pile of gift boxes that Claire is buried under. “And you have the audacity to call me a pervert? Looks like you have every guy in Mineral Town wrapped around your finger.”

Her heap pops out of the pile of boxes. She then looks around and shouts, “what is all this? Why did these guys drop off cookies all of the sudden?”

“It’s the fourteen day of Spring, so these are gifts for the Spring Thanksgiving Festival,” answered Jack. He then grabs a couple of boxes and reads the labels, “this one is from Harris, and this one is from Zack. Yep, every single guy in Mineral Town left a gift.” He then continues to look through the boxes and continues, “this one is from some guy named Skye, and this other one from . . . Kappa? Who are these people? Do they even live around here?”

As Claire pushes the boxes of cookies off of her, Jack continues to read the labels to see who else gave Claire cookies. He then picks one from Cliff and says, “mind if I help you eat these? There’s a lot of cookies for just one person.”

She snatches the cookies out of Jacks hands and proceeds to eat them, “no. All of these cookies are mine, and I am not sharing.”

“Fine, whatever,” shrugged Jack. He then grabs his tools and gets ready to go work on the field. As he works on the field, he begins to wonder what was Claire’s problem with Popuri. “Do they already have bad blood? Can’t be, Popuri is friendly to Claire. Then again, I don’t know much about Claire. Maybe something Popuri said bothered her? I don’t know, but I sure hope that this won’t cause any problems in the future.”