"Like I said, it doesn't matter to me."

I apologize for splitting Chapter 1 into two parts. I was enjoying a delightful chicken cordon bleu while I was writing, and I spilled my ink jar and honey mustard all over what I had originally written. The only surviving copies were what is now Chapter 1A. Luckily, I managed to rewrite the rest of the copies as Chapter 1B, and more importantly, finish my dinner. I found it the perfect opportunity to include some more details on Natalie Aureole herself the day she had moved to Plainwood.

In my defense, I enter a euphoric trance whenever I have chicken cordon bleu. It was delicious.

*****

It was a good sleep, but she didn’t enjoy it.

Natalie Aureole woke up at the crack of dawn and stepped onto the crack of floor. The hope was she would stop dwelling on her house mix-up from last night, but her thoughts kept living rent-free in her head. A few deep breaths in and out, and she regained her cool. She was still tired, but the new time zone was the least of her worries about adjusting to Plainwood.

The sun’s rays gave Nat a bright boost in confidence and emotion. Uneasy tears escaped her once or twice, but she shook them off to keep them from clouding her outlook on life. Today was a new day, a new start, a new life. She stepped out onto her stone veranda and looked around the environment. Plainwood was so much more beautiful now that she didn’t have to trek up a frosty wooded mountain anymore. The house across the street was especially pretty and quaint, with its fountain and trampled rock garden.

Natalie meandered about the scenic streets of Plainwood, on the search for some place to have a decent breakfast. Up and down either side of Riverside, there was nothing but horizon and the crisp blue sky and dark leaves above. Well, one direction or the other, she thought as she picked one to aimlessly amble down. Yet with her luck, she of course made the wrong choice.

“Of course not, do you know how much syrup is in Red Chup brand ketchup?” a short, scrappy man on the street barked into his phone. “My daughter puts it on her pancakes, for crying out loud! Get the Dijon ketchup and nothing less—”

Now, I am in no way the person to consult for social skill advice. The only friendship I initiated in my life was with a spider I beckoned to crawl on my shoulder whenever I sit at my corner with my nose in my book. Still, I must have done something right when I attracted a woman named Jackie to come sit next to me and start the path to one of the best friendships I’ve ever had. Clearly, something about me had sparked her to think, This is a pleasant person I would like to get to know. And there is no better feeling for a person in a new environment than to give off that impression. Even more ideally, their popularity and confidence may launch from the ground and skyrocket, as it tries to escape the gravity of everyone else who thinks otherwise.

So of course, something about Natalie waving and giving a bare-minimum “hello” had beckoned that short, scrappy man to quit pacing on the sidewalk and approach her for a brief introduction.

The man lowered his phone and stared. “Did you say ‘hello’ to me?” He held the phone back to his ear, “I’m gonna have to call you back,” flipped it closed, and coughed into his fist. Slow caution weaved around his words. “‘Hello’ yourself. Are you lost?”

A flush of red heat brewed up behind Natalie’s face. Did I say it too loud or am I that noticeable? “I’m just looking for a place to eat, I moved here last night.”

During some seconds of silence, the man grew an immeasurable, toothy grin. His demeanor did a complete one-eighty and started spewing word after word with no apparent spaces or pauses for breathing. “Which is why you’re not familiar to me! Of course! I was wondering why that was the case. Well, now I’m intrigued. We didn’t properly introduce ourselves. I’m Kyle Ling, head caterer at the Snowstone Lodge, not to brag. Pleasure to meet a new face. I love your outfit, by the way.”

“Thank you.” I don’t think anything you said had anything to do with each other. “Kyle? Nice to meet you, I’m Natalie.”

She got ready for an informal shake, but the greeting was cut short as Natalie unsurely held out her left hand, barely covered in a torn-up glove. “What the hell?!” Kyle panicked, screamed, and ran away, flailing and diving into a bush.

And just like that, her popularity and confidence crash-landed back into a crater on the surface.

*****

Dingle-ding! said the front door of the Everoak as Natalie slogged inside and crashed at a stool on the bar. Her head fell to the counter, her arms buried in her sweatshirt pocket.

“Good morning,” Dawn Fay said behind the counter, wearing their bright dimpled smile that would have brightened anyone else’s day.

“Morning.”

“Need a bit of a pick-me-up this morning?”

“Please. Just a latte and a pain au chocolat.” Natalie began to rifle through her pocket, which was nearly filled to the brim with crisp, clean bills, and handed a jumbled, uncounted stack. “You can keep the change.”

Dawn threw up their eyebrows. “Are you from out of state?”

Natalie looked at the money and realized, “Oh… yeah, sorry, I’m from Jersey. Well, the United States, I mean. I can find an automatic ATM machine or something, it’s not that big a—

“Oh no no, don’t worry about any automatic automatic telling machine machine, we accept these little green papers no problem, but…” They leaned closer towards Natalie and spoke much softer. “Listen, I’m not gonna report you—you’re new, and I don’t like the policy anyways—but we typically handle things with our right hands here.”

Natalie quickly withdrew her left behind her back. “I am so sorry!”

“No worries, you didn’t know!” Dawn gave a pleasing grin: a kind of grin that emanated a warm feeling of cordial security. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter to me. It just… may matter more to other people, you know?”

“I completely understand.” Natalie said as she grabbed her food and carefully headed to a table in the corner. Dawn pouted.

Dingle-ding! Morgan Bailey slid through the lobby and up to the bar. She was decked out in her early-morning jogging gear and leaned on top to catch her breath. “Hey hey Dawn. Beautiful day outside. Have you looked at our flag lately? Like, what’s the symbolism behind it? I—” her eyes met the girl in the corner. “Omigod, she looks so sad and alone! Who is she?”

“I don’t know, I think they just moved here from the States,” said Dawn.

Morgan gasped. “No way! Another American!” She repeatedly slapped her legs in excitement. “I’m gonna go say hi!”

This early in the morning, the only people who would frequent the Everoak would be Dawn, their workers, and the very few early-bird Plainwooders. It was the perfect place to go for a silent meditation if you want the peaceful smell of decaf coffee without any other worries plaguing you. If anyone in Plainwood meditated, that would be ideal, but most of the time, people would just use the silence as an excuse to cause as much of a distracting disruption as possible.

Morgan waved her arm and called towards Natalie as she pushed her way through the empty chairs. She pulled up a seat across from her, adrenaline pumping in complete disorder throughout her body. “Hey hey! How’s it going?”

Natalie looked up and smirked. “Fine?”

“Well, sometimes that’s all you can ask for,” she laughed. “So, Dawn up there told me you’re from the States! That is so cool—so am I! I just moved here, like, three years ago! Trust me, you’re gonna love this place. Just takes some time to get used to. Pretty weird place.”

Natalie pulled her gloves on tighter, but the tears in them barely covered her hands anymore. “Yeah, well, I sorta knew what I was getting into.” Her mind was starting to drift away. Morgan was wearing a vague scent, but whatever it was, it sent Natalie to a pleasant, familiar place in her memory. “It’s just weird to actually see it in person.”

“Ah, see, you got the upper hand,” Morgan laughed. “I had no clue what I was getting into. I was just plopped into this place, like, ‘Hey, nice to meet you I’m Morgan!’ ‘Hi Morgan! I have a demon in my brain giving me an insatiable desire to kill!’ And I’m like, ‘Tha-hat’s cool, I’m just here to buy some extension cords.’”

Natalie laughed, but an air of uneasiness still weaved around her crooked smirk. 

“You live on Riverside by chance?”

Natalie nodded.

“Aw, then you’re gonna love it! Dawn, Viv, Eileen, and Matt are all super nice! A lot of people don’t like them, but they’re gonna be your best friends once they get to know you! They’re also always hanging out with me and my other friend in the Everoak. We’re pretty much the best group of friends to know! You need any sense of normality at all, we’ll be there.”

In the middle of patting Nat on the shoulder, Morgan froze and cocked her head. Her mind had gone on autopilot since she first laid eyes on the newbie. All she could pay attention to was the mere fact she was having a conversation with her.

“You didn’t tell me your name, did you?”

Natalie shook her head and grinned. “No, I’m Natalie.”

“Natalie! Awesome name! I’m Morgan!”

“Ah, Morgan, that’s a pretty name too.”

“Thanks, I got it for my birthday!”

The two, Morgan especially, erupted into a blast of laughter and giggles that rose Natalie’s spirit right back up to its peak again.

“Alright, I’m gonna go head up to my room and take a shower. Catch you later, Nat!”

She waved goodbye, which Natalie returned, neither of them even paying attention to the left hand she used.