It was the next day and my Mam, Gran, Rian, and I were in town. While they sold pies, I had my artwork on display, hoping it would sell just as well as it normally did. Art of women always seemed to sell well, which just happened to be my specialty other than flowers. While I interacted with people who stopped to take a look at my work, Rian stayed behind me and attached himself to my leg like a puppy. He was a bit fragile and hated new people, so it was pretty normal for him to hide behind me. I didn’t blame him. Compared to other boys his age, he was quite small and frail. The chances of that improving in the future were slim too. Our family had a bad case of the “short gene” with our uncle being the tallest at 5’6. As for myself, I was barely making 4’11. If I really stretched and tried to, I could maybe, just maybe, get to 5’0, but you get the point. We were all short, so the chances of Rian being short were pretty high. I just hoped he would learn to stand up for himself within time because I wasn’t always going to be there for him to hide behind.
“Well!” I smiled to myself, shoving the money I made into my pockets. “That’s everything sold! Pretty productive day, if I don’t say so myself!”
“That’s good, Bails!” Rian beamed. “Should we go help Mam with her stuff?”
“Aye. In a bit.” I nodded. “I want to look around a bit first. Want to come?”
He nodded. Like he usually did, he followed me around a bit too closely. If I stopped too abruptly, he would always run right into me because he didn’t give himself enough space to stop. It was annoying, but I never said anything. I loved the little bugger too much. With him attached to my leg, I walked around and took a look at all the beautiful and sometimes curious things people were selling. None of it was anything I would buy, but it was nice to look at. As we were checking the stands, I spotted a stand that I always disliked seeing. The O’Brien’s stand.
Their family was perfectly fine. Respectable and very high class. Almost comparable to that posh American family… Hawthornes, was it? Something like that. Being so rich and spoiled always went to people’s heads though, and although most of the O’Brien family was very nice, their daughter, Hazel, was not. She was this high maintenance and a very thin girl who just HAD to keep up to date with every single fashion change and detail that would maintain her already high status and popularity. Like me, she had ginger hair, but it was much more well kept and put into some fancy braid that I couldn’t even tell you the name of. Honestly, one of her dresses probably cost more than my whole wardrobe was worth. Sure enough, she was there helping her parents out with selling their products.
“C’mon, let’s take a detour-” I mumbled, pushing Rian a bit in the other direction.
“Oh! Look who it is!” We were too slow and Hazel spotted us. With a mean-looking smirk on her face, she came over to us. She made sure all her expensive trinkets flashed so she could show them off on her way over. Any more and she would’ve been a walking jewelers. “What are you doing here? I thought you would be busy working on that broken-down farm of yours!”
“I was selling paintings.” I tried to be nice and not give away how annoyed I was by her presence. As my parents taught me, being hateful towards anyone, even those who deserve it, will only put you on their level.
“Lemme guess. They didn’t sell because of how trashy they are?” Hazel smirked while glaring at Rian. If there was one person she hated more than me, it was Rian. Don’t ask why, because I really didn’t know. He was too sweet to be hated on.
“No, I sold all of them,” I said with a bit of a smirk just to rub it in her face. “And how is your family doing?”
Hazel went red in the face from anger and made a face. “We’re doing just fine. At least we don’t NEED to sell stuff to make a living like you!”
Determined to get the last word in, she whipped around and stormed back over to her family who looked genuinely confused. I rolled my eyes and headed back to see how my Mam and Gran were doing.
“How goes selling?” I asked as I approached them.
“Not as well as usual.” Mam shrugged, looking at the few goods she still had left. “Ah well. We can all enjoy the pies, I’m sure.”
“You’re a great baker, so I’m sure we will. Right, Ri-Ri?”
I looked down at Rian and he nodded with a smile. “Yea!”
“I guess.” Mam chuckled, really putting a long pronunciation on the s. Slowly, she reached over and grabbed one of the pies. “We do have a bumbleberry pie. Isn’t that someone’s favourite?”
“Mine!! Mine!!” Rian jumped out from behind me and grabbed for it. Everyone got a good chuckle out of his enthusiasm.
“Tell you what. I’ll keep this one for tonight and we can all enjoy it after dinner. Sound good?”
“Yes! Hear that, Bails? We’re having pie after dinner!”
“I heard.” I giggled. He cheered and gave Mam a hug before grabbing the pie and refusing to let go of it. Gran tried to tell him it was safe on the table, but he refused. You never know when someone wants to steal a pie.
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