The next day was cold and rainy. One of those days where nobody wants to leave their room and the house is silent throughout the day to the point it’s almost a tad depressing. Despite it being daytime, we had candles set up throughout the house that lit up the house just enough that one would think it was the start of the evening. Outside was gloomy and it was hard to see anything in the field because of the fog. It wasn’t a nice day to go outside on, but it was a perfect day to get some work in. My psychology studies required a lot of my spare time which I really didn’t mind, but at least I wouldn’t feel bad hiding up in my room for the day due to bad weather. 

Quietly, I cracked out my books and got to work. I had made a decent amount of progress when my dad walked in looking quite grim. It almost matched the gloominess of the weather.

“Is something wrong?” I asked with a frown.

“Did you happen to talk to Hazel yesterday?” He asked in a stern voice. A sign he was upset with either me or her.

“Yea. She was insulting my paintings. Why?”

“Did you say anything back?”

“Uh… no, not really. Just asked how her family’s stuff was selling and she got all angry and stormed off.”

“Right.” He sighed. “Well, she must’ve told her parents a different story because they’re now very upset with you and are threatening to take everything we have.”

“What are they going to do? Split us all apart?”

“No, but her Dad is threatening to take the land from us. Meaning we wouldn’t have a place to live. And if they did still let us stay, they would most likely expect rent which we don’t have the money for.”

“...Oh.”

“Can you go talk to Hazel? Apologise?” He asked. “I know you did nothing wrong, but we really can’t afford to have them do this.”

“Yea, I can.” I nodded. “I’m really sorry about this.”

“Just pay more attention next time. Thank you.”

There was no way I was going out in the rain to apologise to Hazel, so I waited until the next day. I wasn’t about to ruin a dress for the likes of her. Honestly! The audacity to straight-up lie about something like that! I wasn’t even being mean! This girl bullied me for years, and I never threatened anything. I never even told my parents half the time! If only her parents knew how she really was.

Although I was cranky and upset the whole walk to her place, I quickly managed to turn my frown into a fake smile once I knocked on the door. As my luck would have it, Hazel answered the door.

“Oh. It’s you.” She smirked. “Come to apologise?”

I bit my tongue and all the urges I had to sink my fist into her perfectly punchable face. “Yes. I’m sorry.”

“For? Do elaborate.” She was clearly enjoying every minute of this.

“For insulting you and your family,” I said while trying not to break the fake smile and grit my teeth. “And anything else hurtful I said.”

“...Alright.”

“Can you talk to your parents about the farm?” 

“Hm. I’ll think about it.” She said with an evil grin before slamming the door in my face. I stood there in utter shock for a moment before whipping around and stomping down her stupidly fancy step. Why was she such a snob? If only she could just spend one day at the farm. Then I would have the time of my life laughing at how feckin’ useless she was!

I made my way home, making sure to imprint my footprint in the mud with every angered step I took. When I got home, Mam noticed my mood pretty easily. It was so prominent there might as well have been a thunderstorm over the top of my head.

“Why don’t you come to sit down?” Mam said gently, leading me over to the dinner table. Reluctantly, I sat down. I was about to say something, but she grabbed a potato and shoved it in my mouth. “Eat and calm down first. Then tell me what happened.”

I grumbled and took a bite of the potato. As odd as it was, I LOVED raw potatoes. They were just so much better raw than overcooked mush. The more I munched on the deliciousness that was the potato, the calmer I felt. Until finally, I felt I could talk with a cool head. I told Mam everything that happened, and she looked as upset as I was. Nobody in my family liked snobs like that. Then again, who did?

“Well, there’s not much else you can do, dear.” She sighed. “We’ll just have to wait and see how things go.”

“I know… It just sucks. She has no sweet clue what it’s like to live like normal people and how scary it is to lose a farm.”

“I know. Don’t worry about it too much, okay?”

“But-”

“I said no worrying. Why don’t you go work on your studies? It’ll keep your mind off things.”

I sighed. “Yes, Mam.”