Five days had passed since Jane woke up at Danielle’s. The town celebration was only two days away, and Jane was both dreading and looking forward to it. The mayor still hadn’t come by to visit and explain more to her, but hopefully he would swing by soon or Jane might have to revisit the mayor's mansion herself.

She had spent these last few days quite busy without much time for rest, but she made sure not to overdo it and still spend some time with others.

In her free time she would go to her parents to see them, help them with some chores, and eat some lovely food. She especially made sure to put in a lot of time hanging out with Abigail since she felt she needed to make up for the three years she had missed.

Then every other day she would head over to Frier’s to hang out and see how they were doing, and occasionally pitch in for some chores as well.

It was an exhausting few days, but it was very productive in both finishing tasks she wanted to get done and spending time with close ones.

Besides herself, her new friends were also all busy with their own things.

There was Danielle, who was still helping her father prepare for her welcome home celebration. Jane wasn't sure what they were preparing but it should be quite spectacular— hopefully.

Angeline was back to work during the week, and since neither of them were close or extraverted enough to invite each other to do anything together, they haven't hung out yet. Give it some time and Jane thought she and Angeline would hit it off since she remembered how well they bonded at Danielle’s.

As for the boys, It was a similar case with Robby and Jared. They were both busy with work and since they were more like acquaintances with Jane, it was even more unlikely for them to invite her to hang out.

The only one she had hung out with was Eric, when she went to his parents place for a few evenings, but outside of that they were both quite busy and hadn't had any extra time to spend together.

With the celebration looming only two days away, almost every business in Redwood was getting prepped— and that included the Little Goose.

According to Eric they were going to set up a stall close to the stage of the town square while also running business as usual. Let alone the stall, the restaurant itself would be extremely busy during the celebration, and things needed to happen to make things run smoothly. Food had to be ordered and prepped ahead of time, while the chefs themselves spent extra time after work making sure they were ready for the big day.

After Jane’s showcase at the celebration, she was hoping to maybe find Angeline or Danielle and see if they wanted to walk around together, but she didn't know if they already had plans for the day. Eric was unfortunately stuck at the Little Goose all day so he wasn't an option, maybe Jane could find Robby or Jared. but that was a little more awkward— especially Jared.

Hopefully in time they all became great friends.

While Jane’s own week was quite jam packed, it was also uneventful. That didn't mean it wasn't productive, she had managed to get a lot done in this short time frame. She had checked off a few items off her list, namely; get rid of the fences, clear the overgrown weeds, get rid of the wooden steps, and seal the holes outside.

The first three were quite simple, all she had to do was use her phantom hands to rip everything out of the ground and throw them away in a pile by the side of her house. Sealing the holes of the house wasn't too hard, but it was tedious work that she needed the help of Jeff and Dean.

They came over one day and spent a few hours finding every possible hole. The holes on the roof were a little harder to find, but she used her phantom hands to fly the men up there to find them— which delighted the fully grown man like they were children. After finding all the holes, they sealed them off with wood planks and would come back another time to seal them with a more permanent solution.

Now for the fences and steps, she wasn't sure if she wanted to replace them with new ones or just leave the place as is. Was there really any need for a fence? If anything it would be for privacy but she was already in the farming district and was away from most others, she didn't need that much privacy outdoors yet.

Now that she was thinking of it, she crossed ‘replace fences’ off the list. If the need for fences ever arose in the future, she could get some then. She would leave her front yard without any for now.

As for the path leading up to the house, it was quite rocky and uneven, and no longer had the wooden steps for help. She knew she had to do something since anyone with mobility issues would have trouble getting up to her place, and considering she was planning to start a business here, that would be necessary.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The path down to the creek didn’t matter as much since no one else should be using it, but she was still planning to fix it up somehow, just for it to be safer if anyone came over.

Lastly she had started replacing the eavestrough with a new one but that would take another day of work before it was done. Only about half of it was done and that was already enough tedious work Jane wanted to do today.

Taking another look at her list of tasks, she smiled to herself seeing that some had been crossed off already.

Outdoor

* Replace or get rid of all the fences. Rotted.

* Get rid of all the weeds.

* Replace or get rid of the wooden steps along the path. Rotted or unstable

* Touch up the bridge by the creek. Little unstable and partially rotted.

* Seal up the holes or openings in the house. Prevent pests.

* Replace the eavestroughs. Cracked.

* Fix paths up to the house.

Indoor

* Clean the place of dust and cobwebs.

* Clean the windows and reseal them.

* Clean the floor.

* Check for mold.

* Remove any dead animals, bugs or other pests.

* Replace furniture and other similar accessories (curtains, desks, lamps).

* Replace kitchen appliances.

* Get rid of all the junk.

* If possible, get a group of elementalists to make sure the runes are all working properly.

The indoor tasks were left for last since she wanted the easier outside ones to be done first before she had to brace herself through the nightmare of the inside. Just thinking about how much nasty things she would have to sort through and clean up, gave her chills.

Other than the tasks this week, Jane was also… practicing. She had a routine she had created for the celebration and was practicing it to make sure she didn't goof it up. She made sure to do it away from her family and friends, keeping it a secret for multiple reasons.

There were two main criteria she wanted to have for her showcase. The first was to showcase all her powers as a way to show everyone what she was capable of doing, and the other was to make sure it was entertaining.

It sounded simple but some of her powers weren’t really entertaining to see happen, they were rather simple and mundane to watch, even if what they did was quite amazing. She already had a few ideas she had rehearsed with herself, but it needed a little work and some more practice before she was confident in herself.

‘No more thinking.’ Jane thought to herself as her body was drenched from sweat.

Currently Jane sat under one of the creepy trees resting in her front yard while sipping on a bottle of water she brought along with her. It was one of those rare blazing hot spring days where the sun continuously beat down upon the land with its intense heat, leaving Jane a sweaty mess.

At least in summer she would be used to the heat already, but right now since it was only spring, her body was just not prepared for this amount of heat. It didn't help that she worked on the roof all morning, up there the sun was even meaner to her than if she worked on the ground.

She was a fit young woman with a powerful constitution and even after working for a few hours in the morning, she wasn’t physically tired. Even saying all that, her body was sticky with sweat that she couldn't help produce and her mind felt like it was sunburnt.

‘I think that's all for today.’ Jane leaned her head back on the rough bark behind her, closing her eyes and taking in the refreshing breeze she felt under the shade of the tree. She didn't want to think of anything else, she just wanted to cool off.

It was just past noon, which meant it was close to lunch time for Jane. She begrudgingly sighed knowing she would have to stand up to get her lunch. She lazily picked her body up off the newly cleared ground, before she started to walk towards her backpack which she left near the front door.

As she was walking, she squinted and looked behind her to see a person that appeared to be running up the path towards her place, not sure who they were yet.

‘They must be in a hurry to get somewhere.’ She thought but then realized her house was at the end of this path, there was nowhere else to go but to her place or into the redwood forest itself.

As the person got closer, she saw that it was in fact her mother Rosalie, jogging towards her with Abigail bouncing around in her arms. Jane’s tiredness vanished and she sped up down the hill where she met her exhausted mother.

Her mother panted through her mouth, both tired and extremely hot. Wiping sweat off her entire face, Rosalie took the water bottle Jane passed to her and gulped it down for a few seconds before taking some more deep breaths.

“What happened?” Jane asked, a little worried seeing her mother rush all the way to her house.

“Don't worry, it's nothing too serious.” Rosalie was fit, but with the heat of the day and having to carry a three year old out this far while running— it all really tired her out.

She took a breath between sentences but explained to Jane. “Your fathers friends swung by in a panic, supposedly a large amount of their livestock has gone missing— probably killed by something.”

“Oh shit— crap.” Jane caught herself but her mother didn't seem to care.

“Oh shit is right, that's why I'm here to ask a favor.” Rosalie replied.

“What's up?”

“Can you watch over Abigail for the day? Your fathers away from home which means I gotta do all the daily chores myself and I'd rather not have to supervise Abigail at the same time.” Rosalie explained. “I could’ve brought her to the Frier’s but I thought you’d like to spend some more time with your sister.”

Jane’s eyes lit up. “Sure thing— I'd love that actually!” She picked up Abigail out of Rosalie’s arms and tightly held her. “What about Pa’s friends?”

“Not sure yet, why don't you come back for dinner and hopefully by then we’ll know what's happening.”

“Alright that works. Abigail and I can spend the rest of the day together!” A corner of Jane’s lips tugged upwards as she saw Abigail wrap her arms around her neck.

Rosalie asked one last thing. “Are you okay for food and water?”

“I got enough food for both me and Abigail, and while the inside is a mess, the sink’s still produce elemental rune water.” Jane explained. “So we should be good on those accounts.”

“Good good. Okay you two enjoy yourselves!” Rosalie rubbed Abigail’s head then gave both of her daughters a peck on the cheek before waving goodbye.

Jane watched her mother walk back down the path for a bit before she placed Abigail on the ground with a smile.

“So Abigail, what do you wanna do today?” Jane asked, looking down at her sister.