The two sat next to each other on separate chairs, across from the mayor and her parents who sat on the couch together. They looked a little snug together, but Peter didn't seem to mind the company right next to him.

Once Jane was here though, everyone else besides Jane herself and Peter kept quiet, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. He put down his cup of tea and looked up at Jane with a smile. “So Jane, tomorrow is a big day for you, are you ready?”

Jane shrugged. “As ready as I could be.”

“Good good.” Peter said while rubbing his hands together. “I know you don't like to beat around the bush, so why don't I get straight into the details.”

He didn't wait for an answer and went straight ahead into explaining. “We're going to start the day tomorrow at eleven o'clock on the dot, I'll make sure to announce this to the whole town later today so everyone knows. I'll start off the day with a speech atop the stage in the town square, which will then be followed with whatever you have planned. Sound good so far?”

Jane nodded. “Should I show up early?”

“Arriving half an hour to the stage before it starts would be great.” Peter replied. “Now I don't know what you have planned, but I'm also not going to ask. I trust you to do whatever it is you want up there.”

“Besides that, I don't need you to do anything else, you're a free woman for the rest of the day and can roam around the town as much as you like. I only needed to know if you were ready to present, which it seems you are.” Peter said with a toothy grin. “I'll still explain to you what's going to happen for the rest of the day, but if you want you could just leave.”

“Really? Just one little presentation then I'm good? You don't want me to do anything else?” Jane curiously stared at him. “I thought you would give me some free time but not the entire day.”

Peter chuckled. “I can see where you're coming from, but as mayor, I'd like for you to enjoy your time tomorrow instead of being busy all day. Also it's not my place to force you to do a bunch of things you might not want.”

“Thanks.” Jane replied with a nod. She was glad the mayor seemed like an understanding guy, and she was actually starting to look forward to tomorrow even more. She really hoped she could find her new friends and see if they wanted to spend the day together.

“There is one thing I'd hope for you to do, it's more of a favor than anything.” Peter saw Jane waiting for him to continue and said. “However tedious it might be, could you answer anyone’s questions they might have for you?”

“What do you mean exactly?”

“As a classholder, I can expect a lot of people will keep their distance from you, approach you with questions, or act strangely around you.” Peter explained. “That's probably how it's going to be for a while until people get used to your presence in Redwood.”

Jane nodded. “Sounds easy enough, I just gotta answer people’s questions if they come up to me.”

“Yes, let's hope it's easy.” Peter said then changed topics. “Let's get into the nitty gritty of what's happening tomorrow.”

The mayor talked for roughly fifteen minutes explaining all the things happening tomorrow— and boy was it quite a lot. Beside the businesses in Redwood participating in some way or another, the mayor had gone around to towns close by and had advertised the celebration to their folk.

Jane hadn't noticed since she was in the farming district all the time, but streams of people have been coming into town for the last few days, all for tomorrow. All the inns in Redwood were packed full, there were even some people who chose to camp outside since they couldn't get a spot in an inn.

These people could be tourists just here for the fun times, or other businesses that wanted to try and make a profit. Jane could only imagine how packed the town square will be tomorrow, more than it's ever been probably.

Luckily the mayor and Danielle had planned for this, and their solution to try and keep the town square a little less busy was to ask certain businesses to set up stalls around the empty fields in the farming district and in the sports district.

The mayor needed some permissions to use some of the fields owned by the farmers, but no one disagreed. which meant the farming district would also have its fair share of people visit. The sports district as the hub of outdoor activities would be filled with families for the day like lawyers, which would make any stalls there very busy.

Besides just businesses, the mayor also had a plethora of festival games that he had also planned to be set up in the farming district, further spreading out the large population that would appear tomorrow.

The stalls and festival games could keep people busy for a while but there needed to be something big to keep them from leaving. That's where the stage in the town square, one large field in the farming district, and almost the entirety of the sports district came in place.

The stage had been booked from start to finish. The mayor and Jane would start it off, but after them there would be a couple of bands of bards participating and there was even a traveling circus act at one point.

Then one field in the farming district was reserved for competitions that the mayor and Danielle had come up with. Eating contests, physical contests, and many more that would happen throughout the day. Winning would net a reward which would incentivize more people to participate.

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Lastly the sports district would be busy throughout the day, but to keep things interesting, there would be actual pillar ball games run by the city, played between Redwoods own teams as a form of entertainment for the residents.

There was a lot, but it was worth it for tomorrow. ‘No wonder Danielle has been busy.’ Jane thought to herself. They had to set up and take charge of basically everything, that would take a ton of work to accomplish.

“One thing I really wanted was to make sure the festival games were worth playing. Cause who wouldn't?” Danielle was explaining this part. “Playing games gets you tickets, then you can put those tickets into a lottery. At the end of the night, ten winners are chosen and get prizes.”

“What are the prizes?” Jane curiously asked.

“I can't tell you that, it's a surprise!” Danielle replied. “But I can tell you the top three prizes are amazing! I'd love to win one of them.”

Danielle then asked. “Actually, I was wondering if you could help me with another prize I was thinking of adding.”

“What prize?”

“Well, you know how you told me you could fly in those hands of yours, and would take us flying one day? Wouldn’t it be great if someone could win that as a prize!”

“Danielle, that's asking a little much.” Peter chimed in. “You don't have to say yes just because she’s asking you.”

Danielle crossed arms. “Of course she doesn’t have to if she doesn't want to, I was just asking,”

The two turned to look at Jane and waited to hear her answer. “Sure, that kinda sounds fun.”

“Great!” Danielle shouted with excitement. “Now that's the prize I wanna win!”

“I could just fly you whenever, you don't need to win the prize.”

Danielle's eyes lit up and she gave Jane the warmest smile before she jumped out of her chair and gave Jane who was still sitting in her chair a hug. “That's a promise!”

“Of course of course.” Jane patted Danelle on the back with a smile.

Rosalie and Jeff grinned seeing their daughter and Danielle acting like friends, something they had only seen with Eric before.

Then another few minutes passed as Peter explained the last few details like when the celebration officially ended or when certain events would occur. After going through all of this and answering a few questions from either Jane or her parents, the Petal’s had business to get to and promptly left.

Peter Petal said his goodbyes to everyone, while Danielle gave Jane another hug before she left and waved goodbye once she was out of the house.

Coming back inside, Jane wanted to grab a quick lunch before she began practicing her little performance tomorrow. She walked into the kitchen and started to make herself a sandwich— the best and easiest kind of lunch she could think of.

“What are you guys gonna do tomorrow?” Jane sat down in the dining room next to her parents who were also enjoying a late afternoon snack together.

“We're gonna spend most of the day at the sports district with the Frier’s.” Rosalie answered with a mouthful of nuts. ”We planned to have a picnic there for lunch before heading into the town square.”

“Sounds fun.” Jane replied. “You gonna be there to see what I have planned?”

“Of course sweetie, all of us are gonna be there.” Rosalie smiled. “We're going early as well, we wanna get the best spots after all.”

“Mm, Maybe I'll join you guys tomorrow since I have no clue what anyone else is doing.” Jane said.

“We’d love that.” Rosalie patted her hand before she stood up. “Me and Pa gotta do some extra work today so we don't have to do much tomorrow. Dinner is gonna be a ‘help yourself’ kinda deal, okay?”

Jane hummed a response and watched her parents walk out the front door, but before they fully left, she heard her mother yell back at her. “If you're wondering, Abigail's at the Frier’s. ”

“Okay! I'll be outside for most of today.” She yelled back.

The front door closed and with that, Jane was by herself. Finishing her sandwich with a few quick bites, she cleaned up the table then headed outside to a nearby field that was close to the edge of town— away from prying eyes.

There was actually a little field tucked away in the corner of the farming district surrounded by patches of redwood trees that extend into town. It was a little secret place Jane and Eric would come to when they wanted to hide away for a period of time.

The field had enough room to run around recklessly but also had just the right amount of trees and bushes to cover it up. The perfect spot for practicing.

She went to the middle of the field, took a deep breath, and then proceeded to practice her ‘performance’ for tomorrow. It wasn't anything fancy or special like the word “performance” was usually tied to. All she wanted was to be upfront and showcase to the town all her powers and how she could help others using them— a cheeky way to advertise her future business as well.

Now she couldn't just walk up there, use her power and then dip, she also needed to speak to the crowd. It was a little nerve wrecking thinking about the outcome after, but she had to fight through it and do her best.

***

“And that's all folks, I'll catch you around town!” Jane raised her arms speaking to no one but the grass around her.

‘That's a little… eh.’ Jane thought to herself hearing that closing bit. ‘What could I say then… maybe keep it more serious.’

“Thanks for coming, enjoy the rest of the day!” She spoke aloud once again. It sounded a little better than the previous iteration she thought.

‘Hmmm, this is hard.’ Jane sat down on a large flat rock resting on the field with her hands on her face in contemplation.

She had run through her performance and everything looked okay, it just didn't sound great because she wasn't the greatest speaker. Her scripted dialogue sounded awkward, her jokes she tried to throw in were a little forced— it was so hard to just say something that sounded normal.

‘Maybe I can ask Danielle, no she's busy.’ Without any answers to her questions, she continued sitting there silently. A gentle breeze made it past the tree barrier around her and brushed past her, cooling her down after having worked up a sweat from practicing.