Chapter Text
Shane made sure to mind his own business. Sometimes it was hard, a small town tends for news to go around quickly but with a few bottles in, the talk in the salon all turned into fuzzy memories he couldn’t recall. The gossips and the rumors will turn into white noise.
It was rather difficult for this present year as a new person has come to the valley and became really popular for all the right reasons.
However, before he even could do such activities on that breezy Friday night, Haley started to swoon about that said-person.
Their new landlord. The farmer themselves.
”Oh, the farmer is such a dear.” She said loudly with a sighed. Emily just chuckled at her sister while Gus nodded and listened to the blonde. “She has been giving me every sunflower she grows! A charmer, really, and if it honestly continues on, I might even fall, you know.” She giggled at that thought.
Now, don’t get Shane wrong upon thinking about this, but shouldn’t the farmer supposedly a male? Or at least use the pronouns ‘he’? He remembered what his aunt told him about the farmer and the pronoun ‘he’ was always going through conversations. The confusion that the conversation was bringing started to hurt his head so he chugged the rest of the beer he was drinking to make it all into white noise.
“She?” Alex voicing out his, and Shane’s, thoughts. “What the hell are you talking about Haley? The farmer is a guy. Dude’s got a beard and everything.” He said to his friend, giving her a puzzled look.
Shane blinked at what the former football player just said. From the drawings his niece showed him, he knew the farmer doesn’t have a beard. So what is really going on here, he didn’t know but he shook his head one more time, trying to not listen to the conversation anymore and gestures Emily for another glass of beer.
Haley looked at Alex with a raised eyebrow. “Um, no? I understand you thought she would be a guy because she kinda does look like one but she doesn’t have a beard or any other facial hair Alex.” She said, remembering meeting the farmer for the first time and accidentally believing she was a guy but then was mistaken. However, in all the time she has seen the farmer, there wasn’t any facial hair growing.
“First of all, he does have one! It’s a full-on beard and it is the beard you like on guys Haley.” Alex replied, gesturing his jaw to his chin. “And second of all, there is no way he doesn’t have one because he said won’t ever fully shave it off!”
Alex remembers it so well as it occurred a couple of days ago. He asked the farmer if he would ever full-on shave it off while the two played catch with his football. The farmer laughed, nearly dropping the ball, and shook his head.
That laughter sent something to the former football player and made him realized some things. It’s why he is very sure that there is no way the farmer is someone who doesn’t have a beard.
Gus was slowly backing away from the conversation as he hummed and commented while wiping a glass, ”Well isn’t this quite strange...” he said. Shane, who was still listening, agreed with him.
Emily, already served up a beer to Shane, came back to the discussion and disagreed with her sister’s friend statement. “Alex, I’m sorry but last time I saw the farmer, which was a couple of hours ago, she was definitely a girl and had no beard.”
Before Alex would defend his statement, Leah went up to Gus to pay for her dinner when she noticed the commotion and joined in.
“What’s happening here?” Asked the concerned artist. Before any of them explain what was happening, the young blonde quickly turned around and pointed at Leah.
“Leah! What is the most noticing thing about the farmer?!” Haley asked the older girl.
Leah blinked, surprised at the sudden question given to her, and said with a slightly pink face as she recalls a small kiss in the cheek the farmer gave her this morning. “Well, first of all, the farmer is quite a cute girl—“
Haley turned back to Alex with a grin of trump, “Hah! I told you, the farmer is a g—“
“—and she has really pretty long blonde hair.”
And then Haley, Emily, and Alex froze. They all then turned back to the artist who raised an eyebrow as they all gawked at her.
“What?” Leah asked as her pinkish face returning back to her original color, concern flowing through her for the three younger people who were staring at her as if she said there are monsters in the mine.
“Holy hell, are we sure we are talking about the right farmer?” Alex asked back, sitting down next to the seat of Haley and trying to make any sense of where this exchange is going. “Because the farmer I know has red hair, a beard, and is, in fact, a guy.”
“Wait, what?” The artist asked again, starting to get confused about the direction this conversation is going.
While Emily explained what was happening to the older women, the former football player asked his friend whose head is on top of the counter and face being covered by her arms, “How about you Haley? What does the farmer look like for you?”
“Well,” she looked up and had a little smile. She remembers the little moments she had with the farmer like that one time when she was trying to fish on the beach. Oh how much the farmer kept failing but the laughter, the smile and the determination on her face gave Haley feelings all over.
—Alex caught that little smiled and felt something similar to what he felt a couple of days ago—
“She has whitish to pinkish hair that stops above her shoulder.” Haley twirled a lock of her hair and then she recalled another thing the farmer had. “She also wears this adorable little green bow from time to time as well.”
“She wears one too!” Leah said, already understood what was happening and yet still was honestly very confused. “Well, at least my version of the farmer does.”
“So let me get this straight.”
The four looked behind them and it was when Shane finally joined the conversation. He left his 3/4 full glass of beer at the counter and approached the young adults, ”For most of you, the farmer doesn’t look the same right?”
“Yeah,” Alex said, crossing his arms. “We have come to that point so now what?”
“First things first,” The drunkard looked at the young adults in the eye. “Are you fucking sure that this person or people are the farmer?” Shane bluntly asked.
The four adults went silent for a second as they searched in their memory and thought about it before nodding in unison. “Wait a minute. Shane,” Leah said. “How about you? What does the farmer look to you?”
The drunkard simply shrugged. “I don’t know what they look like. I’ve just been hearing stuff about the farmer from Jas and Aunt Marnie.” He said, putting his hands in his jacket’s pockets.
Haley, Leah, Alex, and Emily stared at Shane in disbelief and before any of them said anything, the once teens of the town came up to them.
“Hey guys, why the hell y'all gather together?” Asked Sam, greeting them first and waving to all five of them.
“Quick! What does the farmer look like to you?” Alex rapidly asked the three. Abigail, Sebastian, and Sam were surprised by the question but nevertheless did answer.
“He has a five o’clock shave, it’s really funny because he said never could get rid of it no matter how much he tries t shave it off.” Sam.
“She has really nice hair, love her red highlights on her brown hair.” Abbigail.
“Her hair is really short like the hairstyle of those dudes in the nineties or something.” Sebastian.
The three friends then froze as they looked at each other with confusion.
“Hold on, what the fuck do you me—“
“Great! Their version of the farmer is different too!” Emily exclaimed, interrupting Sebastian and rubbing her templates.
Haley sighed and ordered a cup of tea from Gus. “This is going to take all night huh?” She said to herself.
And thus the night continues on, as the discussion keeps going places and getting them nowhere to grasping what they just learned.
And that is one thing for sure.
They now realized that the farmer isn’t what they seem at all.
And when the night ended, they have no idea if that was a good thing or a bad thing.