Chapter Text
Hey, Jimmy!
I know you’re busy and whatnot, but I need you to come to the Valley. It’s southward from our town. If you need help, I can take you here.
By the way, how are you doing? I’m not sure you’ll remember to respond to my letter, but I hope you’ll find it easier to reply than my texts. Did your phone die? I’m going to have to visit you at this point if I want to talk. Not that that’s entirely a bad thing.
Write back,
Smajor
Jimmy held the paper in his hands, the moonlight bouncing off of the dried pen ink. He looked around at his messy room. Life in the city was not going well. His phone was dead and he lost his charger, not that it’d matter since his electricity had been out for the past week. He sighed. Knowing Scott, the fact that Jimmy had the letter in his hands meant that he’d be visiting soon.
He curled up in his car-shaped bed and slept until the sound of knocking came from his door. Jimmy groaned as he went to turn off his alarm… To no success, of course, because there was no power. Another groan.
“Jimmy, I know you’re in there!” Called a voice from the other side. “Well, I think you are. Don’t know why you’re asleep at noon on a Monday… Don’t you have a job?”
“Don’t tell anyone,” Jimmy started, opening the door as he spoke, “I’m currently in-between jobs. Can you believe I got fired?!”
“Tell me more.” Scott invited himself inside, walking toward the kitchen. “Do you have any coffee?”
“Power’s out.”
“How long ago did you get fired?!”
“Three weeks.” Jimmy groaned. “I haven’t been able to find another job, either! At this rate, I won’t be able to pay for rent– or groceries– or–”
“Electricity.”
“Well, we’re already at that point.”
“Why’d you drop electricity first, anyway?”
“I am very stressed out.” Jimmy sat down on his couch and invited Scott to join him. “Why’d you come here, anyway? I saw in the letter you sent you were talking about a Valley?”
“Do you remember Grian and Scar?” Jimmy nodded. “The two of them found this old, abandoned town a few weeks ago. They’ve managed to get a lot of work done to it– with my help, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Anyway, so we were clearing this bit of forest… Don’t worry! We’re replanting the trees, we just wanted to see if anything was around.”
“Was there?” Jimmy leaned in, intrigued.
“There was… The thing we found was actually why I came out here. You like taking care of animals, right?”
“Yes! There’s not a lot of jobs like that around here. Mostly just petcare…”
“Didn’t you get fired from that one vet because they realized you were lying about your degree in order to look at cute pets?”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I probably shouldn’t have done that.” Jimmy leaned back, chuckling as he glanced out the window. Cars filled the streets. Traffic lights changed from green, to yellow, then red. The few trees planted by the sidewalks rustled with the wind.
Scott cleared his throat. “Seeing how you have no job and you might get evicted anyway… Wanna come back to the valley with me tonight? I’m sure Grian and everyone will be willing to help you get settled. It’d be a lot better than being out here, anyway.”
Jimmy nodded. “Yeah, it definitely seems like it. Plus, I’d probably get a lot more sunlight out there than in some stinky old apartment!”
“It’s only stinky because you haven’t cleaned it since you got fired.”
“Hey– I–!”