Chapter Text
Jack and Jill are twins from the Mainland, identical in every way except their numbers. They were built to work on an industrial yard, but when that closed down before they could arrive, they were sent to Sodor to work on the Wellsworth and Suddery Railway. They are painted a royal blue with white lining, and both work very hard to keep their railway running. Like most industrial engines, they did not originally have a name, and were named after the large hill near their railway. It doesn’t go up that hill just yet, but Jack and Jill are always kept busy. They also quite enjoy teasing each other.
“Puffed-up passenger engine.” Jill would joke.
“Grubby goods engine.” Jack retorted, rolling his eyes. Jack prefers pulling passengers, as he doesn’t like when he gets dirt behind his buffers. Jill knows that Jack’s only joking, but it does get under her paint sometimes. Her driver always does his best to keep her in high spirits, though.
“Cheer up, Jill.” He would smile. “If you didn’t pull goods, then the railway wouldn’t have enough money to keep going.” He would tell her, and that always made Jill feel better.
One day, however, Jack made the joke again, and no amount of soothing from her driver would cheer her up.
“Cheer up, Jill. You aren’t really a grubby goods engine.” Her driver told her. “Your paint is nice. So nice, I don’t think there’s a proper word for it.” He admitted as he polished her down that morning.
“I don’t want to be a grubby goods engine.” Jill grumbled. “Why does Jack always get to pull the passengers?”
“Because you’re good at keeping the trucks in line.” Her driver reasoned. “You know what Jack’s like with trucks.” Jill had to concede that her driver was right. If Jack tried pulling the trucks, he would likely cause an accident. “Now come on. We’ve got lots of work to do today.” And he was right. They did. They shunted trucks in the yards at Wellsworth for hours on end, but Jill was still upset. When Jack whistled to her, she didn’t whistle back. All day, Jack was busy thinking about why Jill was so upset.
That night in the sheds, Jack asked Jill why she was upset.
“You made fun of my work.” Jill huffily stated. “I’m all for a bit of banter while we work, but sometimes I don’t like it when you make fun of my work.” She stated. Jack felt sorry for his sister.
“I’m sorry, Jill. I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t joke about your work in future.” Jack apologised.
“Does this mean I can pull your passengers tomorrow morning?” Jill wondered. Jack sighed, letting off a wheesh of steam.
“Okay, I suppose you can.” Jack resigned. Jill whistled with happiness and went soundly to sleep.