Ruffled Feathers for the Pumpkin Festival
1. The First of September
The First of September
FERN APPLETON
The bell over the door to Petals Bramble leaped down from the nearest bookshelf onto the counter and she practically jumped out of her skin.
“Well, well, well,” the cat drawled with a wicked grin. “Who have we here?”
“Shhh!” Fern hissed at him.
She shook her head vehemently, not wanting to risk them overhearing her talk about them. They hadn’t ever seemed cruel or rude back in high school, but they had been so much older and more popular, Fern had never been anywhere near their stratosphere.
In those days, she had been particularly shy. Her parents were sweet and soft and supportive, and the chaos of school had been overwhelming to her body. All that noise, people running, hurrying from class to class. Too much.
By high school, Fern preferred to spend as much time at home as possible, where her mother taught her to garden and sew and her father showed her how to work at the bookstore. She leaned quickly in a calm, quiet environment, with their reassurance and kindness every step of the way.
Now, she hurried back behind the register and began reviewing her to-do list once more. She needed to focus on the task at hand: ensuring Petals & Pages was fully decked out for all the fall festivities by October first, the start of Pumpkin Hollow’s month-long celebration.
Without the extra hands of her parents, Fern would really be pushing herself to get it all done in time. The last thing she wanted to do was to disappoint them. They had left the store, the house, and Bramble to her when they had retired, telling her to build a life she loved.
This would be her first true test, after two steady years of running the bookstore on her own.
Her parents had always hurried home if she needed anything at all, happy to visit and enjoy the beauty of Pumpkin Hollow.
The fall festivities and winter holidays would be far less fun without them by her side.
Fern desperately wished they were returning this year, but she refused to tell them so—they should enjoy their slower-paced new life. She would not be the one to take that away from them, not if she could help it. Surely, with enough planning and hard work, she could pull it off all by herself.
“You know them, don’t you?” Bramble whispered, his whiskers tickling her ear.
“Ahh!” Fern scrambled back, startled. “N-no, not really.”
“Not really means you do, though, little witchling,” the cat rumbled with a sly smile.
Her hazel eyes widened as she realized her familiar had begun plotting. “Don’t you do anything to embarrass me, mister.”
“Who, me?” Bramble held one black paw over his heart, his green eyes sparkling. “I would never.”
Suspicion prickled across Fern’s skin but she chose to say no more.
Whatever mischief the cat planned to get into, as long as it didn’t involve her, would be fine.
She had entirely too much to do to worry about his endless shenanigans.
Her familiar had spent decades with her family and enjoyed causing trouble for the witches around them to amuse himself.
Turning away from him, she focused on her to- do list. A blank sheet of paper from the printer tray easily transformed into a calendar page for the month of September, allowing her to plan out the days she would need for each task.
Fern marked every project in a different color, making it easy to see from a distance what needed to be done and when.
This always helped her manage her tasks.
A color-coded spreadsheet helped Fern visualize the next steps instead of giving in to the feeling of panic that often took over when she had too much to do.
As a normally happy-go-lucky type of person, she had learned how to manage her anxiety under most circumstances.
By the time someone approached the counter and cast a shadow over her, Fern had completely forgotten about the Blackburne twins perusing her shelves. She looked up to find the pretty ginger-haired witch smiling down at her, a stack of books in her arms.
“Are you ready to check out?” Fern choked out, trying not to stumble over her words.
“Yes, I am,” replied the other witch in a melodic voice. “What happened to the nice old couple that used to run this bookstore?”
“Oh! My parents retired to Florida a few years ago,” she explained, looking around for the other sister.
“I see,” drawled the Blackburne witch, tilting her head to one side like a curious cat.
Bramble spoke up then. “We run Petals & Pages now. Fern and I. I’m Bramble.”
“Nice to meet you, Bramble,” she said, turning those sharp green eyes to him. “I’m Lark Blackburne. It’s lovely to meet you. And Fern, was it?”
“Y-yes,” Fern squeaked, her voice too high.
“Were you looking for my sister?” Lark asked with a soft smile.
Fern shook her head. “Oh, no. I just hadn’t heard her leave. I must have been too absorbed in my planning.”
“What are you planning?” Lark asked, one delicate orange eyebrow raised.
“Nothing! It’s just that my parents aren’t coming home this year to help me decorate for the Pumpkin Festival,” she mumbled, feeling childish. “It will be a lot of work to do on my own. But I’ll manage.”
Those emerald eyes trailed over her, all too observant and intuitive for Fern’s liking. She put on her best customer service smile and tried again. “Bramble will help me stay on task, won’t you, darling?”
“So long as I don’t have to lift a paw in manual labor myself,” the feisty familiar purred. “But I’m happy to supervise.”
“Hah!” Lark’s startled little laugh burst out of her, seeming to catch even herself by surprise.
Fern rang up the books and hurried to bag all of the purchases in a soft fabric tote with a pretty floral pattern. The witch in front of her chatted with Bramble while she took care of business. She couldn’t help but listen to them.
“You’re a twin, I take it?” Bramble asked the witch.
“Why, yes. Sparrow and I are twins, born only five minutes apart,” Lark said with a soft smile.
“Twin witches!” the cat explained. “What a rare and divine treat.”
“So, they say.” Lark sighed with a frown.
“Oh. Do the two of you not get along?” Bramble asked quickly.
The witch shook her head. “We have nothing in common, aside from our birth. I’m outgoing and studying botany. Sparrow…well, Sparrow prefers the company of books over people and never wants to go out with me.”
“I see,” the familiar replied slowly. “You are nothing alike, are you? I find this to be quite common for twins, in fact.”
“Really?” Lark looked positively thrilled to hear that.
“Yes, two souls born together are like opposite sides of a coin. Both needed, for different reasons,” said Bramble with a confident tone.
The ginger-haired witch smiled brightly at his words. “I’ve never heard that before. How strange!”
When Fern handed over the tote bag with her books, Lark flashed that smile at her. Her emerald eyes were sparkling and the overall effect it had on her was devastating. It took all of Fern’s strength not to swoon under the pretty witch’s full attention.
As Lark walked back across the bookstore, her high heels click-clacking the whole way, Fern couldn’t help but admire her.
Such a polished, put-together witch. Nothing like Fern herself, who felt more like a tornado most days.
For the millionth time that day, she wished she could be more composed, like the gorgeous pair of witches who had visited Petals and Pages that day.
Instead, she closed the cash drawer of the register on her fingers as she followed the movements of the ginger-haired witch in the green wool coat and sighed.