The Secret Garden of Ravenwood

Chapter 5: Restoration Begins

Avery made her way back to the Ravenwood house until the town hall meeting that night. With her notebook in hand, she was ready to get back to work on the garden. She had spent the previous day staring at the layout and memorizing the different plants that were contained, confident in her ability to start restoring it to its former glory.

She made her way into the garden and started clearing away all the weeds that she missed the other day as well as the debris that had formed from all of the years of disuse. She struggled a bit to lug out the broken and rotting wooden benches, but she managed to clear them away. Seeing all of the weeds, leaves, and debris cleared gave her an oddly satisfied feeling, she could slowly see the garden starting to come back to life.

As she worked, she couldn't help but think about the upcoming town hall meeting that was taking place later that day. She couldn't wait to learn more about her family's past and the town's history, but she was also nervous to know what she would learn.

She eventually took a break once she started to feel overheated, resting on one of the stone benches that lay under the tree lining. The garden was slowly becoming more and more like a real garden and less like wreckage, causing her to smile.

She soon slowly stood again, making her way over to the fountain. She spent the next few hours scrubbing at the sone of the fountain and benches to clean them, turning them from a dingy yellow or brown back to their nice silver color. She smiled tiredly, wiping the sweat from her forehead. She knew what she still had to do to restore the garden, which was a lot, but she was proud of what she had accomplished so far.

She pulled out her phone to check the time, two hours until the town hall meeting. She smiled and slipped her phone back into her pocket, making her way into the house. She was ready to shower and get ready for the town hall meeting, excited for what she would soon discover.

She spent a long time in the shower, making sure she got off every layer of grime, sweat, and dirt that was stuck to her skin from restoring the garden. But soon she forced herself out of the shower and into a nice outfit before making her way out into town.

She made it into the town hall meeting just before it began, making her way to sit in the back where there were a few open seats left. She sat down and fiddled with the fabric of her shirt, feeling nervous and out of place. She was surrounded by the townspeople of Ravenwood, who were all chatting and laughing as they waited for the meeting to start. That made her feel even more out of place, everyone was such great friends and here she was, an outsider.

The mayor of Ravenwood's son walked up to the podium to begin the meeting. He was a tall man, thinning and balding with age but with a warm smile on his face. He greeted the townspeople warmly, as if they were all great friends. She supposed they all were, everyone but her. He smiled as he looked out among the crowd, "Welcome everyone! Let's start the meeting."

Avery felt her heart begin to race, her palms starting to sweat. She knew that this was her chance to learn more about her family's history and also about the town, but she was nervous that she would learn something that would change the way she thought about everything.

The mayor started to scan the crowd and she watched him anxiously. Soon, his eyes zoned in on her and he smiled, "And today we have a newcomer, Avery Ravenwood has joined us." A murmur was heard from around the room and Avery glanced around nervously.

She could hear the old man in front of her whispering, "A Ravenwood? We haven't seen a new one in years."

The younger lady scolded her young child who was staring and pointing at her, "It isn't nice to look and point, stop that!"