Chapter 1

Greg looked over his town in the window, looking over all the roofs and streets. It was a nice place, a small town with a lot of family owned businesses. The town was right on the edge of large hills, that made their way into small mountains. There he could see Witch Rose's moving castle, a large elegant pink palace with towers and spires. It was an odd castle. It seemed to move every so often, even though when you were looking at it it seemed like it wasn't moving at all. You'd look at it in the morning and see that it was right on the edge of town, and then an hour later it was on a grassy hill.

Greg let his legs drape over the windowsill that he sat on. His fingers strummed over his guitar in a half formed melody. Somehow, the notes weren't coming to him today, which was worrisome. It was usually easy for him to create a song. Yet, in his dull mood, it was as if there was a cork on his inspiration that he didn't have the strength to pull out. It was hard to work hard on his music when he knew in the end he was going to have to work in the hat shop anyways.

After a while, he set his guitar down and gave up. He went back to work on his parent's hat shop like he should have been doing. It was boring, tiresome work, but somebody had to do it, and his parents did the work most of the time anyways. He trimmed a purple hat, encrusted diamonds along the edge, and gave it a large silver bow. He went to work on another hat, but the doorbell interrupted his work.

"Heya, Mr. Universe, how's the work going?" Marty came in, smirking. Greg never liked him, but he did help him a lot by buying him a good guitar, and giving him guitar lessons. It was his dream to become a musician, so he couldn't thank Marty enough for helping him. He was basically indebted to him, which is probably what Marty most likely intended in the first place. Greg Universe was the stage name he made or himself, and Marty often teased him about it.

"It's uh- going great! We're doing better than ever!" Greg said.

"Yeah," he laughed, "I'm sure about that, Universe."

Marty looked with a cold smile over at all the hats in the store. Then, he hopped up to sit on the countertop of Greg's cashier desk, scoffing at him. It all seemed so dramatic, though that was what he was like most of the time anyways.

"Listen, bud. I got something I need for you to do, so listen up. It's real simple."

Greg couldn't help but feel a pit in his stomach. He realized that he didn't have a way out of doing whatever he wanted him to do. He knew that this day had been coming for a while now.

"Sure, Marty, what do you need me to do?" Greg said, not bothering to hide his sigh.

Marty explained what he intended Greg to do for him, and it actually was simple. He needed to make a hat for his girlfriend Vidalia for her birthday, with wax faux onions on it. Trying to envision it in his head, it seemed more like a joke gift, but the look on Marty's face was serious, for a change. Greg didn't question it, he expected a lot worse than making a hat. Though, as he thought about it, this really was the only place that you could get a hat like that.

Still, the best thing to do would be to visit his girlfriend and take in her style. That way, he can figure out what shape and colors it should be. After all, it wouldn't do if she didn't like her gift. Marty agreed with his reasoning. He told him that she works at Cesari's bakery, and that her shift should be over soon.

Greg headed over to Cesari's and stared at all the carriages passing through. He was wondering if there was a way to ask Vidalia what kind of hat she likes without being too obvious. Though he was great at music, social situations weren't Greg's forte. As he was walking, a stately horse drawn carriage passed him by on the street. He could only gawk at the magnificence of it. It was a dark green carriage laden with yellow diamonds, led by the finest Arabian horses. He figured that it must be the Queen Yellow Diamond, or someone else who had to be a part of the royal family to have such an amazing carriage. He wondered what they were doing in the small town of Dewey.

Shaking it off, he went into Cesari's, sitting at one of the empty tables. It didn't seem like this place had a lot of good business either, though maybe it was just wasn't grain season. Even though the sign outside said OPEN, the barista was nowhere to be seen. From what Marty had said, he guessed that would be Vidalia.

He heard laughing, and went into the storage room to find two people. One had odd, onion shaped hair, and the other much shorter with short lavender hair. He guessed that the one with the onion shaped hair was Vidalia. She also had a spiked collar on and wore trousers with ripped edges. Overall, she had a tough, masculine style. It looked good on her.

"Hey, uh- you're Vidalia, right?" He said, putting on what he hoped to be a friendly smile. "I'm Greg Hatter, I'm a friend of Marty's!"

Vidalia looked at him with a stoic expression, popping her bubblegum. Her friend snorted loudly, rolling their eyes. Vidalia was pretty intimidating, Greg wasn't surprised in the least that she was dating Marty. Those two together were the scariest couple in the town.

"Marty has friends? That's a new one," the person with the purple hair said. "And hey, I'm Amethyst."

Vidalia punched her in arm, lightly, but laughed and patted her head with a smile. She shook her head with a chuckle. Greg had heard about Amethyst before, she was a lot of trouble.

"But- man, I thought I heard that the Hatters' kid was a daughter. Not a son," Amethyst said, lifting an eyebrow.

Greg shrugged. He didn't want to explain his transition to someone he just met.

"Must have confused me for someone else, I guess. Mistakes happen," Greg said.

"So, what're you here for?" Vidalia said.

Greg explained what Marty had told him, and both of them exploded into laughter.

"Man that- that's priceless. He's really going for it this time, isn't he?" Amethyst said, wiping tears from her eyes.

"He's really something, all right. Okay, I'll give you me measurements."

"And, if you could tell me your favorite colors, that would help as well!" He said, giving her a nervous smile, scratching the back of his head.

"Sure, pal. Black n' yellow"

She stood up to leave and get a measuring tape, but paused.

"Oh, yeah, can you run the cash register while I go to the store and get a tape measurer? It'll be quick," she said.

Greg bit back from saying that she wasn't running the cash register in the first place anyway. He looked to Amethyst for help, she shrugged. So much for that idea.

"Yeah, of course!"

Right as Vidalia left, a swarm of customers came in to the bakery. He guessed he wasn't the only one who found Vidalia intimidating. It was nerve-racking to have so many customers to serve, but somehow he did it. He had no idea what was taking Vidalia so long.

The last customer was someone in dark green boots. If he didn't know any better, he'd say it was a small child from their small stature and youthful looking face. It wasn't, though, as she wore a yellow diamond pinned to their green blazer. She also wore a necklace with a large triangle-cut peridot on a gold chain. Greg gulped, realizing he knew who it was. Peridot, the grumpy Royal Health Inspector.

"I am Peridot, Queen Yellow Diamond's Safety Inspector. I would like to inquire about the safety of these baked foodstuffs," Peridot said, her voice nasally. "The Queen herself demands a safety check on all locations that serve food stuffs, so she will not become ill on her visit."

"I'm Greg, but-"

Peridot rolled her eyes, signaling with her hands 'hurry up and get to the point.'

Greg darted back into the storage room to find Amethyst to help him. Looking around, she was nowhere to be seen. Where could she even go? She didn't see her leave, and the back entrance seemed to blocked by heavy boxes.

He went back to Peridot to see her looking unamused.

"Well, I don't work here, actually. Can you wait a while until Vidalia comes back?"

Peridot raised an eyebrow, marking something down on her clipboard. Greg could have sworn he saw her write down "the Greg" but he had to be mistaken.

"W-Wait! Please, this isn't something that happens often-"

"Being unprepared in the face of an inspection . . ." Peridot mumbled, writing more on her clipboard.

Greg pulled her a chair at one of the tables.

"How about I give you one of our amazing baguettes?"

Peridot didn't respond, but sat down at the table, laying her clipboard down and crossing her legs. She tapped her pen on the clipboard.

"Don't waste anymore of my time," she said, making Greg jump.

Greg rushed to make Peridot a fresh baguette, but was stopped by the jingle of the bakery's front door opening. He turned around to see Vidalia, holding a tape measurer.

"What took you so long?" he said in a quiet tone.

"Oh, the Queen was coming to your shop so the road was blocked," she said, shrugging. "Too many people came to meet the Queen, you know how it is."

"The- The Queen?"

"Yeah, I was waiting for you to come back, but you took so long working that both me and the Queen got impatient and left." She gave him a thumbs up, putting a paper with her head measurements in his hand. "Thanks for working hard for me, bud."

The Queen went to his hat shop and he wasn't there? He couldn't believe it.

"N-No problem, Vidalia."

He helped her make the baguette for Peridot, who decided it was "acceptable." Going back to his hat shop, he decided that he'd start making Vidalia's hat another day.