Is this what I think it is? Why yes! It it what you think it is! A newly revived, re-edited, all together much better, version of Slice of Life! Hoorah! It's almost been...hell if I know since I last updated the story, because I had kinda dug myself into a hole that pretty much made me lose interest in it all together.

BUT after some inspiration I have decided to bring it back from the dead! And I promise that I will try my best to keep this story going to the very end. My brother is still my co writer so on occasion he will provide a chapter of his own like he use to do.
Both of us will try to fix any mistakes I have made. I found a good spell check website I run every chapter through before uploading so forgive me if there are any mistakes.

Without further or do, Enjoy the new story!

I do not own Harvest Moon Animal Parade.

I didn't know it was even possible. The kind of luck and difficulty that we've had to get this far was so mind-blowing it almost seemed unreal. Yet somehow we stood together, side by side, into what we hoped would be the next chapter of our lives. Standing before us was the very essence of freedom and pride. This was going to be awesome. THIS would be-

"The most jacked up house I've ever seen."

Snapping out from probably the most detailed inner monologue of my life, I was forced to face the reality that was the world. Which currently consisted of a broken-down and abandoned shack we were supposed to call home. The roof was falling apart so badly, if it rained before we got the opportunity to repair it, our 'humble abode' would be flooded. Several planks on the front were either rotting, falling off, or missing completely. The red paint on the door was chipped and all together not pleasant to look at. The tiny porch to the right of the house was cluttered with random supplies such as water cans, wheelbarrows, buckets, and other farming tools we'd probably never have a use for.

To say the least, it looked horrible.

I turned on my back heel, considering begging the Mayor to give us a better house. Sadly, I knew that we'd have to pay full price for a better one. He had been gracious enough to let us pay a quarter of what the house used to be worth. Now I understood why. I looked to my brother, my twin, and partner in crime. "What the blue hell are we going to do with this?" I gestured wildly to the pile of crap we now had to call home.

He removed the silver glasses from his face to rub his exhausted features. "We don't even have enough money to pay the mortgage at the moment, and you don't want to so much as talk about going back to Mom and Dad's. Our only option is to live with it and pay later. Besides, I'm sure it looks a lot more bearable on the inside."

"Goddess, I hope you're right." I grumbled irritably, stomping to the ugly door and turning the rusty knob. Once the squeaky hinges finally stopped the song of their people, the two of us headed into the belly of the beast. The inside was actually slightly better, but that's not saying much. From what I could tell, the missing roof tiles were only recently removed. The flooring was decent, mostly covered in dust and dirt. The top corners of the walls had depressing signs of drooping wallpaper that were turning a rotten color. There were a few holes where the floor met the sides, most likely from mice or bugs. A small kitchen area was set up in the back right with a large empty pot sitting on the counter. A small table with four chairs was at the center and a bare mattress sat on an unstable bed frame in the back left corner. There was also a door to the left with an equally tiny bathroom.

We took one look at each other before exhaling simultaneously. I didn't need to say anything to my twin to know what we were both thinking.

What had we gotten ourselves into?

"Hello? I have luggage addressed to a Lily and Ian Duncan?" Behind us, a voice called out followed by the sound of horseshoes clacking against the gravel path outside. Ian and I backed out of the crap pile...excuse me, I mean house.

"We're here!" I replied to whoever had said our names. Mounted on a brown Clydesdale, an older man wearing a green shirt with jeans slowly approached our house. Behind him, on a wagon attached to the horse's saddle, were some suitcases and random boxes with our stuff. Once the man was close enough, he jumped down from the saddle, patted the horse on the head, and walked over to us with an extended hand. Ian took it first and said, "Thank you for delivering our stuff."

The man nodded graciously and smiled. "You're welcome, Ian was it?"

This time I spoke up, "Yes, that's Ian and I'm Lily. It's very nice to meet you..." I dropped off the sentence for obvious reasons. Thankfully, he quickly caught on.

"Cain. Name's Cain. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to Castanet!" He bellowed. Honestly, the Mayor had gotten to us first and said the same thing, but it seemed rude to burst Cain's bubble. We just smiled and thanked him once more. "Now, let me help you put your things into your new home. I know it's a little beaten up, but I'm sure you two will be able to fix it right up in no time!" Cain chattered, lifting a bulging box from the wagon with a grunt.

I pulled Ian's sleeve to get him to lean into me. "Did we really pack so much it makes a full-grown man struggle?" I commented in a whisper, watching as Cain awkwardly waddled inside the house carrying the huge package. Ian only shrugged.

"He might be carrying the box of books I brought. Then again, it didn't give me much trouble when we loaded it onto the ferry..." We both decided it was better to forget it for the time being and finish transferring our stuff to our house. We finished unloading (finding another oddly-heavy box in the process) and thanked Cain for all he'd done before he left. The sun was setting as we went back inside for the last time. Our official first night on Castanet. This would probably have been more commemorable if the house was a little more inviting.

"We packed wine right? Anything with alcohol?" I asked, rummaging through some boxes. Ian was taking his clothes from his suitcase and storing them in a dresser. He chuckled at my attempt to drink away the stress I was already feeling. "I know I don't drink very often, but darn it, I need booze right now."

My twin smirked knowingly. "Kasey rubbed off on you, I see." He joked, closing the dresser doors. A shudder ran through me at the mention of Kasey. Kasey Williams. Probably one of the few people who knew how to really get under my skin by just standing beside me. I didn't know what it was about him, maybe the cocky additude he had, or possibly the way he inhaled anything with alcohol in it without a second thought. All he was was a drunken buffoon and I was glad he was gone. Though I will admit if he wasn't Ian's best friend I wouldn't have met my best friend. His younger sister, Angela. It was hard to imagine an alcoholic like Kasey could have such a sweet and down to earth sister like her. She was the only thing related to him that I missed.

While searching for the elusive bottle of wine I swore I had smuggled in with our things, I sliced off the tape of an unopened box only to see a small pile of books and other miscellaneous items that wouldn't fit in the other containers. Confused, I looked around the room to see that the one box we suspected to be the books was still sitting in the corner, untouched. What freaked me out even further was that it was moving. Perhaps at some point I did drink that wine after all and I'm starting to see things. I stumbled backwards as the box shifted again. I nearly collided with my brother, who looked confused by my strange behavior.

"I-Ian! The box is alive!" I yelled, pointing at the squirming cardboard. A low moan escaped from it, making the two of us stand at alert. Was it some animal? Did we accidently take some crazy person's luggage off the ferry?

"We need to open it. Lily get a bat or something, just in case."

"We didn't pack a bat!"

"In that case...uh...grab that rusty ladle over in the kitchen. If we can't knock him out, at least we'll give him tetanus." Together, we slowly inched our way to the box, Ian handling a pair of scissors to remove the tape and me behind him gripping the cooking utensil like it might save my life. Finally, we made our move. Ian jumped forward and sliced the tape off the top and hopped back as I advanced with the ladle poised above my head, ready to attack. A body exploded from the top, packaging peanuts flying every which way.

"DIEEEEE!" I screamed, bringing the ladle down forcefully onto what I could only assume was the guy's head. I was pleased to hear him cry out in pain, but the sound of my ladle breaking in half took away the euphoria I felt. I scrambled backwards, clutching Ian.

"What the hell, guys? The box says fragile!"

Ian stopped trembling in an instant to let out a hearty laugh at the familiar voice. I, on the other hand, was still very afraid.

Standing in front of us with a big bruise on his head, was none other than the bane of my existence. Kasey Williams.

"No! Noo! Get out! OUT!" I screeched, clawing at the air like a frightened cat. He only stood there smiling that damn smile.

"If I didn't know you better, Lily, I'd say you weren't happy to see me."

"Bite me!"

I threw the handle of the broken ladle at Kasey. He swayed to the side to avoid it, tipping over the box he was in and leaving him sprawled in the dust. While Ian assisted him up again, I crossed my arms and pouted down at the ground where an empty wine bottle had rolled from the box. No wonder I couldn't find it.

Ian chuckled again as he clapped his buddy on the back. "Dude, you stowed away in our luggage? Not only was that dangerous, but if someone caught you, you'd probably end up in jail or something."

Kasey shrugged. "It was a risk I was willing to take. Besides I'd at least have a cellmate. Now, where is she..." He stepped out of the box carefully and started examining the room, poking other boxes and looking inside them. Finally he came across the only other box we had yet to open. He took a position behind the package, cracked his knuckles and neck dramatically... and shoved it over with his foot. The impact with the floor caused the top to burst open with another eruption of styrofoam, revealing a second stowaway.

Dazed, Angela just stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds before snapping her gaze at her laughing sibling. "Kasey! You didn't have to dump me over! That was mean!" She cried out childishly in her cute squeaky voice as Kasey helped her to her feet. "Hi guys!" She greeted us as if what had just happened was in no way unusual, casually picking peanuts out of her ruffled hair. "We've probably got a lot of explaining to do, don't we?"

I nodded. "Answer me this. Why?"

Angela put her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels like an innocent little kid. "Well, once you told us that you guys were leaving, I was really upset. I mean, losing two of my closest friends? Even Kasey was depressed about that!"

"I'm not sure how I should take the way you said, 'Even Kasey,'" her brother spoke up.

Ignoring him, Angela continued, "Anyway, I mentioned wanting to move to the island you guys were going to, and we agreed that it sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately, we didn't have the money for a ferry and you know what our parents are like, so my genius brother here-"

Kasey raised his hand proudly. "I suggested that we stow away in your luggage! It was actually pretty easy to do. That's probably not a very good thing, now that I think about it."

"Well, I suppose there isn't really anything we can do about it now," I said, resigning myself to this turn of events. "More importantly, where's your stuff? It's not like you came to this decision at the last minute, right?" Kasey and Angela exchanged a look I interpretted as the exact opposite. "Wow, guys." I laughed wearily.

Kasey through his arms up like he was at a loss. "So we'll have to wear the same underwear for a while, big deal. We can always buy new ones. Or share. I'm about the same size as Ian, right?" he said, eyeing Ian from across the room, who started to look extremely uncomfortable.

I put my hands on my hips, ready with a rebuttle. "And what exactly do you plan to buy those clothes with, hm? I do hope you'll be getting a job. No way are we going to give you money just so you can waste it."

"Me enjoying a drink once in a while isn't wasting money. It's putting it to good use."

"I'd like to hear you say that after you get alcohol poisoning."

"You know my tolerance level. I hardly ever actually get drunk unless I'm really trying, so I'm fine."

"You don't know that. I'm fully expecting you to just fall off your bar stool, dead."

"Why the sudden care for my well-being?"

"I don't care. I'm only bringing this up because I don't want to have to pay for the funeral."

"Yeah whatever, you totally care."

"I do not!"

"Do."

"NOT!"

Each new line in the argument closed the distance between me and Kasey, so that we were just inches from each other at this point. One more word, and I might actually hit the idiot, which wasn't all that uncommon.

"Stop it!" Angela shouted, shutting both of us up before it got that far. "We didn't huddle up in cardboard boxes for three hours just so you two could bicker. Here, I'll help you unpack."

Ian nodded. "She's right. We've still got more stuff to unload."

We decided to be somewhat more mature for the moment and finish unloading the rest of our stuff. It took us a few hours, but we eventually got it all done. Clothes were shoved in the dresser, bathroom products went into the bathroom, and random other stuff we couldn't part with stayed in boxes until we came up with a better place to put them.

Angela was wiping the sweat from her forehead when she gasped out, "Okay, that took forever. I think we should all rest now." She plopped down on the mattress with an exhausted sigh. Sadly for her, the unsturdy frame collapsed under the sudden weight. It crashed to the ground loudly as Angela let out a surprised shriek. Kasey howled with laughter, and as I turned to hide my own smile, I could see Ian shaking with a hand over his mouth to suppress his own amusement.

Angela, on the other hand was not in such good cheer. "I...think I killed a mouse," she mumbled, her face turning pale.

A few minutes later, tissues were handed to Angela as Ian lowered a dirty shoebox containing what was left of a poor rodent into the ground. We tossed a couple of stray flowers and herbs on top before my twin dumped earth back into the hole.

"May he rest in pieces." Angela jabbed her brother roughly in the ribs for the bad attempt at humor. "Ow! It's just a mouse!"

"It was probably the most cutest mouse in the world!" Angela shot back.

"Cutest? If it had come out in the open, you would have begged one of us to kill it."

Angela puffed her cheeks out, giving her the appearance of a chipmunk. "Whatever!" She hollered stubbornly, closing and locking the front door after Ian and I had rushed inside, leaving Kasey all alone in the front yard.

He banged on the door a couple times while he begged to be let in. "Aw, come on Ange! I-I thought the mouse was cute too! I even scraped his corpse from under the bed because I care that much. Now let me in!"

She stood her ground though, crossing her arms with a smirk as Kasey's protests and pleas echoed through the empty field as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

This was certainly not how I imagined our first day to end up like.

So? What did you think? I hope it was better then the last one. The old version will remain up so I can look back at it for stuff. It will still retain most of the old stuff, but I hope to change a LOT of things that needed improvement. The story will most focus on four adults (they are about 19/20/21 in the story.) trying to survive in a more country place after living in the city for so long.

Blahblahblah Sil you ramble too much.
Yes, yes I do.

Reviews are greatly appreciated. :) Thanks for taking the time to read guys.