~ Hello Readers!

This is my very first story on this website ^^ Anyway, please review! I'll have new chapters soon!

My Bittersweet Orange

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I looked over the side of the boat and gazed at the sea. Drops of salt water splashed against my face. The wind blew against my skin and my hair, sending it back beyond my head. I was heading to a new life full of hope and adventure.

I sighed; who was I kidding.

I'm just going to some teeny-tiny island in the middle of nowhere! I'm gonna start up a farm! Who's idea was this again? Cause I don't think it was mine!

"Don't lean so far over the side. You'll fall in."

I groaned. I looked over my shoulder to see a peach-haired boy in a lawn chair leaning against the back of the door to the lower deck. His feet were up on a table in front of him. His eyes were half open and he looked at me without interest. He had a smug look on his face.

I glared at him. "Well, at least you learned from your experiences."

He huffed and went back to staring into space.

"Don't mind him," a brunette girl next to me said. She was in the same position as me: arms folded, head resting on top looking off over the ocean. "He asks like that to everyone on the island," she continued to whisper so he wouldn't hear.

"So you've been to the island before?" I whispered back.

"We live there," the boy half shouted from behind us. He had really good hearing! "It's just a dried-up hunk of land, nothing special."

"Well Chase, if you hate it so much, why are you even coming back.?" the girl beside me retorted, annoyed.

The peach-haired boy sighed with frustration and closed his eyes. A crease formed between his knitted eyebrows, "I have my reasons."

The girl glowered at him, but her expression lightened as she turned back to me, "I'm Anissa. I work on Souffle Farm with my parents. We grow all kinds of crops, but the soil hasn't been very good lately…" her eyes drifted to the deck, "I left to go look for some way to make the soil on the island more fertile but…"

"Face it Anissa! Waffle Island will never have rich soil like it used to, so just get used to it," Chase wasn't facing us, his head was turned away. His eyes were shut tighter and his brow creased even more. Anissa looked depressed.

"You talk an awful lot for someone who's not even part of our conversation," I said, annoyed. He ignored me.

"So why isn't the land fertile anymore?" I asked Anissa.

"It's cause the Harvest Goddess left us!" Chase answered sarcastically.

"Is your name Anissa?" I yelled back rhetorically.

Anissa sighed, "He's right though… when her tree died the rich soil was sucked dry."

Chase mumbled something under his breath, "The Harvest Goddess isn't real! Everyone knows that!" He squinted off at the ocean. He looked very annoyed.

"How can you say that?" Anissa asked in despair.

"How can you not!?" Chase snapped back. "The island's gonna whither up and die one day!"

"Who's the Harvest Goddess?" I asked a little confused.

"She's the Goddess that keeps the island healthy. She's in all the legends of Waffle Island. She's said to be a beautiful Goddess with little harvest sprites that help her run the island," Anissa answered. "She had a magical tree planted in the center of the island. The roots reached all the way to the farthest beaches, but after many years, the tree began to wither. After it did, the soil turned bad and so did the weather."

"SHE'S JUST A FAIRY TALE!!" Chase yelled

"What makes you so sure!?" I half-yelled back at him.

He turned and looked at me with a surprised and angry expression on his face. His face was a little red, probably from yelling so much. He still looked annoyed and completely ignored my question, "Why are you going the island anyway? What could you possibly want here?"

"I'm gonna start my own farm!" I answered rather cheerfully.

He tried to suppress a laugh. And failed. "Well good luck with that!"

Anissa and I both glared at him. "I see what you mean," I said.

"About what?" Anissa asked.

"The way he acts."

Anissa giggled. Chase pretended not to hear us. Then all of a sudden the door leading to the lower deck opened. Chase's chair tipped forward as the door pushed the back of his chair upright. Pascal came out from the lower deck.

"We'll be arriving in Harmonica Town shortly!" he announced.

"Really?" Anissa asked, overjoyed.

"It's about time!" Chase barked.

I sighed. 'Wonder if all the villagers are like this' I thought to myself.

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask," Anissa began.

I woke from my daydreaming and turned to look at her, "Hm?"

"What's you're name?"

"Me? It's Akari."

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Thanks for reading! ^^