Pretty Ordinary
Summary: Chelsea never even considered becoming a farmer, but the responsibility is thrust upon her. She'd been leading a pretty ordinary life, with an ordinary past, and an ordinary love history. But surely things can't stay ordinary forever?
Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon.
--
Chelsea yawned, fidgeting uncomfortably. The sunbeams flooded her cosy, welcoming home, bouncing dazzlingly off the brightly coloured walls. She rolled over, hurting immensely as she cracked an eye open to a fluffy, pink carpet.
"Damn…" She cursed, hoisting herself to her dainty feet. "I did that again?" She shook her head; to stop her chestnut locks from clinging tightly to her pale face.
It took her a few moments to remember exactly why she was here, even after spending a week at the miserable island. She'd been put in the role of 'farmer' since she was the most suitable. Though she was sure Taro should have taken over, being a previous farmer and all. But… as things were, she landed the not-so-pretty farm, with a house in shambles, and almost ruined animal barn. What luck!
She snapped her head to the door as she heard a loud thump coming from it.
"Hello~! Who is it?" Chelsea called, skipping over in her dressing gown. She awkwardly poked her complicated padlocks, managing eventually to fling it wide open.
Natalie stood there absolutely drenched, and was clearly irritated as she stormed inside. She turned to squeeze a grumpy glare at Chelsea, who quite obliviously yawned. This only irritated Natalie more as she collapsed on Chelsea's scruffy bed.
"What the hell are you doing?" Chelsea moaned, yanking Natalie off the bed, "You can't just walk in drenched, and sit on my bed!"
Natalie rolled her eyes, pulling her hands out of her grip. "Do you have a towel?" She sighed.
Chelsea stifled a laugh, pointing towards the bathroom door, which on the handle was a baby pink towel.
"I don't know why you're laughing," Natalie growled, glaring at her, "Even if I'm drenched, as least I'm dressed decent."
Chelsea cocked a brow, but quickly remembered she was still in her dressing gown, "Oh yeah, I better get changed right? Leave you to dry yourself off."
Natalie nodded, and Chelsea flinged the towel in Natalie's direction, merrily skipping into the bathroom, where her neatly folded pile of farm clothes were. She closed the door, and got dressed, brushing her teeth speedily, and combing through her tangled hair. Admittedly, she'd never liked her hair, it was either to thin or to thick, too poofy or to straight. It was a simple analysis, her hair was just never right. She heard the impatient tapping from the main room, and held back a chuckle as she danced out the door.
"What took you so long?" Natalie moaned, noticing Chelsea was out, "I did come here for a reason you know."
Chelsea sighed, knowing Natalie's impatient trends, "Yeah? And what was it?"
"Well, it was Gramps who wanted me to come over really, since as you know, I don't normally come over when it's chucking down…" She paused, to check if she understood her excuse, "You see, there's a boat coming soon, well… Chen's boat… And guess what?"
Chelsea cocked her brow, "What?" She sighed.
Natalie rolled her eyes at her no enthusiasm tone, "New villagers."
"Why?" Chelsea said, shaking her head. "Why the hell does anyone want to live here?"
Natalie shrugged, clearly as stumped as she was. "Beats me."
"Do you know what sort of people…?" Chelsea hinted, plopped down beside Natalie on her bed.
"Grandad said it was the animal shop owners, something like Milabelle and Julie…?" She explained, memory of the names leaving her. She was sure it was something like that.
"Hm… they must be quite old. I was kinda hoping for someone our age…"
Natalie rolled her red eyes, grabbing Chelsea's sleeve, "Well they're boat is arriving… and being the most important person on the island, you have to welcome them."
"What? I'm not important, why can't Taro do it?" Chelsea groaned, looking outside the window.
"Well duh?" Natalie sighed, pulling her to the door, "He's an old fogey…"
Chelsea chuckled, but reached for her raincoat, "I told you to buy a coat," Chelsea sighed, sliding hers on, "You're going to freeze. Again."
"Shut up!" Natalie snapped, thrusting the door open and dragging her through the rain, "The less time we take, the less I get wet."
Chelsea laughed, wrenching her coat out of her grip and skipping ahead, "Come on! Hurry up!"
"Hey!" Natalie complained. After shooting a few wary glances around, she started to sprint, shoving Chelsea forward when she reached her dainty skip.
"Oi!" Chelsea moaned, stopping, "What was that for?"
Natalie rolled her eyes and strolled down the pier, with Chelsea wandering after. The boat had already arrived, and two women, one much older than the other, were watching Chen lower their suitcases with Gannon.
"Hello?" Chelsea piped up, tapping the shoulder of the younger one. The woman turned around, which caused the other to turn as well.
It was Natalie's turn, "So which one of you is Milabelle and which one is Julie?"
The younger one stifled a giggle, shaking her head. "Well, I'm Julia. And this here is my mother Mirabelle."
Natalie's face imitated that of a tomato; clearly embarrassed she got their names wrong. "Sorry…" She mumbled.
Mirabelle chuckled, copying her daughter. "It's quite alright." She assured, "Do you happen to know where about we'll be setting up shop?"
Chelsea shook her head, but Natalie, back to her normal pale skin, nodded. "Yeah, my Grandad showed me the other day, it's right this way…"
Mirabelle nodded, whilst Julia took the handle of two suitcases, pushing another two to her mother, "Here, ma. You can take those ones right?"
Mirabelle turned, smiling sweetly at her daughter, "Of course I can Jules," She chuckled, grabbing the other two. Julia flushed at her nickname, moaning quietly, "Quit calling me that, ma. It's embarrassing!"
This made Mirabelle chuckle, and nodded towards Natalie, "Would you mind guiding the way?" Natalie nodded, walking down the pier, closely followed.
Julia matched the pace of Chelsea, grinning. "Hi there!" She greeted, "I'd shake your hand, but my hands are full." She added.
Chelsea laughed, shaking her head, "It's alright."
Julia smiled, "So… what do you do here?" She asked, plainly curious.
"I'm the farmer," Chelsea answered, turning her head. Natalie and Mirabelle were talking, and from what she could see, Natalie wasn't putting much input to the conversation.
"Wow, I don't think I could ever be a farmer… sure I love animals, but…" She trailed off.
"I never really thought I'd be one either," Chelsea shrugged, "It just happened. Felicity wouldn't let Taro take over, so someone had to…"
"Hm… yeah." Julia nodded thoughtfully, and they came to a stop at her new home. "Oh goddess. I know they said it was in shambles, but this?"
"Don't be so negative Julia," Mirabelle said suddenly, popping out from behind her. "It'll be home, sweet home in no time." Mirabelle chuckled.
Julia rolled her eyes, laughing with her.
"Come on Chelsea, we gotta go!" Natalie said impatiently, waving goodbye to the new inhabitants rashly.
"Well I'll see you around Chelsea…" Julia smiled, "Come by tomorrow!"
"Will do," Chelsea agreed, swinging her head and following Natalie. "See you!" She called, rushing off.
Natalie was waiting, as usual, impatiently. She was tapping her foot, glaring at Chelsea, as she rushed over. She hastily grabbed her coat and pulled her inside where she pushed Chelsea onto her own bed.
"So… what was your conversation about?" She asked casually, as if she hadn't just shoved her onto the bed.
"Nothing really…" Chelsea paused. "What about you?" She sniggered.
Natalie huffed, crossing her arms tightly, showing clearly she didn't like it. "You're so childish." She moaned. "It was so annoying though, admittedly I didn't have to say anything since she was jabbering on about some stupid contest she won ages ago or something."
Chelsea rolled her eyes. "You could be a little bit nicer to the local neighbourhood you know," She scowled. "I mean, Chen is quite wary of you, I've noticed. What the hell did you do to him?"
Natalie grimaced. "It wasn't that bad. I just snapped at him for not keeping Eliza and Charlie away from me whilst I was at his store." She stopped to look at Chelsea's expression, which was disappointment. "Oh come on! They were harassing me for goddess sake."
"Yeah…" Chelsea nodded slowly, "Because children harass people…" She said dryly.
Natalie rolled her eyes; somewhat irritated that Chelsea wouldn't believe her. "So…" She began, changing the subject, "Are we visiting them tomorrow?"
Chelsea nodded, grinning. "Yup. I promised Julia I would so…" She trailed off. "So I guess I am." She added.
"I don't know about her…" Natalie sighed, rubbing her temple. "She just seems so… perky."
"Just because you have no enthusiasm for anything." Chelsea defended, shaking her head.
Natalie huffed again, glaring harshly. "I have plenty of enthusiasm!"
"Prove it," Chelsea grinned, "We all know that you'll just turn back into a pessimist."
Natalie rolled her eyes, and hopped to her feet, and Chelsea watched her, wandering what she was doing.
"Want to go to the diner together?" She smiled sickly, which made Chelsea cock an eyebrow.
Chelsea shook her head, but smirked. "Well actually, I'd much rather get a drink from the Café, and have a chat with your brother."
"Well, ew." Natalie grimaced, shaking the image from her head. "That's disgusting and you know it."
"Yeah…" Chelsea agreed, but continued grinning, "But I had to see your expression. And after all, your brother's a nice guy right?"
"There's a difference between nice and damn right embarrassing…" Natalie mumbled, "Can't we just go the diner?" She scowled.
"Ugh… whatever Natalie. You always get your way anyway." Chelsea frowned; Natalie could be soannoying sometimes.
Natalie smirked, and headed towards the door. She let out a small sigh of relief when she noticed the rain had stopped. "You coming?" She called to Chelsea, who was still sitting on her bed.
Chelsea nodded hesitantly, hoisting herself to her feet. She rubbed her eyes and trailed after Natalie, closing her door gently. She jogged over to Natalie, who was quite absorbed in the island.
"Do you think more people will come now?" She asked suddenly, turning her attention to Chelsea. "Quite a few people have arrived already after all. There are those kids Charlie and Eliza, Gannon- that carpenter, and that irresponsible Chen." She paused, but then added, "And now Julia and Mirabelle."
"Hm…" Chelsea wandered, thinking. "Probably." She decided, shaking her head. "But I still don't see what attracts them here. After all, not even I want to be here, and I'm the farmer!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah…" Natalie agreed, "But it still doesn't stop you from wandering, does it?" She muttered.
The rest of the journey, they chatted about their old lives, embarrassing moments and happy memories. They reached the diner quite quickly, much sooner they had assumed. However, they carried on chatting whilst they grabbed a table.
"Hello?" Someone said, grabbing the girls' attention. It was the waiter and also cook of the diner, his name being Luke. He single-handedly ran the diner, which in itself was quite impressive, "What can I get you?"
"Hi," Chelsea greeted, whilst Luke pulled out his order notepad, "I'll have a hot chocolate please." Chelsea turned her head to Natalie, "What about you Natalie?"
Luke scrawled her order down as Natalie scanned the menu. "I'll have some Grape Juice. And an apple pie please?" Luke nodded, and took their menus before scurrying back to his kitchen, to no doubt sort out their orders.
"Here you are worrying about your farm," Natalie mumbled, starting up the conversation again, "When I have it worse than you." She glanced warily at the other filled tables. "I mean, my family clearly expects me to take charge of the shipping. They believe in me to not make a mistake. Unlike my brother." She whispered. "It's a lot of responsibility, I guess."
Chelsea scoffed. "You think farming isn't hard? You haven't even tried pulling up a weed." Chelsea sighed, "I dread the day when I have to milk a cow. Ew, I'll have to touch their udders."
Natalie rolled her eyes. "There's a thing called a milker, Chelsea." Natalie smirked. "And, farming can't be that difficult, seeing as you can handle it."
"Is that an insult?" Chelsea scowled.
Luke came over, balancing an apple pie in one hand, and two cups in the other. He placed them gently on the table and smiled politely. "Here you go."
Chelsea nodded thankfully, and Luke fumbled over to the next table ready to order. She turned her attention back to Natalie, who was grinning whilst she dug into her apple pie.
Natalie glanced up. "Uh-huh." Was her answer to that question.
Chelsea shrugged it away, sipping at her toasty hot chocolate, she watched Natalie eat, and was rather surprised to see Natalie finish it all in a few minutes.
"How do you eat so fast?" Chelsea muttered, taking a sip from her mug.
Natalie shrugged. "Easily." She replied, drinking from her cup. They sat there in silence as they finished off their drinks, Chelsea naturally finished before Natalie, since she began drinking before. Eventually, Natalie's drink slammed on the table, indicated she had quite obviously finished.
"I'll pay," She insisted, walking over to the counter. Chelsea hummed quietly, tapping her feet. Soon after, Natalie came back to the table, and Chelsea got to her feet. They both wandered out of the diner, walking back into the centre of town.
"I'll meet you at your house again tomorrow?" Natalie asked, when they reached her house.
"Uh-huh." Chelsea nodded, "I'll see you then. Night!"
That's when Chelsea wandered down the path to her farm, and had a good sleep.