Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or any of the characters.

I saw her for the first time in Mirabelle's store.

That young brunette who awkwardly walked in with a look of confusion on her face. She had no idea what she was doing and I could tell. I watched her walk over to the counter and wave to Mirabelle before announcing—well, more like whispering—that she was the new farmer on Ranch Island.

Name was Chelsea.

She glanced over at me and managed a smile too before walking over and saying the same thing. I could tell that she was intimidated, but the smile did not falter as she stretched out her hand for me to shake.

"Vaughn." I replied with a nod, keeping my hands in my pockets. She retreated after noticing that I wasn't about to take it, and nodded while saying, "Nice to meet you, sir." She bowed before taking a step back and turning around to leave the store.

"Cute little thing, isn't she?" Mirabelle said as she wiped down her counter. I grunted. New comers didn't really interest me. Especially ones that did not benefit me.

I have to say, that even though I only stayed on the island two days at a time per week, all I saw was her. Running around all over the island, collecting grasses, bamboos, cutting branches, and doing various other things that the other residents didn't do. It wasn't long before my interest was actually captured by her—although one could say that it was her fault.

It was a Tuesday afternoon and I was making my way towards the dock, ready to head back to the mainland. As I was walking, minding my own business, I heard a pair of footsteps hitting the pavement, rapidly coming towards my direction. I tilted my head back a little to look out from under my hat, and there she was...

The clumsy little broad ran straight into me.

"Ah!" was what she managed to yelp as she dropped everything that she was carrying and hit her rear on the ground. ...All that chaos in one spot while I barely moved an inch.

I stared down at her. Watching her as she took her moment to collect her thoughts and figure out what just happened. And when she did, she jumped up at me. Apologising profusely, she quickly, almost recklessly, gathered her belongings and ran straight past me. I looked over my shoulder and saw what she was aiming for: the shipping box.

"No! No! No!" She yelled upon reaching it. She dropped to her knees and let all of the things she was going to ship fall to the ground again. To be honest this was all an odd site to me, standing a few metres away and all. I was going to leave, but hey, what the hell.

I casually walked over to her. "What's wrong?" I asked. It came out more monotonous than I would have liked but I couldn't help that that was how I was.

She looked up at me momentarily with her huge blue eyes. Funny I didn't notice how clear and bright they were before. "I..." she stopped and choked back her words. Geez, did I scare her that much?

"I missed my shipping time..." she said, looking down at the box. "It was at 5pm. I didn't make it."

"Why are you crying about it? Doesn't seem too bad," I replied, blinking at the simplicity of the situation.

"I needed the money," she answered, opening the box and placing the objects inside for tomorrow.

"What for?"

She raised her head and looked at me again. What, could I not ask?

"Dinner," she said. "I spent all my money buying medicine for my cat and my dog. Now I have barely enough money to buy a sandwich."

Her answer did cause me to stop and rethink about what she said. Dinner? Really? Obviously this girl did not know how to use her money. She probably spent all her gold buying seeds and tools...typical mistake of a first time farmer. But then again...it was nice enough to know that she was willing to take care of her pets before she even had anything to eat.

"But your pets are healthy again," I said. "You should be happy."

A sigh escaped her and she nodded, "I am but...food sounds really good right now..."

In the distance I could hear that my ship had arrived, it was time for me to go. "There's always tomorrow. Now you know not to be late again unless you want to starve."

She stood up also with a frown on her face. Ha, as if my words were not true. I thought it was pretty good advice. "Yeah..." she mumbled, brushing her bangs out of her face.

I tipped my hat and turned around, making my way down the paved road towards the beach. Not bothering to look over my shoulder as the distance between us widen, I held up my hand as a gesture of farewell. "See you around, Chelsea."

First time I ever said her name out loud. Probably caught her off guard as it took her a moment to reply, "Bye, V-Vaughn...!"

I put my hands in my pockets and made my way towards the docks. That wasn't too bad for a first time conversation now, was it? Well, it wasn't even really a conversation but that didn't matter. It was nice to know that there was someone on the island who cared for their animals—I've met far too many ranchers who really should not even qualify to have the job. Sure the girl was going to starve for one night, but at least she took care of the family that she had with her first.

~End