Spring

Chapter 1

~Here I am, in Mineral town living in a small one floor house. The bedroom has a small bathroom with a small bathtub with a shower head on the wall; the kitchen and the living room are one room. This should be fun; I have five hundred gold and no friends. Well that's not true, my neighbor Ellen came over and gave me one of the dogs because there's no room on her farm. I shall treasure this gift forever, I've named the puppy Jennifer, Jennie is her nickname.

I guess I should start working if I want money as soon as possible. It's six in the morning, but I'm not going back to sleep any time soon, I'll go walk around the sleeping town to figure things out.

-Alexandra Harper Monday Spring day 2 year 1~

Alexandra headed over to her toolbox located in the living room and took out the reaper; ax and iron hoe and put them in the rucksack that was resting next to the toolbox. She called Jennie over to the door where the dog happily jogged over to her feet.

"Let's go outside we've got a lot of work to do if we want to make money." Alexandra said as she opened the door. Jennie ran outside and Alex followed behind her, she got a good look at her backyard. Littered with leaves, weeds, branches and a few trees that had to go, her back and muscles began to ache at the thought of how long this would take. She also noticed there was no real fencing around her yard, the house itself has a little fence around it but nothing in the back.

"I'll use the fallen branches as a make-shift fence for now; there should be enough to keep any unwanted intruders from my crops until I can get proper stakes from those giant trees." Alexandra said to herself, it was at this point she realized living alone requires a lot of conversations with yourself, hopefully no one will think she's crazy.

The smaller stuff was the easiest to clear as well as some of the medium sized boulders. Once she realized the trees were next was when she decided to go look around town. The closest place other than Ellen's Ranch was a wood shop. Next to the wood shop is the place to buy seeds and some out of season foods when you need them. You can also buy saplings there for fruit trees and whatnot... unfortunately it's closed today which meant the wood shop was where she was headed first.

The owner of the shop, an old man about five foot eleven and in great shape despite looking aged, looked up from his desk when she entered the shop. There were two other guys with him much younger than he is. They could be his relatives' kids possibly or maybe his own sons, but they are quite young.

"Hello there, you're a new face to my store?" He asked with a friendly smile.

"I just got here last night, I moved next to the river near Ellen's house."

"Oh Ellen and her crew are a nice group of people. I'm Woody; I own the store and those two over there are my apprentices, Kurt and Joe. Kurt is the taller one with the green bandana and Joe is shorter with the blue bandana. What's your name miss?"

"I'm Alexandra, you can call me Alex if you want." she introduced herself to them.

"Hi Alexandra," Joe smiled and waved to her, he seemed to be the most lively out of the three. "I'm new too! We can be new buddies!"

"Um okay sure." She said unsure whether to say no or yes. Joe has a very childlike manner but is very energetic in the way he talks. It's even clear in their clothes; Joe has the brighter colors, bright blue bandana with stars, and tan vest with red and white stripped sleeves. His pants are chocolate brown and they match the color of his hair and eyes. His shoes are blue and white converse however, the white has faded to a gray from being so worn out. Kurt the taller one has camouflage bandana with a gray vest that has a blue stripe in the middle. He has a sleeveless black shirt and camouflage pants. He wore red and yellow bands on his right arm and green fingerless gloves on his hands, Joe's are gray and fingerless as well. Kurt's shoes match the bands on his arm, red sneakers with yellow shoelaces. Kurt has a very lone wolf vibe about him whereas Joe has a smile that could light up a cave. Woody is like the father figure to the boys even if he's their boss.

"Basing your friendship on the fact that you both moved here around the same time is a silly idea Joe." Kurt sighed but Joe's smiled filled with confidence in the fact he'll befriend Alex soon enough. "Besides, newbies without any support usually don't last very long in new towns with little money." He said half to himself but Alex ignored him.

"Don't let what my older brother says get to you, he's a butt sometimes." Joe whispered in Alex's ear. She nodded even though Kurt's comment didn't bother her in the first place. "What do you like doing on your spare time?" he asked her.

"Well I like fishing occasionally, that's why I live by the river. One end closer to my backyard and the other end is by my front yard."

"That sounds like my dream home! I'm so jealous of you!"

"Well you can visit if you want; I won't mind I figure it'll be pretty lonely in a house all by myself."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll visit you when I get off work so we can go fishing!" He smiled and hugged her overwhelmed with excitement.

"Okay, I'll see you later, bye guys!" I waved to them as I headed out of the shop.

"Bye" Woody and Joe said goodbye Kurt resumed working at his workbench on something that wasn't finished, it looked like a pile of wood cut up and strewn about on the table.

Alex left the wood shop and headed northwest to the farm next to her house. The Blue Sky Ranch a functioning farm and shop they sell animals and feed for animals as well as some products like milk, eggs, and cheese. She entered the two story blue roofed building and saw a woman tidying up the shop and an older man dressed like a cowboy with an elongated head and buckteeth behind the counter.

"Why hello there new face" He greeted her, "Are you the rancher that moved here on that new plan I heard the mayor gushing about for the past month?"

"Yes daddy, she took our dog earlier." The lady turned around and Alex smiled at the short mousy brown haired woman.

"Hi Ellen, how are you?" Alex asked happy to see a familiar face.

"I'm good; this is my shop as well as my home along with my cousin Blue. This is my dad Hank." She said wiping her hands on the white apron on the front of her yellow and orange dress.

"By the way Blue helps us with the ranch and Bob usually does the collection box related tasks. Blue's not much of a people person, and he's a little difficult, but give him food and he'll open up to you eventually." Ellen explained while she walked into the other room disappearing behind a brick wall.

"You should go introduce yourself to them." Hank chimed in the conversation.

"Okay, I'll go do that now. I'll see you both later."

Ellen pulled out the notebook that was sticking out of the pocket of her apron, "Wait take this animal notebook it'll teach you how to take care of animals." Alex took the notebook and thanked Ellen then headed outside towards the back where their own farm animals were grazing in the small field of grass.

"You're Alexandra, the girl who lives next to us! I'm Bob!" A tall square headed man with black hair gelled straight up in little spikes on his head.

"Hi Bob" Alex waved to him; "Ellen and Hank told me to come out and meet you guys."

"Awesome! Ellen and Hank are awesome people."

"Bob, stop chit-chatting and get back to work, that wool won't shave itself." Blue snapped at his coworker.

"Oh I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, I'll come back later but I just wanted to say hello." Alex blushed slightly nervous by Blue's sharp tone to his voice.

"Well you said hello now you need to leave." He instructed and Alex quickly left the area.

There are mountains near her house, they're not giant snowcapped mountains but they are indeed mountains. There's a well soiled trail that called her name. Alex quickly ran home and grabbed a few bottles of water and threw them in her backpack. Alex let Jennie outside with fresh dog food and cool clean water in her bowl in the dog house. Once she finished lacing up her hiking shoes she skipped over to the mountains to explore for an unknown amount of time.

After a half an hour she filled her bag with Moondrop flowers purple herbs lots of honey and 'Very Berries' as well as green herbs. The spring weather warm and comfortable lead to Alex dipping her feet into the lake that sits at the top of the mountain and flows down into a waterfall then winds its way through the town into the ocean. Little fish swam about minding their own business occasionally swimming towards the surface and checking her out but they'd lose interest and swim away again.

Twelve O'clock brought about lunch time hunger, Alexandra began her long walk home to cook something only to realize that she doesn't have anything in her fridge. She stopped at the Blue Sky Ranch and brought a bunch of eggs. They don't have bread here; the seed shop has the bread. She put the honey and herbs in the fridge and made herself some scrambled eggs. After a brief lunch she headed back outside and explored the mountains, that's where Joe met up with her after work ended at six thirty.

"Hey there friend," Joe called as he jogged up the hill with his fishing pole in hand.

"Hi Joe," Alex waved to Joe, "I'm sorry I forgot to tell you I wouldn't be home earlier, I honestly didn't know I wouldn't be home."

"It's okay; I didn't tell you when I got off work so we're even." He sat down at the edge the arching walking bridge.

"How was your day?" he asked staring at the water.

"It was good; I've spent almost all day in the mountains. They're beautiful and I'm probably going to come up here tomorrow."

"That's cool, I usually don't venture up here often but Ellen mentioned you headed up towards the mountains earlier so I headed up here to see if you were still here."

"You really wanted to go fishing with me didn't you?"

His cheeks turned a light pink and he let out a small laugh "I love fishing just as much as Ray does! He's a professional fisherman with that show on the educational channel every afternoon."

"Interesting, I just do it as a hobby." Alex said waiting for a fish to nibble on the bait. The sun seemed to be setting fast and Joe looked sleepy. "Do you want to go home and sleep? You look tired."

"I'm good, besides I don't have work on Tuesdays so I can stay up as late as I want to." He explained with a small smile and a brief yawn.

"Go home and get some rest, you have Tuesday off so you should sleep." Alex said reeling in the line. "The fish will be here and in the river tomorrow. I'll meet you by my house after breakfast."

"Sure, hopefully I'll be there after 9:30." He smiled packing up his fishing rod. They walked down the mountain together picking up some honey on the way down to the town below them.

"I hope we can be friends, Kurt told me that it was silly to base our friendship off the fact we're new here. He insisted that it wouldn't last long because we'd drift apart."

"I think we'll be friends, you seem nice so I don't see why we can't be friends. You said it yourself 'don't let Kurt bother you,' so I won't let him bother me. I'll see you tomorrow, bye Joe." She said heading towards her house. Joe waved goodbye and hurried off to the wood shop, Alex let Jennie back inside and prepared herself for bed.

~Today is the second day of my life in Mineral Town. I've already made one friend or I'm in the process of making a new friend, his name is Joe and he works at the wood shop down the street. He has a brother named Kurt who isn't very nice. He probably hates me or something I'm not sure but he wasn't happy that Joe thinks he can base a friendship off the fact that we both moved here around the same time. I hope he warms up to me in the future I don't want him to hate me.

Alexandra Harper Tuesday Spring Day 3 Year 1~

Alex made herself breakfast after letting Jennie outside, looking at her empty fridge reminded her that she needs to start farming as soon as possible otherwise she'll remain poor and probably lose her house and have to go back home. Proving the Exciting Rancher plan completely pointless or that Mayor Theodore picked the wrong candidate for this experiment. At seven in the morning, she got a knock at her door; she wasn't sure who decided to knock on her door at this early in the morning. Joe isn't due to show up for a few hours.

"Good morning Alexandra!" Bob's big square head greeted her. "I'm here to tell you about the shipping process." He smiled pointing to the brown box outside Alex's house.

"Thanks but I already figured it out later last night. You put stuff in that box over there and someone comes and empties it and that's about all I've figured out."

"That's about right, I come and collect the stuff you put in the box and the money comes at the end of the day. Over there behind your house is where your lumber shed is located in case you want to build a fence around your property once you've started your garden. If you run out of wood to make stakes there's plenty of logs lying around for your disposal. If you don't feel like walking around and chopping everything up, visit the wood shop and buy some."

Alex nodded, "I was there yesterday. Woody told me everything I needed to know about the wood shop. I also met Joe who decided we're going to be friends because he's new here and so am I. It's kind of silly but he seems like a good guy."

"That's nice, I haven't met them yet but I hope to meet them soon."

Alex noticed she had mail and smiled. Someone sent her a letter already. She walked towards her little red mailbox and opened the letter. It's from Woody reminding her about random information about the wood shop.

"I'll see you later I have to go back to work now." He announced and headed off to the Blue Sky Ranch.

At nine thirty Joe showed up at her house ready to go fishing with Alex.

"Are you ready to go fishing Alex?" He asked with a bright smile on his face.

"Yup, I hope you don't mind if Jennie runs around for a while."

"I don't mind I love dogs!" His face lit up as Jennie ran out the door. We walked towards the corner on the west end of the river this was our fishing spot for the day or however long we decide to stay here.

"So have you started planting anything yet?" Joe asked casting his line out in the water.

"Not yet, I haven't had much money to buy anything."

"So I know I said we're going to be friends because we're both new, but I have a question."

"Ask away my friend."

"I really love turnips but I don't have the time to plant them. They're in season now but it's a bother to run to the store and constantly buy them. If it's not too much of an issue, could you give me one of your turnips whenever you start planting them?"

"If I can afford to give you one, I know they gave me money to start with but it won't last long. Once I'm financially stable I will be glad to give you any fruit or vegetable you want." Alex said and quickly turned her attention back to the water; she felt a tug on her line and noticed a fish was biting.

"You got a bite," Joe said excited and prepared to help her reel it in, but she didn't need any help she pulled in a rainbow trout. "That's my favorite fish!" he squealed like a child with their Christmas present.

"Do you want it?" Alex asked handing him the fish.

"No, you caught that fish, you keep it." He declined the fish, just as he said that something was biting on his line. He reeled in a crawfish which he threw back in the water. "I hate shell fish," he made a face as it swam away.

Alex shrugged her shoulders, "I don't mind them much."

They fished for hours filling their buckets with various fish including much to Joe's satisfaction, rainbow trout. Alex decided that one bucket of fish would last for the day and packed up her stuff.

"I'm going to head home now, put some of the fish away and sell some of them. I'll go buy some seeds too and I'll make sure to buy a lot of turnip seeds." Alex smiled at him. Joe's face lit up again like a child.

"Thank you so much! You're the best friend I've ever had." He hugged Alex as tightly as he could.

"You're welcome Joe." She giggled.

Alexandra arrived at the seed shop in the afternoon greeted by a girl with light purple hair and a slightly dark golden dress and a purple shirt underneath it. She had green hair ribbon in her hair and had a light voice pleasant to the ears.

"Welcome new comer, what's your name?" She asked with a smile from her small lips.

"I'm Alexandra but I normally go by Alex." She introduced herself.

"I'm Liz and my daughter is in the back." She motioned with her head towards the brick archway leading into the other room.

"Did you call me mom?" A short round face girl with pink rose hair asked peaking her head around the corner.

"No but I did need you to get another box of crop notebooks, I'm all out of them."

"I'll get them, be back in a flash." She smiled and disappeared.

"You get a free crop notebook, Nina is going to get some more but until she gets back what can I do for you today?" She asked.

"I'll take two pouches of breadfruit, potatoes, strawberries, and cabbage seeds, and four pouches of turnips." Alex read the list of spring seeds to plant. She thought about growing some herbs or moon drop flowers but she didn't want to spend all of her money in one day. Liz took the seed pouches out of their respective boxes on shelves behind her.

"Do you want them in a bag?" She asked and Alex nodded.

"Yes please, that would be very helpful."

Nina came back with a medium sized box, "Here you go mom, more crop notebooks." She said placing the box on the brown counter. She's wearing a blue dress with a white apron decorated with a light purple hem and two pockets on the front. Nina handed one of the notebooks to Alex.

"Here's your free crop notebook, I hope you have a plentiful spring season!"

"Thank you both; I'll come back when I need more seeds!' She said placing the notebook in her bag. She took the seeds and headed home to finish clearing the land and plant the seeds.

~Today was interesting, Joe and I have an agreement I'm going to give him turnips until the end of spring. Well nothing is set in stone but if I have some to pass over to him then I will give him some. This should be an interesting spring as well as a friendship…

Alexandra Harper Spring Day 3 Year 1~