One

I watched as I walked the paved roads of the islands and everyone threw me smiles. I would just smile back, feeling this great success inside me begin to burst. I did it. I collected all of the sun stones, and I raised all of the islands.

The only problem was that, since I was so completely determined to raise these islands, none of personal life ever squeezed through. So I was single, lonely, and without a family.

But I had an issue on my hands anyways that was going to be resolved…later.

I walked around to be praised by several more people praise me. I ran into Taro, who had the biggest grin slung heavily across his face. He held his large head high and said, "Chelsea, I'm very proud of you. I remember when I first taught you how to farm, you were this amateur that I almost lost hope in. But you didn't. I'm glad to say that you have really given the Sunshine Islands something to remember. You'll go down in history, Chelsea, we can promise you that."

I blushed at how many times he had commented me. I softly said, "Thank you", as he bowed his head and continued walking. I looked around, and sped back up to Ranch Island, back up to my home, before I could interact with anyone else.

I ran into my house and slammed the door, and looked at the envelopes that sat on my bed. I crept over to them, to see my name scribbled on both of them as if my name meant the world to whoever read it. One envelope was blue, and the other one was white. I sat beside the two envelopes and looked out the window. The sun was slowly dipping down, below the horizon. I really had to decide. I told them to wait until after I collected the sun stones. I told them the night I collected them all, and raised all of the islands, we would meet at the Café when the sky reached its first minute of darkness. And being late winter, the sun was bound to set fast.

I quickly looked at the two envelopes sitting beside me, and finally decided to open them, and read them.

Dear Chelsea,

I know you must hate getting this in a letter, I mean, after all, we live on the same island for crying out loud. But I could never bring myself to say it to you in person, not after all of the hard work you've been doing to make everyone else on this island happy again.

I just wanted to tell you that you're an amazing friend. And that…I want to be more.

That may sound surprising, but, I can't control my feelings. I like you. A lot. And I want us to have something.

And…and I hope you feel something, too.

Elliot

I placed that letter down, feeling the same reaction I had when I first read it- nervous, guilty, pained. I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath, as I slowly pulled out the letter from the blue envelope.

I saw the messy ink and the smudges. It still smelt like sea water and fish. I smirked slightly to myself, as I began to read it, feeling guilt strike me the minute I read my name.

Chelsea,

You've been around for a long while now, and it almost seems like you've been here from the start. But what I wanted to say to you was that I really like you.

Like, a lot.

I know we always seemed to be more than friends, and I tried my best to keep it that way, but I couldn't. Not anymore.

So here it is, flat out, and in ink; I like you. I really, really like you, and I would really love it if we became more than friends…a couple.

I hope you can sense whatever's between us, because I surely can.

Denny

I sighed loudly as I placed that letter on top of Elliot's. So as you can see, this was my dilemma; my two closest guy friends easily become my two closest guy friends who have crushes on me. What do I make of that?

I watched as the last bit of the sun began to travel its way beneath the ocean. I grunted loudly to myself, as I picked myself up, and dragged myself to Sprout Island.

Once I passed the bridge onto Verdure Island, I saw the strange cowboy walking around aimlessly on the island. He had silver hair and black hat. A mysterious black hat.

I always knew he was around, but I never really noticed him. I mean, I knew his name was Vaughn, and he even gave me a sun stone once, but, that was it. No conversation. At all.

But now that the island raising is out of my mind, he had a certain mystery behind him that I wanted to uncover. I loved puzzles. So maybe…maybe Vaughn was just like an unsolved puzzle.

Was it really my job to solve it though?No, of course not. We never even interacted enough. He probably felt the strange heat of my eyes staring at him, because after several long seconds, he snapped his body to face me. I felt embarrassed for looking at him the way I did, so I kind of just looked away. But when I looked back, he was still staring at me, nothing written on his face.

"What?" he snapped at me.

I was a little taken aback by his comment, but I just shook my head and said, "Nothing. Sorry."

And he just gripped the front of his hat and turned himself around. He continued his way around, wherever the night breeze led him to go.

He only came on Mondays and Tuesdays, and most of the time, people didn't mind. He seemed to always be one who never liked people.

"That's why he's the animal guy of the islands," Julia told me once. "He says that animals are just easier to be around."

So I took that for understanding, I guess. I watched as the boat arrived and took him somewhere no one would ever know.

But I was brought back into reality, and I remembered; I had a decision to make.

I dragged my feet through the isolated town, until I crossed the other bridge onto Sprout Island. I saw the Café, and I slowly walked in.

They weren't here yet.

So I sat myself down, and tried to calm myself. I tried to think of the good things in my life. I had great friends, a great life. But two of my best friends liked me more than I liked them.

And they were forcing me to choose.

Finally, I saw the door wiggle before it opened slowly. And there they both were, side by side, walking, staring right at me. I could read it in their eyes; they wanted me. But could they read in my eyes I didn't want either of them?

As they sat down in the chairs on the other side of the table, I saw Denny quickly flash a disgusted look at Elliot. He then faced me, allowing me to speak.

And the first thing I said was the first thing that came to my mind.

"You two aren't being really great friends."

And both of their faces fell instantly, loosing all hope. I just leaned back in my chair, my arms now folded, staring through them.

"What do you mean?" Elliot said, whimpering.

"I mean," I now leaned forward, gripping the edges of the table, "you guys are being awful friends. Because you're making me choose."

"But you promised you'd choose one of us," Denny shot back.

"Maybe I did," I tried to calm my voice, "but I have no decision."

"So, let me get this straight," Denny was sounding a bit irritated, "we all joined here so that you could tell us that you don't want either of us?"

"Not exactly," I gnawed at my lip.

What do you mean 'not exactly'? That is why you brought them here, right? I said to myself.

"I need more time to…think."

"You said you'd have an answer," Elliot said, his eyes pleading.

"I did." I admitted to the ceiling. "And here's my answer." I looked straight at both of them. "I'll fall for whoever I do. But right now I have no one in particular."

"But wait," Denny started, some hope revealing at his lightened face, "you will choose one of us when you figure it out?"

At that point, I was on my feet, staring down at the two boys. I just took in a large amount of air, and breathed out, "I can't guarantee that."

Before another word could be spoken, I darted out of the Café, and went home to sleep on everything I had just said.


"Can't we talk somewhere else?" I begged her.

"Elliot's not even in here," Natalie said, taking my hand, calming me. "Relax."

"I can't," I said, slamming my head on her table. "I feel awful."

"Why do you feel awful?" Lanna, who was also sitting at the table, said. "You did absolutely nothing wrong to them."

"But I promised them I'd choose, and I broke that promise."

"Chelsea," Natalie said softly, "you can't keep a promise you don't know you can keep. So what if you didn't fall for my brother or Denny?"

"I care. I know how much they want me. I know how much they feel. And I know I lied," I said, lifting my head from underneath my arm.

We were sitting peacefully in Natalie's home. Every now and then I would scan the house to see if Elliot would magically appear to make my horrible stomach ache worse. Or every time the door opened and closed, I looked behind me in agony, to see if it were him walking through. But every time the door opened, it was just Felicia, their mother, walking in and out, collecting food from the islands. It was torture.

There was a knock at the door. My stomach flipped in terror as I slowly creaked my head toward the door. Natalie shot up and opened the door just a tad. She let out a breath and turned back to me.

"It's Julia."

I smiled as Natalie opened the door all the way, letting Julia entered. She knew what was happening to me as well, and she sat down at the empty seat of the fourth side of the square table.

These were my three best friends. Natalie, Lanna, and Julia. Without them, I would be nothing.

"How's she doing?" Julia asked Natalie and Lanna, as if I couldn't hear.

"Not too well," Natalie leaned her head on her fragile hand. "She's thinking too deeply into it."

"Am not!" I barked back at Natalie, who sat across from me.

"We keep trying to tell her that it's not her fault," Lanna said like an innocent school girl.

"But it is," I whined to her, who was on my right.

"How long has she been like this?" Julia wondered.

"All morning," Natalie sighed.

"Am I invisible?" I asked, but I may as well have been asking the wall on the other side of the room.

Julia looked over at me and placed her warm hand on my shoulder. She smiled small, and said, "Sorry Chels."

"What do I do?" I cried to them.

"How about you guys come over?" Julia suggested. "We could talk about your problems, maybe boys…" She smiled hugely wide and said, "let's have a sleepover!"

"Great idea!" Lanna poked at my arm. "A night with the girlies! Eek! I'm so excited now!"

"I don't know-"

"Chelsea."

I looked at Natalie, who was seriously looking at me. She finally showed a small hint of a smile and said, "You're going."

I finally smiled a little bit myself, and huffed out, "Fine."

"Great!" Julia popped, grabbing my hand. "Come over at around five tonight, okay?"

"Okay!" Lanna agreed, still bouncing around in her seat.


When I was finally able to get out of Natalie's house, I noticed it was raining. I felt I had nowhere to go in the rain. So I did on days I usually did when it rained; I went to Meadow Island.

So I walked down to the dock and asked Kirk politely if he could take me there. Without sudden hesitation, he told me to hop in, and he started the motor boat immediately as I placed myself inside. I watched as he led us toward the island, and released us at the dock. I saw the shrine straight ahead, but, I saw another familiar face.

Vaughn.

My feet, suddenly controlled, walked straight up to him. Several times, I told myself to stop moving. But I never did, and next thing I knew, I was right behind him.

Until he turned around to look at me.

Once again, his eyes, his face, read absolutely nothing. I tried looking up at him, but his hat was too far down that I barely saw his ianthine eyes.

"What are you doing here?" he wondered.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him back.

"Just leave me to my business," he turned his back on me.

I wasn't too sure what to do at that point. We weren't friends, so I couldn't talk to him as if he were one. But I was curious. Why was he always like this? Why does he refuse to talk to me?

To anyone?

"Okay," I said, backing up a little bit.

I went to the opposite side of the island, facing the ocean. I watched as he sat down now. I mimicked him. I turned over my shoulder to see if he would ever look at me.

He did once or twice, but after several times of looking, all I saw was his back, and his soaking silver hair.

After about a half hour of sitting in silence, and sending several glares at the cowboy, I finally came to my feet. I squished through the flooded grass of the island and crossed to Vaughn. When I was right behind him, he didn't bother to look at me. I stood above him, just staring down at him, watching as he would blink every few minutes, seeing his eyes. His gorgeous eyes.

I finally just took in a breath, and quietly said, "See you later, Vaughn."

And I walked away, back to Kirk's boat. I smirked at him, and hopped in his boat, as he brought me back to Verdure Island.

When I stepped off, I ran into Lanna, who was singing along the beach. When she saw me step off of Kirk's boat and onto the dock, she smiled up at me.

"Oh, so that's where you've gone!" she squealed. "Aren't you excited for later tonight?"

I nodded at her, watching as her hair blew into her face. She had beautifully long, golden blonde. She spit it out of her mouth, her face scrunching, as she scratched it out of her face. She put on her warm face again, smiling wide. I nodded at her, laughing a bit by her little hair performance.

"So excited, Lanna."

She jumped a bit in place, and ran towards me, jumping up to give me a hug. I fell a little bit backwards, stumbling. I just laughed by how easily elated she can become.

"It's going to be so much fun, I guarantee it, Chelsea."