Disclaimer; characters mentioned in this story that do not belong to the author belong to their respective owners. I do not claim any ownership of Harvest Moon or any of their characters, towns, concepts. Just a fan of the game who wanted to make their own interpretation.
Author's note at the end.

X x X

Drip.

Drip drip.

The teasing was relentless as a child, and something told her in the darkest places of her mind, she believed them. Who would tell her differently, seeing as even the parents of her tormentors let their whispers waft over the classrooms in agreement. Questioning teachers about her Mama, how a woman of that.. Profession would dare have her bastard child go here. And what sort of message would that teach the children at such young ages? It was an outrage!

No one knew she hid in the hallway. Listening. No one knew that their words seeped into her soft skin and tore through her sensitive barriers with their knife like precision. No one knew. Just because her mama was different, her papa wasn't around.. Just because she and her brothers were alone. Mama wasn't home a lot, and when she was, they saw her in the wee hours of the morning when she got off work if they stayed up or if one of them awoke from the door closing with a soft click. So they took care of themselves while their Mama went out to make money at her job.

The other parents only saw her because they went out looking for Mama, her brothers had told her. The husbands were the ones in particular, but she made that discovery when she grew older. While the wives just chewed her up and spit her out for 'luring their husbands'.
They were on a witch hunt to sniff out any impurities in their precious children's learning experience. And her Mama had been enemy number one from the very beginning.

At night, her brothers slept in the living room on the floor, while she and her mama took the double bed in the run down one bedroom in their apartment. They had insisted, because they saw how tired Mama was. And Claire was just a baby, so she needed her close.
The apartment of stained walls of unknown substances, smoke drenched carpets, ash trays littering the coffee table. Cigarette butts were scattered across the floor and often stuck to the soft pads of her feet when she rose in the mornings for school.

Deep set sapphire eyes, bags like the night hung below them. Mama comforted her with a stroke of her golden locks and a kiss to the forehead. She wasn't even recognizable, but her voice was always so comforting.
"Mama loves you, Claire… My pretty little girl."

"Claire…"
"Claire…?"
"Claire?"

Drip drip..

Blue eyes blinked away the memory that played behind her eyelids. Said memories were from another lifetime. At least, that life felt like another. That reality wasn't so since she was ten, when her oldest brother discovered the body of their mother when he came home from a community college class. Tatsuki never was the same after that, often tossing and turning in his bed with whimpers escaping him. Plagued by the dreams of their mother's body submerged in bath tub. It was tinted red… The slits on her arms were flayed open from the knife she took just hours previously to her delicately purple tinged skin. It wasn't the first time, her arms had been marred previously by scars and burns, but never so deep. Never so vibrant.
Never so permanent.

Drip.

She left a note for them, telling them she was so sorry for what she had made them endure, that she loved them and had saved some money so they could survive. Tatsuki, the oldest, was put in charge of hers and her other brother, Jyou's, care. He was only eighteen at the time, having just graduated high school the valedictorian. Mama was so proud of him, praising him endlessly for his hard work ethic and numerous hours of effort he poured into his work at school. She would make his favorite meals, and tell the younger children to aspire to be like him. Teachers loved him, and gave him the utmost respect. Regardless of who he was spawned from. Now, he was forced to give up his dreams of college for their sake, to care and watch over the younger two with the responsibilities of a father placed on his shoulders. Employed months after their mother's passing, she couldn't remember the last time he called in sick or had a day of vacation. It showed on his face, the premature wrinkles across his forehead, the purple bags that began to form under his young eyes. They used to be full of such life, ambition, excitement for life. But now reflected the man of such little, who had been beaten by the world and simply bent over to accept more for such little. Reluctantly.

Jyou, the middle child.. Mama didn't pay attention to him as much it seemed. At least to Claire, but she was the youngest so who was she to talk. But it wasn't like Jyou really minded, and he knew Mama loved him to pieces. He was carefree, laid back, and let things roll of his back like water on plastic. Traits that Claire always wished she possessed. His friends always claimed that he never stood up for himself, he always receiving the short end of the stick when it came to school. Kids picked on him, teachers degraded him. People saw him as stupid because of it, but he was actually really intelligent. Just not the kind of smart that school looked for. But that was life living in Tatsuki's shadow, having been the team captain of the baseball team while also having stellar grades. It was hard to make a name for yourself if you were related to Hokkaido Tatsuki.

Then.. There was her. Hokkaido Claire, the youngest of the three and the one who had the most Americanized name of the bunch. It made classes pleasant, children staring at her with their contempt. 'An American first name with a Japanese last name? What a weirdo!' Their mother, Shiori, claimed she found her name beautiful when she was deep into a novel at the time of her pregnancy. She'd never admit it, but that the name was also a tactic their father used to try to 'force the Japanese' out of them. He always called Jyou, Joe. And Tatsuki was Todd to him. A man who held no respect for heritage, tradition, history of those around him because well, he was just better than everyone else. Demeaning and heartless. He worked as car manufacturer and was the only American in their little town in Japan, so he must know best!

But she never met him, and from what her brothers explained of him, it was better off that way.

The older two, having claimed more of their mother's looks, had deep brown hair that was pin straight and thick as wet sand. Tatsuki kept his short on the sides and long on the top, sometimes if he let it grow out long enough to tie it up. Jyou had his long all around. It hung just below his jaw, and was often pushed back through thin nimble fingers to keep from tickling his face. They always complained about how it took forever to dry, and tangled so easily. Their eyes were dark, deep chocolate brown like their father's. Unlike Shiori, who had strange blue from her father that Claire had inherited, but blonde like their father. Their father claimed she was a bastard child from an affair, always making fun and claiming how her mother had been abandoned by her cheating father. That she should be thankful he wanted her even remotely, because obviously no other man had. Not even her own father.

One evening it had been taken too far, and she had told him to leave. It always surprised Claire that he had left without a fight, but then, she always got the feeling that her mother and brothers were keeping part of the story from her.

They never spoke his name, because it was far too respectful for even him.

She wasn't even sure she even knew his name.
Tatsuki was nine, and Jyou was only five. Claire had yet to make an appearance, due the following months when he left.

The flashbacks vanished as soon as they appeared, as the young blonde looked up at the voice who was calling her. Her friend, Lumina, stared at her with a concerned gaze. "Hey, you dozed for a second when I mentioned the graduation party. We're still going, right? We made that promise back in freshman year!" Lumina Remington, a half Japanese half French girl who had moved back to Japan to live with her grandmother. Her parents had passed away years ago from an car accident when they were on their way back from an opera. Lumina was up all night into the day, waiting for them, only to be greeted by the police with their caps off and heads bowed.

She was a lovely girl, Lumina, and Claire often wondered why the sweet thing had been drawn to her when they met the first day of freshman year. Lumi, as she often called her, had soft golden tresses that were cut short into a stylish bob with straight bangs across her forehead. It made her already innocent face almost sickeningly so, which drove the girls at school mad and made the boys whisper vulgar words between themselves in the locker room. Petite, with soft womanly curves, it was no wonder people favored her over the blonde. She was perfect in every way, exotic compared to most with her bright gold eyes.

Compared to herself, with her straw colored hair and azure eyes, she felt very plain. Boys didn't pay attention to her, girls claimed she bleached her hair to have it that pale. It didn't help it frayed at the ends from improper care, so it only fueled the rumors that she was fake. 'Her eyes were contacts! Yeah well she stuffs her bra! I heard her shoes had platforms! She's way too tall!, She never eats! Who's she trying to impress?!' Never mind that she wasn't even that skinny, her hair never showed any grow out, and her chest wasn't even that big. A bit bigger than normal Japanese women, but that wasn't her fault. And height? Maybe by an inch!

But they just liked to pick at every little thing that was 'wrong' with her. Because she was fake. And being labeled fake, while she'd never admit, made her question her appearance every time in the mirror. Maybe she should dye her hair, or bind her chest, or maybe slouch more? These thoughts floated constantly in her mind, in hopes that doing these things would make her less of a target.

Claire was going on nineteen in August. It was June and they were graduating high school. While her peers were all planning to go to college, what sororities they were going to join, she had made other plans.

Plans to skip town to escape the hell that had followed her since childhood and start anew.
A tight smile crossed small lips, her hair shifting on her shoulders as she looked up to her friend. "Of coarse! I'm super excited for it, can't you tell?" So maybe she was trying a bit too hard to cover up the deep set emotions that had come forth with that not to welcome onslaught of past scenes. She was done with this place, done with the memories that it had bore into her.

Tonight, it wouldn't even matter because by tomorrow, she'd be miles away from here. It didn't matter where she was going, but did it really matter?
It was time to blow this popsicle stand of hell.

"Well good! And don't you think of skipping out, or I'd never forgive you!" The brunette chimed, gold eyes uplifting with the genuinely sweet smile that crossed the young girl's face.

'She will.. Not anytime soon, but I know she will.. I don't want to leave her, but better this way than drawing it out,' Claire thought to herself, waving her hand at Lumina's statement as the bell rang. The class around them all stood from their seats, some stopping to chat with classmates while others remained seated and like them, chattered among themselves. The school was abuzz with excitement with the impending graduation ceremony tomorrow. Everyone from the popular girls to the stoners in the courtyard were more than ready to begin the next chapter.

Claire stood from her seat with arms stretched over her head, joints popping with relief as she had been seated too long. Lumina stood as well with a huff. "I'm watching you Hokkaido Claire! I know when you're tuning me out, and you've had that look ever since I even brought up tomorrow!" She called loudly, glaring her down but the blonde didn't take it seriously. That was the difference between her and Lumina. She didn't take anything seriously, while Lumina took things to heart. Lumina truly acted her age, eighteen and innocent. Claire felt twenty-five and surrounded by the immaturity of children.

They were all petty. Below her.

Even if she was leaving her brothers behind, and her friend, and her cat… Okay, so maybe it was bittersweet! But! She was finally making her own decision! Tatsuki wouldn't be around to nag her, and Jyou wouldn't be around to.. Be.. Jyou.
Honestly, Jyou wasn't a stressor in her world. The middle child was often out involved with.. Substances that Tatsuki didn't approve of. Nothing dangerous, but nothing that'd be, 'good to have in the house of their impressionable little sister.' But that's why he never found out, because Jyou didn't come home every night. Maybe every other night, if it was a good week.

Tatsuki on the other hand.. With so much responsibility thrusted onto him at such a young age, seemed more like he turned thirty-five and had two kids at home in the span of just a couple weeks. Jyou was twenty-two! And she was eighteen! Turning nineteen! She wasn't a little kid anymore and could make her own decisions about how late she was going to be out. Or who she hung out with! Not that Tatsuki had any problems with Lumina, but that wasn't the point! It was the principle of being controlled by someone else that she couldn't stand! Claire was an adult, an individual who made her own decisions because she had her best interests in mind. Besides, who knew her better than herself?

The girls left the classroom, the last period of the day having ended. The students leaked out of the school in their own little clichés, and something about it made her laugh. This was the final day they'd all be together, and how funny was it that after tomorrow, no one would keep in contact. They all had their own little colleges they'd applied for, run off to, and forget all about these last four years they'd spent as a "family". Pheh, school administrators were so diluted, it was insane.

The sun was high in the sky, and the breeze blew the trees that swayed whimsically against their might.

Crisp. Clean.

The beginning of her life started tonight.

X x X

Author's note; So I'm super sorry for how rusty my writing is, I haven't written in a couple years, so doing this was both nerve wracking, but also extremely liberating. I hope that you'll find these little writings interesting, as I'm planning on staying committed and making an actual series of these stories, following Claire and her brothers, involving characters from Harvest Moon games. I was really inspired by other writers who took this route, and wanted to take a crack at it.
Stay tuned!