Note from the Author: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of these wonderful characters etc blahblahboringdisclaimershizz. This is my first fan-fiction, so please be gentle with me! Honesty is appreciated; but please don't be so snarky that you kill of all my muses.

Hope you enjoy.


Chapter One

The Catalyst

I loved my life before.

It was wonderfully simple, easy and carefree. I went to my lectures at university, hung out with my friends and when I was home I would bum around my flat playing games or surfing the internet. I was a relatively ordinary girl with a cushy life that I took for granted. But one day in Winter everything changed. The cosy, warm reality that I had become accustomed to came crumbling down all around me.

All because of that jerk.

The jerk in question is my ex-boyfriend, Mark.

Mark and I had pretty much been childhood sweethearts. We grew up together as neighbours and had started dating in middle school. He was my first for pretty much every landmark girls aspire to in relationships; first date, first boyfriend, first kiss, first... yeah, you get the picture. I was actually expecting us to get engaged after university, but then 'it' happened.

I refer to the event as 'it' because it stings less than calling it more appropriate names of 'train wreck', 'disaster' or, more fittingly, 'the end'.

"Chelsea, we need to talk," he said to me casually as he strode into the university cafeteria at lunch break. We had both just finished our lectures and like we did every lunch time we met up at the corner table with our friends Trent, Ellie and Skye. It had been raining that day and his clothes were soaked from dashing across campus.

"What's up?" I asked him as he dumped his bag down on the table and sat across from me.

He glanced at Trent and Ellie and they hastily picked up their trays and left the table, knowing that we were about to have one of those serious talks that needed to be done in private. Skye, being completely oblivious to the situation, remained next to me eating his curry as if nothing was wrong.

"Skye, could you... er... leave for a bit?" Mark asked awkwardly. He grimaced when he saw me look in Ellie and Trent's direction in alarm. They looked back at me worriedly and I thought I saw a flash of pity in Ellie's brown eyes.

The warning bells began ringing and I turned back to Mark suspiciously. "What's going on?"

Skye, finally realising that he was about to witness my emotional assassination, which they apparently all knew about before even I did, finally picked up his tray and went to sit over with the others. The smell of curry followed him and I felt a gut-wrenching queasiness take a hold of me as he left.

"God this is awkward," Mark began, fiddling with his fingers and thumbs nervously. "I don't know where to even start."

I grew impatient. "Just say it, will you? You know I hate this stalling shit you do whenever you've done something wrong and you're about to admit it to me."

Mark looked up, his big green eyes filled with remorse and anxiety as he stared at me. Oh those big green eyes... they'd been the subject of so many of my teenage fantasies. They're the exact same shade of green as the sun dappled leaves you'd see if you stand under an oak tree on a sunny day. Expressive, honest and absolutely gorgeous, they are my favourite thing about him. But at that moment exact moment they made me want to punch him.

"Did you cheat on me?" I asked him angrily, putting down my spoon and clenching my hands into fists in preparation to sock him in the mouth. His eyes flickered down to my fists warily for a moment before they came back to meet mine.

"No. I did not cheat on you. There's no danger of that," he told me.

"Well what is it?" I asked.

"I'm going to drop out of university," he said.

I let out a sigh of relief. "Is that all?"

"No."

I frowned. "Oh flippin' heck, just tell me would you!"

"I'm dropping out of university and going into agriculture. I'm moving out to Zephyr, since my grandfather's giving me his farm out there and they're in dire need of a local farmer. I made the decision a while ago but I wasn't sure how to tell you about it since I know you were dead set on living in the city after graduating."

I blinked at him in confusion for a moment as this information sunk in. He had rendered me completely speechless. When I finally found my voice all I could say was, "Huh?"

"I'm leaving, Chelsea," Mark reiterated, his eyes falling to his hands. He couldn't bear to see the hurt in my eyes. Or was it my rage? I can't really remember what expression I was pulling at that moment. It was most likely a strange combination of both which probably wasn't very pretty.

"So, let me get this straight," I said. "You're going to drop out of university; the university that we both chose specifically so we could study together; and you're going to become a farmer. Not only that, but you're moving to Zephyr, which is on the other side of the country, and you're going to work on your grandfather's dilapidated shit pile of a farm."

"Yes," he replied with a nod. He nervously glanced up at me and then his eyes widened in panic as he saw the look on my face.

I was absolutely livid.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" I shouted across at him with full volume, causing people on the neighbouring tables to jump and look round at us. He flinched back a fraction. "Do I not factor into the equation at all? Did you not think to ask me if I wanted to come with you or not? Or did you, like always, assume I wouldn't be interested and decided to exclude me without even checking?"

"You know you're not the type of girl to rough it out on a farm..." Mark began to say, but trailed off as I rose from my seat.

The chair clattered noisily behind me and I could hear the mutters and whispers of other the lunch-time diners. The smell of cafeteria food surrounded me, suffocated me, and I felt a tingling feeling run up the length of my nose as my vision blurred. I saw memories of our relationship flashing through my mind like a movie montage: Fighting with him as kids. Competing with him at just about everything; getting told off by our parents together; walking hand in hand with him on the way to primary school; watching television with him in the early afternoon; our first date at the cinema; our first kiss under the tree in the backyard; the first time we slept together; and then, the first time he told me he loved me.

It all came rushing through my mind like an express train, and hit me just as hard. It was over; he had no intention of bringing me with him to Zephyr. He was leaving me there. Alone.

Back then, the thought of being alone scared me the most.

"My boyfriend is dumping me so he can run off and become a farmer," I muttered to myself, my voice breaking. I ignored Mark as I stared up at the grey ceiling off the cafeteria. Something wet rolled down my cheeks.

"Chelsea..." Mark said. He said something else, but I barely heard him.

"Have fun fucking sheep, you selfish git," I said through sobs, before fleeing the cafeteria as quickly as I could.


"Chelsea, let me in," I heard another girl's voice call me through my dorm room door. It was Ellie.

"Ellie, just leave me alone right now," I called to her from under my bed sheets. "I don't want you to see me like this."

"Don't be silly, let me in. I've got some meds for you," Ellie said, her voice lowering as she said 'meds'.

Being the daughter of parents that owned a pharmaceutical company, Ellie had access to a whole cocktail of pills and potions that doctors used. While really I knew that she shouldn't have been abusing such privileges, especially since she was training to be a nurse, I couldn't help but be grateful that she could get hold of things such as sleeping pills and anti-depressants at the drop of a hat. Though, of course, it would forever remain a secret between her and me since Trent would have killed her if he found out.

I hurried to the door and let her in quickly, my eyes lingering on the clear plastic bag with an orange plastic bottle of pills in it. She grinned at me and chucked them at me as I clambered back into bed and sullenly fell back onto my pillow.

"He's a jerk," I said, reading the label of the pills. "What on earth is this?"

"Anti-depressants," Ellie said, flicking her long brown hair over her shoulder. "It's the same stuff my mom uses."

Hearing this made me hesitate slightly. Ellie's mother was like the human energizer bunny and it only occurred to me then that these pills were probably the reason why. Clutching the bag to my chest I smiled weakly up at her and said, "Thanks. I'll take them later."

"Yeah, only take them when you've got a day off from lectures. They make you conk out for about 18 hours the first time you take one," Ellie said with a warm smile. "I even checked with Trent about them, he says they're fine for you to use, considering your... condition."

"You make it sound like I'm a leper," I replied half jokingly. I dropped the plastic bag on my bed side table and put my hands behind my head. "I look like shit, don't I?"

"It's hardly surprising," Ellie said with a grimace as she took a seat on the bed and put her hand against my forehead gently. "You've got a bit of a fever. Was it really that much of a shock to you?"

"His life aspiration went from studying Sports Science to farming in the middle of nowhere. I think that would shock anyone," I replied. "What really gets me is that he never told me about it. I'm meant to be his best friend. Now, I just feel like I've just wasted eleven years of emotional energy for nothing."

"You didn't waste anything Chelsea. You still learned from it, right? And who knows, maybe Mark will come crawling back to you when he realises it's too much hard work living and working on a farm by himself," Ellie consoled.

"Even if he did, I don't think I'd take him back." I tugged a lock of Ellie's hair gently. "You better not cut this hair of yours again. You look like a dork with short hair."

"Stop changing the subject," Ellie said with a frown.

I sighed and my hand dropped lifelessly to the bed again.

"I don't know what I'm meant to do anymore," I began, my voice going slightly higher in pitch as I struggled to keep down a fresh wave of tears. "I had built my whole life plans around him. We would graduate together, move in together, probably get married... Everything was just so stable. I like knowing what my life is going to look like in the future. I like predictability. Now I don't know what I'm going to do with my life now that he's not in it. I feel really lonely just thinking about it."

"Do you really like predictability though, Chels?" Ellie asked. "You've never actually done something for the hell of it the way Mark always has. You've always been careful and planned things and thought things through before you do it. How do you know if you like having stability in your life when you haven't even tried throwing caution to the wind?"

"I don't know how to throw caution to the wind. Sorry, it's in my nature to over analyse things and plan for the future," I mumbled. "As my old history teacher used to say, 'Fail to plan, plan to fail.'"

"You're nineteen; you're beautiful, smart and single. You can do anything you want with your life, sweetheart," Ellie said with a grin. "Stop over analysing and just do. Act on impulse. Live a little."

I buried my face into my bed covers. "I'd prefer to stew in my own misery and rage."

"Look, come out with me and Skye later. We're going down to the student union bar and we'll get some drinks and chill out, okay? Mark won't be invited of course," Ellie said, stroking the top of my head as I jokingly pretended to smother myself.

"What about Trent?" I asked, turning to look at her.

"He's busy working. Like always," Ellie replied dully. "I mean, it's understandable. He's studying to be a doctor, so I can't really complain."

"At least he won't run off to the other side of the country to become a farmer," I said, pushing myself upright. "When he's finished with his course he'll be able to be more attentive, surely."

"Yeah, thank god he's in his last year," Ellie said with a smile. "He's a great boyfriend really. I'm really glad you went up to him that night in the bar. I never would have done it myself."

I laughed. "Sure you could have. But I guess it was a little easier for me since I already had a boyfriend at the time. You should have seen Mark's face when he saw me going over to Trent though; it was a picture."

"Mark still loves you, you know," Ellie told me.

"I doubt it. If he did, he wouldn't have made this decision without consulting me first. He had no intention of bringing me, Ellie. That much is clear," I replied, tearing up again. "After six years of dating, he really doesn't care about me. You'd think he'd ask me about something this big if he really cared about me."

"Maybe it was too difficult?" Ellie offered with a grimace when she saw the face I pulled in response.

"Difficult? As if! He's been laughing and joking this whole time and never hinted at it to me. I bet he's known about it for months. And really, how is he going to survive as a farmer? A farmer!" I exclaimed, pounding my hands on my bed angrily. Ellie jumped in surprise. "What does he know about farming and agriculture? The man doesn't even know how to make his own goddamn breakfast in the morning, let alone how to raise livestock and irrigate the land! I would make a better farmer than he would!"

"Well why don't you then?" Ellie asked. Her expression was completely serious.

I scoffed. "What? No way. I know I could be a better farmer, but there's no way I'm dropping out of university for that."

"It was just a suggestion," Ellie said with a shrug. "I reckon you could do it, and it's not like your anthropology degree is going to help you find a job much, considering how screwed up the economy is. Lots of graduates today are having a hard time finding jobs you know."

"Even so," I replied, frowning at the idea of me becoming a farmer. "Farming is so far removed from what I pictured myself doing with my life."

"And that's exactly why you should consider doing it," Ellie said with a grin, pulling my covers up over my head playfully.