A Highly Warped Tale of Flower Bud Town
by: LadyMegami023
Author's Notes:
-This fan fic is rated T for Teen! 13 and up! Anyone 13 and up, go ahead and read. Anyone under 13… maybe you shouldn't. I can't stop you or anything… but let's just say I warned you... some content may not be suitable for children…
-Why did I rate it like this? Well, it's not so bad in the early chapters, but later on… I might be getting into some somewhat "adult" themes. There's no real bad language anywhere, and I'm not planning on putting in any violence. I'm just rating it right now for safety, because there might be some adult themes coming up in later chapters.
-And one more thing… please don't flame me. Yet. I'm completely new to this… and this is my first fan fic. Later on, I'll accept flames, but only if they actually help me to improve the story. If they're something like "LadyMegami023, your story really sucks" or "LadyMegami023, my dog could write a better story"… well, I'm not even going to read things like that. But if you write something like "LadyMegami023, your story is okay, but I didn't like the part where… blah blah blah…" or "I didn't like your story because… blah blah…" well, I'll accept things like that. Just try and not flame me until I at least get a few chapters up. Like I said, I'm still new to writing fan fiction, and besides, it's hard to tell how good a story actually is when there's only like 1 chapter up.
Disclaimer: Sigh… I don't own Nintendo, I don't own Harvest Moon, I don't own the characters… although I wish I did. But unfortunately, I don't. However, the 2 main characters in the story aren't from any Harvest Moon game. Miss Rancher is my own character, and Angel belongs to farmergrl0319. Other than that… I think the rest of the characters are from Harvest Moon games. I don't own them, only my own character.
Chapter One: The Decision
"I'm sorry. I don't think I can take much more of this…"
The figure reflected in the mirror stared back, silent and unmoving. Her long, deep blonde bangs hung in disarray, interwoven with strands of bleached golden highlights. Two loosely-tied braids were draped over her shoulders. A feeling of sadness shone in her dull, grey-green eyes. A pair of oval-shaped glasses sat crookedly on her nose, the girl not having bothered to straighten them out.
"Why did it have to be this way…"
For what seemed like the ten millionth time, she reviewed the memories of her life gone by. At 17 years of age, she had been determined to start a life for herself. She had decided that the city would be the place to do it. So, the moment she had gotten out of high school, she had left her suburban town for the big city.
And now… four years later… she wished she hadn't.
City life had not provided what it had promised to her. She hadn't been able to keep a job for more than a week ever since she had come to the city. She had had to jump from place to place, move from apartment to apartment, each one becoming worse and worse. Her life had gone downhill ever since she had set foot within those brilliantly-lit boundaries.
Now, as she stood within her most recent apartment, probably the smallest and dingiest of all of them she had lived in, she wondered what was in store for her next. How many more days would she last in her current job? How many more days could she take? Would she have to move to a new apartment? One that was, perhaps, even worse than this one?
It seemed like she had been living with this life of misery since… forever. Every day was the same. One miserable day after another. She barely had enough to support herself. And going to college was simply out of the question. Because of that decision she had made… she regretted that decision every morning, every day, and every night.
"I can't take any more. I can't live my life like this. A girl my age should have a life to call her own. She shouldn't have to be lost in this horrible vortex that some people are crazy enough to call city life…"
But how could she escape? Her jobs, despite their paltry wages and endless hours, and the fact that she could never seem to stay hired for more than a week, were her only means of earning enough money to live. Her apartment, despite being small, gloomy and crammed in a musty old building with thousands like it, was the only place she could call home.
But living in a place like that could hardly be called living at all…
"This is it. Somehow… I must escape. I can't take living in the city, moving from place to place all the time, knowing nobody, getting along with nobody, getting nowhere in my future. This must stop.
"…I just don't know how…"
"Miss Rancher? May I see you for a minute?" The boss's droning voice floated out from the office doorway.
The girl straightened her long braids, smoothed her wrinkled executive's suit, and tentatively inched her way towards the doorway. After what seemed like forever, she made her way through the doorway into the crowded office. Papers and books were stacked everywhere.
"Yes?" the girl answered politely.
"Well, we're in a difficult situation," the boss explained in his monotonously boring, droning voice. It seemed to take him ten minutes to say every word. "You see, our shop is getting less customers these days, so we don't need as many staff workers."
"I see," the girl responded. Of course she saw. This was the story of her life. At almost every other job she had worked, staff workers had been laid off due to lack of popularity and less customers. And she, having the lowest seniority, would always be the first to go. That was the reason she could hardly keep a job in this town.
"Well, I'll be going, then," she said finally. Without another backward glance, she turned around and swept from the office.
The boss watched her go. "The trouble is, she's not the only one," he said quietly. He looked at his list. "We really aren't getting as many customers these days. I only need about ten staff at the most." He looked at his list, which had eleven names, not including that of the girl who had just left the office. "I hate to do this, Angel, but you have the second-lowest seniority. You have to go."
And with a swipe of his pen across the paper, Angel's name was negated from the list of staff forever.
It was three days later.
"I can't take any more of this," the girl mumbled, opening a suitcase in the shadowy depths of her gloomy, one-person apartment. "I don't think I'll be able to stand looking for another job, only to be laid off a week later. And I'm sick of changing apartments three times a month. I have to get out of here!"
She packed her clothes in tightly and zipped the suitcase shut.
"I'm leaving. Leaving this city forever. The city is no place for a girl my age to live by herself. I don't know where I'm going… but I can only hope it will be somewhere better than here."
She opened a second suitcase. In it, she began packing the rest of her possessions. They barely fit.
"Tomorrow, I'm taking a bus out of here. This is the end of my city life. …after all, my life can't get any worse."
She zipped the second suitcase shut and threw it on top of the first suitcase. It slid off and hit the floor with a thump. She didn't go to pick it up. She just sat down on her bed and looked at the ceiling.
"Somewhere out there… there just has to be a place where I'm meant to be. A job I'm meant to work. A life I'm meant to live."
She walked into the crowded bus station. People were all around her. They were all strangers. Then again, everyone in this town was a stranger. She knew no one.
She carried her two suitcases through the reception room. She ignored all people on either side of her. It didn't matter. They ignored her, too.
She stopped at the reception desk and placed her two suitcases on the floor beside her. There was no one there. She rang the service bell. Its chime rang throughout the small office. Seconds later, her call was answered. A man came out and sat down behind the desk. He resembled the girl's boss greatly. The boss who had just laid her off four days before.
"May I help you?" the man asked. Hearing his polite voice, the image of the boss disappeared from the girl's mind. This man was nothing like her old boss. It gave her confidence. Confidence she needed in order to do the thing she was about to do.
"Do you have a copy of the bus schedule I could look at?" the girl asked.
"Certainly," the man replied politely. He reached into his desk and pulled out a thick booklet, then handed it to her.
"Thanks." She opened the booklet. Gosh, it was thick. Their schedule must have been busy. She glanced behind her to see if she was holding anyone up, but everyone else seemed to be just waiting for buses.
She needed to find a place… far away. She looked for the bus trips that took the longest time, had the most connections with other bus stops. She flipped into the section describing rural towns. This is the place to look, she thought. What could be more different from this awful city I'm living in now?
I'll just pick one that leaves at about this time, she thought. The sooner I can get out of here, the better.
There weren't many buses that went to the country. And most of them ran only once a week. There was only one bus that left on this day, at this time. And it was due to leave in ten minutes.
"All right," she finally said. "I'll have a one-way ticket to… Flower Bud Town."
"Flower Bud Town? Are you sure?" the man asked. "We only run the bus to Flower Bud Town once a month. It's not a very populated place, with only a tiny town and a couple of farms. Usually only one or two people get on that bus. I would say the population there is not much more than 30. However, if you do want to buy a ticket, the bus is leaving in ten minutes."
Buy a ticket? Of course she wanted to! Everything the man had said sounded perfect to her! Population of 30… tiny town with farm property… it sounded like a dream to her.
"Great," she said, taking out her wallet. "One ticket to Flower Bud Town, please."
The man hadn't been kidding.
The bus was practically empty. The girl could only see one other person on the bus, save for her and the driver. The other person was sitting in the very back seat of the bus.
"Is this… everyone?" the girl asked the bus driver.
"Sure is," the driver responded gruffly. "Lady, it's Flower Bud Town we're talking about. I'm surprised we even run buses there now. We sure won't be running them much longer."
Well, then it was a good thing I took the bus now or I might not have been able to get there, the girl thought. I sure hope this town is worth it. I spent nearly all of my life's savings on that ticket…
She sat down in the front seat and threw her suitcases to the floor beside her. It was going to be a long trip.
She hoped she was making the right decision. Then again, any place would be better to live than the city.
…
…
Wouldn't it…?
End of Chapter 1
Author's final note: Sorry that chapter was so short and so… well, depressing. It will get better, trust me! Just who is this girl? I haven't even mentioned her name yet! And who is this "Angel" person who got laid off at the same time? Well… read on… and you'll find out… and sorry if I didn't get into the actual plotline yet. I will soon, just give me a few chapters. I had to get this introduction over with.
Chapter 2 coming soon…
-LadyMegami023