Harvest Moon: For A Different Girl
Next chapter! :)
PS: I changed it a little, in this the Goddess festival is fractionally like the Flower festival in 64. I liked how you could vote for a girl…:D
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"Oh dear LORD."
I looked at the mirror in despair. Karen shook her head at me.
"You look fine, Ann!"
Karen had come around to help me out getting dressed. Ignore the fact she came at 3:00 AM and I would have been grateful for the thought.
"Look, just tuck your hair up like this…" Karen undid my hair so it fell to past my knees, then scraped it up, secured it with an elasticated hairband and wove flowers in. "There!"
"I don't know," I sighed.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you about the voting programme. People in the village vote for a girl and a guy whom they think would be suitable to be Goddess and the Goddess's dance partner. I made your advert for you, so you don't have to worry." She grinned.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT?!"
All the world heard me scream just then.
"Hey, hey! It's not so bad…And come here, your hem's come untucked again."
"Who gives a DAMN about the bloody dress! I'm gonna be shown up as the most unpopular person in the village, and if not that, I WILL HAVE TO DANCE WITH SOMEONE!"
Birds flew off the roof of my house in horror, twittering, "Ann's annoyed!"
Gotz the woodcutter was clutching his ears, saying, "Ann's annoyed!"
Little alien cows up in galaxies far away were beeping, "Ann's annoyed!"
Karen just smiled at me. "You'll be fine. Now let me pin up your skirt."
After another hour or so of Karen tweaking me into position, I was eventually allowed to go outside. I watered my crops carefully and walked up the the crossroads, where…
"Hi, Ann!"
"Hello."
Nokura was prancing around at the junction between the roads, flowers from her dress littering wherever she worked. She evidently hadn't bothered at all with her appearance. And next to her was Cliff, who was looking at her like a big brother looks at his younger sister.
"Hi, Nokura, hi Cliff! Why're you two here?"
Nokura leapt over and made an attemp to hug me, but Karen witheringly indicated how pristine I was at this moment in time and Nokura backed away slightly. "Well, I kind of noticed hoke you ike-lay liff-Cay, so I convinced him to meet up with you so we could all go together!"
I nodded gratefully at her. The four of us all proceeded to Rose Square, making it at 10:00 precisely.
Popuri smiled sadly at me, wlaked over and started talking to Karen about the death of Pon. She looked brilliant. Not as pretty as Karen, but she was definitely the second best-looking there.
"Hello, Ann!" someone behind me said. I spun around to be faced by the Doctor.
"Do you need a dance partner?"
"Uhhh…no. I don't," I said firmly. Suddenly a flash of brown and pink occurred and Elli was standing in front of the Doctor.
"But Doctor! You said you were dancing with me!"
"Yes, well-"
"So why did you ask Ann? She barely knows what this festival is, and you're harassing her! AND ME!"
Nokura, Popuri, Cliff, Karen and me all backed away a little. I didn't know Elli too well, but she seemed generally soft spoken and caring. Now she was yelling her head off at the Doctor.
"Please!" Thomas ran between the bickering Clinic-workers. "This is a festival! Elli, put that bin down! Doctor, let go of Elli's hair!"
Elli put the bin down, but the bin rolled over and ran over Mayor Thomas.
Mary was the only girl who didn't seem to be interacting with us. She was speaking to gray, who'd only just noticed me.
"Dork-head," I mouthed at him.
"Dope," Gray mouthed back.
Thomas peeled himself from the bottom of the bin, stoof on his desk and shouted out across the square, "The votes have been counted! This year's Goddess is…KAREN!"
Karen smiled at the small crowd of villagers that had gathered, and stood in the centre of the dancefloor.
"And the Dance Partner is….Rick."
Rick zoomed into the middle. I rolled my eyes at him, Karen noticed and rolled her own eyes back at me.
then both of them started dancing.
They were EXCELLENT.
I was still staring in amazement at them when Thomas shouted, "Okay, everyone else join in!"
Mary and Gray, Nokura and Cliff, Elli and the Doctor all joined in, and then so did Duke and Manna, Anna and Basil, Sasha and Jeff…Eventually, only me and Popuri were left at the side.
"Boring, eh?" Popuri grumbled at me, leaning against the fence.
"No…" I watched all of the couples there, all of them so happy…it reminded me of when my mother was alive and my father used to dance with her all around the inn, and she'd laugh and push him away, but then she'd grab hold of me and repeat the dance steps…
"Ann?" Popuri nudged me gently. "You're crying."
I touched my face gently. Warm tears were flooding my face, my eyes were pouring like they never had before. "Maybe it's hayfever…"
Popuri shook her head stubbornly, but backed off to go to dance on her own.
I turned around to look at everyone one more time, then I trudged back home.
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I sat on my bed watching television, out of the Goddess costume (thankfully), hugging my knees. Nora, my cat, pounced on to my bed and rubbed against my legs like a furry hot water bottle.
"Nora," I stroked behind her ears. "Do you miss mom too?"
Nora purred sympathetically, settling on my feet and preparing to go to sleep.
Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock!
I picked up Nora and put her on my pillow, then walked to the door and opened it.
"Cliff? What're you doing here?"
Cliff smiled at my look of astonishment. "Nokura told me you'd gone, so I decided to come after you to see if you were okay."
"Nrrm," I mumbled.
Cliff looked at me. "If you're feeling up to it, do you want to go for a walk?"
My heart jumped into my mouth. "Sure! Uhn, if that's okay.."
Cliff stared at me, as if unsure of what to say without making himself look stupid. I went inside, got my sneakers on and came back out.
"Ready!"
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I edged after Cliff around the route to Mother's Hill. "The Mountain Pass is boggy, it's not nice to walk in-"
"We're not going to the mountain Pass," Cliff said quietly, catching hold of my hand. He led me up Mother's Hill, over a bridge, and up to the Peak.
"Wow," I whispered, all other words sticking in my throat as I looked across from the edge. Stars twinkled brightly in every direction, illuminating spots of the inky black sky, lightening it to navy blue.
"It's beautiful!" I said softly, leaning in so it felt as if I was flying off the hill.
"Careful." Cliff held one of my hands gently. "Don't fall."
Both of us stood there for around half an hour, occasionally talking to each other in short sentences. Eventually, Cliff got up and pulled me with him.
"We should be getting back." He looked into my eyes.
I nodded mutely, my eyes feeling as if they were sparking. "See you…"
"Okay." He turned around to leave.
"Wait!" I dug in my rucksack and pulled out one of the Moondrops I'd gathered yesterday. Running up to him, I pressed it into his hands. "I was going to give all of the boys one, but…"
"I understand." Cliff nodded and walked off.
"Oh wow…oh wow…oh wow," I mumbled, shakily starting to walk back home. "Boy, I have to see him again…"
Ah, A nasty little voice in my head said meanly, I thought Nokura was your friend. She likes Cliff too.
My stomach plummeted. "Oh yeah…I'm too tired to figure this out."
I walked back home, greeted by Nora jumping off the bed to wind around my legs. I put her on my bed and slipped in beside her, slowly but surely slipping into sleep.
