Sakura: Zzz...

Saki: -pokes Sakura- Yo, wake up.

Sakura: What do...you...want...zzz...

Saki: -points to story- Post it!

Sakura: I'm tired...

Saki: DO IT!

Sakura: Fine! Geez. Anyways, sorry about the late update to my few readers out there. I've been extremely busy as of late.

Saki: And soon to be busier...

Sakura: Don't remind me. Anyways, here's a quick update. Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon. I just own my plot.

Chapter 3

(Claire's POV)

I woke up to the light hitting my face. I wondered who had left the curtains opened and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I realized that this wasn't my apartment and giggled quietly. That's right; I was living in Mineral Town now. And, I had a roommate.

I looked over at the couch. Jack was still there, sleeping. I looked at my watch seeing as there was no clock in the house…err…maybe shack was a better word for it. It was only a one room building after all. Guess we would need to upgrade it later.

6:00 AM. Better get out of bed and see what needs to be done first. I got out of bed, looking over at Jack. He had a little bit of drool coming out of his mouth. I held back a second giggle.

I walked outside, rucksack in hand, and breathed in the fresh air. It was so much cleaner here than in the city. I glanced over at the field and grimaced. That was going to be hard to clean up. I sighed, walking over and started pulling the weeds out one by one. This was going to take a while.

...

(Jack's POV)

I heard a lot of noise and sighed. Great, my new roommate liked to make noise when she got up. I sat up and attempted to get rid of the sores in my back. This couch was more painful than I thought. I wondered how much a new bed would cost, but once I took a look around the room, I stopped thinking, knowing there was no room for another bed.

I stood up, stretching as I picked up my cap and placed it on my head. Slinging my rucksack over my shoulder, I wondered what Claire was doing. I stepped out of the house and spotted her in the field. She was crouched down and looked to be pulling out some weeds. I walked over.

"Having fun?" I asked. She turned to look at me, some dirt on her face and her gloves were covered in dirt. She laughed.

"Actually, yeah, I am. Who knew pulling weeds would be fun?" she asked, standing up and looking at all the weeds she pulled out. "What time is it?"

"Let's see…almost 8," I answered.

"Okay. I chopped a bunch of wood and pulled out most of the weeds. I'm saving the small stones though, they could be useful," she said.

I cocked an eyebrow at her. "And how would that be useful?"

"Trust me. They'll be useful," she answered confidently. "I can feel it in my gut,"

"Okay, whatever you say. I won't smash your rocks," I said, tugging on some nearby weeds quickly and efficiently. In only 20 minutes, we cleared the rest of the field of branches and weeds. There were still large stones and stumps that we couldn't smash or chop down. I looked down at our tools. "We'll have to upgrade our tools later. Meaning, we'll probably have to go mining,"

"Mining? That sounds like fun," Claire said with a smile. I looked over at her. Did the city life really bore her that much? "Um…shouldn't we meet with the town's people first?"

"We have work to do though," I replied.

She crossed her arms. "We should at least introduce ourselves to the people who would be buying our farm products,"

I noticed a hint of anger in her voice and sighed. "Fine, we'll go,"

She smiled again before dragging me towards town. "Let's see…it looks like we're meeting the blacksmith first,"

We walked into the blacksmith's shop. I noticed someone in the back working on some tool. The clinking of the hammer hitting the metal hurt my ears actually. Claire walked over to the old man at the desk with a smile. "Hello, my name is Claire. And this is Jack. We are the new farmers over there,"

The old man nodded, but didn't smile. "Nice to meet you. My name is Saibara. I own this blacksmith here,"

I could hear an "ow" coming from the boy in the back. Saibara turned around, angered. "Do the task right! If you don't do it right, how are you going to learn? Now look boy! You got me yelling in front of guests! Now, come over here and greet them!"

The boy mumbled something before walking over. He had some soot on his face, probably from working. "Name's Gray,"

"Hello Gray! My name is Claire!" she said. Did this girl ever lose any energy? I pulled my hat down a bit.

"Name's Jack," I said. The boy, Gray, nodded.

"I'll get back to work," he mumbled before going back. Saibara stared at the boy for a bit before turning back to us.

"Sorry, my grandson is still learning the ways of Blacksmithing. Well, if you need to upgrade your tools, feel free to come here,"

"Thanks! We will!" Claire said with a smile. She grabbed my hand and began dragging me out to the next house.

...

So far, we've met the family owners of the poultry farm, Lillia, Rick, and Popuri, the family of the animal ranch, Barley and May, the couple at the Winery, Manna and Duke, the family at the Inn, Doug and Ann, the family next door to the library, Basil, Anna, and Mary, Stu and Ellen, and Thomas and Harris. We even met the family at the Supermarket, Jeff, Sasha, and Karen. We got a free bag of Turnip seeds from this, lucky for us as we didn't have much money to start out this farming life with. Claire is still full of energy, and it's not even noon yet. I was actually starting to feel dizzy a bit.

"You okay, you don't look so good," she said.

I tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't go away. "Not sure why, but I feel really hot," I mumbled.

She put her cool hand against my forehead. "You're burning up! Um…I think there's a clinic over there. You can make it to there, right?"

I nodded as she walked me over to the clinic. It was really white when we entered.

"Yes, can I help you?" a voice from the back of the counter asked. I looked up, still feeling dizzy. The girl looked vaguely familiar at the counter.

"He needs a doctor right away! He just started burning up!" I could hear Claire say beside me. I could hear a lot of worry from her voice. We only met yesterday, but she is that worried about me?

"I'm sorry! The doctor just left on a house call. But, I can check to see what's wrong. Come this way," we followed her over to some beds, and I was told to sit down on one. After a few minutes, the girl smiled. "It's all right. You're the new farmers, right? That means you just arrived here by boat. You must have gotten a little sick. It's really cold out at sea. I hope you didn't do any strenuous work this morning,"

"Just a bit of clearing the fields," I mumbled.

The girl nodded. "Yes, you're sick. You need a little bit of rest. I'll give you some medicine and you can rest for a bit here. The doctor will be back shortly. I think it would be best for him to examine you before you leave to make sure you're all right,"

She smiled again, and I felt my head heat up a bit more. She walked away to get the medicine and Claire looked over at me.

"Whoa! You're a little redder! Either you're getting sicker, or…" she slyly grinned, "someone has a crush on another somebody,"

I shook my head. "I've only just met the girl! How can anything like that happen?"

She wagged a finger at me. "Tsk, tsk. I was once a matchmaker in high school. To which each couple I helped is now successful in life and still in a happy and healthy relationship with their match. I can tell these things,"

"Oh, and I suppose you have lots of experience with boys,"

"Nope, just the opposite. However, because of that, I pay attention more to how guys and girls are. I can tell when a person likes someone, and you definitely like the nurse," she said.

"Yeah right. Now, let me sleep," I said while lying down into the bed.

"At least wait till you drink some medicine!"

...

(Claire's POV)

With this, life was definitely going to be more interesting! I haven't played matchmaker in a long time, so I wonder if I lost my touch. This was going to be a lot of fun! First, for Jack and the nurse to get to know each other and see if they could be compatible with one another. But one things for certain, I know I'll be great friends with her.

The nurse walked back in to see Jack sleeping in the bed already. "Oh, he was supposed to drink some medicine before sleeping. I'll leave it here just in case he needs it," she said putting it down.

"Thanks for helping us out. My name is Claire by the way," I said with a smile. She smiled back.

"Nice to meet you Claire, I'm Elli. I don't know why, but I have this feeling we'll be great friends,"

"Same here!"

"So, why have you come to Mineral Town anyway?"

"Well, it all started with…"

"Oh, I see. So you bought the farm, but Jack supposedly inherited it. And because you had no where else to go, it was decided that you would both share the farm," Elli said.

"Yup! I wasn't expecting to have a roommate much less a guy for a roommate when moving here. But, it's okay. This just makes life more interesting," she said.

"That does sound a lot better than living alone,"

It had taken me about a half hour to explain the whole situation to Elli. Jack looked a bit better now, but he was still asleep. It was 12:30 now, and I was getting a bit hungry. I heard a yawn near me and turned to find Jack waking up.

"Had a nice nap?" I asked. Jack nodded.

"I feel a bit better now," he said.

Elli smiled. "Hello Jack, my name is Elli. Pleased to meet you,"

"Same. Thanks for helping me out," he said.

"You're welcome,"

I smiled at the two. They get along so well. I felt that these two really did belong together, so I wanted to support their relationship and maybe give them a little push together.

...

(Jack's POV)

We left the clinic after I felt better and headed off to the next place, the church next door. On our way, we saw the shipping guy, Zack, and the construction guy, Gotz. The church was very big and really quiet. We walked over to the front of the church to find the priest.

"Hello. You must both be the new farmers. I heard you were in some sort of predicament. Well, I'm glad you were able to settle the problem smoothly," he said. "The Harvest Goddess is truly watching over both of you,"

Claire just smiled and nodded. "Thank you. My name is Claire, and his is Jack,"

"Nice to meet you, Claire and Jack. My name is Carter and if you hadn't already noticed, I'm the priest here at this church. Would you like to hear one of my sermons? It can be quite lengthy,"

Claire's eyes widened before she shook her head, replacing her shocked look with a smile. I chuckled at her actions, earning a glare from her to me. "It's all right. We only stopped by to say hi,"

"Oh, well, could you both do me a favor?" We nodded our heads in response. "You see, there's that young man sitting in the pew over there. He doesn't have many friends, nor does he talk much. I was wondering if you could talk to him and get to know him. I can tell he is a lost soul and with a little help, he can discover what he wants to do with his life,"

Claire nodded. I wondered what caused her to want to help a stranger all of a sudden. "Okay, we'll be glad to help,"

I also wondered why she was involving me. We walked over to the boy who seemed to be looking down at the floor as if he was interested in it. He looked up and noticed we were both hovering over him. "Um…can I help you?"

"No, we just came over to say hi and introduce ourselves. Hi, my name is Claire, and this is Jack," she said. I merely lifted my hand up and did a small wave. "We are the new farmers here in town,"

The boy nodded. "I'm Cliff. I live at the Inn," he said.

Claire smiled. "This place sure is nice, isn't it? The church is really quiet. Good place to get away from everything to think,"

Cliff nodded. "Yeah. Sometimes, it's nice to just sit down somewhere quiet, but the Inn isn't exactly the quietest place,"

I noticed how these two got along really well. "Well, well, looks like I found something to tease her about later. Ha, I'm acting like an older brother…in the non-overprotective way I guess," he thought.

"Claire, we should get going. Farm's not gonna take care of itself, you know,"

Claire made a face. "I know, I know. Jeez, you're not my mother," she said crossing her arms. She smiled at Cliff and did a small wave. "It was nice meeting you. Let's talk again sometime,"

Claire and I walked out of the church and headed back to the farm. Oddly enough, we past by Anna, Sasha, and Manna who seemed to be gossiping…about us?

"Claire and Jack seem nice,"

"Do you think they're…"

"No way. Thomas already said…"

"…But, it's kinda weird that they would…"

"Maybe they…"

"…on the farm…"

Ugh! Could these women just finish their sentences? What exactly were they talking about? They noticed us right away and completely shut their traps. Claire just smiled and waved. Man, this girl was clueless.

"Hey Jack, is there anything to eat back at the farm?" Claire asked once we got out of Rose Square.

"No. We're broke, remember?"

Claire frowned, and I heard a stomach growl right afterwards. "I'm starving!"

Jack crossed his arms. "I'm sure we can forage for something in the wild. It is spring, so there might be bamboo shoots or some wild grasses you can eat,"

"That doesn't sound very appetizing…but okay," she sighed.

...

It was like this for about a week. We would eat whatever we could find out in the area, and we would take care of farm chores in the morning. There was a beehive on the farm, so we would put honey in the shipping bin to sell. Claire was kinda sad that she couldn't eat it, but I told her we needed the money from it. After we took care of the farm work, which was only pulling weeds and watering the crops, I would go chop wood while Claire mined in the mines. Ores from the mines could sell for a little bit and we needed the wood to expand the house. The couch was really killing my back.

After going through the mines and chopping all the wood I could find (which usually wasn't much), we would go into town and talk to people. Claire hung out a lot with Cliff and Carter at the church as well as May and Stu, although she sometimes hung out with Elli. I would usually talk to Elli, and the doctor would come in out of nowhere to tell me some health thing. Once he bored me enough to leave, I would hang out at the library where I see Gray and Mary. Gray doesn't seem to be as moody as I thought he would be after first meeting him, and Mary's stories were interesting to listen to. Once it got around 6, I would meet up with Claire in front of the winery and we would head back to the farm. That was our typical schedule. It gets pretty tiring sometimes.

Today, Claire did her share of the farm work and walked back into the house. I followed her, wondering what she could be doing. When I got in the house, she was counting the gold we had.

"Let's see…since we just harvested our first set of crops yesterday, we have…almost 5,000 gold. That could get us a house upgrade, and we could upgrade one of the tools we have. We should upgrade the ax first," she said turning towards me.

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, a house upgrade is 200 pieces of wood. The second upgrade is 700. We would need 900 pieces of wood in all. We don't even have 100 pieces of wood yet. If you chop down all the stumps in the field as well as the ones around Mineral Town, we may have enough for the first,"

I nodded. "Okay. But we need some copper to upgrade my ax,"

She smiled. "Already have that. We'll just have to wait for the blacksmith to open then. I wonder who will work on the tool though: Gray or Saibara?"

"Probably Gray, if Saibara gives him a chance,"

"Yeah,"

I looked at my ax. It was pretty rusted up. I guess the Old Man here didn't really think about upgrading these tools anytime soon. I glanced at Claire's tools, noticing they weren't in as bad of shape as mine, but they were still in pretty bad shape. I'm guessing she got her tools out of a junk shop.

Claire looked at her watch before handing me a couple ores of copper. "Here's also 1000 G. That should be enough for the upgrade. It should be ready by tomorrow. I'll go talk to Gotz about it later, once we have enough wood,"

"Okay. Wow, you're really good at planning things,"

Claire shrugged. "One of my old jobs was being a party planner. I guess it just became natural. Parties can be hectic to plan, oh, but weddings were the worst,"

"Hm…guess you would have to be really good at organizing things to plan a wedding," I replied, tucking the materials into my rucksack.

"Well, I'll catch ya at the inn later. I'm going to go fishing today," she said.

"Fishing? Since when did you have a rod?"

She pulled one out of her rucksack. "Since Zack was so kind enough to give me a fishing rod. It's not the best, but it's still in pretty good shape compared to my other tools. I'll see ya later!" she called before running out of the house towards the beach.

I smiled, shaking my head on how she acted. I looked at my watch and headed straight for Saibara's shop.

...

"Hey! Old man Saibara, Gray!" I called out. The two looked up from their work and greeted me…though, not in the most pleasant ways. Both had frowns on their faces. Geez, you would think somebody died here everyday.

"What is it, Jack?" Saibara asked in his gruff voice.

I walked over, placing the ore, gold, and my axe on the counter. "I was wondering if you could upgrade my axe. It's getting hard for Claire and me to live in such a small house, so I wanted to chop some more wood for an upgrade,"

"That's fine. But, I am leaving to Forget-Me-Not Valley to deliver some ores. I won't be back until tomorrow night,"

"Oh, well, then could Gray upgrade it for me?" I noticed he stiffened a bit in the back. I guess Saibara didn't let him do much besides working on the same thing and then their usual bickering (seriously, I could hear them from the farm!).

Saibara looked to be in deep thought. "Well, I don't know if Gray is ready for that. His work isn't cut out for-"

"I'll do it."

We were both surprised to hear Gray. Saibara cleared his throat before speaking. "Boy, you do know that you still haven't created anything that is even 3rd rate to a blacksmith. For a farmer, this needs to be a 1st rate job,"

Gray nodded. "I'll make sure of it. It will be first rate," he said.

I smiled. "I'm sure Gray can do it. He's been working very hard," I assured.

Saibara crossed his arms. "Very well then. If he messes up, I won't give you a refund,"

"Deal," I replied. I looked to Gray with a grin. "Good luck. How long will it take?"

"Since you're only upgrading it to copper, it will take one day,"

"Boy, one day would be if you were in expert!" Saibara yelled. I just nodded.

"Okay. I'll come back tomorrow,"

"No need. I'll just deliver it to you tomorrow after I'm done. Oh, can you tell Mary I'm not coming to the library today?"

"Of course. Well, see you, Saibara, Gray," I said before walking out. I had confidence in Gray. I just needed to give him a push in being able to work. Saibara was a little too strict sometimes.

I stopped by the library, calling out to Mary to tell her that Gray wouldn't be coming that afternoon. She thanked me and asked if I would like some herbal tea before leaving. I turned down her offer nicely, more to save myself. Mary was a good cook and all, but when it came down to tea, Basil would always add some weird tasting herb (that was supposedly "good" for health) to it while Mary wasn't looking, so I decided to stay away from tea with Mary. I don't know how Mary could stand that stuff. Not even Gray would drink it. Maybe it was drinking that poison for so long…

I decided that since I couldn't chop wood for the day, I might as well go see Elli. Today was her day off, Wednesday, so I'd probably find her at the Supermarket right now. I walked over to the Supermarket.

Once I walked in, I saw a weak looking Jeff behind the counter. He didn't look like he could hold out watching the store for too long. Karen probably sensed it because as soon as I walked in, she rushed past me and helped Jeff to the back of the store to rest. She came back and took his place behind the counter. She smiled at me.

"Hey Jack! What's up?" she asked.

"I'm fine. How's Jeff?"

She sighed. "Looks like he was trying to overwork himself. He's lucky I was just walking back, or he could have fainted right here, right now,"

"I see…" I turned my head, noticing Elli looking at some of the produce.

Karen grinned. "Why don't you go over there and talk to Elli?" she said in a low voice.

I could feel a blush coming on. "Why don't you go and have fun with Rick?" I shot back.

"…You have one dirty mind…"

"What! What did you think I was thinking! I meant, go on a date with him! You're the one with the sick mind!" I hissed.

"Whatever, whatever. Geez, you're jumpier than my dad at times. I'll leave you alone with Elli. Just call me up if you need anything," she said before walking to the back of the store.

I walked over to where Elli was standing, and cleared my throat. She turned around.

"Oh, hi Jack! It's nice to see you. What brings you here?"

"Oh, I thought I'd just look around and see if I could buy anything to eat," I answered, though not entirely the truth, I was getting kinda hungry.

Elli nodded. "Oh I see. By the way, where's Claire?"

I wondered how an every conversation I had with Elli, she always brought up Claire. Maybe it's just because they were now best friends or something. "She decided to go fishing today. You'll probably see her later,"

"Or right now,"

I jumped at the new voice, noticing strands of blonde hair right behind me. "Claire! When did you get here?"

"Right when you said you were looking to buy something to eat. You're going to buy food without me!" she whined.

"Well, you're here now, if you need anything," I said.

Claire crossed her arms. "But, I thought we were saving up for a house upgrade so that we could afford to put another bed for you in the house,"

I scratched the back of my head. "Oh, yeah. I had forgotten. Guess I'll just go and forage for food later,"

Claire smiled and looked behind me to see Elli. "Hi Elli! How are you today?"

Elli smiled back. "I'm fine. I'm actually finished shopping here though. I'm going to head back to the Clinic now. See you both tomorrow!" she said as she paid Karen and left the Supermarket.

I sighed. "Great, just my luck,"

"Oh, I'm sorry. You wanted to talk to Elli. You weren't going to buy any food. I'm sorry," she said.

I shook my head. "It's all right. I'll just talk to her tomorrow. Do you need to go anywhere before heading home? I don't want to go back to the farm just yet,"

"I haven't gone to the Church yet. I wanted to see how Carter and Cliff are doing. Stu and May are probably not there today,"

I stared at her. "Hm…you spend a lot of time at the Church, huh?"

"Well, I never went to church back in the city. I guess the one here had something that caught my interest. Maybe it's the fact that it's nice there and not like in the city. Some of the people in the churches there were scary,"

I chuckled. "Well, let's head over there then,"

"Claire! And Jack too! What a pleasant surprise! Would you both like to hear my sermon? It can be quite long," Carter greeted.

"I'd love to, Carter! Your sermons are always very interesting!" Claire agreed to listen to the sermon, a completely different attitude than the one she had before. I noticed Cliff sitting by himself and walked over to sit next to him.

"Hey Cliff! How've you been?" I asked.

He looked a bit nervous. I guess he still wasn't used to me yet. "I've been okay, I guess. H-how's the farm been?"

"Things are going smoothly. If I can chop enough wood, I might be able to get off that stupid couch of Thomas's,"

"Oh, is that so…"

"So…how are you and Claire doing?" I asked, not really knowing what else to say.

Cliff's head tilted to the side. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. How do you feel about Claire?"

"Well…uh…" his face suddenly flushed. Oh, I get it now.

"Oh, so, little Cliff's got a little crush, huh?"

"No…it's not…"

"Really? Who?" Claire had popped up right behind me. Cliff grew even redder.

"No one," he said while turning away and standing up. "It's late. I should be heading back to the Inn now,"

He walked swiftly out of the Church, the fastest I've ever seen him move. Claire looked on confused. "I wonder what's wrong with Cliff,"

I chuckled. "You may find out one day…"

As much as I was trying to tease him, I don't know, my chest started hurting…

Saki: Sounds like a wimp.

Sakura: He does not! He just...doesn't understand anything yet.

Saki: What kind of guy doesn't know that when your chest hurts it can be caused by angina or aortic dissection or even-

Sakura: Saki! Enough with the medical lesson! Now, ignoring her...

Both: Please review!