This is getting to be very interesting~! XD Anyways, enjoy! ^.^;

Toby: If you like me getting into awkward situations, then, well, of course you will... T.T;

Toby! *slaps* Stop it with the negative attitude!

Toby: Ow! Fine. Enjoy, everyone! ^.^;

Diary of a Rose Ch.4

Oh, No Reason

Spring 12th, morning

I haven't seen Toby again for four days…. Five, if you count today. The last time I saw him was that afternoon on the 7th when he was telling me about the saltwater fish tanks. Hmm…. I did go to Barbara but she didn't have all the right materials that day…. She said that if I could collect a lot of glass, then I could get Ramsey to melt it down into glass sheets of certain lengths, and if I brought her the sheets then she could build me a tank. The only problem is that she'd have to come down here to the farm to build it, and I'd have to pay her 1000 G for the tank. Oh, well. It's going to be huge! She said 200 gallons at least.

Well, anyways, since then, I've talked Mira into going back to the Refinery shop, and I've been doing lots of mining. Today, I'm going mining again, and I'll hopefully collect some more White Wonderfuls, as I've heard that they usually produce the most glass when refined, and sometimes the "rare, highly esteemed" white diamond. I've judged that I'll need approximately 164 glass pieces for each piece—4 foot long by 4 foot tall. It's going to be a cube—not exactly sure how many gallons or whatever that is, but I do know that an aquarium that is 4 foot long, 4 foot wide, and 1 foot tall is 120 gallons…. So mine is bigger. It'll be so big that I'll have to keep it outside, though, or so Barbara told me.

I sat by the dock, absentmindedly casting out my fishing rod. I wasn't at the docks, per se; I was sitting in front of the lighthouse. The white cat by the moon stone in the ground came, purring, over to me, and I patted it absentmindedly.

I wonder what Rose is doing….? I haven't seen her at all in the last few days, I mused, somewhat miserably. It suddenly hit me that tomorrow morning, I could take some binoculars just before 6:00 AM, and then, if I could find the right position, then I could see her working on her farm in the morning! Yes…. That was a good idea. Now, I've just gotta actually get some binoculars! Hmm…. Paolo might have some…. Paolo was the little fishing expert child inside the lighthouse; he probably needed one to see ships or something when the lighthouse was running. Didn't that make at least some sense?

It was very cloudy and the air was very humid. It'll probably rain tomorrow. I was acting a little cynical over this Rose thing, so perhaps some good rain, and, therefore, good opportunities for fishing would do me some good.

I yawned, kicking my legs, which dangled over the water. One of my legs kicked a wave, splashing some droplets up over the cat. She hissed and dashed away, and I sighed. I shook my leg dry, and lay back onto my back, staring up at the sky and clouds. I got somewhat dizzy watching the racing clouds, so I had to sit back up, shaking my head to clear it.

I stared out to sea. The waves were soaring and crashing now; any boats that were out there would be in a hazardous situation. No wait…. There are none. No boats can go out! I sighed again. No boats….

All of a sudden, I heard a crash and it began to rain. This was odd; the weather usually never changed until 6 AM the next day!

I checked my watch. Ehh…. It is 5:30 PM. It was raining harder now, so I grabbed my fishing rod and ran for the Fishery shop.

Behind me, the door closed, and then it opened again. I heard a crash of thunder and saw a white bright light of lightning, and Paolo ran in after me.

Spring 12th, evening

I flopped backwards onto my bed, and opened up my journal, vowing to write a good, long entry while it was storming outside and I had time, to make up for the last few days of not really writing.

Nah…. Trying to write a narrative novel is hard work. I'll just make my diary the normal way—as a diary.

Anyways, I was outside and about to head for Harmonica Town, but then this storm started, so I had to quickly ring the bell and let my animals—a duck, a chick, and a cow—inside, and then rush inside myself. What a storm! Phew!

I quickly did some rearranging after I came in, so it's 6:25 now. Hmm; it's not that late, and I don't want to be stuck inside all evening! Perhaps I'll brave a trip to the Mines. There's not really all that much to say right now….

Spring 12th, almost midnight

I just got back from the mines! Great Harvest Goddess, that was excruciating but insanely fun, all at the same time! I collected a bunch more White Wonderfuls and a couple purple ones, too.

I thought I saw my goldfish swimming along together and thought I saw a few white things. Perhaps they were eggs? In any case, I'll find out tomorrow morning. I'm just glad I put a glass cover on that tank, or else it would be overflowing with water right now! Good night; see you in the mo—

Spring 13th, morning

Oh my! Last night, I fell asleep in the closing words of my entry! Anyways, it doesn't matter, since I was on my last word: morning. Well, I've gotta go feed the animals and water the crops now. I'll also check on my goldfish tank for eggs. The storm of last night has passed; I'm going to be very, very busy today!

The storm had passed. The seas had calmed down, and I'd gotten the binoculars from Paolo the previous night. I was all set to climb the huge hill overlooking the farmland and just sit there, watching her.

I ran through the town, stopping briefly to say hi to the shop owners, most of whom were opening the doors of their shops and checking to see how wet the pavement in front of their shops were. I was enjoying the wet morning sunshine. It was warm and rather humid, and water hung in the air, but the morning was so beautiful that I couldn't possibly care.

I ran up to where the school was, and attempted to judge where I could climb up onto the cliffs and run around to where the cliff overlooked Rose's farmland.

I saw a little pathway just beside the school, so I ran to the end and grabbed hold onto the dirt and grasses on the cliff. I braced my feet on the railing surrounding the little pathway and leaped up, the binoculars smacking me in the face. I scrambled up and sat down, rubbing my cheeks. "Ow…. Not a good idea!" I muttered.

I stood up shakily, realizing the wrong move could send me plunging down onto the pavement or a building's roof below. I walked carefully around the dangerous parts until my head stopped throbbing, then scampered around the bend and off across the uneven grass towards the cliff. I would have to hide once I got to the edge; it shouldn't be too hard, though, as I had briefly studied the area a few days ago. There were a lot of tall, grassy areas at the edge of the cliff; the only thing I'd have to be careful about was that Calvin, who had gone up there a couple of times to explore, had told me that, after rain, there were a lot of slippery, muddy spots near the edges of the cliff and that I'd have to be careful not to fall down. Falling down could ultimately lead to my death, although Calvin told me that he had fallen down a few times. He said that if you fall, you should try your best to land in either a bush or a river. He said that he'd fallen into the river by the Garmon Mine District a couple of times. Supposedly, the river either led out to sea, or it led to the pond in the farmland. Either way, there was a beach near the sea entrance, and if you could swim, you just had to swim that way. It'd be fine, he told me.

I only hoped he was right.

I slowly crawled to the edge of the cliff, clutching grasses and testing each place where I put my hand down, just in case a hole should open up and I wasn't ready.

I realized that I was being insanely spazzy, but I wasn't really all that comfortable with heights, ever since that one day when Bo, Luke, Owen and I were little kids and playing near the bridge that led to Harmonica Town. Bo had accidentally shoved me instead of un-freezing me when we were playing freeze tag, and I was too near the edge and fell off into the gorge. I nearly drowned since then I was only 5, and even though I could swim somewhat (I knew survival swimming tactics back then), the waves were still too strong and Ozzie had to come to help me. Thank Harvest Goddess Luke was an insanely fast runner, even back then!

But I'm not going to fall this time! I told myself, taking a deep breath. I crawled to the edge, locked my legs into some ridges, leaned on my elbows, and took out the binoculars, staring out from between a few blades of grass.

I watched her happily, watering her plants and harvesting the ripe ones. She was planting and watering and looked very busy. A cow ambled past her and she stopped briefly to pet it.

I sighed and smiled. She was so peaceful and happy; obviously, this was doing her some good. She ran off to the hot spring after a little while, and was about to change and go in when...

Suddenly, somebody tapped on my shoulder. I screamed a girly scream and whipped around, nearly falling off the cliff.

"Whoa! Calm down. Don't worry, she hasn't seen you yet," an amused, deep voice added. "What were you doing?"

I turned around, staring up at my attacker with wide eyes. It was Calvin. "Oh—uh—Calvin... Hi!" I greeted him brightly.

Obviously that was sort of suspicious, because he narrowed his eyes with a grin. "Hi, Toby. What were you doing, may I ask?" He laughed. "I'll push you off the cliff if you don't."

I laughed at him, too. Calvin was a good friend of mine, but he was serious. Obviously he wouldn't ever hurt anyone—he wouldn't let go of me—but he would make sure that Rose had seen me and yelled at me before pulling me back up again. It was all fun and games for him, but he didn't quite realize that it wasn't like that for me, too.

"Erm... Watching Rose," I stammered, embarrassed now that I had been caught. "Why'd you scare me like that?"

"Oh, no reason." He shrugged, still lightly amused. "I just came up here to study the storm clouds for Gill." He frowned. Gill was the weather man for Castanet, but lately he had left because the land was so bad. He'd gone to a town on another island. It was called Sunny Mineral Island or something like that. He had considered a few different towns before he went, but I couldn't really remember the names. "And then I found you. You know," he began briskly, changing the subject, "It's really too bad that Gill left. He was a great friend. Oh... Speaking of which, what were you doing up here, all decked out and hiding behind the grasses, watching Rose with binoculars?" he asked with another laugh. "Why? You don't... like her, do you?"

I decided to use Calvin's excuse from before. "Oh, no reason," I replied, grinning smugly.