"Mooom?"
"Yes, honey?" Mom replied softly while doing the dishes from our breakfast, without turning her head towards me.
"Where's Ash?" I asked as I scanned through the room.
Mom turned her head to me and shrugged. "Off to see Cam, probably."
"This early?" I burrowed my brows, not convinced.
"He said he promised Cam to help with him with his shop since the Summer Flower Day is just a couple of days away." Mom explained as she shifted her attention back to the dishes.
"Hmph…" I grumbled as I made a pout.
Mom turned back to me and left out a small sigh. "Rather than sulking, why don't you help me to deliver some chicken feed to Phillip today?"
"Huh?" I widened my eyes as Mom caught my attention. "Today? But isn't the shop supposed to be closed today?" I asked as I noticed that today is Wednesday, our shop's regular closing time.
"Actually he came to buy some yesterday but we were out of stock. So I thought why not deliver it to him today since we can't let those poor hens starving." Mom replied as she wiped her hands as she finished doing the dishes.
Mom walked towards our shop storage to get our weekly supply of chicken feeds and fodders. Our supply usually get delivered on Wednesday, so even though the shop is closed we are usually busy with arranging the stocks for the whole week until our next supply delivery.
Mom took out two packages of chicken feeds and hand it to me. "Make sure to deliver them to Phillip, okay? Oh, and tell him not to worry about the money."
"Okay!" I nodded as I took the chicken feeds from her. "I'll go get dressed!" I said as I rushed back to my room.
"Huh? Cheryl, wait-" Mom tried to stop me, but her voice was getting weaker as I was getting farther from her.
I quickly grabbed my favorite dress, then brushed tied my hair into my usual pigtails before I headed back towards my house's front door.
"Cheryl, you don't have to go now. It's raining, you can wait till it get better outside." Mom said as she arranged the stocks on the shelves.
I put on my shoes and grabbed my umbrella near the door. "Don't worry, I'm bringing an umbrella. I'll be going now, see you later Mom!" I said as I walked out of the door hurriedly before Mom could protest and left her behind, while she raised an eyebrow on me as I leave.
Summer season could be the most annoying one for Bluebell. It's pretty heated up in daytime, but also chilly in the nighttime. A storm would hit a little more often compared to other seasons, and the weather is rather unpredictable – it could be sunny in one moment, but in the next hour you could be hit by a heavy rain, just like today. It would be best if you carry an umbrella with you on summer in Bluebell because you never know what's going to happen.
I hummed as I marched through the grass field, watching the critters as they sing along the rain and hopped. Most people don't find them cute, but I actually like critters. I like to go critter-catching on my free time, but I usually released them back to the nature (sometimes I used few of them to scare the evil girls that tried to get near Ash, but fortunately he doesn't seem to know about this). I just like to feel them on my hands and admired their beauty for awhile.
As soon as I reached Phillip's farm, I noticed a figure was standing in the farm's grazing field in the middle of the rain. Curious, I proceed to move closer towards the grazing field and found it was Phillip. He was busy pushing his sheep back to the barn.
"Phillip?!" I called out to him as I approached him.
He immediately turned towards me and gave a surprised look for a split second, but then he formed a smile as he continued to push his sheep. "Oh. Good afternoon, Cheryl."
"What are you doing?" I asked, then I realized it was a stupid question as it was obvious what he was trying to do - He was herding his animals back to the barn because of the rain. "You'll catch a cold if you don't use an umbrella." I said as I lifted my umbrella, trying to cover him from the rain but failed because I was too short compared to him.
Phillip left out a laughter. "Your brother used to say the same thing to me. Don't worry, I'm much stronger than I look. I prefer to hurry and not let the animals got sick." He said as he managed to push the sheep back to the barn. "I only got a sheep and two chickens left anyway. Why don't you wait inside the house, Cheryl?" Phillip offered as he rushed to the last sheep.
I glanced at the grazing chickens. "I'll help you out." I said, as I rushed to the chickens and brought them back inside the barn.
As a daughter that was raised in a farm, catching chicken is an easy task, I could do it even if one of my hand was busy holding the umbrella. In short time, I managed to put the chickens back to it's pen. When I put the second chicken in, Phillip also managed to get the last sheep back to the barn.
"Whew." Phillip sighed as he ruffled his hair. "Thank you very much, Cheryl. You've been such a great help!" He grinned to me.
"You should always carry an umbrella with you on summer, or at least, wear something with a hood. The weather could be pretty unpredictable at this time of the year." I suggested.
"Ah, yeah. I can see why." Said Phillip. "I immediately rushed back from the town as soon as it started raining. I should make listening to the weather forecast every morning as my habit from now on." He chuckled.
"Anyway, I'm going to dry myself, why don't we get inside my house for now?" Phillip offered.
"Okay." I agreed, then handed him my umbrella.
He proceeded to hold the umbrella for me on our way to his house, and as I entered the house, Phillip invited me to sit in his dining room. He then poured a glass of hot milk and served it to me before he took off to his room.
I took the opportunity to glance around Phillip's place. His house has a nice and homey atmosphere around it, with brown tiles, cream carpet and matching tablemat. Although, it's interior design was Bluebell's basic.
"Sorry to put you through such troubles." Phillip said, as he entered the dining room and ruffled his wet hair with a towel and left it hung around his neck. "Do you need something, Cheryl?"
"Oh, I'm just here to run an errand from my Mom." I explained as I approached him and handed him a small bag carrying the chicken feeds.
Phillip took the bag from me to check it's inside. "Oh, the chicken feeds." Phillip murmured.
"She asked me to deliver them to you since the shop is closed today, and she also said that you don't have to worry about the money." I passed Mom's message to him.
Phillip widened his eyes for another second before he broke out into another smile. "Really? That is so generous of your Mom. Pass my thanks to her, will you?"
I nodded. "Will do."
"Thanks, you guys have helped me a lot. You and your families surely are nice people." Phillip commented as he put the bag on a shelf.
"Mom said that's because we can't let your animals starve, and besides you also helped us a lot with our requests, so it's even." I said.
"If you say so." Phillip left out a chuckle. "So what do you usually do on Wednesdays when you're not helping the store?" He asked.
"I would usually play with my brother, but sometimes he's still too busy to play with me even in our day offs." I replied, half pouting. "What do you usually do, Phillip?"
"Me? Well…" He stroked his chin and glanced above. "I usually get my farming routine done first thing first, then I would help with the request board or go foraging to the mountain for the rest of the day. Or sometimes, I would visit Konohana." Phillip said, then he left out a smile while burrowing his brows to me. "But well, since I was careless with the weather, I had to spend extra time on my farm. So I guess I don't have enough time to do any of them."
"That sounds exciting." I commented. "I would sometimes go play in the mountain, but I never crossed the summit to go to Konohana. I'm really curious about the town."
"It's really different from Bluebell, but it's a really nice town, too." Phillip replied.
"There is a tunnel that used to connect the town, you know? But since it's closed, we don't get to see each villagers as often and I heard the relationship between the towns got worse." I said.
Phillip left out a sigh and nodded. "I know, isn't it such a shame? If only the tunnel could be re-opened…" He murmured.
Then, I noticed that a glimpse of sun ray came through the window, as the sound of the rain stopped completely. "Hey look, the rain has stopped!" I jumped excitedly towards the window.
"Oh, right." Phillip followed me and glanced outside the window. "Well that's great. According to the forecast, it should be sunny for the rest of the day."
"Yeah!" I smiled at the thought of being able to go critter-catching in the mountain inside of getting holed up inside my house for the day.
Then, my head came up with another idea. "Hey, Phillip. Wanna know something great?" I asked.
Phillip raised an eyebrow on me. "What?"
"I'm only telling you only if you agree to follow me." I grinned.
Phillip left out a confused smile before he gave up. "Alright, I have nothing else for today's schedule anyway. What is it?"
"Great, let's go!"
I led Phillip to Bluebell's lower mountain area. "Okay, here we are."
"Mind telling me what are we here for?" Phillip asked.
"Hee hee, well, do you know that summer is the best season to go critter catching?" I said.
"Critter catching?" Phillip threw a confused look to me.
"There are lots of them in the mountain area. Beetles, Locusts, Fireflies, Butterflies, etc. You can catch them and even sell them in the shipping bin, or just to keep it for yourself. The best part is, you can catch them bare-handed!" I explained.
"Really?" Phillip asked, he seemed interested.
"Yep. Watch this." I said as I looked through the bushes and caught a critter in no time.
"Wow, what is that?" Phillip glanced at the critter in my hand with amusement.
"This one is called Longheaded Locust." I replied. "Here, let me tell you the secret on how to catch a critter with your hands."
I proceeded to tell Phillip my personal version on how-to-catch-critters-bare-handed guide. Then he tried out the technique and managed to catch a critter.
"I think this one is the same species with the one you caught before." He muttered as he studied the critter in his hand.
"It is." I nodded. "Though I prefer butterflies to locusts."
"So what do you do with the critters you caught?" Phillip asked.
"I usually release them back. Except for butterflies, I would keep them and release them in my farm area." I replied.
"That's actually not a bad idea." Phillip said as he released the longheaded locust in his hand.
Surprisingly enough, Phillip seemed to have interests towards the critters and we ended up critter-catching for the rest of the day and talked about them. Although he mostly released them back, he kept some critters with him inside a small cage that we prepared beforehand.
Phillip caught a Nymph Butterfly and put it inside a cage. "Well, she's the last one for today." He said, then handed the cage to me.
I looked up to him confused, and was replied by his smile. "You said you prefer butterflies, right? This one is for you as my token of thanks for teaching me critter-catching."
"Thanks! I'm gonna go show my brother! Hee hee." I grinned as I took the cage from him. Nymph Butterflies aren't rare and I have caught them quite often, but I felt so happy to receive the butterfly at that time.
"Well, let's go back to the town before your mom and your brother gets worried." Phillip concluded.
"I'm home!" I said as I entered my house and found my mom and my brother were preparing dinner.
"Oh, Hi Cheryl!" Ash greeted me. "How's your day? I'm sorry that I couldn't play with you today, I made a promise with Cam." Ash said in an apologetic tone.
"That's fine, Ash." I replied. "I had a great day today."