This one's going to be a little short, too. Sorry! Hope you like it anyway.

Chapter 8

"Ann?" Popuri said questioningly. "Is that … you?"

Upon hearing the pink-haired girl's voice I immediately stopped splashing and hid myself behind Cliff. He started to turn around and look at me, I'm sure to ask me what I was doing, but I grabbed his shoulders and forced him to face Popuri.

"Um…" Cliff started to talk to Popuri. "Hi?"

"What's going on here?" Popuri asked. "Why is Ann hiding behind you?"

So Popuri was smarter than I thought. My lightning fast moves had not evaded her; despite the fact that I was quick her eyes were quicker. Either that or she knew I was the only red-head girl in this entire town … yeah it was probably the second one. I knew I had been figured out though, and emerged from behind Cliff.

"Hi," I said with a sheepish wave of my hand.

"Hi Ann," Popuri said suspiciously. "What are you doing in the lake? And," she paused to gasp. "Why is your hair down?"

"Popuri, I like wearing my hair down," I said, pretending to be shocked at her. "Sometimes," I added to myself. "And why are we in the lake, you ask? Well you see I was fishing and … and the fish pulled me in, so Cliff had to come in and save me, and then we were splashing because we, we thought we saw a … fish and we didn't want it coming near us with its slimy scales and … weird eyes." I nodded vigorously to try and assure Popuri that my story was true. Cliff remained silent, a good move on his part.

"I see," Popuri said, examining the fishing supplies we still had waiting by the edge of the lake. She looked skeptical for a moment, and I prayed that she would go away, but apparently that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"Oh, hi!" Popuri said suddenly. I looked around to see who she was talking to. No one else was there except me and Cliff … oh right, Cliff.

"I've never seen you before." she continued. "I'm Popuri." Cliff was about to say something in return when Popuri kept talking. "Oh! You must be that new boarder that Ann told me about." She turned to look at me, wagging her finger. "Shame on you, Ann! He seems like a nice guy. Why in the world would you loathe to serve someone as nice as him?" I vigorously shook my head, signaling Popuri to stop talking.

"But he is a cute one! I don't see why you won't go out with him, Ann. You really need to learn some manners. At least give him a chance!"

"Popuri…" I said in my most threatening tone. If looks could kill…

"Yes?" she said.

"… Leave. Now." the words I spoke were dangerously calm. Luckily for her Popuri knew this was just the calm before the storm.

"Don't you want help getting out of the -"

"Now!"

"Okay, okay, fine!" she said, getting a prissy attitude. "I'm going!" She turned around to walk away. "Sheesh! All I do is offer some help and this is the thanks I get…"

Offer help? I felt like screaming. You ruined the only chance I had with this guy! Ironic, isn't it, how that is all we both wanted, was for me to have a chance with Cliff, and then she came along and ruined it. I was beginning to think this was the payment I got for all those times I wrote those phony love letters to Popuri from Kai.

Cliff turned to look at me with a questioning/disgusted look on his face. I shrugged and did a phony smile, my eyebrows arched in an odd position. He shook his head with distaste before talking.

"You loathe to serve me?" He didn't even wait for me to answer before he started swimming back to the lake's edge, which wasn't very far at all.

"No, Cliff! I don't loathe to serve you! Popuri's wrong! Completely and utterly wrong!" I said, starting to follow.

"So, then, she's a liar?" Cliff said, looking me square in the eye.

"Popuri is not a liar, Cliff, but if you let me explain-"

"Well if she's telling the truth, then you're the liar." He said. He had finally reached the grass and was pulling himself up onto dry land. His clothes were dripping wet and stuck to him, his hair strangely falling in all sorts of directions around his face. I watched the water drip from his ponytail and onto his back.

"I'm not lying, either, Cliff!" I said. I climbed out after him. My pants were dark brown with water, my hair hung limply around my face. I tugged at my shirt and rung it out some; this only caused it to wrinkle.

"Well you can't both be telling the truth!" he said, turning around to look at me. I stood back in shock. I hadn't seen him like this before. His eyes dropped to the ground and he looked a little sad, but I could tell he was still upset with me the way his hand was balled up in a fist by his side.

"Cliff-"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I think … I think I better just go now." He walked over to the cooler and the fishing rods and started to pick them up. He grabbed the bucket of bait as well, somehow not struggling in holding them all. He successfully started walking away without dropping anything, but not before saying over his shoulder, "I'll take these back to the Inn for you. I'd hate for you to have to serve me in any way." The sarcasm in his voice stung like a slap in the face.

I watched him as he walked away, bold and confident, and I thought how pathetic and lonely I must have looked if he were to turn around and glance at me … which he didn't, of course. I forgot about how horrible I looked at the moment; I forgot about the sun beating down on my head, the water dripping down my legs, my clothes sticking to my body. I plopped down into the grass without a second thought, my eyes still glued to the spot where Cliff had been a couple minutes ago.

So this is it. I thought. It's over. It's over and it never even began. I picked myself up, knowing I'd have to go back to the Inn and face Cliff eventually, and started walking home. On the way there, I passed by the goddess spring. I stopped to look at myself in the cool, shimmering water. Without warning, a single tear dropped from my face and into the pool, creating a series of ripples that distorted my reflection. My face crumpled up, and in an effort not to cry, I turned my sadness into rage.

"It's all your fault!" I screamed at the pond, specifically talking to the goddess. I picked up a rock from the ground and hurled it at the pool. It dropped in somewhere around the middle. "I hate you!" I continued, picking up more rocks in my fit of rage and hurling as many as I could into the shiny water that lay before me. I dropped down to the ground after I ran out of rocks and cried into my hands.

"Why did you have to tell me I'd fall in love?" I whispered, half to myself. "Why did Cliff have to come?" I sniffled and wiped the moisture from my eyes. "And why'd he have to be so perfect?"

I stood up and started walking again. I decided it'd be best to go anywhere but the Inn right now. But where else was there to go? I'd rather not go somewhere with people. My eyes were probably red from crying and I sure didn't feel like talking to somebody right now. As much as I wanted to avoid going to a place that reminded me of Cliff, I decided to go to the mountaintop where I had taken him for the tour that one day. I turned back to where I had come from and started heading for the little wooden bridge.

By the time I was up on the mountain, the sun was already in position to set. I sighed at the irony of it all. The sun was setting when I showed Cliff the mountain, too. I walked up to the spot we had sat at only to realize that I wasn't alone. Little May was sitting there all by herself, staring out into the valley below.

I walked up next to her and sat down. I didn't think she'd mind the company. I was right.

"Hello, Ann." said the little five-year-old girl. "Isn't the sky pretty when the sun goes to bed?"

"Very pretty," I responded. She turned to look me in the face and noticed I had been crying.

"Are you sad?" she asked after a second of hesitation.

"A little." I answered, not wanting her to get wrapped up in the drama of it all.

"You know what makes me feel good when I'm sad?"

"What?"

"Ice cream!" she said smiling. I couldn't help but smile back at her.

"I don't think ice cream is going to help this time, May." she had cheered me up for a second but I was back to my regular old moody self.

"Then you must be really sad, not a little sad, if ice cream isn't going to make it better." she said. I was surprised. For a five-year-old she was pretty perceptive.

"What do you think will make it better?" I asked. For a second I couldn't believe I was asking advice of a five-year-old, but I had no other plan at the moment.

"Hm," she thought for a second. When she opened her mouth, she spoke of her conclusion. "A hug. A great big one."

"From who?" I asked. I wasn't in the mood to give anyone a hug.

"From the person who loves you best." she said. "And who you love best."

"Cliff," I said quietly to myself. Apparently not quiet enough, though, because May heard me.

"Cliff?" she made a face. "Oh I remember him now!" A smile broke onto her face. "You showed him to me. He was nice, I like him." She nodded with approval. "He's a good person to give a hug."

"What if the person you need to hug is the person who made you cry?" I asked, half to myself. I wasn't sure that May would understand the complexity of it all. I don't know why I even bothered to say that to her. She was only confused in response.

"Then you're in trouble, missy," May said to me. "You need to find a way to make it better."

"You're right." I said. "I do need to find a way to make things better." I stood up, but not before giving May a pat on the head. "Thanks, May."

"You're welcome," she responded. She stayed at the mountaintop though, and made no move that indicated she might be going back soon.

"May?" I said after I took a couple steps away from her. "It's going to get dark soon. Don't you think you should come down now?"

"No, my Grandpa will be coming soon," she said, referring to old man Barley. "We always come up to watch the sunset on this day."

"You mean every year?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Any particular reason as to why?" I said.

"Grandpa says that today is the anner-ver-ser-y of when my mommy went away." she said, having trouble pronouncing 'anniversary'. "It makes him feel good to watch the sky, just like it makes you feel good to hug Cliff."

"Oh," I said, not sure what else to say. I felt sorry for May, but I was never good at offering consoling words in a person's time of need. I could just never think of anything to say that might not offend them or make them feel even worse than they already did.

"Oh, Ann?" May said as she turned around, stopping me before I left the mountain.

"Yeah?" I said.

"I like your hair down like that. It looks very pretty. But," she paused, making a face. "Next time dry it after you get out of the shower."

I laughed, my mood having lifted considerably after having that little chat with May. "Will do, May. Will do."