I'm back! So sorry for the absence. School + Exams + Writer's Block = No Good Updates. But I'm back now; exams are over and my writer's block is gone! So now I can write again.

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speed and write: I'm glad you enjoyed them. I'm also glad you love Elliot, like me. :D Thanks for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon, nor do I own any pretty, formal dresses or a single pair of high heel shoes.

Rain on the Party

Words: Storm Clouds

"This is going to be awesome!" Popuri squealed, bouncing up and down excitedly.

Popuri, Elli, Mary, Ann, Karen and I were all gathered in my little farm house as we got ready for the dance at the inn. Ann and Karen had been planning it for ages. It was to celebrate the fact that Mary's book was getting published. Mary insisted that we didn't do anything big because it wasn't really that special of a day, but hey, it's an excuse to par-tay down.

It was going to be formal, and I must say, all my girlfriends were looking simply beautiful. Ann was wearing a short-sleeved, pale yellow dress with a flowing skirt that ended just below her knees, and we forced her, to her disappointment, to wear a matching pair of high heel shoes. She was surpisingly good at walking in them. Instead of wearing her hair in the usual plait, she had put it in a high ponytail, and because she usually wore it in a plait it was very wavy.

Elli was wearing a blue ball gown-like dress, with puffy sleeves, a tight top and a puffy skirt. The hem of the skirt was covered in silver sparkles. Due to her short hair, we had problems making it look special, so we put a nice big bow in it for her.

Popuri was dressed in her signature colour, pink. She had a tight, hot pink spaghetti strapped dress and matching high heels and silk gloves, and she had straightened her pink hair. I wish she straightened it more often; it looked amazing.

Only she could pull off that much pink.

Karen had curled her blonde hair and left it out, and she was dressed in a low cut v-neck black dress which was way too revealing for my liking, but looked amazing on her. It had a straight skirt with a slit on the right side which allowed her to move around in it. She wore black high heels as well. She had been the one who taught us all to walk in them.

In my opinion, Mary looked the most beautiful. She wore a sleeveless pale blue dress with a corset-like top and a flowing skirt. She was a little uncomfortable in it at first, because she thought it was way to revealing, even though it wasn't. She had a pair of white gloves that reached her elbows and a cute little purse. She also wore high heels but kept tripping over in them. We managed to convince her to wear her hair out, and believe me, it was beautiful. It was wavy because she usually wore it in a plait, and she tied some of it back to keep it out of her face.

I was wearing a little dark blue dress with sparkles. It had a frilly skirt which ended right above the knees and a sleeveless love heart cut top. I had black high heels and a midnight blue purse. When I had stepped out of the bathroom in my dress, the five girls had stared at me and had me thinking my dress had fallen down or something.

"Wow," Karen had said. "You look amazing, you know that?"

Karen was curling my hair into a bunch of golden ringlets when Mary looked out the window. "Oh no…"

"What's wrong?" Elli asked.

"Storm clouds," said Mary. "You guys better hurry up; we don't want to be caught in the rain."

It wasn't raining when we stepped out of the house. No, if it had been we might have been smart and waited for the rain to pass. But the rain had started when we were half way to the inn. We took off our shoes, due to it being way too hard to run in high heels, and sprinted to the inn. And the boys stared at us when we arrived. One glance at each other and we knew why.

For one thing, we were positively drenched. Our make-up had smudged and run down our face. Our dresses were clinging to our bodies in the most unattractive way possible. Popuri's hair had gone wavy again, and everyone else's hair was a mess. I heard a gentle sob and noticed that Karen was crying. She and Ann had worked so hard on making the party perfect and now it was ruined because of some stupid rain. She sprinted upstairs and we followed her up, sitting in one of the rooms with looks of disappointment on our face.

About five minutes later, we heard Kai's voice calling us. "I'm not going," said Karen, but the rest of us girls went downstairs. And as soon as we heard the boy's plan, we literally dragged Karen downstairs too.

Ten minutes later, and we were all gathered in the Town Square. Yes, in the rain. We were drenched from head to foot, and having the time of our lives. Even Karen loved every minute of it. Due to the fact that the CD player couldn't be in the rain, she was being our music, her melodic voice filling the square.

"May I have this dance?" asked a familiar, quiet voice. I turned around and saw Cliff standing there, holding his hand out.

"Why, yes," I giggled. "Yes you may."

And we danced in the rain. I saw Rick watching Karen sing, my brother Jack dancing with Ann, Elli dancing with Doctor Trent… to my surprise, Popuri seemed to have practically dragged Gray to his feet. So what happened to Mary? I saw Kai sneaking a kiss in the rain with her, and I smiled to myself. Turns out dancing in the rain is much more fun than dancing in the inn.

I don't really like this chapter too much, but hopefully you did. Now, I command you to press that nice little button down there and write me a lovely review. Thank you.