Soon enough, spring turned to summer.
I woke up that first day of summer, fed Laslow, and looked at the calendar to see that it was Summer 1. I hadn't really been paying attention, to be honest. Didn't really make a difference in the city; people had been roasting franks and burgers as soon as it'd gotten warm. Stuffy metal boxes with cubicles knew no calendar; every day was equal… equally suffocating.
My city roots probably showed true on my face when I saw that all my blue jazzes were dead. I swear Laslow came out and sat next to me just to give me this "You dumb bitch" look.
Well, it could have been worse. I could have been on my knees and frantically searching the soil for a parasite or a bug or something. But nah, I put two and two together.
I had also never seen the leaves on the trees turn such different shades of green so fast. I was honestly shocked, to where I just kinda looked around for a minute or two.
I eventually figured leaving the flowers' dead corpses there wasn't going to do any good, so I removed them before I set off for town to see what was in season.
I decided on sunflowers, and bought about 5 packs of seeds. I had always loved how tall and grand sunflowers looked, and I was willing to bet I wasn't alone. I would have bought so many more had the seeds I'd already bought not taken such a huge bite out of my wallet.
When I went down to the beach to fish, I spotted a man in a green jacket, tossing a gridball around. I didn't pay much mind to him; he was just part of the vast majority of the town that I hadn't really met yet.
"Hey, catch!" he said.
Wait, what? Was that directed toward me?
I raised my hands instinctively before knowing for sure, but a bit too late. The gridball bounced off of my palm, and I failed to catch it before it hit the ground.
"Good try!" the man laughed. Now, my brain put everything together; he was talking to me! I could feel myself flush a bit. He was probably going to make fun of me now because, you know, I was a girl and I was startled and I failed to catch a gridball and-
"You're the new girl, right?" he asked, genuinely. "I don't think a day went by that I didn't hear about you for about a week."
"Heh, really?" I asked, gaining my confidence back.
"Not kidding," he said. "I've recently heard that your name's Rachael. That right?"
"Yup," I said with a bit of a laugh. "Geez, I don't even get the luxury of giving out my own name, do I?" The man laughed, and I laughed along.
"I'm Alex," the man, now known as Alex, told me.
"Great to meet you!" I smiled and waved.
"Good to meet you, too!" Alex smiled in response.
I headed for the pier, feeling in frustration as the "romance guru" in my mind added Alex to a list and stamped "Jock" in big red letters over it. I knew for a fact that there had to be more to this man than a gridball, so I soon shrugged it off and figured I'd learn more of his story over time.
I had just put my first step onto the wood when I heard him ask "Was that throw good?" I was struck by how insecure, masked with confidence, that sounded.
I turned back around and replied "Were you…" I was going to ask if he'd really meant that as a genuine gridball throw, but I realized a moment too late how insensitive that sounded.
To my horror, Alex's face fell just a bit.
"I'm trying to become the first professional gridball player to come out of Stardew Valley," he explained. "Be real with me. What do you think my chances are?"
I thought of a response, then pondered it for a few seconds, then decided to go with it.
"All I can tell you for sure is that you'll never make it if you don't go for it," I said. "I believe in you. I think if you really work at it, you'll get there."
I was scared for a moment that "really work at it" made it sound like he had so little talent that he'd have to put more effort in to compensate. That's not what I meant, but it's what I was afraid he would get from it. I mean, at the very damn least, he had much more of a chance than I did.
"You're right," said Alex. "Thanks. I appreciate it."
He seemed happy, so I turned back toward the ocean and took a small breath of relief.
Author's note: I'll be real with you… I didn't think I was coming back to this. I forget what happened, whether I figured out there'd be a plot hole or whether the story elements became too overwhelming, but… to make a long motherfuckin' story short, I've been going through something mentally, and I've gone through shit in general since last I wrote, and suddenly got the intense desire to return to this. I think it could help me. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. Here's hoping I've got everything figured out and can finish what I started for once!