"Catalogue from Won's?" Ann took a seat on the stool next to the farmer.

It was a hot afternoon and the farmer was taking a break from the scorching sun at the local eatery. A glass of ice water sat in front of Claire; the condensation ran down the container, creating a puddle on the surface of the table. The blonde nodded in response to the waitress as she took a sip from the glass. "I need to purchase some new clothes, but I'm not sure what I want. I have a list of work clothes down, but something a little more casual would be nice, too."

"Well, it's a good thing Karen's not here! She'd probably manage to talk you into buying a bunch of party dresses!" the waitress giggled, swinging her feet. The grocer's daughter had a closetful of things she never wore, and judging by Claire's worn-out overalls, Ann reasoned that the blonde needed some more practical things for her wardrobe. "Although…"

"Huh?" the blonde looked up at her curiously.

The redhead looked around them conspiratorially. "Can you keep a secret?"

Claire gave her an excited nod.

"We're planning a little festival of our own here at the inn, a sort of midsummer's shindig, if you will. I suppose even I will have to wear a dress," Ann giggled. "It will be at the end of the week; we're gonna put up the flyers tomorrow."

"Oh!" Claire flipped through the catalogue. "I don't think anything I order will come in time…" She frowned at the notion, but it wasn't as if she had intended on ordering anything remotely formal.

The waitress shook her head. "Don't sweat it. Between Karen and Popuri, I'm sure you'll manage to find something you can wear. I've only told you and Cliff, so don't go blabbing. We're still hammering out the details and an official announcement will be made soon."

"I won't!" the farmer pouted, eager to keep the secret. She hadn't been to many group events since moving to Mineral Town, and she looked forward to another opportunity to try to improve on interacting with others.

The redhead hesitated before continuing. "There will be dancing and live music, too… did you dance much in the city?"

"No," Claire confessed with a sigh. "I was always too self-conscious to go out on the dance floor." She was surprised she was admitting this to someone else. Her thoughts turned toward awkward high school dances and evenings of sitting alone in the nightclub while her friends danced with groups of strangers, or worse yet, they brought the unfamiliar people to the blonde in an effort to make her more social.

Ann battled a strange combination of emotions – pity, victory, and excitement. Cliff had shyly admitted that he was an experienced dancer and intended in participating, his face lighting up at her mention of the event. "So, will you be coming? I know you missed the Chicken Festival."

"I'll try to make it," the blonde gave her a kind smile. "But I can't guarantee I'll do much dancing," she took a deep drink from her ice water and immediately regretted it; she was rewarded with brain-freeze. Not only did she see herself as a clumsy dancer, but no one would probably ask her to join them. She already was making plans for where to sit for the entirety of that evening. "What about you? Do you dance?"

Ann snorted and turned a bright shade of pink. "N-Not really. Not with partners, anyway. I was just trying to drum up some business for the bar. I got a few folks from the Valley to agree to come over and play some live music, too."

The waitress's flustered behavior didn't go unnoticed. "Oh, so you'll mostly be working…" Claire commented.

The young woman shrugged. "Well, maybe a dance or two if he's willing…" Ann muttered under her breath.

Her companion cocked an eyebrow. The waitress never really spoke about boys, unless it was to say that they were stupid and that she had no interest in them. "With whom?"

She went from pink to red. "N-No big deal. I told you, I don't need a boyfriend," Ann laughed nervously.

The blonde frowned. "A dance doesn't make two people a couple." As uneducated in courting and romantic customs as she was, even Claire knew this, and she was sure that Ann did as well.

The redhead didn't appear to be convinced. She fidgeted with her fingers, tapping them nervously on the tabletop. "I suppose… but…"

She could sense that the waitress was uncomfortable on the subject, and the clicking sound of Ann's fingernails on the wood was making her feel anxious. "Hey, I'll dance with you if neither of us get a partner, okay?" the farmer offered kindly.

The waitress giggled and stopped the racket. "You're too sweet, Claire. You're right. There's no sense getting worked up over it." She exhaled and sent a few of her red strands of hair straight up into the air before they fell back across her pale forehead.

Her friend tilted her head and her voice softened. "I have a feeling you're referring to something other than the dance, Ann." She hadn't meant to be so direct with the young woman, but the words slipped out before she meant for them to. Claire prayed that she didn't come off as rude.

The redhead's color drained from her face as she stared at the floor a long time before speaking. Claire immediately regretted what she had said; it seemed that asking her directly what was wrong wasn't Ann's style. The waitress ran her fingers along the grooves in the wooden tabletop thoughtfully, not looking up at the blonde. "Dances always have a romantic connotation to them. I was an idiot for thinking one up."

Claire wondered if she was thinking of something her father had said to her; Ann had mentioned that Doug seemed concerned at the lack of romance in her life. Her friend shook her head. "It will be a chance for everyone to get together. You don't have to pressure yourself."

Ann laughed bitterly. "There's no point pressuring myself anymore…" She pressed her thumbnail into a scratch in the table's surface and widened it a bit.

"What are you talking about?" Claire vaguely wondered if her companion realized she was destroying her own property, but she was more focused on the riddle Ann had presented to her.

The young woman looked around them cautiously before whispering. "I'm… afraid I blew my only chance… at love." A couple of tears rolled down her reddened cheeks and she swiftly wiped them away, embarrassed. "I don't even know what I want anymore…"

Claire's heart broke. She had only ever seen the young woman with a grin on her face, and she realized that she was catching a true glimpse of her in this moment. "Ann…?"

The redhead swallowed and plastered a cheesy grin on her face. "Wow, that was stupid of me, huh?" she giggled. "I sounded pretty silly back there… F-Forget about it!" her eyes were pleading under their thin veil of mirth.

The young woman felt uncomfortable. She wasn't used to Ann's methods of dealing with troubling issues. She was accustomed to talking things out with Cliff. This unfamiliar tactic left Claire a little on edge, and she felt guilty not continuing to attempt getting the young woman to open up to her. She decided this was the right move for the situation although it was against her instincts. "Why don't we go to the beach shack or something? I'll buy you a snack and we don't have to worry about anything, okay?" She figured it was the least she could do; Claire hated to see Ann this way.

A genuine smile spread across her friend's face. "Thanks." Her grin spoke louder than her words.

0o0o0o0

Kai's snack shack was overstaffed when they got there. Three employees were working and Claire and Ann were the only customers. Claire looked around the shop curiously. All of the young men were half-naked and working with cleaning supplies in differing degrees of familiarity. It was a curious yet interesting sight, to say the least.

"I wanna see my reflection in those tables, Gray!" Kai sang from behind the counter he was scrubbing, turning up the volume on his record player and bobbing his head to the reggae beat.

The young man removed his cap and groaned, running his hands through his unruly red locks. "This is so unfair! How the hell was I supposed to know that you're a frickin' mermaid?"

Kai shot him a dirty look. "Merman!" he retorted, tossing a soapy sponge at him. "Hush and get back to work, Mr. Dead Last!" he cackled, turning up the music louder, as if to drown out his friend's complaints.

The cowbell clanked as Claire let the door fall shut. The proprietor snapped to attention. "Hey, ladies! How are ya?"

Ann was smirking at the apprentice. "Hubba, hubba! Two men in swimsuits cleaning – be still, my beating heart!" she cackled.

Kai finished scrubbing the counter with a cloth. "Better get your eyes checked there, Ann, you missed one!"

"Hello." Cliff's voice emerged from underneath a table. He had a metal spatula in one hand and a trash bag in the other. Claire felt a swell of pity for the young man; she had been assigned to his duty a few times back when she worked at a diner herself, and it was a thankless job.

"I beat them both in a swimming race and now they're my help for the afternoon," Kai beamed.

"Wow, you guys were stupid enough to take on Kai in swimming?" Ann giggled. "What a couple of chumps!" she heckled them shamelessly.

"Shaddap," Gray huffed, rubbing a dirty cloth on the table, smearing around mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce into a beige mess. If anything, he was grinding the filth into the pores of the plastic tablecloth. The young man was likely more harm than help in cleaning the diner.

"Is it all that bad?" Claire stooped down to talk to the brunette. She noticed he looked surprisingly comfortable crouched underneath the table as he cleaned the undersides.

He flashed her an impish grin. "Nah. We get all the free chewing gum we want. I think I found where Stu sits. Elli buys him the best candy."

The two burst into laughter. Claire had two younger brothers, after all, and she was used to gross humor.

"Cliff, you can't be serious!" the waitress rolled her eyes as she tried to keep a straight face; her friend's comment had even put Ann off her appetite a bit.

He just looked at her and grinned, as if telling her to figure it out herself. Claire noticed that Ann had a flushed face and the blonde felt a rush of an uncomfortable emotion that was dimly familiar. She remembered that her library book was due next week.

"So are you scraping gum because you want the free candy or because Kai put you there?" Ann asked with a playful gleam in her eye.

He shook his head, a few wisps of his brown hair falling around his face. "I'm just happy to help…" he replied innocently, giving both of the women a shy smile.

"Bull-shit!" Gray snorted with laughter. "You're the one who challenged Kai in the first place and roped me into the bet because you were so cocky!"

The brunette blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. "W-Well… I was confident in my endurance…"

"It was a speed competition!" His friend growled.

"Well, this is a quality competition now," Kai threw another wet sponge at Gray and was met with a loud curse in response. "Stop using that nasty rag! Whoever does a better job gets some free takoyaki!"

The young man picked the sponge up off of the floor and feverishly began scrubbing the tabletop. Kai slapped his forehead – he already knew who would be the winner.

"So are we going to order some food or just watch you guys clean?" Ann raised her eyebrows as she eyed up the menu.

"Order anything you like," Claire offered with a kind smile.

Kai let out a good-natured laugh. "That's a rookie mistake, Farmer Girl! That girl will make you broke!"

Ann sulked. "I'll just have a plate of spaghetti, a snow cone, and an ear of roasted corn," she replied humbly, playing with her fingers.

This sounded like an awful lot of food for a snack, but the blonde didn't complain as she handed Kai the money. "And I'll have a snow cone as well. I've been dying to try one." She had a flashback of feeling dizzy while watering her crops in the early summer heat and shook her head. "A glass of ice water, too."

"Sure thing. I'll have it ready in a few minutes. Feel free to take a seat… well… wherever the guys aren't bugging you," he chuckled as he washed his hands and pulled on a shirt and apron.

Ann plopped down at the table Cliff was working on. "What if I just sat here and decided to stretch my legs… like this?" She playfully nudged her friend with her sneaker.

"Ah, you almost kicked me in the mouth, Ann!" a chastising voice emerged from underneath the table.

She let out a giggle and repeated the motion, squealing with laughter when her friend caught her foot in his grip.

"Cut it out!" he chuckled; he didn't sound very convincing in scolding her. Claire watched the two curiously and vaguely wondered if Mary had been working on a new chapter of her book lately.

"Yeesh, you two can play footsie later," Gray rolled his eyes. "This diner isn't going to clean itself, Cliff."

"Ah, sorry…!" the brunette popped his head out from under the table. "I'll talk to y'all later, okay?" his eyes moved between the two women and Claire noted his face looked a little flushed from Gray's teasing.

"Let's sit over here," Claire gestured toward a clean table and set her catalogue on the checkered tablecloth.

"Oh, fine," the redhead pouted. She let out a playful giggle. "I thought it would be fun to kick Cliff a bit more…" She stuck out her tongue at her male friend and he rolled his eyes. "He's fun to make flustered," she added with a giggle and a wink.

Claire found herself flipping nervously through the pages of the catalogue. "That's not very nice," she let out a weak chuckle and wondered why she couldn't just decide on a more casual top already. "What do you think I should get?" Claire swiftly changed the subject as she shuffled through the booklet, not looking too closely at the photos of the products. She stopped on a page of denim pants. "Maybe some jeans would feel nice and not quite so heavy-duty." The young woman jotted down the item number of a basic pair that looked flattering. "And this top looks pretty cute… What do you think, Ann?" She was looking for someone's approval, but it wasn't really her tablemate's.

The young woman played with the ends of her braid, her mouth turned into a slight frown. "I think you should get what you like."

The blonde was caught off guard by the slight bitterness in the waitress's tone and realized she had been caught staring at the redheaded young man. "Ah, I suppose you're right," she gave the Ann a nervous smile as she leafed through the pages.

The young woman hesitated before speaking. "Hey… I'm sorry if that came out rude. I just meant you should stay true to yourself. Don't worry about what other people think," she gave the farmer a friendly nudge.

The blonde stopped wondering what Gray's favorite color was. "You're right," she nodded and turned the page. "I wish that came as easily to me as it does to you," she confessed with a sigh.

The waitress bit her lip as Kai delivered their food. She waited for him to leave before she spoke. "What is that supposed to mean?" the redhead raised a challenging eyebrow at her companion but didn't hesitate before digging into her food.

Claire honestly wasn't sure what Ann was driving at, but it looked like she had offended her in some way. She mulled the words over in her head. "I meant that you always stay true to yourself and you never doubt who you are. I hope someday I can be like that, too."

Ann messily slurped her spaghetti, the marinara sauce splashing her cheeks. "You wanna be like me?" she asked, her mouth full.

"Well… yeah," her companion admitted with a slightly flushed face. "I wish that I had your confidence. Sometimes I feel like I drive people away with my… lack of it," she silently cursed herself for her awkward phrasing. "I fear that my personality is so… dull." Claire stared glumly at her snow cone.

They ate in silence for a few minutes. Ann started on her frozen treat. "Well, you don't need to feel that way. Lots of people like you just the way you are. And if they don't… well… who cares?" she gave her a reckless grin as she chomped down on her ice.

The farmer stared down at the pink ice crystals in her paper cup, envying the lack of hesitancy it took for Ann to say such a thing. "Again… I wish I was more like you," she repeated with a sad smile.

Kai stopped by to pick up some dirty dishes. He caught Claire's last line. "Don't wish that. You're you, Claire, and we're lucky to have you." He flashed her a warm smile.

"Kai's right," Ann nodded as she thoughtfully dug into her ear of corn. "Besides, you grow the best corn!" she cried out as she munched happily.

"Hell yeah!" Gray echoed emphatically from the opposite side of the diner and Claire's cheeks burned.

The farmer felt a surge of confidence. Maybe she did have her own things that made her special. Still, she wished she could be more outgoing like Ann. Claire jotted down a few numbers of shirts in the booklet that were cute and feminine but still practical.

"You buying more overalls?" Ann asked, leaning over the catalogue, spraying a few chewed kernels on the page. She gave her friend a sheepish grin as she brushed them away swiftly.

"Of course," Claire answered. "I still need my clothes to work in, after all."

Ann took a look at the numbers the young woman had written down and stared at the page in the catalogue. Many of the more casual things Claire ordered had flirty details to them that Ann would have turned her own nose up at. The redhead felt her cheeks get warm. "S-So… did you find anything casual to order?"

The farmer nodded. "Yeah. I found a few cute things." She stared down at the order form, satisfied with her choices and the pair stood up to leave.

"Thanks for taking me out," Ann gave her friend a grin as they waved goodbye to their friends and left the beach shack.

"Oh, it was a pleasure. I like spending time with you, Ann," the blonde returned, giving her a genuine smile. "Well, I'm off to submit my order. See you later!"

The waitress let out a sigh and looked down at her own outfit as the farmer waved goodbye, her catalogue tucked under her arm as she opened the door to the house on the pier. Perhaps she should dress cuter… She only entertained the thought for a moment; Ann shook her head and gritted her teeth, staring out at the waves. What was the point? She dressed for comfort, and she knew a wardrobe change wouldn't make a particular young man pay attention to her differently. After all, she realized, those deep blue eyes were often focused on a woman wearing overalls, it just wasn't Ann.

0o0o0o0

Author's Note: Kai's a bit of a beast in the N64 Swimming Festival. And yes, that's a Zoolander reference there, haha.

I tried to capture the playful nature of Cliff and Ann's friendship in this chapter a bit. You'll see more of that next chapter as well.

Thank you all again for the kind words and reviews! I know a lot of people are going to be busy playing the new Story of Seasons game, but I am grateful for those who take the time to read my story! :) Questions and comments are always welcome!