Chapter 2 – Indigo Thrill

Sage stepped out of a cold shower, quickly grabbing her towel to try to warm back up. As much as she preferred a hot shower, her skin was burning from being in the sun too long. Her arms and sides already were tightening up and she knew she'd be sorer the next day than she ever had been.

Slipping one leg into a loose pair of jeans at a time, Sage looked over her shirt options. Having lived in the city before left her with only a few options that wouldn't leave her overdressed for the small-town saloon.

Settling on a soft, dark green t-shirt, she brushed her hair and struggled to bend down enough to tie her shoes. A slight groan escaped her lips as she finally stood back up, her legs burning after the busy first day.

The walk to the saloon wasn't as bad as she thought it would be and as she walked, something in the dirt caught her eye. As she once again, much to the protest of her thighs, crouched down, she grabbed a… spoon? Picking it up and rotating it around, she surmised that it was likely just garbage.

Right before she was able to drop it into a nearby garbage can, a man in a bright blue hat with a terrible goatee stopped her.

"Wait! Could I see that before you drop it into that garbage can?" He stuck his hand out towards her. She hesitantly handed over the dirty spoon, feeling more than slightly uncomfortable about the man's excitement.

"Hmm. Yes, it's exactly what I thought! Our beautiful museum had… a bit of an incident. This resulted in all of our display items going missing and this here is an antique spoon from the shelves! If you find anything else, bring it to me there and I may have some compensation for you!" He barely finished his sentence before spinning on his heel and marching back the way he came from, spoon in hand.

"Okay then. That's a thing that just happened." Sage muttered to herself, blinking a few extra times.

Finishing her walk to and into the Stardrop, Sage rubbed her left arm suddenly unsure of actually meeting the trio from earlier in the day. The warm light in the building almost immediately soothed her nerves. She caught the eye of a blue-haired bartender and walked up to the bar.

"You must be our new farmer! It's nice to meet you! I'm Emily!" Emily smiled brightly and pulled a glass out from under the bar. "Want to try my just thought up new farmer special?"

Sage nodded, unsure of what she may be getting herself into. She hadn't had a drink since she went out for an after-work drink with some co-workers and embarrassed herself by dropping her glass immediately.

Emily watched the new girl out of the corner of her eye while making the drink. She knew as soon as she saw the girl's indigo aura. She was destined for something special and a fun drink to match it could make a good impression, hopefully leading to a friendship.

As she poured the empress gin, lavender bitters, and vermouth into the cup, she watched the girl step back and forth from one foot to another. Emily thought the poor thing looked like a fish out of water. She set the blue-purple drink on the bar in front of her.

"Alrighty, so, Sage, here's your drink! What should we call it?" Sage startled out of her thoughts and tilted her head at the blue-haired girl, Emily. "Ah, yeah, Lewis told us all your name when he told us you'd be taking up that old farm! Sorry to surprise you!"

"Oh, that makes sense," Sage paused as Emily laughed lightly, "I'm not really sure what to call it."

"Well, it's typically called an indigo thrill so we can just call it that for now! Who else in town have you met so far?" Emily watched Sage's eyes scan the room before settling back on her.

"I've met Lewis, Robin, Abigail, Sebastian, and Sam so far. And now you, of course!" Sage paused between each name, trying to recall what everyone had introduced themselves as. She wasn't always the best with faces, but names tended to stick around better for her.

"So you're off to a great start! If you're wanting to meet some more people, we've got Gus behind the bar, he owns the place! Pam and Shane are both here, they're our usuals." Emily nodded at the opposite ends of the bar where Pam and Shane respectively stood, drinking their beers. Pam waved where Shane simply raised an eyebrow at his name.

"Also in tonight is Marnie who is standing by Lewis. She owns the ranch just south of your farm! Elliott and Leah are over at that table, and Willy and Clint are at the table over by the door you came in. If you're looking for the trio, they're in the room to the side over there!" Emily pointed at a short hallway leading to another room.

"Well, I'd better go say hi to them then! They invited me to join them if I finished on the farm early enough. What do I owe you for the drink?" Sage smiled as Emily told her that the drink was on the house and started on her way to the other room.

Sebastian was the first to see Sage making her way over seeing as he was facing the entryway. He simply looked at Abigail and nodded over at her. Sam and Abigail both saw this and turned to face the girl.

Sam turned just in time to watch Sage stop in the doorway and look around. As she took in the room, he simply watched her. Her dark blonde hair was cut just above her shoulders and shifted as she moved her head. She was taller than Abigail but was a few inches shorter than he was. If he had to guess a height, it would be around 5'8", pretty tall compared to the other women in town.

When Sage's green eyes rested on his, he gave her his signature smile. "I'm glad you decided to come out! I'm just finishing up losing to Sebastian if you wanted to play one of us!"

"I'm okay just watching, for now, I'm really bad at pool." She gave a shy smile and Sam felt his stomach flip. It was similar to Penny's smile but so different at the same time. He nodded and looked back at Sebastian. "Ready to get your ass handed to you, Sebby?"

Sebastian sent an uncharacteristically toothy grin to his friend and nodded. "Sure, if that's what you call losing yet another game to the reigning pool champ."

As the men started their game, Sage made her way over to where Abigail sat on a couch after being waved over.

"So, how did kicking that tree down go?" Abigail asked Sage a few other questions about her first day at the farm, only really getting short but polite answers back. Sage took her last sip of the drink Emily made her and felt her cheeks warm up.

"Sorry, I'm so bad at this. Today has just been a lot." Sage finally said after finding a suitable place for her now empty cup.

Abigail shook her head, smiling. "Nah, you're all good, farmer girl. I'm surprised you even found the energy to come here tonight! You had a busy day, and it must be overwhelming, starting up a farm and trying to meet people all at once."

Sage found herself thankful for the understanding and relaxed into a comfortable silence with the girl. The pair watched the boys play their game, Sam losing by a few striped balls. He threw his arms up in the air in defeat.

"Dude, this is so embarrassing. I should be so much better than this by now!" Sebastian shook his head at Sam's complaining.

"Just get good, Sam. I'm all played out though, I'm gonna walk home." He placed his pool cue on its rack and stretched his arms up. He looked over to Abigail, sending a silent question her way.

She must have understood what he meant, seeing as she stood to follow him out. She said a quick goodbye to Sam and Sage before practically skipping out behind Sebastian.

"Abigail asked Sebastian out like a week ago and they've been bailing on me early since," Sam explained, sounding a bit defeated. "But I should probably head out too. I need to be up early to work."

Sage nodded, "I'm needing a good night's sleep too. I'm hoping to get some more work done on the farm tomorrow if I can get myself out of bed."

"Do you want me to walk you back? It got pretty dark out and you're still new to the area, so I don't want you to get lost and end up passing out before you make it home." Sam scratched the back of his head as he spoke.

"Oh, um, I'm fine, I think," Sage paused to grab her glass and stand up, "Thanks though, I really appreciate the thought."

Sam nodded, a slight flush on his cheeks going unnoticed by the farmer. The two walked out together, Sage dropping her glass off with thanks to Emily, before splitting apart on the road leaving the saloon.

Sam walked slowly back to his house. He kicked a rock as he walked, his thoughts going back to the new girl. She was different than he expected. A nice different, Sam thought, but different anyhow. As he laid down in bed, his foot bouncing and his thoughts all over the place, he couldn't get her shy smile out of his head.

0.0.0

Thanks for reading! I appreciate everyone who is giving my story a try! This is my first fanfiction and I hope I'm doing okay. I'm finding this to be easy to write and I'm super excited to see everything develop with you all! Again, I'm not sticking to the game script because I honestly get bored of it and have some headcanon that I'm wanting to get written out. 3