Lightning-Dono: I'm going to reply to my reviews. First of all, thank you SO much for reviewing, you guys!
RuRu - Thank you for the compliment. I have much to work on when it comes to describing certain actions and such, but I'm glad you're finding it decent. =)
Evil Scientist - I suppose I should focus a bit more on their relationship. As you can tell, Rick's making the moves towards peace and Karen isn't accepting it. Poor Rick! Don't worry, towards the end of the fanfic, everything will be just fine...I've planned it out.
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Early the next morning, I got out of bed, feeling sick. Not sick as in about to throw up, but sick as in not wanting to wake up and face the day. Mom was doing her weekly cleaning and she was just done sweeping up the numerous dust particles on the floor that always gathered beneath my bed.
"You should be getting up just about now, Rick," she told me, gathering up the dust inside the dust pan and spreading the curtains apart. "Breakfast just started." She looked at me worriedly. I always woke up to my alarm clock...What was happening now?
I tumbled sleepily down the stairs, watching my father spoon up what looked like a mouthful of yellow goop. Popuri kindly set out the food before me.
"Thanks," I mumbled without much interest, glancing down at the scrambled eggs in which I didn't fancy too much anymore.
"You're welcome. Eat up - I spent most of the morning making that." Popuri waggled a finger at me. Throughout breakfast, I remembered what Karen had done to me yesterday.
"Popuri, have you ever been...uh...never mind." I couldn't bring myself to say 'rejected' because from the looks of it, she probably never had been.
"What?"
"Nothing." My glasses slid down my nose to my annoyance. I pushed them back up and held them there with one hand while attempting to eat with the other.
I had disposed of the Blue Feather that I had broken. Karen was just too demanding. Didn't she expect me to have any friends whatsoever? Next thing I know, she'll think I'd been making out with the chickens.
"I'm not hungry," I said queasily, pushing away my plate. A certain pink-haired girl from across the table cocked her head inquiringly at me.
"Why not? Is it that bad?"
"No...I think...I ate too much last night." I answered her look with a clueless, wide-eyed stare.
"Pffft...Sure." She set down her fork with a clatter and brazenly approached my plate, used my fork (to my horror) to taste my breakfast. She chewed carefully and swallowed. "It's not that bad, you know. Oh, well." She sat back down and eyed me warily.
"Good bye, then." I headed out the door, breathing in the fresh, un-polluted air. But I felt so empty deep inside. Like a hole had been dug into the sand, but had never been refilled properly. I had to and apologize to Karen. So I worked my way to the Spring Mine with my handy hoe and hammer. I continued quite a way down until I was exhausted and my new rucksack was soiled from the many rocks I had stuffed in there. Finally, I uncovered a beautiful Pink Diamond on what seemed like the 100th floor. It sparkled, despite the fact that it was very dim inside the mine. Having strange feelings about the whole mine collapsing, I hurried back to the top of the mine, covered in dirt.
"Finally," I whispered, clutching the Pink Diamond and dipping it inside the Goddess Pond. I was pleased when it came out looking it hadn't just been dug out of a mine. Not wanting the Harvest Goddess to pop out and take it, I placed it carefully into my rucksack right after dumping everything in it out except for a pearly-white Orichalc that I placed in a different pocket. There.
I walked to the store, watching the kids run around happily and greeting me.
"'Lo, Rick!" Stu shouted, waving at me and chasing after May.
"Good morning," I replied, realizing that I sounded strangely formal.
May screamed as he tackled her playfully and they both collapsed onto the grass, rolling about and laughing at an outrageously loud volume for just two little kids.
The birds tweeted loudly, as though competing against the noise of the two children. I shook my head, chuckling at the duo whom were pushing each other off and galloping around joyously. Perhaps today was a holiday and I didn't remember?
Entering the store, I saw Karen arrange something on the shelf that was haphazardly tilting towards the ground. She whipped around to see me. Her lips tightened and she turned back to what she had been doing just moments before. I approached her carefully, like they did on those animal-hunting expeditions.
"What do you want?" She asked coldly, not turning to look at me. I reached hopelessly into my rucksack and pulled out the Pink Diamond, purposely pulling the zipper very loudly to get her attention. As she turned, I saw the reflection of the diamond in her eyes as she gazed at it with an incomprehensible look of wonder.
"You should take it," I said plausibly, watching her actions. She reached for it and placed on hand on it. Then, as though recalling the events of yesterday, she jerked her hand back so quickly that the diamond slipped from my hand and fell to the hard ground. I held back a cry of despair as I picked up the diamond, which was not separated into three uneven shards.
Karen didn't even look at me as the clatter rang out throughout the shop. Customers turned their heads, but my face just kept getting redder. A diamond shard glinted sharply at Karen's hair, which shone a lovely shade of blonde. But I walked away from her, placing the shards back into the rucksack and feeling them poke at me as I walked out of the store and past the bench Karen and I used to always sit on in the mornings. I ran my fingers across the top of it fondly, but it hurt too much to allow myself to sit on it...alone. The cedar wood looked old and worn, but I had a very deep-seated compassion for it. It was there that Karen and I had sat, talking about our lives together and apart. Tears gathered in my eyes, blurring my vision. I tried to brush them away, only succeeding in knocking my glasses out of place. I continued to walk around the town half-blind, looking at every face that used to familiar. Their features were now blurred, blending them to create a completely different person.
Maybe I should just leave like Cliff did. But I had a family and he was just a vagabond looking for his. I couldn't imagine how angry he would be if he ever discovered that I had run away just because of a girl that I let push me around.
My vision returned to me as I entered the Church. I had to get help, and Carter was the best person for the job. He'd handled situations like this before and I was sure he would be able to get me out of this jam.
"Why, it's great to see you here, Rick!" Carter exclaimed, closing the Bible carefully, looking up from it.
"Nice day, isn't it?" I said in a mock cheerful voice, gazing through the stained glass windows with interest. I had never really taken a good look at the patterns and designs.
"Yes, it is," Carter answered in a grave voice. "Except there is another animal dead from Jazz Farm."
I was shocked to hear this. Hadn't Jack learned his lesson? Sure, he was stubborn, but I never thought that he was actually the idiot I had thought him to be after that incident.
"Anyhow, what would you need help with?" His voice echoed throughout the whole building. I gulped, not wanting to discuss Karen in this area.
"Would it be all right if we go outside and talk about it? Please?" I pleaded.
Carter sighed, stepping down from the pedestal, his footsteps resonating. "Whatever you please. I need to stretch my legs, anyway." He walked casually out of the church. I followed obediently.
On the walk, I explained every single detail of my relationship with Karen to Carter. He was a man that anyone would be honest and open to. He nodded occasionally and sometimes let out an absent-minded "Hmmm..." or "Aah...".
"And I can't get her to understand how I feel," I finished in a defeated voice.
Carter rubbed his chin in deep thought. "It would seem that you are in a pretty tough spot, but there should be a way to soften you up. As in, not speaking that nervously towards any girls that you happen to know. Sound like you own them."
I was shocked. "Own them...?" With my personal knowledge of myself, I would never be able to sound like I owned anyone but Popuri.
"Of course! Speak in a strong voice. But that might make Karen think that you're involved in an intense relationship with them..." Carter shook his head disapprovingly. "You know what? Just tell her how you feel from a distance. You were going to propose to her, were you not?"
"I was..."
"Exactly. Tell her that. It's bound to make her listen. Ah, girls are hard to woo, aren't they?" The young priest nodded sagely. I'd never thought he'd say that.
"Well, yeah. Especially Karen." I blushed.
Carter laughed, flattening his hair (Not that it needed flattening) with one hand, his face tilted towards the sky. "How do you put up with her?"
And on instinct, I spewed out my whole history with her.
"I knew I'd dedicated my entire life to her, almost. We went everywhere with each other. Parents even teased us about being the youngest couple in the whole town."
"Oh, I started that little joke. Hope you didn't feel too badly about it." Carter grinned defensively.
"Nah, I don't. All it did was make me feel even closer to her...Did I pick the wrong person?"
Carter turned towards me with a serious look, his eyes the shade of the ocean with the sun shining off of it. "Never question your love for someone. Okay, Rick? If you deny your love for someone forever, you'll never be able to love because you keep thinking that it's wrong to love someone. I'd best be going now." He walked off, his back as straight as a board. It sounded like he was mad at me. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
Walking back home, I heard the din of Stu and May (Again) and the sharp clicking noise of the diamond shards bouncing around in my rucksack.
"Why the long face?" Asked my father, who happened to be holding the handle to a large contraption tightly.
"Nothing," I fibbed, walking over to him. "What's that?" As I walked, I pointed at the machine with interest. That was when I heard a terrified clucking coming from the machine. I was beginning to get suspicious, as I only heard this noise when someone unknown came to the doorstep. Usually, it was when Won came to sell his merchandise, but then the clucking would be accompanied with yelling and scurrying sounds.
Right now, father was looking peculiarly happy, clutching the handle like that.
"This? It cuts off the heads of chickens. With this, Rick, we're going to introduce this whole town the glory of fried chicken!"
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I always like to add in a few 'side-stories' to keep the reader interested. If I just based this fanfic entirely on Rick and Karen's relationship, it would've only been about 5 chapters long.
RuRu - Thank you for the compliment. I have much to work on when it comes to describing certain actions and such, but I'm glad you're finding it decent. =)
Evil Scientist - I suppose I should focus a bit more on their relationship. As you can tell, Rick's making the moves towards peace and Karen isn't accepting it. Poor Rick! Don't worry, towards the end of the fanfic, everything will be just fine...I've planned it out.
-----
Early the next morning, I got out of bed, feeling sick. Not sick as in about to throw up, but sick as in not wanting to wake up and face the day. Mom was doing her weekly cleaning and she was just done sweeping up the numerous dust particles on the floor that always gathered beneath my bed.
"You should be getting up just about now, Rick," she told me, gathering up the dust inside the dust pan and spreading the curtains apart. "Breakfast just started." She looked at me worriedly. I always woke up to my alarm clock...What was happening now?
I tumbled sleepily down the stairs, watching my father spoon up what looked like a mouthful of yellow goop. Popuri kindly set out the food before me.
"Thanks," I mumbled without much interest, glancing down at the scrambled eggs in which I didn't fancy too much anymore.
"You're welcome. Eat up - I spent most of the morning making that." Popuri waggled a finger at me. Throughout breakfast, I remembered what Karen had done to me yesterday.
"Popuri, have you ever been...uh...never mind." I couldn't bring myself to say 'rejected' because from the looks of it, she probably never had been.
"What?"
"Nothing." My glasses slid down my nose to my annoyance. I pushed them back up and held them there with one hand while attempting to eat with the other.
I had disposed of the Blue Feather that I had broken. Karen was just too demanding. Didn't she expect me to have any friends whatsoever? Next thing I know, she'll think I'd been making out with the chickens.
"I'm not hungry," I said queasily, pushing away my plate. A certain pink-haired girl from across the table cocked her head inquiringly at me.
"Why not? Is it that bad?"
"No...I think...I ate too much last night." I answered her look with a clueless, wide-eyed stare.
"Pffft...Sure." She set down her fork with a clatter and brazenly approached my plate, used my fork (to my horror) to taste my breakfast. She chewed carefully and swallowed. "It's not that bad, you know. Oh, well." She sat back down and eyed me warily.
"Good bye, then." I headed out the door, breathing in the fresh, un-polluted air. But I felt so empty deep inside. Like a hole had been dug into the sand, but had never been refilled properly. I had to and apologize to Karen. So I worked my way to the Spring Mine with my handy hoe and hammer. I continued quite a way down until I was exhausted and my new rucksack was soiled from the many rocks I had stuffed in there. Finally, I uncovered a beautiful Pink Diamond on what seemed like the 100th floor. It sparkled, despite the fact that it was very dim inside the mine. Having strange feelings about the whole mine collapsing, I hurried back to the top of the mine, covered in dirt.
"Finally," I whispered, clutching the Pink Diamond and dipping it inside the Goddess Pond. I was pleased when it came out looking it hadn't just been dug out of a mine. Not wanting the Harvest Goddess to pop out and take it, I placed it carefully into my rucksack right after dumping everything in it out except for a pearly-white Orichalc that I placed in a different pocket. There.
I walked to the store, watching the kids run around happily and greeting me.
"'Lo, Rick!" Stu shouted, waving at me and chasing after May.
"Good morning," I replied, realizing that I sounded strangely formal.
May screamed as he tackled her playfully and they both collapsed onto the grass, rolling about and laughing at an outrageously loud volume for just two little kids.
The birds tweeted loudly, as though competing against the noise of the two children. I shook my head, chuckling at the duo whom were pushing each other off and galloping around joyously. Perhaps today was a holiday and I didn't remember?
Entering the store, I saw Karen arrange something on the shelf that was haphazardly tilting towards the ground. She whipped around to see me. Her lips tightened and she turned back to what she had been doing just moments before. I approached her carefully, like they did on those animal-hunting expeditions.
"What do you want?" She asked coldly, not turning to look at me. I reached hopelessly into my rucksack and pulled out the Pink Diamond, purposely pulling the zipper very loudly to get her attention. As she turned, I saw the reflection of the diamond in her eyes as she gazed at it with an incomprehensible look of wonder.
"You should take it," I said plausibly, watching her actions. She reached for it and placed on hand on it. Then, as though recalling the events of yesterday, she jerked her hand back so quickly that the diamond slipped from my hand and fell to the hard ground. I held back a cry of despair as I picked up the diamond, which was not separated into three uneven shards.
Karen didn't even look at me as the clatter rang out throughout the shop. Customers turned their heads, but my face just kept getting redder. A diamond shard glinted sharply at Karen's hair, which shone a lovely shade of blonde. But I walked away from her, placing the shards back into the rucksack and feeling them poke at me as I walked out of the store and past the bench Karen and I used to always sit on in the mornings. I ran my fingers across the top of it fondly, but it hurt too much to allow myself to sit on it...alone. The cedar wood looked old and worn, but I had a very deep-seated compassion for it. It was there that Karen and I had sat, talking about our lives together and apart. Tears gathered in my eyes, blurring my vision. I tried to brush them away, only succeeding in knocking my glasses out of place. I continued to walk around the town half-blind, looking at every face that used to familiar. Their features were now blurred, blending them to create a completely different person.
Maybe I should just leave like Cliff did. But I had a family and he was just a vagabond looking for his. I couldn't imagine how angry he would be if he ever discovered that I had run away just because of a girl that I let push me around.
My vision returned to me as I entered the Church. I had to get help, and Carter was the best person for the job. He'd handled situations like this before and I was sure he would be able to get me out of this jam.
"Why, it's great to see you here, Rick!" Carter exclaimed, closing the Bible carefully, looking up from it.
"Nice day, isn't it?" I said in a mock cheerful voice, gazing through the stained glass windows with interest. I had never really taken a good look at the patterns and designs.
"Yes, it is," Carter answered in a grave voice. "Except there is another animal dead from Jazz Farm."
I was shocked to hear this. Hadn't Jack learned his lesson? Sure, he was stubborn, but I never thought that he was actually the idiot I had thought him to be after that incident.
"Anyhow, what would you need help with?" His voice echoed throughout the whole building. I gulped, not wanting to discuss Karen in this area.
"Would it be all right if we go outside and talk about it? Please?" I pleaded.
Carter sighed, stepping down from the pedestal, his footsteps resonating. "Whatever you please. I need to stretch my legs, anyway." He walked casually out of the church. I followed obediently.
On the walk, I explained every single detail of my relationship with Karen to Carter. He was a man that anyone would be honest and open to. He nodded occasionally and sometimes let out an absent-minded "Hmmm..." or "Aah...".
"And I can't get her to understand how I feel," I finished in a defeated voice.
Carter rubbed his chin in deep thought. "It would seem that you are in a pretty tough spot, but there should be a way to soften you up. As in, not speaking that nervously towards any girls that you happen to know. Sound like you own them."
I was shocked. "Own them...?" With my personal knowledge of myself, I would never be able to sound like I owned anyone but Popuri.
"Of course! Speak in a strong voice. But that might make Karen think that you're involved in an intense relationship with them..." Carter shook his head disapprovingly. "You know what? Just tell her how you feel from a distance. You were going to propose to her, were you not?"
"I was..."
"Exactly. Tell her that. It's bound to make her listen. Ah, girls are hard to woo, aren't they?" The young priest nodded sagely. I'd never thought he'd say that.
"Well, yeah. Especially Karen." I blushed.
Carter laughed, flattening his hair (Not that it needed flattening) with one hand, his face tilted towards the sky. "How do you put up with her?"
And on instinct, I spewed out my whole history with her.
"I knew I'd dedicated my entire life to her, almost. We went everywhere with each other. Parents even teased us about being the youngest couple in the whole town."
"Oh, I started that little joke. Hope you didn't feel too badly about it." Carter grinned defensively.
"Nah, I don't. All it did was make me feel even closer to her...Did I pick the wrong person?"
Carter turned towards me with a serious look, his eyes the shade of the ocean with the sun shining off of it. "Never question your love for someone. Okay, Rick? If you deny your love for someone forever, you'll never be able to love because you keep thinking that it's wrong to love someone. I'd best be going now." He walked off, his back as straight as a board. It sounded like he was mad at me. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
Walking back home, I heard the din of Stu and May (Again) and the sharp clicking noise of the diamond shards bouncing around in my rucksack.
"Why the long face?" Asked my father, who happened to be holding the handle to a large contraption tightly.
"Nothing," I fibbed, walking over to him. "What's that?" As I walked, I pointed at the machine with interest. That was when I heard a terrified clucking coming from the machine. I was beginning to get suspicious, as I only heard this noise when someone unknown came to the doorstep. Usually, it was when Won came to sell his merchandise, but then the clucking would be accompanied with yelling and scurrying sounds.
Right now, father was looking peculiarly happy, clutching the handle like that.
"This? It cuts off the heads of chickens. With this, Rick, we're going to introduce this whole town the glory of fried chicken!"
-----
I always like to add in a few 'side-stories' to keep the reader interested. If I just based this fanfic entirely on Rick and Karen's relationship, it would've only been about 5 chapters long.