A/N: Woosh! I'm back for another chapter! Enjoy!
I woke up the next day on the shore, Gray had left, obviously to go to work since it looked about noon. I stood up and brushed the sand off of my clothes and gazed around at the beach, no one was there. Since it was summer I headed over to the Beach Shack to get some lunch from Kai, I was starving.
"Jill! Nice to see you again! How are you doing?" Kai greeted me with a warm smile as I walked though the door.
"Nice to see you again too, Kai. I'm starving, can I have some pizza please?" I asked him, I sat at a stool in front of the counter and faced Kai.
"Of course! One slice or two?"
"Two, please."
"Okay!" He grabbed two slices of pizza that he had been making in the oven and set them on a plate, he filled a glass with water and set the glass and plate in front of me.
"Thank you!" I said, I picked up a slice of pizza and began to eat.
"Have you seen Popuri lately, Jill? She hasn't stopped by in a while, Summer's gonna end soon and I'd like to spend more time with her." Kai said, his face looked worried.
I set my half-eaten slice of pizza down on the plate.
"I saw her yesterday, she didn't say anything about you or anything. I wonder why she hasn't come over to see you."
"Do you think she's mad at me? I don't think I've done anything to make her mad..."
"Maybe she's been too busy with her mother. She wasn't feeling too well this past week. So she may stop by today." I said, I started up on my meal again.
Kai and I are good friends, though at first he was somewhat unbearable to be around.
I remember when we first met...
was walking off the dock, I had came just last Summer and he was on his break. He was sitting on a bench and when he saw me he jumped up and walked over to me, trying his best to look suave (and I must say he didn't do too bad of a job, either).
"Hello there." He said, he walked close to me and got in my face.
I stepped back some. "Um, hi. I'm Jill." I said plainly, staring with a blank face.
"I'm Kai, it's a pleasure to meet you as well, Jill. Would you like to come into my resteraunt? I'll even give you a discount."
"Eh, that's okay Kai, I need to go to my grandfather's farm."
"I can show you there if you want me to. I know the way quite well."
I smiled a bit. "Okay, that'd be great, thanks."
We started to walk to my grandfather's farm. Kai and I talked small talk for a while and then we were almost there, we had stopped in front of the Poultry Farm.
"Kai! There you are I've been looking for you!" A girl with pink hair and red eyes came up to us.
Kai seemed to lose all interest in me. "Popuri! How are you my sweet? I must say it's wonderful to see you again!"
The girl, Popuri, looked at me. "Who's this? Are you the new girl taking over the farm?"
I nodded. "Yes I am Jill."
"Nice to meet you Jill!" She said.
"So Popuri..." Kai started to flirt with Popuri, completely forgetting about taking me to the farm. I figured I could find it from there so I just walked off.
"Jerk." I mumbled under my breath, I walked on down the path and soon found my farm....
"Jill!" Kai said, I snapped back from my flashback.
"Woops! Sorry, I was spacing out again." I said and laughed sheepishly.
"That's okay, what were you thinking about?"
"Heh, actually I was thinking about the day we met. You were such a flirtatious jerk back then!" I said, a bit of anger in my voice, Kai looked a bit hurt, "But now you're one of my good friends!" I added, that made him smile.
"Glad to hear that!" He looked at the clock on the wall, and then back at me, "You look finished with you pizza, I'm gonna take a break now, maybe go see Popuri or something."
"Hmm? Oh, okay!" I ate the last bit of my pizza and take a few sips of my water and threw the paper plate away and handed the glass to Kai, who put it in the dishwasher. We both left the shop, and Kai locked it.
"Alright, well I need to head back to my farm, I really need to get my chores done! I'll see you around, Kai!" I waved and ran off towards my farm.
When I got there I saw my two cows in the fenced pasture. They looked up at me angrily.
"Gah! I'm sorry you two, I fell asleep at the beach last night! It won't happen again I promise!" I said to them (kind of nutty, talking to your cows, I know).
I began to brush Bessie, and then I milked her.
"Large milk now? Finally!" I said happily, putting the milk in my backpack and then petting Bessie.
I went on to Beth, I brushed her and milked her. She had just become an adult a few days ago, she's Bessie's calf, so she only gave small milk. I gave her a loving pat on the head and then took the two milks and put them in the shipment bin.
After that I watered my crops, ten patches of corn, and ten patches of tomatoes. A fair income when they're harvested.
I went over to the other fenced part of my field where I kept my five chickens. I gathered their eggs and spread some chicken seed across the ground for them. After setting the eggs in the shipment bin I fed my dog and took care of, and rode my horse. After thirty minutes I heard a voice call out to me.
"Hey! Hey Jill!" It was Karen, she was one of my best friends in town.
I hopped off my horse. "Hey there Karen! What's up?"
"Just stopping by to say hello, you weren't too busy were you?" She asked.
"Nope, horseback riding isn't a total must right now. You wanna come inside and have some iced tea or something?" I offered as I patted Fern (my horse) on the head and she neighed happily and trotted off.
"Sure, why not?" She said, we walked into my house and she sat down at the table while I got out a pitcher of tea and some cookies.
"So how has life been treatin' ya, Jill?"
"Pretty good. I spent yesterday with Gray, it was nice." I took the cookies and tea to the table and sat down across from her.
"Oh really?" She smirked, "Where did you two go?"
"The beach, don't get any ideas!"
"I wasn't! I wasn't!" She said, though I know she was. I laughed and we gossiped for a while and enjoyed our midday snack.
After that she and I went back outside and she mentioned a party that was going on for the younger adults in town this Friday.
"Yeah, we were all gonna go down to the beach and hang out from about noon and then have a campfire and sing and dance and all that good stuff. And everyone who isn't hooked up already can use this time to find their perfect match!" She explained to me.
"Sounds fine to me. Friday right? And today is...Wednesday. Alright that sounds good to me!" I chirped. We said our goodbyes and she went on her way.
It was only 3 o'clock so I decided that I'd go visit Ann and Cliff at the Inn. I made my way over there quickly and entered the Inn to be greeted with the two friendly faces of my friends.
"Hey there Jill!" Ann and Cliff both said at the same time. They looked at each other and blushed then laughed, I laughed with them and headed over to the table they were sitting at.
"What's up you two?"
"Nothing much, Ann was just on her break so we were talking about the beach party on Friday." Cliff replied. "You did hear about that didn't you? You have to come, I'm sure you and Gray would have a wonderful time!"
"Ha ha, yeah I've heard about it." I said in a playfully flat tone.
"You are coming right?" Ann questioned me.
"Of course! It sounds like so much fun! I even know what I'm wearing too!" I said and smiled softly.
"Really? I haven't found anything to wear yet...I don't have any pretty beach wraps like you do Jill!"
"Heh, you can borrow one of mine Ann. I've got plenty."
"As nice as girl talk is for girls, guys really don't enjoy it. Can we have a subject change please?" Cliff interjected, a slight annoyance in his voice.
"Whoops! Sorry Cliffie-boy!" I said, using my friend's nickname that he loathed so, "I know the perfect topic. You and Ann. When are you two gonna hook up? You are the perfect couple!"
The two blushed and looked embarrassed for a minute. Then they stopped and got angry looks on their faces.
"Shut up Jill!" Ann said.
"Yeah. If we wanted to date we would be! I mean, come one I like Ann but I don't think she likes me and..." Cliff realized what he was saying and put a hand to his mouth. Ann blushed furiously and they both looked away.
I giggled. "See Ann? Cliff DOES like you! Your first date should be the party!" I said.
"Umm...yeah...sure... Well! My break is up! I better get back to work! If you can Jill find a beach wrap for me! Okay bye-bye!" Ann said getting up and pushing me and Cliff out the door and shutting it behind her in a hurry.
Cliff and I looked at each other for a minute and then I burst out laughing.
"Umm...I live there. Why did she push me out the door?" Cliff asked, staring at the door, while I continued to laugh.
I stopped and caught my breath. "Who knows, Ann is such a nutcase sometimes. She was really embarrassed back there, did you see her blushing?"
"Heh heh, yeah..." Cliff trailed off, a small blush crept across his semi-tanned face.
"Okay, I'll stop with the teasing now!" I said, and let out one last giggle. "You wanna go for a walk? We can go in the woods behind the church."
"Alright, sounds good to me. Let's go." He said and we both walked side by side down the brick path to the church and then went behind it to the woods.
"Wow...these woods are a lot prettier then the ones over by my farm." I said, looking around at the tall trees and lush dirt floor that was scattered with leaves that had fallen last fall and the fall before that.
"Yeah...You haven't been back here yet have you?" Cliff asked me as we continued on through the forest.
"Nope, I like it. Maybe we should come back here more often." I said. I stopped and sat down with my back to a tree and motioned for Cliff to come sit with me.
"Cliff?"
"Yeah Jill?"
"Why did you move here? I mean, you don't come to Mineral Town without a reason... It's too small to be a popular place to go..."
Cliff sighed, he looked as though he was contemplating whether he should answer me or not. He stared at the ground and gave me his answer.
"I was always unhappy with my life in my old town. So when I was fifteen I ran away. I traveled to the city to start looking for a job. I could never find one so I continued on traveling from village to village. Well three years ago, when I was eighteen, I went back to my old town. I visited my house to find that my mother, father and sister had moved away. Crushed I continued to travel through the small villages. I didn't live too far away from Mineral Town you know..."
Poor Cliff, his eyes were glazed over. I hugged him tightly.
"Cliff, I'm glad you told me this, so now I can really understand you..." I told him.
He hugged me back. "I'm glad I told you too, Jill. I've kept that secret locked up for too long. Thanks Jill."
I smiled and him, and he smiled back. We looked at each other, and I don't know what came over me but I leaned in and kissed him on the lips. And surprisingly he kissed back. We continued to kiss each other until I heard the crack of a twig. I broke away from Cliff and looked up to see Gray. He just stared at the two of us.
Cliff quickly got up and scampered away from me.
"Gray! It isn't what it looks like! I was- She was just...She was being a good friend and comforting me!"
"Yeah, well she seemed to be doing a pretty good job. I'll leave you two alone so that you can continue your comforting session." Gray said, his voice full of hatred. He walked off.
"Gray..." I called out to him weakly, but he was already gone by the time a word could come out of my mouth.
"Jill, I'm sorry...we shouldn't of done this...I'm so sorry...." Cliff said.
"No...it's okay Cliff...I kissed you first. I don't know why...I just felt it was right...but I guess it wasn't...." I choked, warm tears flowing down my pale face. It looked like I was going single for the beach party.
"I'm going to go now Cliff..." I said, got up and ran off.
I ran to the Blacksmith shop, hoping to find Gray there. I threw open the door and looked around frantically. There was only Saibara, and he was looking at me funny. Of course I was crying and my face was all blotchy with red spots and I had a smudge of dirt on my face and my hair was probably messy due to running so fast.
"Jill? What's the matter?" Saibara asked, walking from behind the counter and up to me.
"Oh...Saibara...Gray is so terribly mad at me. I kissed Cliff and Gray saw and now he and I aren't speaking to each other! Everything's just going to terribly wrong!" I wailed and I buried my face in his chest.
I'm sure he was a bit shocked at first but he rubbed my back comfortingly.
"It's alright Jill. I'll talk to Gray tomorrow and try to set him straight. I'm sure this was all a big accident."
Okie! I'd like to thank Fairy Friend for editing my first chapter, and one of my friend's for giving me some good ideas!
I looked up at Saibara.
"Thank you...you are truly kind." I said, I kissed him on the cheek and walked off. "I'll see you tomorrow!" I said and headed back to my farm.