Disclaimer/Author's Note: I do not own Harvest Moon, Metallica, AC/DC, the Walkman, the 'for Dummies' branch or anything else that may or may not appear in this fanfiction.

Also, I would like to say a few things. In this fanfiction, I have changed Jack's age from the universally accepted 21 to 18, and changed his love interests' ages accordingly. Also, Jack's family will play a much larger role in this story as time progresses. This story is written in first person omniscient from Jack's perspective; and finally, any inconsistencies with the game are completely intentional. I do own the game. Thank you very much. Now, enjoy Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town: The Beginning: Days 0 and 1!

Sunday: Day 0

Do you know how annoying it is to try to hear what someone is saying over an extremely loud electric guitar? Especially when you don't listen to heavy metal too often? Metallica. God forbid they say something understandable once in awhile.

Don't get me wrong. I don't listen to rock. At all. My name is Jack Hawthorne, and I am a future farmer.

I had with me backpack of clothes, a towel, and other essentials. I also carried a Walkman, and a few CDs. That was all I was taking to Mineral Town. The CDs weren't mine. They were a few rock CDs; you know AC/DC, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the works. A Frank Sinatra CD in there too. I think the last one is blues. Or jazz. I can't really tell the difference.

My uncle, a psychologist, says I was listening to those songs to 'vent my emotions' and a bunch of other psychological mumbo jumbo nonsense. Yeah, right. I hardly knew my grandfather, and when he died, it wasn't a huge surprise. What was a surprise was that he left me his farm. All I knew of farming was what he taught me, back in the years that my parents were cool.

They aren't anymore. My parents, I mean. They want me to go off to some Ivy League school, despite my SAT scores. They want me to stop dreaming about Mineral Town and the girl I met that summer. I'm keeping my promise, I thought, I'm coming back to see you. That girl. I don't remember her name. Sounds corny. I want to find a girl whose name I don't even remember. Huge chance of that happening.

People might say I don't like my parents because I'm 18, fresh out of high school, and 'rebellious'. Whatever. That's not it at all. Years of negligence, mistreatment, and other things have led to a sour relationship between me and my parents. I'm not a social guy. The only friend I had through all that was my little sister, Jennifer.

I looked around the ferry that was going to Mineral Town. Almost no one was on it. There was an old couple reading Home Decorating for Dummies and How to Enjoy a Vacation with a Negligent Partner. Yeah.

I stood up, took off my headphones, and went out to the deck. There was another guy looking out on the sea. I went up and said, "Hi."

"Hey man. What's up?"

He was friendly. Like I had known him for years. I hadn't, but I felt compelled to answer.

"Not much. I'm going to Mineral Town."

"Really? I'm going to Forget-Me-Not Valley."

The conversation went on from there. The guy's name was John Blackenfoot. His father had died, leaving him a farm in the boondocks. Neither of us knew anyone in our respective towns, so we promised to write each other as soon as we got settled in.

The boat jostled. I was holding my CDs in one hand and my headphones and CD player in the other. They all fell into the water. I watched as they fell. They were all burned CDs; I didn't like them in the first place.

The captain came on the P.A. system. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience; we hit a small object in the water, no major problem. Uh, if you look directly in front of the ship, you can see the dock of Mineral Town. We'll be landing there in about 15 minutes. From there it will take 20 minutes to get to Forget-Me-Not Valley. Please have a wonderful day.

The P.A. system was crackly. It showed signs of old age. I was excited about getting to Mineral Town. No; more like anxious. When the 15 minutes were over, I stepped on to the dock, waved good-bye to John, and breathed in deeply. As I turned, I almost knocked over a stout old man.

"Why I never…Jack?" the old man said, a bit flustered.

"Uh…that's me, yeah," I said.

"Why Jack! How you've grown! I'm Thomas! Mayor of Mineral Town! Do you remember me?" He almost jumped up and down with excitement, so I nervously replied.

"Uh…sure?" He obviously didn't notice my questioning tone, because he pulled me onto the beach.

"Oh you simply must meet the other townsfolk. Doug, Carter, Barley, Basil, Lillia…" I began to look around. No offense to Thomas, but he was boring. Like a 50 year old geography teacher and an old grandpa telling stories of 'the war' all rolled into one. That kind of boring.

"…And Cliff, and Duke, and Jeff, and Karen, and Gotz…" We were in a square. A Town Square. It was a nice place. Its floor was all paved in cobblestone, and had some benches, and lampposts. It was…quaint. I wondered what it was called.

"This is Rose Square, where we hold the festivals. We're having a horse race in a few weeks." Well that answered that question. I made a mental note of the horse races, although I doubted I would attend. He showed me around town, but didn't introduce me to anyone. By the time he showed me the farm, it was dark. I don't know if you've ever been to the country. This wasn't city dark. This was country dark. And that means dark. According to Thomas the closest building was Gotz's cabin, in the middle of the dark woods, and the next closest was the blacksmith's shop up a long path to town.

"You'll need to unpack. You're grandfather's clock is set for 6:00 AM. You have no livestock or crops, but I left you some tools. You can also get honey from the bees on your tree, and some wild plants in the forest fetch for a lot. See you bright and early tomorrow!" Only one thing connected with me. 6:00 AM? But he seemed dead serious, so I nodded feebly. I was suddenly very tired. Looking out on the field, I saw weeds, stones, branches, and tree stumps. My grandfather must not have been feeling too well before he died.

I went inside my grandfather's 'house'. If you could call it that. A dresser, a TV, an alarm clock, a tool box, a table and some seats were all that furnished the shack. I let my backpack fall to the ground and opened it up. I had a notebook, some pencils, and some food. I also had some clothes in there, three identical outfits. A white shirt, red bandana, and blue overalls. I also had three pairs of underwear, five pairs of socks, two pairs of white gloves, a blue hat, and two pairs of black shoes. And a towel with tomato prints on it. My sister, who picked out everything, said they were 'farmer chic'. As for me, I'd rather not be 'farmer chic'. I dumped out all of my clothes, got my outfit for the next day ready, and put the rest of my clothes in my dresser. Then, I stripped down to my underwear and climbed into bed. I was kept awake by the heat of the shack, but eventually drifted of to a sleep filled with dreams of that girl.

Monday: Day 1

BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!

"Yipyipyipyipyipyipyipyipyipyip!"

That was my waking call. I opened my eyes to find it was still dark. I turned on my side. 6:00 AM. Of course. I got out of bed. A little puppy, all brown with a red bandana on, was barking at the alarm clock.

BEEP!"Yip!"BEEP!"Yip!"BEEP!"Yip!"

I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. Then, I picked up the alarm clock and chucked it across the room. It slammed into the wall, and it sounded like a few parts came undone inside, but it didn't stop beeping, so I walked over to it and threw it on the ground. It stopped.

The dog whimpered.

I called him Inu-kun.

After putting my tools in my backpack, which, my sister informed me, was called a 'rucksack', I stepped outside, only to almost knock Thomas over again.

Oh yeah; he had said something about seeing me bright and early.

"Are you doing well Jack? Here," he said, and placed some bags into my hands, "They're seeds. Potato and Turnip seeds to be exact. Plant them; they can be your first crops!"

"Oh, um…thanks." For being an eccentric old man, Thomas wasn't half bad.

"Don't mention it. If you need more crops, which you will, go to the supermarket. Jeff and Sasha own it, and Karen, their daughter, helps run it. I think I showed it to you yesterday, but just in case, check your map. Do you have one? No? Then here." He placed a map on top of the bags I was holding. I hadn't answered any of his questions, and I was a bit worried that he went around carrying maps to offer to people.

I thanked him again, cleared an area for my garden, and planted the seeds. While I was watering them, Inu-kun came bursting out of my house, barking at some unseen object. He startled me, and I accidentally dropped the watering can. It was a cloudy day, so I knew it probably wouldn't dry out until tomorrow. I told myself to remember not to walk there. Then, I went exploring in the forest.

That was a bad idea. On the map of Mineral Town it looked like a few trees bunched together, but in person, the forest was huge. I picked up some funny looking grass (It was blue). Then I finally found my way onto a path. The path went two ways. After doing eenie, meenie, minie, moe, I went on the path that branched to the right. I ended up in a small thicket. A waterfall and lake were on my right and a little hot spring was to my left. I sighed and picked up some more grass, when I heard a voice behind me.

"Hi! Who are you?" It was a high-pitched girlie voice. I whirled around to see a girl, not more than 17, smiling back at me.

"I haven't seen you before. I'm Popuri, from the Poultry Farm. Who are you?" Popuri repeated.

"I'm Jack Hawthorne, from the farm." Wasn't my best introduction, but I was a little off guard.

"Don Hawthorne's grandson? From the Alexandria Farm?"

"Uh. Yeah."

"Wow! I'm going to have to tell everyone in town the new farmer is here! And he's a cute one…" She giggled and blushed. She was pretty, I'd give her that. Although she had pink hair and red eyes, she made it look good on her. And I liked the traditional little dress she wore, which, while it betrayed the farmer in her blood, also betrayed her nice figure. But she wasn't the girl I met ten years ago. The girl didn't have pink hair. Unless…

"Is your hair naturally pink?" Okay, bad idea. I watched her expression go from happy to unbelieving to angry in a second.

"Yes it is. And so is my mother's. So I would appreciate it if you didn't make such a big deal about it, and if you need to, then don't do it in front of my family, MR. Hawthorne!" She stormed off. Well, like I said; I'm not a sociable guy. But getting rid of that girl; that was a new record, even for me.

I finished picking the grasses and dumped them into the shipping bin that Thomas said I should put them in. Then I walked into town. I wanted to get some seeds, so I tried to remember where Thomas had said the supermarket was, but I hadn't been paying much attention to him yesterday, so I ended up consulting my map again. After finding the supermarket, I softly opened the door, just to stumble in on a conversation.

"Karen, where are you going?" A male voice.

"Nowhere, dad." A soft, female voice, presumably Karen.

"Don't drink any liquor." The male voice again.

"Yeah, yeah− who are you?" No one spoke for a while. I realized the girl was talking to me. I decided to clarify.

"Who, me?"

"Do you see anyone else standing around here?" The girl seemed serious. Also very rude.

"Uh…"

"Wait a minute…brown hair…brown eyes…wears a rucksack…are you Jack Hawthorne?" Her voice suddenly became sweeter.

"Yes…"

"Wow! I'm Karen! Thomas mentioned you! You must need lots of seeds for the farm, right?" I nodded. "Wait here." She walked up to the counter. "Dad, can I give him some seeds?" Her dad, who Thomas had said was Jeff, seemed worried.

"W-well…" he stammered. He didn't seem to have much of a backbone. Of course, I didn't have one when talking to Karen either, but I had a good excuse. She was a total bombshell. She wore a nice-fitting white shirt and a purple jacket, and short jean shorts. Her hair was brown with blonde bangs, and her face was beautiful.

"Whatever happened to kindness to strangers, huh?" A thought popped into my mind, and Jeff seemed to read it.

"You weren't to kind to him at first either, dear."

"Ugh!" Karen seemed exasperated. She turned to me and gave a meek smile. Walking over to me, she said, "I'm real sorry. If my mom was here, she'd change his mind, but there's nothing I can do." I smiled back and turned to leave. It wasn't until after I left till I remembered what I had come for in the first place; the seeds. But it was to late now. I was too embarrassed that a knockout babe I didn't know tried to stick up for me in the first place; I couldn't go back in there. I began heading home when I heard my name being called out.

"Jack! Wait up!" I turned to see Karen waving at me. I stopped.

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to apologize again. Today's Monday, right?" It was a weird question, but I bit.

"Yeah…"

"Well then, I can't do much today, but come back Wednesday, and I'll see if I can score you some seeds, 'Kay?" She was pretty. I almost blushed, but I managed to nod and whisper back, 'Okay'.

"See ya'!" She giggled and walked away. I began to walk home again, when I decided to check my rucksack. Aside from the notebook, pencils, and food from yesterday, I had some honey, a few bandage, and a map. I smiled. Day 1: Total Failure. When I neared my farm I heard some yelling off towards the place where Thomas had said the Poultry Farm was located. I went back to check it out.

"He was a potential customer and you yelled at him!" It was a male voice.

I seemed to be stumbling across a good deal of conversations today.

"He made fun of my hair color, Rick!" It was Popuri, and she was obviously talking about me.

"He probably just made a comment about it, you overreact way too much!" the boy, who I guessed was Rick, replied.

"Shut up, just SHUT UP!" Popuri ran out from a small walkway, which I assumed must have been her home, crying and sobbing. She whisked past me and turned in towards my farm.

"Popuri! Wait up!" Rick came jogging after her. "Hey are you Jack Hawthorne?" he asked, with a suspicious look in his eyes. "She's kind of upset about your mentioning her hair color. Can you go try to calm her down? Thank you," I sighed. Not replied mind you, sighed. He didn't even let me respond; he just walked away. I guess he thought that I'd feel obligated to do talk to her because it was my fault. Well, I felt no obligation whatsoever. But, I was going to my farm anyway, so I decided to talk to Popuri once I got there. I found her crying in front of the patch of dirt I had designated for my garden.

"Popuri? Are you OK?"

"What…sniff…do y-you want…sniff?" She looked at me with utter distaste.

"I just wanted to say that I'm…sorry…" I mumbled the last word.

"N-no…sniff…you didn't…sniff…Rick…just told you to…sniff" She turned to run away, and I began followed her. I didn't have to, though, because she slipped and fell on the ground…In the same place I had dropped my watering can. I had completely forgotten about the mud.

"Oh my…Are you alright Popuri?" I ran over to her. She had fallen face first, so I gently turned her on her back. Her dress had some blood and a tear at the very bottom. She had probably cut her self on the fall. "Let me help you," I said, and reached into my rucksack. Pulling out a bandage, I lifted up her dress as gently as I could, and placed the bandage on her cut.

"I'm…fine!" She said, yanking her foot away and getting up. I stood with her. "Now…just leave me alone!" She tried to run out of my farm, but slipped towards me. I grabbed her and held her up, and she fell with her head on my chest. It was a very awkward moment. Keep in mind I had a hot girl it my arms who was still very angry with me. After what seemed like an eternity, she gently pulled herself up, bracing herself on my shoulders. She looked into my eyes. I looked into hers. I shivered, and slowly the thought of moving my head in for a kiss popped into my mind. But then a call rang out.

"Popuri! Dinner!" Popuri looked back at me and smiled.

"What I meant was, I'm fine...thanks to you." She blushed, and then walked away. I stood there watching her for a while, until I heard Inu-kun barking at the shipping bin. I turned towards it, opened it up one found a bag and a note. The note read:

Jack or Current Resident:

As you are not available at the moment, I have taken the liberty of taking your shipment and leaving the money for you. Your gains for today: 250 G.

Mineral Town's Shipper,

Zack

I smiled, picked up the bag, and emptied its contents into my hand. 250 G. I whistled, and Inu-kun looked up at me. I clapped, and he obediently followed me into the house. When I was inside, I stripped down to my underwear again, petted Inu-kun, slid into bed, and was soon dreaming dreams about turnips and potatoes.