(Okay, I got a few thumbs-up reviews so now I am glad present to you Chapter 2! If you want to see more chapters in the future, keep shoveling in those reviews!)

The day after those rather odd events, Miro decides to go outside and wander. After waking up, making an attempt to comb his hair, and practicing his teenage 'why should I care' look in the mirror, he opens the door of his bedroom and into the living room, where Jack was already about to go out to do his work.

"I'm heading out, Dad." Miro says as he walks to the door.

"Really?" Jack says in amazement. "Well that's a first, I'd better get the baby book out."

"Funny." Miro says tonelessly. He reaches the door and turns the handle.

"Why the sudden change of routine?" Jack persists.

"No reason." Miro replies, opening the door and beginning to step out.

"Is it because of Kaaaate?" Jack says mockingly. "Is that why you're so anxious to head out?"

Miro stops, and turns to look at Jack, narrowing his eyes. "What makes you say that?" He asks.

"Oh, nothing." Jack says innocently. "I just assumed-"

"You assumed wrong." Miro says defensively. "Kate's not worth my time."

"Jee, that's pretty cold, son." Jack says. "Especially considering that she's the only girl within 8 years of your age in this entire Valley."

"...Point taken." Miro says, putting a hand behind his head. "But, uhh... That's still not why I'm going."

"Then why are you going?" Jack persists, smirking.

"What? Can't a teenager go outside of his house and have it not involve school or girls?" Miro asks.

"Uhh, no." Jack says literally. Miro just sighs and shakes his head, walking out the door completely.

The sun was very bright that day. Miro shielded his eyes from the morning light and grumbled a bit. He wasn't used to seeing the sun at this angle, since he uasually stayed in the house until it was close to noon. Walking down the path from the farm, he decides to hang a left and go to the bridge. Once he had arrived, Miro walked to the edge of the bridge and spent a bit of time looking into the clear waters of the river. He felt relaxed, like the world was behind him, just staring into the simple waters and hearing the bubbling, soothing sounds of the stream lapping gently against the land as it went on its merry way to the deep, blue ocean...

"HI, MIRO!" Came a girl's voice from behind him. Miro gave a surprised shout and nearly lost his balance, just barely hanging on by a foot. To his misfortune, he felt a finger press against his back, and gently tip him over the side.

He landed with a loud splash, and after a bit of flailing, got a hold of the soreline. He looked up from the water to locate the idiot that pushed him.

"KATE!" He yells angrily, as he tries to get himself out of the water. Kate just laughed and walked across the bridge to the side of the shore where Miro was clinging to. When she reached the point where Miro was, she leaned over and looked down at him.

"Here, lemme help you out." She says, offering a hand.

"Hmph, whatever." Miro says, putting his 'why should I care' look to use. He takes Kate's hand and lets her help him out of the water.

"...You can let go now." Miro says after a pause. Kate just shakes her head and thrusts Miro back into the water with the same hand.

After another display of bad swimming skills, Miro clings to the shoreline again. This time he quicky pulls himself out of the water, though he really didn't have to since Kate was too busy laughing to offer her 'help' again. Miro glares at her, dripping wet.

"You're really twisted, you know." He says as calmly as his rage could allow.

"No, you're just gulliable." Kate says, finally getting out of her laughing bout. Miro was shaking in anger now, his fist tightly clenched.

"You're shivering? What, the water too cold for wittle Miro?" Kate taunts. "You need your bwankie?"

Miro had one eye twitching at this point. "Don't push it, Tommie."

Kate suddenly got a serious expression of her face. "What was that?" She asks in a angry tone.

"It's new slang I made up, it means tomboy." Miro explains.

"I'm not a tomboy!" Kate says angrily. "WHY DOES EVERYONE SAY THAT?"

"Let's see..." Miro says, coming up with a list in his mind. "Red eyes, look possessed, freckles, hair's weird- all in all, you're ugly."

Kate quickly walks to Miro and mashes into his face with her fist. Miro is thrown clear across the river and blacks out.

The first thought that came to Miro's mind when he regained consciousness later that day was 'Y'know, that was probably a stupid idea.' The second thought that came to his mind was 'Jee, I'm in a lot of pain right now.' He opens his eyes slowly and sees the sun directly above him. By that, he figured that he must've been out for about four hours. He looks around him to see where he landed. He was right next to Vesta's farm, on the pathway. He slowly gets up and cringes as he removes a rock that he landed badly on, and looks around himself again. Kate was nowhere to be seen, which he was happy for. Yet, in the very back of his mind, he was a little bit disappointed.

"So she just left me here? Hmph, I knew that she wasn't worth my time." He grumbles to himself. He then feels his face for a bruise, which was very present, and stung when he touched it even slightly. He then felt his forehead. There was paper attatched to it.

"What the...?" He says, taking the piece of paper off of himself. He sees writing on it. It says 'Check your reflection.'

"What's that supposed to mean?" He wonders. He decides to go along with it, though, and walks, still a bit imbalanced, over to the river's edge. He takes a look at himself, and lets out a terrified scream. He was covered in all manner of makeup; cherry lipstick, nail polish, eyeshadow, blush, powder, but most visible of all was a smear of lipstick right on the side of his face.

"Oh, Goddess, I hope she didn't apply that the way I think she applied it..." Miro says to himself. A second note then drops from his hair. Miro catches it and reads it. 'Yep.'

"Dammit!" Miro curses, throwing the note away. "I've been... face-contacted and I wasn't even AWAKE!" He then makes his best attempt to get all of the makeup off of his face by dunking his head in the water, wiping frantically with his hands and sleeves.

After about thirty minutes of this, Miro figured that he had the worst of it out, or at least he wouldn't be mistakened for a girl or a really weird guy at a distance. He sighs and gets up, wondering where he should go next.

"Well, the woods are probably more safe than around here." He says to himself. So he crosses the bridge, careful to stay in the middle, and walks up the forest path.

When he came deep into the forests, he saw a spring in front of him. The waters were very clean and mystical-looking, so he decides to walk closer. He kept going until he reached the very edge.

"This must've been what Dad was talking about..." He says to himself. "Of course, he also says that he sees little people when he eats the mushrooms around here, so..."

"HI, MIRO!"

(Splash)

"KATE!"

"Need a hand?"

(Splash)

"HOW DID I FALL FOR THAT TWICE?"

"You're gullible, remember?" Kate says, not even bothering to stifle her giggles.

Miro pulls himself from the water slowly, steaming in anger.

"Did you follow me or something?" He asks. "And why do you keep doing that?"

"No, I didn't follow you, and I do that because you get on my nerves." Kate says.

"How do I get on your nerves?!" Miro asks angrily. "You're the one who gave me a makeover!"

"You're the one who called me ugly." Kate says.

"You're the one who called me wittle Miro!"

"You called me twisted."

"You called me gullible! Twice!"

"You... damn." Kate finishes, not able to think of anything else. Miro smiles triumphantly.

They spend the next while sitting and talking, arguing about other things, and, at some points, actually having a good time. It almost didn't even seem to matter what they were talking about; stars, farming, whether or not Van could beat the Gourmet in a sumo wrestling competition, pretty much whatever came to mind. Before long, evening hit.

"Wow, it's this late already?" Miro says, noticing the sun.

"Yeah, I guess... Maybe you can come out early tomorrow, too?" Kate suggests nonchalantly.

Miro was about to say something when a rustle is heard in the nearby trees and bushes. He gets up off of the ground and looks to where he heard the noise.

"What was that?" He asks. Kate looks in that direction, too, and stands up.

"I don't know." She says. "Maybe we should... go, now."

At that moment, a dark cloud passed over the evening sun and blocked out almost all light. Another rustle is heard, and out from the bushes came something walking on two feet, or paws, with cute, round ears and two ominously glowing red eyes.

"Yeah, I think going would be a good idea." Miro agrees. They both take off, running down the path and being pursued slowly by the thing. Halfway down, Miro trips and lands hard on the ground. Kate turns back to look at him.

"Forget me, Kate, save yourself!" Miro says. "Go, run!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Kate says, immediately running down the path and out of sight.

"HEY!" Miro yells after her.

The thing came closer and closer to Miro with every step. Miro turned to see those eyes approaching him, still glowing ominously. Miro scrambles back to his feet. He knew that running was no longer an option. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his only weapon, a goat milker.

"Oh, man..." He mumbles. "This'll be some fight..."

The battle commenced. The creature suddenly lunges at Miro with a supernatural bound. Miro grabs the thing by it's fuzzy ears and wrestles it to the dirt path. After a long tussle on the ground, Miro manages to get on top of it and punches it across the face a few times. The thing was very soft, though, so it had almost no effect. The beast loosens itself from Miro's grip and lunges right at his face, getting on top of him and trying to smother him. Miro retaliates by reaching for his goat milker and, as he pulled the thing away from him with one hand, he shoves the milker on it's face with the other, immediately turning it on. The milker's suction stuck itself to the thing's face and, while it was busy with trying to remove it, Miro took the opportunity to run.

When Miro arrived at his house, he ran in and immediately slammed the door shut. Jack and Nami were in the living room at the time and what they saw was Miro, his clothes ruffled and dirty, out of breath, and still with a bit of lipstick on his face.

After a long, dead silence, Nami was the first to speak.

"...Uhh, how was your day?"

"Don't ask." Miro replies.