Hmm...only a single review. If I don't achieve at least three reviews by Chapter 3, I might as well stop.

On to the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon. Any original characters are mine, however.

New Friends

LAST EPISODE:

Matthew was a very miserable boy, and he ran away from home when he couldn't take his parents' comments anymore. Waking up in the morning, he finds Andrew, an old farmer who is about to leave for his hometown: Mineral Town.

PS: I'll start calling him Matt from now on, it's too bothersome to type his full name all

all the time, okay?

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A group of people awaited the arrival of the ship at the pier of Mineral Town. "Where is he?" someone asked. " I hope that he'll return safe and sound." Another said.

" Pooh, always thinking negatively. Of course the ship will arrive safely, the weather's fine and there's no disasters like jutting rocks or icebergs, right?" Karen muttered. Her long, glossy hair grew almost to the hips and her brown eyes suited her perfectly. She was, in short, very attractive even at such a young age.

"Yes, that's true. But its not really often that one of us travels far away from Mineral Town. Of course they'll be concerned." Ann reasoned. The most tomboyish of the five girls, she wore blue overalls over a plain blouse. Her straw-coloured hair was braided neatly.

" Yay, Uncle Andrew's coming home!" Popuri cheered. " I hope he bought something for me." She was quite cute with huge brown eyes. Not to mention shocking bubblegum-pink hair. Elli giggled. She was, by far, the quietest of the lot. She kept her golden hair short and wore a plain blue dress, somewhat similar to a nurse's attire, minus the apron.

" I hope he bought me a book. I just want to read one!" a timid girl mumbled, all the while looking anxiously out to sea. Mary was a bookworm, an avid reader of books. Her brown hair fell below her shoulders making her appear more like a little mouse than ever. The five children stood close together, clasping each other's hands. Truly, their bond was strong, even at the tender age of five.

" Look, he's here!" Anna, Mary's mother, suddenly said while pointing towards a fast approaching figure, just getting off the ship. " But who's that beside him?" This question caused mumbles and whispers to arise among them. " Hush now. We'll ask him when we have the opportunity." Sasha motioned for them to be silent. The heavy whispering and mutterings stopped abruptly, and all were silent when the old farmer came among them. There were several 'ooh' and 'aah' as they locked their stares on the child beside him. " You would think that they never saw a child before, judging by their reactions," Karen whispered to Ann, who hurriedly stifled a laugh. "I think he's handsome," Elli piped up unexpectedly. All four girls gave her incredulous looks. Elli took a step backwards, tripped, and fell down. "Well, he is," she muttered as she rubbed her sore bottom. Karen, Ann, Popuri and Mary giggled helplessly. Elli turned a violent shade of red.

" My, what an adorable child! Where did you find him, Andrew?" Manna asked, always all ears for any piece of juicy gossip. Andrew raised his eyebrows and looked down at Matt. Matt cowered behind him, intimidated by the stares for more approximately twenty sets of eyes. " Him?" The entire village nodded. Andrew looked surprised at their curiousness.

" My, your teamwork is amazing. You even nodded your heads precisely at the same moment!" he joked.

"Well, Andrew? Are you going to tell us who he is?" the Mayor demanded. He was a plump man with a huge moustache. He also wore a red top hat to go along with his red coat (whose buttons seem close to bursting) and trousers. A pair of spectacles lay on his nose.

Andrew pondered his answer for a moment; the villagers were almost bursting with curiosity and impatience by then. " He's Matthew. I found him behind a huge bungalow fast asleep. It appears that he couldn't stand his parents' torments, so he ran away." An uncomfortable silence reigned.

" Well, hello then, Matthew. Welcome to Mineral Town," the Mayor said rather awkwardly, breaking the silence. Any uncertain thoughts from the villagers vanished in the blink of an eye as their mouths turned upwards to form warm smiles.

" Welcome, Matthew. I hope you'll enjoy staying here." Barley smiled. He was well into his forties, with a head of hair that were turning white at the scalp. Like the Mayor, he had a pair of spectacles resting on the bridge of his nose.

"Speaking of staying, where is he going to stay, Andrew?" Duke asked. His daughter stood beside him, a teenage girl who much resembled her mother, except with jet-black hair. She stood as tall as him as she smiled down at the shy child behind the farmer.

Andrew's normally clear forehead furrowed for a moment. " Well, I haven't really thought it out yet. I was thinking of ringing up my son and his wife to see if he could keep Matthew –Matt for short- and send him to school as well as other things. In short, be his parents, or at least his guardians."

The Mayor approved of his choice. So did most of the villagers. They crowded around Andrew and started discussing. Meanwhile, Matt managed to slip away from the crowd and was now standing alone, quite lonely.

" Hi there!" Matt flinched. " Oops, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," Popuri said. She smiled. Matt smiled too then glanced at her friends. He looked at them questioningly. " I'm Popuri, and these are my friends, Karen, Ann, Mary and Elli." She answered his questioning gaze, pointing to each respective girl in turn. Matt smiled shyly. "Hi Matthew!" All five chorused.

"Just call me Matt."

"Come on, let's play!" Ann said, in the mood to play.

"Yes! Come on, Matt," the others urged. Matt accepted and the six ran all the way to Rose Square to play. Rick, Popuri's brother looked at them wistfully but they ignored him anyway.

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"When are you going to contact him? Lawrence is such a responsible kid, he's sure to accept." Jeff asked.

"I'll see. It's the summer holidays in town, so I thought that maybe he could, you know, stay here and mix around a bit. He looks rather lonely." Andrew voiced out his opinion. The Mayor agreed heartily, as did majority of the villagers.

"At least my Ann can do something other than emptying the kitchen," Doug said half jokingly. Several villagers laughed softly at the comment.

"So it's decided then. Little Matthew shall stay here with Andrew until Lawrence or Nora can be contacted." The Mayor declared. Smiles lit up the villagers' faces. It was weird, yet touching, how the little boy managed to find a place in their hearts in the short moment since he set foot on the sandy beach of Mineral Town.

"I'll make some delicious, scrumptious sandwiches for him when he decides to come round sometime, perhaps to play with my daughter. She's getting really mischievous these days," a pretty woman with long hair sighed. Despite her long hair, she looked and acted like a tomboy. She even wore boy's clothes! Guess who she is…you guessed right, she's Ann's mom. (I decided to keep her alive for now.)

"No way! I'll invite him to come over first. Chocolate cookies happen to be my specialty, and I haven't met a single child who dislikes chocolate so far, so too bad Lesley!" Sasha taunted. Anna shook her head in a stately manner.

"No, he'll come to me first! Every child should read as much as they can to gain knowledge, and Matthew is no exception. So he should stop by every day to read the books in my house." The remaining wives, Lillia and Eve, Popuri and Elli's moms respectively, wisely kept silent. Sasha, Lesley and Anna glared at each other and started throwing heated comments at each other.

"Calm down, all of you!" the Mayor yelled, to no avail. If possible, the racket seemed to grow louder by each passing second. "Women," he muttered, resigning himself and allowing the gentlemen to confront their respective wives.

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"Come on, let's play!" Ann repeated.

"Um, all right." Matt answered shyly. "What are we going to play?"

"Ring-a-ring-of-roses!" Popuri chanted while dancing in circles holding an invisible person's hand.

"How childish." Karen smirked.

Popuri looked hurt. "Does it matter?" she said, her chocolate-brown eyes showed deep hurt.

"Of course it doesn't matter, after all, we're still kids, right?" Ann consoled her. Popuri brightened up and agreed.

"I don't know, I just want to read." Mary mumbled and began to back away from the group. Matt saw her go.

"Wait, don't go. Don't you want to play?" he blurted out, much to the surprise of everyone present. "Well, it didn't seem fair to exclude her," Matt muttered, turning a light shade of pink. Karen jeered at him while Mary looked at him appreciatively. " I-I have to go now. Bye!" he stammered and quickly retraced his steps back to the beach.

"See? Now you've scared him away. Good going, Karen." he heard one of them saying distantly. Karen's angry retort was lost to him as he sped down the steps breathlessly and saw the crowd talking. A few women seemed to be fighting verbally. The men tried to calm them down, but all they achieved was to anger the women all the more. As he watched, the crowd backed away several paces.

He walked towards Andrew, afraid. Will they dump him somewhere simply because he was a nuisance? Sasha, Lesley and Anna pounced on him as soon as came into their range of view. "You'll spend some time with us, right?" all three demanded. This scared Matt even more, and he was driven to the verge of tears.

"Come now ladies. Can't you see that you're just scaring the boy? Leave him alone." Andrew pointed out. They glared at him but changed their tactics. "You'll come with me right? Auntie Sasha has chocolate cookies for you at home," Sasha smiled sweetly. "Why don't you come along and read books with Mary? I'm sure you'll like it," Anna offered. "All those are girly stuff to do. Why don't you stop by the Inn one day and do much more boyish things? Ann can climb trees almost as well as any boy," Lesley said with a touch of pride.

"Can I go with you, Uncle Andrew? They're scary," Matt whimpered as he tugged at the old farmer's overalls. Andrew patted him on the head comfortingly. "Sure thing lad. Come on now."

The women looked at the duo's departing back wistfully. "Too bad. I hoped to have him come around sometime. Oh well." Sasha sighed.

"This is all because of you!" Eve retorted. Sasha glared at her.

"ME?"

"Yes. You!" Anna said defiantly. Both housewives glared daggers at each other. Lillia looked towards Matt. He was holding Andrew's hand, looking at home beside him. It seemed to fit the picture. "Those two seem to be made for each other," she declared. Eve agreed.

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"Aww, must I sleep now?" Matt whined.

Andrew nodded firmly. "Yes. You'll have to be up at sunrise. 6 o'clock, to be precise."

"Why?" Matt asked curiously.

"Because farmers like me have to get up early to start work. There's no end of things to do when you're a farmer. Once we get up, there's a lot of things to do that keeps me busy all day long."

"Oh." Matt was silent after that. Andrew sighed and stood up. "Well, goodnight Matt." Hearing no answer, he turned around. Matt was already asleep, his chest rising and falling rhythmically with his breathing. His features were relaxed and he looked truly peaceful as he entered the enticing world of dreams. Andrew looked at him fondly and lay down beside him to sleep.

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Hi! Did you enjoy it? Down to announcements….

I would like to thank Dark Nemesis 7 for reviewing. So far, this was my first review. I hope more people will review to at least give me an idea on my story's rating.

Starting from now, I shall state the pen names of whoever who reviewed for this story.

Thanks!