Jovi smacked her lips and yawned, rubbing sleep-grit from her eyes with a finger. Simultaneously, Finn's mouth dropped open too. A small squeak escaped from it. Jovi smiled groggily and rubbed his velvet ears. She was a little slow this morning, due to the festival the night before. She eased out of bed and poured herself a glass of water, before peering out the window. Rain was pouring down, creating a rhythmic pattern on the panes.

"I guess I don't have to water my crops today," she concluded. A rough scratching sound broke the evenness of the falling precipitation. She looked over to the front door where Finn was clawing at the wood grain with his paw. He whined miserably. Jovi realized that he hadn't been out to pee yet.

"You'd better go, fast, or else you'll make a watery mess and you'll have to take a bath," she warned, then opened the door. Finn looked warily at her, and then rushed into the downpour. Jovi left the door open for him to come back in and went to look for a towel to put in the doorway. When she found one, she spread it on the floor, then sat down and waited for the dog so she could attack him with the warm cloth, soaking up all the spring tears. Five minutes passed; nothing. Ten minutes. Fifteen. Jovi was beginning to get antsy.

Finally, she stood up and threw on her clothes but didn't bother to find her raincoat. She jogged outside and was instantly drenched from head to toe. Her boots made a soggy squelchy noise and her bangs clung to her forehead in a pattern that would resemble the roots of a plant in the ground.

"Finn!" she called. "Finn, come here boy!" She whistled through her teeth- he usually came running when she did that- but there was no response. She hurried over to the Blue Sky Ranch.

Blue, Ellen's cousin, opened the door, and after a speedy, out-of-breath introduction, he said that he hadn't seen Finn today. Jovi thanked him for his time, then rushed around the bend in the road to Jamie's house. She banged on his door. Kdonk! Kdonk!

A peeved-looking boy with purple hair answered.

"What do you want, nimrod? Got locked out of your house? Well, I'm not surprised and you aren't coming in, if that's what you want. You're soaking wet."

His words stung, but Jovi shrugged it off and clasped her dripping hands in front of her.

"Please, my dog ran off into the rain and I can't find him! Have you seen him come by this way? He's little and light brown with floppy ears and white paws." Jovi's voice was frantic.

"No, I haven't seen your stupid mutt. Go away, I'm busy," Jamie grumbled and slammed the door in Jovi's face.

Suddenly, mixed in with the raindrops, tears began to slide down the blue-eyed girl's face. She made a noise of deep sorrow and anguish, and then scurried down the path.

Jamie opened the door once more and stared after the crying girl.

Snap… did I do that? he thought, then sighed and pulled his boots on.

So troublesome, he grumbled in his mind as he entered the continuous curtain of rain.

Jovi searched through the entire village; the town square, the beach, the slopes to the mountains, all around the little shops and neighboring ranches, people's pastures. Finn was nowhere to be found. It was closing in on night when Jovi finally stopped running. She looked straight in front of her, not blinking, tears tumbling down her cheeks.

"Finn…" she whispered, her voice ragged from calling him so many times. He had been her best friend from the very start, a close companion, and her only family in this new place. All the tiny, sparkling particles of hope left Jovi's heart and she trudged home, her feet waterlogged and sore. By the time it was dark, the rain had slowed down quite a bit. Jovi stood in front of her house, hanging her head, tendrils of yellow hair covering her face. A note came, but there was no happy, shining feeling.

"Received for working 10 hours non-stop in the rain," it started. "You can hear an upbeat rhythm if you run around in the rain without caring whether you get wet."

Jovi closed her freezing fingers around the note and opened her door. She picked the towel up from off the floor and wrapped it around her shoulders. She changed into her night shirt and sat in her bed. She was warm, now, but she was frostbitten inside. Her head numb from heartache, she closed her eyes and nodded off to sleep.

How much time had passed, whether it was five minutes or five hours, Jovi didn't know, but after whatever period of time passed, someone rapped on her front door. Still half-asleep, Jovi answered it, her big nightshirt slanted off one shoulder.

Jamie stood before her, shivering in the drizzle, holding Finn in his arms.

Jovi's eyes shot open.

"Jamie… I thought you… but you said…" She tripped over her words.

"Take… your… stupid… dog," Jamie growled between bursts of chattering teeth.

Jovi spotted her towel from earlier on the floor and snatched it. She folded it around Finn, and then cuddled him close.

"I don't know how you found him or why you decided to help, but thank you so so so much, Jamie." Jovi said it like she meant it, and she did.

"Whatever, just be more responsible next time," he grumbled, then turned toward his house.

Suddenly, warm, dry arms found their way around Jamie's middle section.

"Hey! What the-?!"

The front of Jovi's pajamas was now damp from Jamie's wet poncho, but she didn't care.

"You're a good person, Jamie," she said, giving him a squeeze. The purple-haired young man scowled, though inside, happiness fluttered like a dragonfly in a dusty corner of his heart.

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled, pulling away from the embrace.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Jovi waved as he disappeared around the corner.

She turned and stood in front of Finn with her arms on her hips. He cowered in the blanket.

"Bath time, Mr. Escapee."

After giving the wet, smelly puppy a very thorough bath in the sink and cleaning herself up for bed properly, Jovi snuggled Finn between her thighs and her torso and began scribbling her latest entry into her diary.

Dear Diary,

Yesterday, I wouldn't have known that a crisis would happen today. If only I could go back in time and give my day-younger self pointers on what would happen.

Finn ran away into a particularly nasty rainstorm. I was out for hours, HOURS, searching for him. When I had given up and come back home to mope in my bed, here comes Jamie, shivering and shaking so much I thought his teeth would pop out of his head, with Finn in his arms. Something is happening here, I know it. Could it be that Jamie's true self is beginning to squeeze its tiny body through the dark, unfriendly cloud of Jamie at last? I certainly hope so.

Off to bed now. It's been a rather eventful day.

~Jovi

Happier than she had ever been in probably her entire life, Jovi slipped into slumber holding her puppy close.

At the Jamie Ranch, the cowboy hat scrooge himself was getting ready for bed. He wrung his poncho out and hung his hat up to dry. He finally lay in his bed which seemed all the warmer from him being out in that blasted rain. His mind wandered to when Jovi had hugged him out of gratitude. He had liked that, even though he hadn't shown it and had ended it soon after it began. He had actually wanted to stay in that moment for as long as possible, but he had cut it short out of pride. Come to think of it, he was always prideful. He never thought about others. This was the first act of kindness that he had committed in years. He really hated himself now, after stepping back and looking on his stained soul. But he couldn't be better. It would make him look weak. He would have to wear his hard turtle-shell for a bit longer.

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