Chapter 5

It had been a little more than a week since I ran into Vaughn on a rainy morning at the beach and I hadn't had any opportunities to see him since then. I regretted that. Not that I would know what to say to him, but, I hate to admit it, I just wanted to see him. Quite badly. Natalie had been kind enough to inform me about his status as 'most antisocial being on earth' and for unknown reasons(?), I wanted to get rid of that status. After the incident at the Diner, I thought - no, knew- he deserved much better than that and he just needed a few more firm pushes in the right direction. Though I was aware of the fact he would never be as social as Lanna for example, whom I still remembered for her bone crushing hugs.

A few days ago, I had told my parents of my plan to chop wood to be able to purchase a chicken coop as soon as possible, but they had objected strongly against it. Chopping wood would be too exhausting for me and bring medical complications I didn't need right now. In the end they offered to sponsor me a little and now I had almost enough money saved up to buy one. By the time I would have enough, it would be Wednesday and that would give me a nice reason to stop by at the animal shop. Not that I needed an excuse to go there, but I felt more comfortable with one. (Made me feel less like a stalker).

Enough about the past, back to the present. At that very moment, I was in a bad mood, barging through the mud in search for coloured grasses and other more or less valuable items in the pouring rain. Not a very appealing activity, but I didn't have much better to do when it rained. Right then, I despised the rain. I was aware of the fact I was contradicting myself with something I had said earlier on, but circumstances change. After a two hours, I gave up and headed to old man Taro's house to empty my backpack in the shipping bin there. I laughed sourly when I noticed the coloured grasses did not look as colourful as they usually did, because they were as plastered with mud as I was. Even my bright yellow raincoat didn't look bright anymore. It was then that my angel opened the door and saved my day.

"You look like crap, y'know," Natalie stated.

"Thank you very much, I'm aware of that fact," I replied wryly.

"You wanna come in for some hot tea and a shower?" She grinned broadly as I gladly accepted her offer and came in.

"You might wanna take those shoes of yours off," Natalie commented. I looked down at my boots and couldn't agree with her any more. I was just losing up my shoelaces when Natalie's considerate mother, Felicia, got me in her sight. With graceful movements, she more or less floated over to me and dropped a soft towel on my head.

"Dear!" she exclaimed, "You look as if you've been shipwrecked!" My red-haired friend let out a few snickers as her mother helped me out of my raincoat, shoved me in the bathroom, disappeared and returned only seconds later with a pile of neatly folded cloths to dump them in my arms. She quickly pointed out to me where the soap and everything was, turned the faucet open to fill the bath and left me dumbfounded with a towel on my head in their big bathroom. It was at least thrice the size mine was, which didn't mean as much as you would expect if you knew that my bathroom was basically a closet in which they put sanitary instead of coat hangers. But I appreciated the space very much.

I slowly peeled off my cold, wet and with mud stained clothes, removed my bandanna and wig and stepped into the water. At first it had felt as if it was boiling hot, but after a while I realised my body had just been really cold. I turned off the water and slowly slouched under the warm water until it nearly reached my nose. I was just blowing bubbles under water when someone knocked loudly on the bathroom door.

"The Islands will be struck by a typhoon tomorrow!" Natalie shouted from the other side of the door and my eyes instantly widened. A… typhoon?!The only times I had ever witnessed a typhoon was on the television, when either watching a documentary or the news.

"Grandpa thinks you should stay for the night," she shouted again, "Are there preparations we need to do at your ranch?"

"Uh… Could you check if all windows are closed, lock the door and um… get my toothbrush?" I asked just as loudly.

"Where's the key?"

"In the mail box!" I shouted back, slightly embarrassed by the stupidity of my hiding place. At least I was original and didn't hide it underneath a flower pot like everyone else.

When I heard someone slam what I assumed to be the front door shut, I sunk back into the warm water. 'I hope my potatoes don't get ripped out of the ground. They were growing so well,' I sulked, trying to imagine the possible consequences of a typhoon.

After about half an hour, I got out of the bath, toweled my clean skin dry and dressed myself. The clothes were a little bit too big for me and fell loosely around my frame. I had already concluded the clothes were Natalie's; probably an inside-joke of Felicia.* I quickly rinsed my wig, dried it carefully and put it on, followed by my beloved red bandanna. (Which was still dirty, but that seemed unimportant to me).

When I entered the living room, I was surprised to see a damping teapot, my tooth brush and a sandwich on the table.

"I made you lunch," Felicia told me, smiling and gesturing to the sandwich, but aiming a look of disapproval at my bandanna at the same time. I smiled, thanked her and sat down next to Natalie on the couch.

"Did you already have lunch?" I asked her, while Felicia disappeared into the kitchen.

"While you were lying with your lazy ass in the bath tub," she snickered.

"Thanks for waiting," I muttered under my breath while pouring tea in my cup.

"Any time," she replied, while handing me the cup with sugar cubes.

"Did you make the tea?" I inquired, holding a sugar cube. She nodded. Demonstratively I dropped five cubes in my cup.

Just because I stayed over, Felicia had put the effort in baking a cheese fondue for dinner. It tasted delicious. The only thing I disliked about dinner was Elliot who couldn't help but stare at me every now and then. Until his face contorted with pain and he rubbed his shin while muttering something inaudible under his breath. I told myself to thank Natalie later, even though Felicia looked annoyed in her general direction.

That night I would sleep on a spare matres in Natalie's room. The first thing I noticed when I came in, was that the room was awfully pink. When I mentioned it, Natalie shrugged and muttered something about 'nothing wrong with pink'. Together we dragged the matres from the attic to her bed room. At least, we should have dragged it. But Natalie's way was much faster, easier and more fun. No, we didn't. Oh, yes. We glided on the matres down the stairs, squealing like little kids and nearly running Natalie's brother over, who had to dive aside and gained several bruises in the progress. After that we gathered some blankets and a pillow for me before returning to our home base, still laughing about it. I didn't remember having much fun as I had that night in the past two to three years. It felt as if we were thirteen again.

When it was time to get at least dressed in our pajamas, I realised that I had forgotten mine, while I remembered my tooth brush. I was occupied feeling stupid when Natalie threw something in my direction. I managed to catch it and looked at it surprised.

"Pajamas. Pink ones." I raised my eyebrows.

"Nothing wrong with pink," Natalie repeated and pursed her lips slightly.

"Thanks, Nat." She nodded before closing the (yellow!) curtains and turning her back towards me to change. I did the same and carefully removed my bandanna and shirt, before taking off any other garments. Just like her clothes, the pajamas had been about a size or two too big, but they were soft and comfortable. After we got dressed in our PJ's, Natalie plumped down on her bed and patted the place next to her. I followed her example and she grinned at me.

"What?" I innocently asked.

"Wanna play truth or dare?" I studied her face for a moment and decided she was the kind of person who would dare you to do the craziest things she could think of, but who would never push you to do them if you really didn't want to. Unless you were, of course, her brother.

"I'm in," I grinned back.

* In case you didn't get it, if you play as the female character in Harvest Moon, Felicia has the tendency to tell you all the time you are just as cute as her daughter Natalie.

An extra long chapter, because I won't be able to write again until Thursday. Which means I'll have the next chapter finished and published on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Depending on my amount of precious spare time. Don't blame me. I'm innocent. Blame the teachers with their exams!

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I'll give you a cookie if you do.