Yo girl y u no update earlier?

I'm so sorry guys! Been busy (even if it's sembreak over here...yeah my parents took advantage of that and I got sent on errands the past how many days). Added to that, I had a bit of a writer's block. Well more of writer's confusion since I had too many ideas and I wasn't sure which ones I should include. So anyways, here you go! :)

Disclaimer: Harvest Moon

Chapter 7: The Flower Festival

Akari closed the door behind her and leaned against it. Her lips pulled up into a smile that seemed to try to reach her ears. She looked up at the ceiling and sighed dreamily. She walked over to her small, light brown wardrobe and picked out her green pajamas, getting ready to take a bath. As she stepped inside her bathroom, she recalled the events that occurred that day.

The Flower Festival was, although exhausting, really fun. She was able to hang out with most of the villagers, see some exotic flowers, and she was given free perfume by Julius. Selena, whose parents visited early that morning, asked Hayden and Kathy to play a tune for her so that she could dance for them. Hamilton got inspired by this idea, however. When Selena finished a song, he asked the stall-keepers to "kindly move to the sides for a while" and then started pairing up the villagers. He looked proud when he saw his son take the initiative to ask a girl (which was Luna) to dance with him. Chase was between Maya and Akari, but with Kathy playing on the guitar, Maya was paired up with Owen, who was on her other side.

"Here Chase, take Akari's hand," Hamilton said while shoving Akari's hand into Chase's. "Now don't be shy, dance!"

Chase raised his eyebrows in amusement. Akari's bashful smile shrank when Chase pulled back his hand, but it grew again when Chase cleared his throat and asked her in an exaggeratedly polite voice, "good morning, mademoiselle, may I have this dance? I believe it's quite improper to have someone else's father force a young lady like you and a young man like me into the awkward art called 'dancing'."

Akari laughed and took his hand. They lined up behind Gill and Luna and said hello to both of them.

"Psst, Gill!" Chase said. "What's this dance going to be? Your dad's disco?"

Gill scowled. "It's called 'Spring Blossom'. Just watch!"

The dance involved a line of guys and a line of girls paired up, a quick-paced melody and a lot of switching partners and turning. The younger villagers followed the lead of their parents and soon, even the youngest villagers were dancing (in their own kind of dance, of course). At the end of the dance, practically everyone was flushed and out of breath. Fortunately, Yolanda had the foresight to prepare drinks for everyone, and so there was a table under the shade of the clocktower full of drinks for everyone.

"Chaaase!" chirped Maya. She ran over and gave him a hug from the back. "I got you orange juice!"

"Uh..." Chase said, seemingly unsure of what to say.

Maya rolled her eyes. "No, I did not make it. Stop assuming all the time!"

And with that, Maya walked away, pouting. Chase sighed, took off his hairpins and ruffled his hair.

"Is that why your hair always seems to be flying away?" Akari joked.

"You mean because of Maya?" Chase asked. "Yes. Nah, I'm kidding..."

He stared at the direction where Maya went off to as he put his hairpins back on. He then brought Akari some of her own orange juice and they stood by the arch near the stairs leading back down to town.

"Chase!" Yolanda called out. She was standing at the foot of the stairs with Hayden, Jake and Colleen. "Come here and help us bring up lunch!"

"See you in a bit, Akari," he told her.

Lunch, of course, deserved no less than five stars with Yolanda and Chase's cooking. After that, everyone helped clean up, and a good 15 minutes later, they were all done and Akari noticed some new sounds in the air. Bugs were all starting to come out from out of the bushes and trees.

"Hey everyone! Let's start the Bug Catching game!" someone called out.

"Do you want to join?" Anissa asked Akari.

"I think I'll sit this one out," Akari said, withdrawing.

"Nonsense!" cut in Kathy. "You're joining, whether you like it or not. Hey Chase! Maya! Join us!"

Chase scoffed. "No way."

"Come on, Chase!" Maya begged.

"No."

"You owe me for being rude to me on a Festival!" Maya cried out.

Chase pursed his lips and looked like he was going to refuse. In the end, however, he closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Fine..."

The Bug Catching Game was...interesting for Akari. It was quite difficult and injury-causing too. After all, no one could actually read everyone else's minds and so people kept knocking each other's heads and tripping over. Some even accidentally (or maybe not so accidentally) missed their target and ended up latching onto his/her crush's arm or hand. Basically, it involved a lot of squashed bugs, flying dirt, leaves and grass, and human contact.

Akari turned on the shower and let the water streak through her. She probably would have called it a perfect day, but someone was missing.

A certain blue-haired boy.

AN Yay for fillers! Mehh I promise the next chapter will actually have the "certain blue-haired boy" in it. Around 6 or 7 chapters to go everyone -)

By the way, anybody doing NaNoWriMo? :D Let's go, Wrimos!

Lastly, thank you so much again for all the support, reviews, etc! ^.^ They really make my day 3

~Iris