Make Me Smile

Summer was coming to a close. The theme for this year’s summer crop festival was corn. I harvested the corn the day before, and was delighted at the quality of it. However, on the day of the festival, the silk inside the ears had browned slightly, and they just didn’t look as good. I entered nonetheless, but ended up losing to some blonde farmer from Mineral Town.

“Can’t win ‘em all,” Vaughn said, patting me on the back after I came back from the judging area. I sadly nodded.

Fall soon settled on the valley. I planted a variety of crops, including eggplants, yams, and spinach. I had initially wanted to refrain from growing carrots this year, since Vaughn hated them so badly. But he pointed out that it was good for the soil to grow a variety of crops, and our horse liked to eat them.

I tilted my head at him. “Is that why you don’t like carrots? Because of the horse jokes?”

He shook his head. “No, they are just horrible tasting. I can’t stand even the smell of them cooking.” He shuddered at the thought. “Revolting,” he grunted.

About a week later, it was the day of the Harvest Festival. I had just finished watering the eggplants. The other crops needed even less water, so I wasn’t watering them today. Vaughn had already checked all the animals, and he rode up next to me on Ree. “Want to go for a ride?” he asked. I nodded, and he helped me climb onto the horse’s back, behind him.

We galloped off, on our way to the festival. I squealed happily, holding onto him around the waist tightly, for fear of falling off. Vaughn steered the horse towards the east side of town. As we got closer to the corner where Pierre’s house was, I saw him and Natalie standing outside. I tapped at Vaughn’s back, and he got my message, slowing Ree down to a trot and coming up alongside the couple.

Pierre eyed the horse nervously. “Oh my, what a big horse.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, he’s not going to eat you.”

Natalie smirked. “Rodeo Boy, that’s so mean of you to make your twin brother carry you around town.”

Vaughn groaned at the stupid joke. “I knew it was a bad idea to stop and let you say something,” he grunted, and then spurred Ree to gallop away. I stuck my tongue out at Natalie, and yelled, “You need to get laid!” at her as we departed. She looked after us, scowling, and Pierre just looked sweaty and uncomfortable.

I kissed Vaughn on the back. “I’m sorry she’s so rude.”

He just snorted. “I’m used to her by now.” We continued galloping to the meadow. When we got there, we tied Ree up to a tree and joined the rest of the villagers. I saw Natalie skulk across the bridge not long after, dragging Pierre by the hand. She made an ugly face at me, and I just shrugged. Vaughn noticed this silent exchange, and commented, “Well, if she wants to dish it out, then she needs to be able to take it.” I nodded.

Then I realized something. “Oh, Vaughn, I forgot to bring something to put in the pot!” I pouted. “It’s silly having this festival so early into the season. None of my crops are ripe yet.”

Vaughn took me over to Ree and reached into his saddlebags. He triumphantly emerged with a shiitake mushroom. “This’ll do,” he said, handing it to me. We went over to Felicia and handed it over. She stirred it into the pot with the rest of the ingredients.

Vaughn folded his arms over his chest. “I’m not sure I like the idea of this festival. People can just put whatever they want in there.”

I mused this. “Well, at least Felicia is monitoring what ingredients go in. It’s not like someone would throw something poisonous in, anyway.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.” Vaughn made a disgusted face and pointed, and I looked back at Felicia. She was accepting a big bunch of carrots from a townsperson. Vaughn grunted. “I’m not eating.”

I shook my head at him. “It’s a huge pot. You probably won’t even get any carrot in yours.”

He scowled. “It’s too big of a risk. Besides, the broth is going to be all orange and tainted because of it. I’m not eating any.”

I just sighed.

At the cow festival several days later, Moomoo took the top prize. I was delighted, kissing and thanking Vaughn, because I knew it was his special attention that molded the cow into such a prize specimen. It was strange, because it seemed like Moomoo knew that she was a prize cow now. She started giving more milk, which of course was wonderful.

I was watering in the fields a few days later when I got the wind knocked out of me as someone tackled me from behind. I cried out, struggling to turn around and see who it was. It was Natalie, and she looked insanely gleeful.

“What the hell was that for?” I yelled at her. “What’s wrong with you? You’ve got crazy eyes!”

“Crazy in love!” she chirped as I stood up, brushing the soil off my legs. She advanced on me, gripping me by the shoulders and getting right up in my face. I was terrified beyond belief as she hissed at me, “We did it.”

“Huh?” That was the last thing I thought she would say.

She nodded over and over. “Okay, so here’s how it went down,” she began, as she urged me to sit with her on a nearby boulder. “I was at Pierre’s house last night. I was trying to explain to him what I wanted, but I wasn’t getting through to him. So, I realized I needed to start speaking his language. I explained to him that we were like two fine ingredients on our own, but the only way to make us into a truly delicious recipe was to combine us. It was like a light went off in his cute little head, and he just pounced on me! So then…”

What followed was thirty minutes of way too graphic descriptions of everything they did. Everything. Absolutely everything. Very graphic. I struggled to keep an interested smile plastered on my face, because honestly, it was really nasty. But, I was extremely happy for her.

“You seem like you had a really good time,” I managed to say. She hadn’t stopped smiling for a second since she got there. Vaughn rode up on the horse just then. He saw Natalie and rolled his eyes, starting to turn the horse around, but Natalie just waved cheerfully.

“Hi, Vaughn!” She stood up and petted the horse on the head as Vaughn paused, stunned by her friendly behavior. “Well, I’d better get back home and help my mom with some stuff. See you!” She skipped off happily.

Vaughn watched her go with his mouth open. “Was that…was that really Natalie? She actually called me by my name, not ‘Rodeo Boy’ or ‘Cowboy’ or ‘Horseface.’ What’s wrong with her?”

I stood up. “Actually, it’s what’s right with her. She and Pierre finally did it.”

Vaughn just grunted. “Good for them, I guess. Well, if it makes her stop being such a bitch, it’s fine by me.” That made me giggle. I should have gotten mad that my boyfriend was calling my best friend a bitch, but honestly, she had been one for some time. I could only hope that her nice behavior would continue.

Surprisingly, it did. And strangely enough, Pierre somehow looked more grown up now. I snorted to myself that Natalie must have forced him to go through puberty. The two of them were so lovey dovey every where around town, that it was almost sickening. I was grateful at least for the fact that Pierre had his own house, so they had somewhere to retreat to when they felt frisky. I didn’t think I could handle stumbling over the two of them pawing on each other behind a rock.

I entered and won the fall crop festival with my best yam. As I had done the year before, I gave the winning crop to Pierre. This time, instead of hugging it, he leaned over to Natalie and whispered something that made her giggle, and then they hurried off hand in hand. I crinkled my nose, thankful that I was unable to imagine what they were going to do with that yam.