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The rain was pouring down on the town of Stars like no tomorrow. The news had reported it as one of the worst weather days in the history of the town, possibly outranking The Great Coconut Precipitation of 1998. No one wanted to be outside at a time like this, being drenched down to the plasma in their blood, but a newcomer was arriving in town today and it was traditional that everyone be there to greet him/her when they arrived.
There was a loud screeching sound and everyone looked to the northeast. A loudspeaker sounded: "CONNECTION ESTABLISHED." The town gates slowly opened, and a taxi cab drove through. It drove around the apple trees, which had grown plentiful since Kirby had brought the first one from his mother's town (and were so much more likeable than Stars' natural orange trees), and over the bridge to the front of town hall, where everyone waited in anticipation.
The door of the cab opened, and a girl with shoulder-length (natural) blue hair stepped out, holding a pink umbrella and a brown handbag. The taxi driver had gone around to the back of the cab to get the rest of the girl's luggage, but the townspeople were too excited to meet her to wait.
An orange cat ran up to the girl. "Hiya!" giggled the cat, "My name's Tangy, what's yours?"
"My name's Crystal," replied the girl as she flattened a fold in her skirt.
"Yay! Come here, Crystal, I know we'll be best friends," Tangy said as she turned around.
Crystal skipped after the slighty-hyper girl/cat who had taken such a liking to her and smiled. As the taxi driver drove away, the loudspeaker sounded off and the gates closed, Crystal knew that she and Tangy were going to best friends indeed.
There was a knock on the door. Crystal sat up in bed, groggy about being woken up and wondering who it could be. Crystal turned and saw her calendar: It was May 17th. Suddenly, Crystal remembered that it was Yay Day. One of the best holidays in Stars. The person outside was probably someone who wanted to sing a song of lollipops and whiskers, and though Crystal didn't approve of being woken up so early, she did enjoy Yay Day.
"I'm coming!" yelled Crystal. She ran around, trying to find something nice to wear. While doing so, she reminisced about last night, Jazz Night at The Roost, where K.K. Slider made a surprise appearance. It was very exciting, and he handed out autographed CDs, so combined with today being Yay Day, Crystal was in a very good mood. She finally found the right shade of purple to wear with her pants and opened the door.
It was Tangy.
Crystal squealed in happiness. If there was anyone who Crystal would wake up for at 5am on Yay Day, it was Tangy. They were BFFFEBTHMWLE (Best Female Friends For Eternity Because That's How Much We Like Eachother), friends 'till the end, "omg I can't go on without out you" type of thing.
"Haii Tangy!" Crystal trilled, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Wow, 5am, it's a little early to be celebrating Yay Day, though, right? But like omg, I love your dress, like, what is that, white satin? Is today my birthday and I forgot? Lol, right, anyway, today's going to be so much fun! Are you going to sing at the Open Mike Event at The Roost? Is that what the dress is fo-"
"I'm leaving Stars," Tangy interjected before exploding into tears.
Crystal could only stare as her best friend sobbed uncontrollable tears into her purple blouse. After a minute, what Tangy said registered in her mind and Crystal started crying too. "How could Tangy leave?" thought Crystal, "What could possibly possess her to want to leave? She doesn't seem like she wants to leave, my blouse is already saturated with wate-I'm going to have to wash that like a thousand times!-NO, don't worry about that, Tangy's more important."
They sat there, on Crystal's front door step at 5am, crying. The sun eventually rose, but they didn't care, not even when Yay Day celebrants came up to them and yelled "YAY! I LUV U! I SHALL NOW SING A SONG," not even when the mayor arrived to award Tangy with the key to the city, not even when Crystal's mom called and said that Christmas in July was in style again.
Eventually, they had to stop. Tangy got up, said she had to go pack, and walked off. Crystal sat there on her step, alone, for a few hours, until it got dark. She walked back inside, her outfit and her life ruined. It certainly hadn't been that much of a Yayish day.
The doorbell rang.
Tangy ran over to her door and, looking through the peephole, saw her friend's bright blue eye. She let Crystal in and they hugged before sitting down at the kitchen table.
"Crys, I'm-" Tangy began, but she was interrupted by Crystal.
"How could you leave?" cried Crystal, "Why? It doesn't make any sense! You clearly don't want to move, it's killing you! Please don't leave me!" She considered singing a P!nk song, but Tangy stopped her.
"Crystal, I don't want to leave," Tangy replied.
"Then why are you??!?!?!?"
"I don't know!" Tangy cried in despair, "I can't help it, every time I try to stay it doesn't work! I don't want to leave, I can't leave, but I have to! It's tearing me apart but I don't think I have a choice here!"
Tangy and Crystal cried into eachother's arms for a while.
Tangy finally pulled out. "I'm so sorry about this Crystal, and I hope this doesn't destroy your life, but I can't stay. But I'm not moving for a week, so, let's at least spend a final week with eachother."
Crystal nodded at this and said, "No matter what, we'll always be together. We can call, right? We can visit eachother, right? Hey, why don't I move to where you're moving to?"
Tangy shook her head. "I don't even know where I'm going. That's how terrible this is. I'm so sorry, but I guess we can call, right?"
"Right," Crystal agreed, "It won't be enough, but, maybe, someday, we'll find eachother again."
"Agreed. So, let's go have some best friend fun."
Crystal skipped up to Tangy's house, happy as a whistle. However, the door opened and Tangy appeared with tears streaming down her face, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Tangy??" Crystal asked, worridly, "What's wrong?"
"Stiches broke up with me!" Tangy wailed.
"What?!?!? You two were so good together, what happened?"
"Wel-well, he sa-said that h-he needed a br-break from me b-because I'm too con-controlling," Tangy whimpered.
"Awwwwwww, Tangy, dun worry...." Crystal tried, but before she could finish, Tangy suddenly went back into her house, found a shovel, ran screaming out of her house and threw it at a rock.
A bag of money popped out of the rock.
Tangy and Crystal stared at eachother in shock, confusion and then pure delight. Tangy threw the shovel at it a few more times, causing more money to appear. "This is purrrfect!" purred Tangy, "We can go on a shopping spree!"
Crystal smiled, happy that Tangy had gotten over Stitches, and they walked to the Able Sisters' shop, happy once again.
The next day, they returned to their magic rock, planted flowers around it and named it "The Rock Of Forgiveness."
Crystal waved at Tangy as the third day of non-stop friendship came to a close. It was so much fun, but she knew her happiness was reaching its expiration date. As she walked towards her small house, she reminisced about the three years she and Tangy had spent together, the best three years of her life. In fact, Crystal couldn't remember much before meeting Tangy. It was all a blur....
She reached her house, opened the door and found Gabi sitting on her kitchen table.
"Gabi? What are you doing here?" Crystal asked in shock.
"Since Tangy's leaving, I'm going to be your new best friend!" Gabi squealed in excitement.
Crystal had never liked Gabi that much, especially due to the fact that she was always trying to act like Tangy so Crystal would like her more. It never worked. "How-how'd you get in?" stuttered Crystal.
"Your front door, silly! I found the spare key you kept under the matt, hey, best-friend-minds think alike, amrite?"
Gabi soon found herself being pushed out of Crystal's house. "Okay, we'll do this again sometime!" Gabi screamed before Crystal shut the door on her.
Crystal sighed, and thinking of her times with Tangy again, started to sob. She realized that she had done so much crying recently that it was bad for her, but she couldn't stop. Eventually, Crystal got up, found the book she had been reading last night (The Bicycle Who Loved To Read) and sat in bed, trying to make the words make sense. But there were too many tears in her eyes, so Crystal gave up and listened to her iPod. She then discovered that listening to Goodbyes by Savannah Outen probably wasn't the best thing for her at this time. She then instead put everything down, and went to sleep.
Dear Diary,
The day my life will end has begun. This will probably be my last entry, so goodbye.
Crystal.
Crystal left her house early, so as to be sure to be the one in the front when Tangy left. Hyperventilating, Crystal made her way over to City Hall where she saw that everyone else had had the same idea. However, everyone knew and respected that Crystal was Tangy's best friend, and then let her move up front.
She stood there, whimpering to herself, when Tangy opened her door and walked out of the house. The sight of Tangy with all of her luggage was too much for Crystal to stand, and she started sobbing on the ground.
"It's okay, Crystal," said Mallary, "Come say goodbye to Tangy before it's too late."
Crystal's eyes widened in fear at "too late," but Tangy had arrived at City Hall by then.
"CRYSTAL!" Tangy cried, launching herself into Crystal's arms as Crystal did the same. After a few minutes of sobbing, Tangy pulled away.
"We've had a good time together, haven't we?" asked Tangy.
"Yeah," replied Crystal, "They were the best three years of my life."
"I guess all good things come to an end. I guess this is it," Tangy started, before beginning to sob again.
There was a crackle of interfearance, and the loudspeaker came to life: "CONNECTION ESTABLISHED." The town gates opened, and a taxi cab drove through them.
Tangy stared in fear. "Look, Crystal, before I forget, I have a gift for you." And with that, Tangy pulled out an orange box with a blue ribbon.
Crystal started sobbing. "I didn't get you anything."
"It doesn't matter," replied Tangy soothingly, "You'll always be here in my heart."
Everyone went "awwww" at this, at which point, the taxi arrived at City Hall.
"Don't forget me!" Tangy cried as she was drawn towards the cab. "NO!" she screamed in fear as some unknown force forced her to sit in the passenger seat, "I DON'T WANT TO GO, YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"
"It's too late for that," replied the driver as he locked the door.
The taxi started driving off. Crystal stared in horror until it came to her that it was actually happening, Tangy was leaving. "NO!" she screamed as she ran alongside the cab. "NO TANGY, YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME!"
Tangy was frantically pounding on the doors of the cab. "LET ME OUT OF HERE! NOOOO, CRYSTAL!!!!!!!!"
At that point, the cab crossed the town gates.... and vanished.
The gates started closing. Crystal ran up to them, trying to make them stay open, but nothing worked. Eventually, they slammed shut. The loudspeaker emitted "CONNECTION TERMINATED" before sounding off and Crystal simply sat there, in the gatehouse, crying, clutching the gift Tangy had given her as close to her heart as possible.
Mallary found her a few hours later, still lying there, but sound asleep. She looked in her arms and saw that Crystal had opened the gift: It was a framed picture of Tangy. On the back of the frame, it said "They say cats hate citrus. THAT REALLY HURTS MY FEELINGS! But I don't care because I have a crystal."
Tangy and Crystal skipped, giggling, across the bridge. "Hey, look!" Tangy called, "It's Rowan!"
They ran over to Rowan who was puttering around in his backyard, looking worried.
"Haiiii Rowan!" trilled Tangy and Crystal in unison.
"Hello incredibly un-fit friends," Rowan replied sadly.
"What's wrong?" asked Crystal as Tangy argued with her self in the background about how she wasn't fat.
Rowan sighed. "I'm moving."
"What? Why?" asked Crystal.
"I don't know!" replied Rowan, beginning to tear, "I just have to. I tried to stay but I can't! I don't know how, but it's not possible! Something won't let me stay here. I don't want to go though...."
"Are you crying?" asked Tangy, worried because Rowan never cried.
"I'm not crying, I don't cry! My eyes are just sweating!" cried Rowan, "Go, I need to be alone."
Crystal and Tangy walked back to the museum, looking back occasionally to see their once upbeat and competitive neighbor crying into Kitt's petunias.
There was a knock on the door. Crystal sat up in bed, groggy about being woken up and wondering who it could be. Crystal turned and saw her calendar: It was June 17th. Tangy's birthday. Crystal broke into a small fit of silent tears before getting dressed and seeing who it could be.
"Hai?" Crystal asked weakly.
"It's me," replied Mallary, "Can I come in?"
"Um, sure," Crystal said, "Why?"
"Well, today's Tangy's birthday and all...."
Crystal burst into tears again and Mallary, frightened, tried to cheer her up. "No, no, I'm sorry! Please don't cry...."
Eventually, the tears subsided. "What do you want?" Crystal snapped, a little too forcefully.
Taken aback, Mallary stuttered "I-I just wanted to know if you were okay. You've been a little out of it the last few days and it's worrying everyone in town and...."
Crystal started tuning Mallary out. She paced around her kitchen, wishing Tangy was here, wondering how her birthday was going. She was so far deep into thought that she didn't notice she was backing into the kitchen table. She whipped around when she felt the pinch and saw Tangy's picture sitting in the middle, next to a bowl of fruit.
Mallary was still talking. "And anyway, I thought that we could go see a movie or something, perhaps to get your mind off of Tangy, right? Maybe it would help ease the pain."
Crystal wasn't listening. She was staring at the picture Tangy had given her. Tears started to form in her eyes, but she brushed them away. Suddenly, Crystal realized that Tangy's picture would look so much better on the mantle. She picked it up and started walking towards the living room, forgetting about Mallary, when suddenly, perhaps from fatigue, her fingers slipped and she dropped the frame.
Crystal stared in horror as the photo fell in slow motion towards the ground, unable to help. It smashed against the tiling, sending shards of glass in every direction, into the wall, into the leg of the table, and though the photograph of Tangy.
Mallary stared at Crystal, who had seemed to stop breathing. She stood there, surrounded by glass, perfectly still. Mallary edged over to her. "Crys? Are you okay?"
Crystal suddenly snapped out of it. "Oh, sure Mallary! I'm fine. Hey, Mallary, about that movie, I'm sorry but I'm busy today. Maybe we could do it another time? Anyway, bye, I have to go out. See you some other time." And with that, Mallary was pushed out of the house and Crystal locked all of the doors and windows, closed the shades and turned off the lights.
Mallary didn't believe anything about being busy. Crystal was obviously deeply hurt about Tangy and breaking the picture and was venting about it some how. She went around to the back of the house and saw that the back door was unlocked, and Crystal had snuck out the back. Beginning to panic, Mallary started searching for her because knowing Crystal's attachment to Tangy, she could be anywhere, doing anything.
Eight hours later and Mallary still hadn't seen Crystal anywhere. It was beginning to worry her as it had gotten dark and was raining profusely. If she didn't find Crystal soon, she would have to stop looking and declare her as a lost person.
She didn't have to worry about that for much longer, though. Screams emitted from over where the clock tower was. Mallary ran over and saw, to her horror, Crystal standing on the roof of the clock tower. "PEOPLE OF STARS!" she screamed, "THE RAIN SAW ME ENTER THIS TOWN, AND IT WILL SEE ME LEAVE IT TOO. GOODBYE."
Mallary stared in pure terror as Crystal prepared to jump. Crystal stared into the sky, raindrops falling on her face, and whispered, "Save me." Then, with a flourish, she passed out.
Crystal woke up. She wasn't in her house, in her bed, but rather in a what appeared to be a hospital bed. As more of her returned to consiousness, Crystal realized that she was, indeed, in a hospital. She tried to remember what had gone on last night. All that came back was a memory of standing somewhere high and fainting from the impact of rain on her head.
She sat up, realizing what had happened and what she had failed to do. And she knew what she had to do this time. Her hair wild and wearing a hospital gown, Crystal got out of bed and climbed out the window.
The hospital was a new addition to Stars, so she didn't quite know her way to it, but she eventually made it back to the gatehouse. Looking like a crazed woman, she kicked the doors open and proceeded to walk to the gates, knowing she would do anything to make them open. When she got there, she noticed a small panel in the way that certainly wasn't there a week ago. It simply said "Name?" She typed her name into the keypad. "Access Denied."
Crystal sighed, but then thought of a better approach. She typed in "Copper".
It seemed to accept this as options appeared: "Wait for connection or open gate now?"
Crystal typed "open." The gate opened.
There was no loudspeaker this time, because no connection was made. Through the gate, Crystal could see nothing but darkness, a blackish black that was so impenetrable that there was nothing there. But that didn't stop her.
Crystal walked through the malfuncioning gates and they slammed shut behind her, sealing her in this null world forever. She just kept walking, however, walking for miles without any purpose.
Two days later, when Crystal was nearly going to give up, she saw a light in the distance. Hope filling her, she kept on walking as the light got closer and closer. Eventually, it was all she could see. There was a dividing line. Crystal stepped over it and....
....found herself looking at a bird's eye view of Stars. It was oddly flat, and as she reached out to it, she discovered that it was simply a projected image onto a wall. The words "Animal Crossing: Wild World" were overlayed onto the image in big letters. She also saw some buttons below, one interesting one saying "Rebuild Town." Without hesitating, Crystal pressed it.
More words appeared on the screen. "Are you sure you want to rebuild your town?"
Crystal pressed yes.
And then there was nothing.
A girl was sitting in a taxi cab on an extremely rainy day, heading towards her new home. "This yar first time away from home, missy?" asked the cab-driver.
"Yes, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it," replied the girl.
"Stars, ah? Supposed to be a very nice village. Don't worry about the rain, this weather apparently is very rare."
The girl smiled and waited for an hour, until they reached what looked like a small building with large, gate-like doors. The driver got out of the cab and walked over to a small panel. After he typed on the keypad a little, a loudspeaker sounded "CONNECTION ESTABLISHED," and the gates began to open. The cab drove through the gates and into the small town, dodging apple trees and over a small, but pretty-looking river, and finally stopped in front of a building that looked very official.
The door of the cab opened, and a girl with shoulder-length (natural) blue hair stepped out, holding a pink umbrella and a brown handbag. The taxi driver had gone around to the back of the cab to get the rest of the girl's luggage, but the townspeople were too excited to meet her to wait.
An orange cat ran up to the girl. "Hiya!" giggled the cat, "My name's Tangy, what's yours?"
"My name's Crystal," replied the girl as she flattened a fold in her skirt.
"Yay! Come here, Crystal, I know we'll be best friends," Tangy said as she turned around.
While Tangy was looking the other way, Crystal flashed a sinister grin, knowing she had what she needed to live once again.