I worry about that girl called Sabrina sometimes.

She spends most of her time inside, reading books and doing things that involve the ore business, but for the life of me I can't imagine what they could be. Her complexion is pale, her hair is raven-feather black, adorned with a pink bow. Her eyes are a beautiful shade of purple, and a pair of round glasses are almost always perched on the end of her nose. The pink and purple plaid dress she wears under a pink cardigan stops just at her ankle, exposing brown loafers and black stockings.

Whenever she's outside, I don't see her talking to very many people. She just sits down on a bench by the well on Verdure Island and reads. I can tell that she doesn't like to attract attention. She is a shy little thing, only coming up to just above my shoulder. Her mouth is almost always in a straight line, but when she talks to me, it curves up into a little smile.

She's very intelligent. Lately, she's been helping me out with budgeting for house expansions, farm expansions, buying seeds, etc. etc., because my intelligence in that field isn't very high. But every time she comes over to my house for that, she brings a different book. At the end of every session, I end up sitting next to her and peering over her shoulder at what she's reading. An adorable blush appears on her face when I do this, and I smile.

The reason I worry about her is that she doesn't have very many friends to talk to. There's Vaughn, the local animal trader, Julia, his cousin, and Chelsea, my 'sidekick' in farming - please don't tell her I said that. But that's pretty much it. Oh, and me of course. Personally, I think she should make more friends. It's not healthy to spend all your time indoors, reading and doing Goddess knows what. When I informed her of this, she said that often times, when talking with any of her group of friends, she's been told that she talks too much and the one she was talking too didn't understand what she was saying, since she often lapses into telling us facts about science and nature – how the wild grass appears on the island, the information about the various mushrooms and why they only appear in fall... all kinds of things.

As a farmer, I find this stuff very interesting, since I need to know this in order to prosper. But Sabrina doesn't seem to think that; she's said that previously, people have found her to be boring and uninteresting. They didn't want to know what she had to say, as she also often wondered about certain things. She's a very deep person. Do I think that there is life on other planets? Will it be possible to travel between dimensions in the future? Most importantly, is there really a Goddess?

Apparently, before she came to the island, Regis had her sent to a private boarding school. There, she learned how to be a proper lady, however she doesn't know how to act around other people (especially of the opposite gender) because she ended up being cooped up inside to her father's commands. He had wanted her to grow up to be a fine businesswoman, to help him in his business of being head of the mining corporation. Really, she wanted to be a doctor, which is how she knows about the local flora and their healing properties. She's given me a list on the grasses spread throughout the island; red grass is poisonous. Blue and green grass restore stamina, the amount depending on the quality of it. Yellow and orange grass restore fatigue, amount also depending on quality.

I remember on the first day I came here, I had met Sabrina and she always averted her eyes, not knowing what to do. Regis, her father, had taken her aside and whispered something into her ear. I knew that it was something about showing me around the island because Sabrina timidly took my hand. We had stood there for a while, until I eventually moved and taken her out the door. I pointed to where I was most curious about – the place they called Sunny Island – and led her there, to be greeted by a jungle. Bushes and trees were everywhere, and I would hear the odd bird squawking. Sabrina removed my hand and cleared her throat, explaining that this was Sunny Island. Here was the best place to pick up wild grasses, and she told me of a local rumor that there were island natives living here, although I have yet to meet them. I asked to her to explain some of the wild grasses to me, and that's when she showed me her smile.

Her smile was beautiful. It was just a simple closed mouth smile, but the way her eyes twinkled told me that she loved to talk about this stuff. She walked over to a bush with a few berries on it and instantly told me what kind of fruit they were (blueberries, in case you were wondering).

She's very intelligent, more intelligent than most of the girls on the island. Ditzy Lanna and Chelsea, tomboy Natalie and Julia, harsh Lily and Witch Princess. I don't mean to be rude when I say that she's smarter than them – although I get the feeling that I'm in for a mauling courtesy of Chelsea and Natalie later. I think that this is a gift on Sabrina's part.

Most other people don't seem to have the same opinion of her as I do, though. They seem to hate her because they think that Vaughn has a crush on her, but she doesn't mind, just as long as she's still got me – at least, that's what she says.

I really like that boy called Mark.

He spends his time outside, either smashing rocks, chopping up lumber, planting seeds, taking care of his animals, or talking to people. His skin is a tanned color, mostly from spending his time outside, but his hair is a light blonde, darker in places where the blue cap doesn't cover it. Because of his job, he wears a white shirt, blue overalls, and a thin cotton jacket. Handling things like hoes, axes, and hammers have caused him to wear dark green fingerless gloves. Whenever he holds my hand, I can feel the warmth of his fingers enveloping mine, and the slight roughness of the fabric rubbing against my skin. He has a childish charm about him. His face still has some baby fat about it, still molding into his adult features. His eyes are a handsome shade of emerald, and wide with childlike curiosity. His nose is straight and turned up a bit at the end, revealing a childish and mischievous charm.

I like to sit by the well on Verdure Island, reading, and almost every day, whenever Mark has the time, he comes and sits beside me. He asks me what I'm reading, and occasionally he'll sit closer to me and lean on my shoulder to read the words spread across the page. I love the feel of his hair brushing against my cheek, the warmth of his cheek on my shoulder. Hopefully he'll never feel my blush when he does this, so I end up moving the book to a point where the both of us can actually read it. We share several interests, mostly regarding genres of books; we're both suckers for romance, we both enjoy a laugh over comedic books, and we're both interested in historical-fiction. He prefers reading about World War Two while I read about the pilgrims.

I'm not a very popular person on the island because people believe that I'm too smart for my own good. I probably am; I've got a certificate in my room with a picture of Albert Einstein on it, saying that I could possibly be the next one – although that was probably a joke on the headmaster's part. There are four people I enjoy talking to, who either take interest in what I say or like me because they can talk about their problems and they can trust me not to tell anyone else. Those people are Vaughn, who is a very popular animal trader due to his appearance and his tendency to not stay in one place all over the time (he's told me that there's at least one underage girl in every place he's visited who's got a crush on him – 'fangirls', he calls them), Julia, a tomboy who, despite her appearance, never has her head in the clouds and is quite smart, Chelsea, who is the actual ditzy one of our group, and Mark, the one who accepts me for who I am. Vaughn and I are the quietest, so Chelsea's spread around a rumor that I've gotten a crush on him. She couldn't be more wrong, it's Mark that I like.

Please don't tell him I said that.

In one of our previous discussions, he told me about his past. Before he moved here to the Sunshine Islands, he didn't know what to do with his life and as a result, didn't have a job. Eventually, his parents got sick of his 'mooching', as he put it, and kicked him out of the house with a couple hundred dollars and a rucksack filled with clothes. Not knowing what to do, Mark wandered around New York City, where he had been living, until he saw a brochure in a traveling agent's window for the Sunshine Islands. He had seen that the island was in need of a farmer, so he walked into the shop and booked a trip on the next ship with half his money, the other half eventually being converted to gold for the island. Good thing he explained this, otherwise I would never had known where he got that 500g.

In the short time we've known each other, I found myself slowly falling in love with him. I hope he returns my feelings, because there's so much things about him that I want to know that I don't know yet. Father doesn't seem to like him very much, as he thinks that he's going to try to steal me away from him. As a result of this, I ended up telling Mark, to which he chuckled and said that he would never do that, if he were to marry me. If only.

Whenever Mark gets nervous, he has a habit of putting his finger on his lower lip and frowning a little. It's adorable, but then, that's the same thing he tells me whenever I blush. I assume it's because of our close friendship.

We're often the subject of teasing, mostly coming from Natalie, Julia, and Chelsea, although it's in good humor. Natalie's jokes are more directed toward her assuming that Mark wouldn't like a girl like me because he's outgoing and I'm not, but Mark ended up telling her that he's helping me with my issues toward society, which I will explain to you now.

Before I came here to the islands, my father sent me to a private boarding school. I was brought up strictly and as a result, I often worked hard. Girls often told me 'All work and no play makes Sabrina a dull girl', and knowing them, they were probably right. I had several good friends at that boarding school, but at the time I didn't realize they were only friends with me because of my money or my brains (they thought I could help them get higher grades). They didn't like me for me at all, so when I graduated, I pestered my father to move here until he did so. It was the best choice he's made, since I've had many firm friendships that aren't about to crumble anytime soon. I like the people here since they're so friendly, and you can trust them. I'm just a little shy to talk to them, so I prefer to hide under mountains of books.

I hope Mark returns my feelings to him.

Author's note: Thank you to all who R&R! It really means a lot to me, since this is the first time I've entered myself in an FFN contest. It's called the Facial Features Contest for the forum Sweet Revenge. This was created by the genius called floridapanther28 – the forum, not the story. I know it's not apparent through this story, but I got stuck with brains. So I was thinking, "How am I gonna do this?", and this story pops into my mind! I hope you like it, and please review! :D