roisa meets animal crossing pt. 4
After that last fight, Luisa dropped all conversation about Animal Crossing. She didn’t ask to go see Rose’s island – what was the point, when Rose hadn’t been doing anything to make it her own? And she didn’t ask Rose to come see hers anymore – she’d told her to let her know when she was ready to see it, and that was the last she could do. It took too much emotional energy to try and get Rose to change her mind, to try and convince her to do something that she didn’t really want to do, so she gave up.
Of course, Rose didn’t try to bring up the conversation either. Every now and again, she would look over and see Luisa curled up in one of their arm chairs, her legs tucked up against one arm and her back propped up against the other with her turquoise Switch in her hands, and, as soon as Luisa noticed her, she’d hide her console or change games or…something. Rose knew that Luisa had more friends on her Switch than she did – Rose didn’t want to be friends with anyone and, honestly, didn’t have anyone to add, but Luisa used her island to keep in touch with the friends (and, admittedly, some family) who wanted to keep in touch with her.
Rose did, eventually, add Petra and JR as friends, but that didn’t do her much good at all. The twins used Petra’s Switch to play Pokemon, and while they were okay at competitions, Rose easily swept them both. JR would only pick up the console every now and again, and when she did, it wasn’t for very long at all and it wasn’t on whatever game Rose was playing.
That was actually the best thing about the Switch and the part most important to Rose’s plan: whenever she logged onto her console, she could see which of her friends was on and what they were playing. Which meant that she could see when Luisa was on and what she was playing.
The thing about Animal Crossing was that whenever Luisa signed in while Rose was on, the game would alert her, and whenever Rose signed in while Luisa was on, the game would tell her. She’d seen Luisa’s eyes light up once when she got on after her, and she knew that it was doing the same thing. So, of course, Rose had made sure to get on only when Luisa wasn’t already. Luisa could, of course, check to see what game Rose was playing whenever she wanted – they were friends; she had that option – but Rose was fairly certain that she wouldn’t. That wasn’t Luisa’s style the way it was hers.
And so, with her plan in mind, Rose began the task of building up her island.
At first, she was still bored out of her mind. She was just collecting things and learning how to do all of the tutorial stuff and she just wanted the game to take off its training wheels and let her go already. And when it finally seemed to, she realized that, really, there were still training aspects to it – this is how you add other villagers, these are the other creatures who will sometimes visit, here let us give you rewards for playing the game every day, etc. While she still didn’t really enjoy it all that much, she started spending at least a little bit of time playing every day – not very long, especially not compared with trying to breed her Pokemon – but enough. And by the time K.K. Slider finally came to her island and performed (and then decided to come every week because her island was just so cool), she’d gotten…not addicted, because that wasn’t the best word for it, but maybe a little bit addicted.
Rose began to spend more time on the game. Now that she had terraforming and could make the island look exactly the way she wanted – as Luisa said she would eventually – it felt like the game had finally gotten good. She kept finding herself spending hours pouring into the island and making it the way she wanted, chewing on the ends of her frizzy red hair and staring at her screen as she puzzled over the best way to make it look the way she wanted.
One day, Luisa leaned over the back of the couch, rested her head on her shoulder, and said, “Are you ready to see my island yet?”
Rose jumped in her skin and hid her screen against her chest the same way she’d seen Luisa doing. “No,” she said. “Not yet. I can’t fly yet.”
Luisa stuck her tongue out at her. “Yes, you can. You’ve been playing that thing every day for months. You’ve been terraforming; I can see your island.”
Rose pressed the power button on her console and looked up at her. “You’re not supposed to look at my island. You’re supposed to wait until I invite you to see it. Besides, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Luisa placed her hands on her hips. “I thought we weren’t supposed to lie to each other anymore.”
“There’s a difference between a lie and a surprise.” Rose pressed her lips together and pouted. “If I don’t get to see yours until I go visit it, then you can’t see mine until you come visit.”
Besides, it wasn’t done yet. Not just the island itself, but there were villagers she did not want who were still hanging around, and she was still waiting on them to leave so she could go find others that she liked better. She’d done some research on it. There were a handful that she didn’t hate. (More importantly, there were a handful that she thought Luisa would like.)
Actually, come to think of it—
“Which villagers do you have?” Rose asked, feigning innocence.
Luisa’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t get to know until you come visit.”
Rose sighed. “You’re the one who wanted us to have different villagers. How am I going to know which villagers you have and which ones I’m not supposed to have unless you tell me?”
Luisa frowned. “You come visit. Or I come visit. That’s how that works.” She grinned. “Unless you want to tell me which villagers you have.”
Rose considered this for a moment. Then she nodded. “I started with Fuchsia and Biff.”
“Oh, they’re cute.” Luisa curled up on the couch next to her. “You going to keep them?”
“Fuchsia, yes. Not Biff.” Rose scowled. “I don’t see how you think he’s cute.”
Luisa shrugged. “When you get him to leave, I could come claim him.” Then she bit her lower lip. “On second thought, I don’t really want him that much.”
Rose took a deep breath and then hid her console under the couch. “Can we not talk about this?” she asked, her eyes widening in a silent sort of plea. “Not until later?”
Let me keep this a surprise.
Luisa scanned her eyes and then gave a firm nod. “Just tell me one thing first.”
Rose’s brow furrowed, but she nodded anyway.
“What flowers did you start with?”
Rose’s lips spread into an easy grin. “Roses.”