Forest Girl

Chapter 1
Steven took a bite of his egg salad sub as he looked at the night sky above the ocean. The light pollution from the town petered out as the sky started overlooking the water. However, this meant that the water could not be seen very easily except for the shore, which ebbed and flowed with very much the same soothing, predictable noises that it did in the daytime. The dark sky blending in with the ocean’s horizon made Steven think about how similar the two environments were. They both showed nothingness from the average perceiver, mysteries that could not be solved without extensive technological intervention.

Amethyst noshed at her sandwich in a way where it looked like she was making out with it.

“Om nom nom,” she said with cheeks full, very much on purpose.

Steven swallowed his mushy egg and bread and then took another bite before thinking some more. The sky and the ocean did have their differences. For one, the night sky showed everything that it could from many millions of miles away. The ocean was much more secretive, only revealing itself to the best swimmers and marine biologists (as well as Lapis Lazuli).

“Whose idea was it to have an ‘Egg Salad Sandwiches Under the Stars’ Night anyway?” asked Pearl as she continued her crocheting.

“This girl!” said Amethyst. She proudly pointed to herself using her thumb.

“I don’t get egg salad anyway. I mean, you take an aspect of a chicken’s reproductive system, cook it until it gelatinizes, mash it up, cover it in a sauce made from itself and then put it into your body?”

“Well when you put it that way, it sounds gross,” said Garnet.

“Besides, I add spicy mustard, too,” said Amethyst. “That’s the secret ingredient. And love. The other secret ingredient is love.”

“I add that.” Garnet then pointed to herself proudly.

“OK, you got me,” said Pearl, “I’m starting to become curious as to how you can add an abstract concept as an ingredient in a recipe.”

Steven thought back to a time when he was with Ronaldo and he looked out at the same night sky. He remembered what he had asked Ronaldo: “We know we’re not alone in the universe but are there any aliens that still think they are?”

And Ronaldo replied, “Highly unlikely. The universe has been around for billions of years. Surely, there are far more alien races that have been around for longer and are therefore more advanced than us. These races surely know of the others out there. And look at us: We’ve only been around for a mere 150,000 years, a miniscule fraction of the universe’s age. We’re one of the few that has yet to catch up.”

And then Steven replied, “Yeah, but we can’t be the only ones. There must be others out there not as advanced as us. And besides, if there are so many more advanced ones, why don’t they visit us?”

Ronaldo had a quick answer for this question: “You’re bringing up the ol’ Fermi Paradox, my friend. If these aliens are advanced and know about us, they should visit us. However, one answer to this is the Zoo Hypothesis, which states that the reason these aliens don’t visit us is because we are merely primitive specimens that they wish to observe without interfering. Once the time is right, they will make contact with us. If the time is never right, they would have simply wasted their time.”

“That certainly didn’t happen with the gems,” replied Steven. “I think there are more primitive alien species than we think. And they think that the universe is tiny and that they are the center of it, which I suppose is what the gems also think in a way.”

Back in the present time, Steven wasn’t alone and he couldn’t have been happier.

“You know what would go great with these?” he asked.

“Ohh… I know what you’re going to say,” said Amethyst.

“Fry bits! The fry place should be closing up soon, which means we have to hurry and get ours.”

Steven and Amethyst hurried to the boardwalk where, thankfully, the lights were still on at Beach Citywalk Fries. When they arrived, there was no one manning the fryers but Peedee was doing the dishes. Steven was usually one to be patient but it was simply too much to ask for Amethyst.

“I think you know exactly what we want!” said Amethyst in a loud, sing-songy tone.

Peedee looked up from scrubbing a frying basket. He looked startled until he saw that it was just a regular customer.

“Oh…” he said, “My dad will be with you soon enough. He’s just on the phone right now.”

Mr. Fryman’s conversation could be heard quite well within that one-room building. It was difficult not to eavesdrop.

“What do you mean, Tom?” he asked to the man at the other end, “You sounded hopeless yesterday. You said the blight made this the worst potato harvest in recent years. And now you’re saying that everything is all hunky-dory now?” Mr. Fryman was quite impassioned with these business matters but as with all small business owners, he had a good reason to be. “That can’t be possible. You said that the harvest was getting worse over the past few weeks. It can’t be cleared up in a day… What do you think caused it?... Maybe you imagined all this. You are a little on the older side… no offense…”

Steven looked at Amethyst, who was listening just as closely.

“Well, either way, this is good news. Send the new shipment of potatoes over as soon as you can… all right, have a good night.” Mr. Fryman hung up the phone. He looked confused and exhausted but was happy to return to his beloved customers.

“Well, everyone,” he said to his two sons, “The crisis has been averted. We have a good season for potatoes as far as we know… although it’s a little hard to believe considering the turmoil of the past few weeks.”

“Yay!” said Peedee.

“And it will mean that there will be plenty of fry bits for these two dedicated customers,” he said looking at Steven and Amethyst.

“Aw, yeah!” said Amethyst.

Mr. Fryman scraped the bottom of the fryer and scooped up some crumbled, semi-burt bits of potato that were simply glistening with grease. When he set them on the counter, Steven took out the exact amount needed to pay him. He had gotten this particular item before so he did not need to wait for Mr. Fryman to mention the price.

“Thank you!” said Steven, always the polite little gentleman.

The two of them walked down the boardwalk, serenaded by the sounds of ocean waves. The wooden boards below were illuminated by the lights, which were shining even though many of the stores were closing. Mayor Dewey was all about safety, although Steven never understood how punk kids could commit crimes when they couldn’t see anything.

“All right, now our dinner under the stars is complete,” said Amethyst.

“I’m a little curious about what was happening over the phone with Mr. Fryman,” said Steven.

“I don’t really care. I usually don’t pay attention to current events. What matter was that there was a crisis and that it was averted. Therefore, it should be swept under the rug.”

Steven wondered if this was one sign that he was maturing. He was becoming more aware of what was going on around him and how it connected to larger things like politics and societal institutions. He saw how it directly affected him. This meant that it would directly affect other people as well since he obviously wasn’t the only customer that the Fry Shack had.

“As for right now, the stars are callin’ our names, Steevey-Steevey-Bofeevey-Banana-Fanna-Fofanna.”

“Huh. You’ve never called me that before.”

“Well I feel good when we get fry bits. And the bumper crop of potatoes means there’s more to come.”

The next day was a perfect day to run errands. It was a weekend, which meant that there was much more foot traffic in Beach City than usual, mostly from people who were visiting from outside the city. This meant that there were more people to meet, which meant more potential friends. It was also one of those days when the gems wore their nice sun dresses, including Garnet, although that usually wasn’t her style. Steven thought that she looked nice and that she shouldn’t be afraid of showing a little more of her feminine side, which he knew she had since half of her was made up of Sapphire.

“Maybe Mr. Smiley will get my hint and won’t stuff the GUYS machine with just Dave Guys,” said Steven.

“You’ve collected them all, isn’t that enough?” asked Pearl. “Years from now, they’ll be worth a lot and I can sell the extra ones like what Amethyst did with her beanbag animal collection from two decades ago.”

“What can I say?” asked Amethyst, “Kid’s learning from the master.”

The boardwalk was crowded enough so that the four of them didn’t notice the unusually big crowd in front of Fish Stew Pizza. Once several people moved out of the way, a sign was revealed: “Today only: Free pizza! One slice per customer.”

“Whoa!” said Steven, “Free pizza, you guys!”

“I’m-a eat it all!” growled Amethyst, almost sounding like she was about to transform into one of the species of big cats.

“Amethyst, the sign says ‘one per customer,’” said Pearl.

“Uh… I’m shape-shifter? Duh.” Amethyst then used her abilities to flawlessly take on the form of as many people as she could see, staying in each form for one second each.

“They’re eventually going to catch on to the fact that each one of your forms is purple.”

“She’ll learn eventually, Pearl,” said Garnet, “Let her do her own thing. She’s certainly old enough.”

Pearl looked beside her and saw a mother pushing her one-year-old child in a stroller. The child was not quite old enough to understand the significance of the sign in front of her or why so many people were attracted to the building that the sign was associated with but she did not care. The child moved her arms up and down forcefully and babbled something incoherent until her mother gave her a rubber duck to play with. Pearl smiled at the child and then went back to paying attention to the crowd.

As expected, Amethyst got in line before Steven did. Since no monetary transactions had to be made, the line moved much quicker than usual.

Steven eventually stepped through the door and saw an active environment where people were sitting, talking, reading things on their phones and, of course, eating. The noise was amplified by the small space and they made as much use of this small space as possible. They did not even care that there weren’t enough tables to accommodate everyone.

Soon, it came Steven’s turn in line and the Pizza Sisters gave him his slice without a second thought.

“Dad, are those pies almost done?” Kiki shouted behind her toward the kitchen.

“Pies take time, Kiki!” said Kofi as he tended to the oven, “Tell those customers to move slowly.”

“I don’t think she can do that,” said Nanafua as she walked past her son carrying a bag of flour.

Steven knew that his time in line was limited, so he asked his question as quickly as possible.

“What’s going on here?” he asked Kiki.

“It’s Free Pizza Day in case you missed the sign!” said Jenny.

“I know that. But I never saw it advertised before this, not even yesterday. Why did you suddenly have it today?”

“It’s because a miracle happened, Steven!” said Nanafua. She had clearly been waiting for someone to ask about this from the way she swooned at her own answer. “The farms that provide our ingredients saw a boost in product! So many tomatoes and basil and peppers! So much grain for the flour! The cows are practically bursting with milk for our cheese!”

At this point, Steven knew that both this and the potato incident were connected. They had to have been; they were similar in nature and they happened so close together in time. All of a sudden, he was interested in looking at news websites to see if this was mentioned anywhere.

“Enjoy this while you can because starting tomorrow, you have to pay full price for pizza again!” said Kofi. He was covered in sweat from the man power he put into making each pie and making sure that each one was in the oven for just the right amount of time.

“Kofi, with you it’s always yesterday-this and tomorrow-that,” said Nanafua, “Why can’t you live in the present?”

Steven received his oversized pizza slice on the flimsy paper plate and walked away from the counter. He sat as comfortably as he could against the wall to eat his lunch. Now that he was in a position where he wasn’t interrupting anyone or being noticed by people, he could do some more thinking. Was this a monster doing this? No, monsters normally caused havoc and did so directly toward him and the Crystal Gems. Was it unusually good weather? No, the weather wasn’t any more or less sunny and breezy than it was yesterday. Or was it… a gem? What gem could do this?

But Steven could afford to take Nanafua’s advice and live in the present moment, especially when he had Amethyst’s antics right in front of him.

A burly man with bulging muscles wearing a tank top and bearing tattoos was next in line. He had chains attached to his pants and bruises in random places that had their own stories to tell. Oh yeah, and he also had noticeably purple skin.

“One slice, please,” “he” said in a fake tough voice that was just feminine enough to not be convincing.

“Wait a minute,” said Kofi. He transferred another pie from the long, wooden paddle to the circle-shaped pan for display. “Aren’t you that biker man we just served… Rufus?”

“No, I’m not. I’m his twin brother… er… Doofus. I was involved in a fight at a paint factory. The family running it has some very shady history.”

Steven had no reason to do the wondering himself when he could always wait to go to someone who was knowledgeable enough in the paranormal to do all that wondering for him. In the meantime, he welcomed the bounty that this… thing… was giving the people of Beach City. But the question was, would this bounty last?