Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Wishing Tree (2) : Your wish is only said to come true if you grant the wish of someone else; when you write your wish, you must also take one off of the tree and do your best to grant it. What wish do you pull off, and how do you intend to ‘grant’ it? Do you work with someone else to grant this wish, or do you work alone? You may get approval from another player to use the wish their character hung up, but no names are attached so your character may not ever know who wrote it!

Drew and Dari (who was in his cat form for once), had gotten up extremely early - before dawn, and went out to a gardening store, also known as a floral shop. Drew knew about the shop as his twin sister used to work there ... well that was a long story - but it was her former foster mother's business, and some of her former foster siblings worked there now - Laurie Brox - a floral legend, and owner of the shop - called D.D. by her kids, was known to help troubled kids in foster care, (at least the older kids) by giving them a chance to learn responsibility and trust, by giving them a chance to work in her store, the younger kids got to go to fun classes and learn about gardening as well as anything to do with plants and why they are important to our world and also to us as Humans; while all ages were allowed in her floral arrangement classes (though they did not come for free) - the two classes themselves were open to the public.

Dari complained on the way, but Drew spoke to him firmly. "It is tradition, you want your wish to come true- you need to help his wish come true." Dari didn't speak after that.

When they entered the shop, Laurie was surprised to see him - actually, after all this time - he was surprised, she recognized him.

"Why Drew, what are you doing here? I didn't know you had an interest in flowers or such?" She wasn't angry or resentful, but pleasantly surprised.
"Star Fest, Ma'am. Star Fest Wishing Tree that is. I have to grant a Wish." He grinned to show her he was actually happy about it, and then showed her the wish. "I thought you would be the expert on it - and I wanted to do more than just enjoy nature - there is a park around here that some hooligans have just torn apart. I figure, it would be nice to spend the fixing it up - planting trees and making flowerbeds and cleaning up the trash." He was excited about it now.

Dari saw his Daddy's plan and loved it. He started mewing in pleasure.

Dari nodded to Jason silently.

Drew grinned at him. "Hey, Jason. It's a bit complicated, but Laurie here, or D.D. as her foster kids call her, was Dria's - (you remember, my twin sister) foster mother for a while. D.D runs this shop with her love for flowers and plants - and often gives jobs to some of her kids who are in some kind of trouble - to help them learn responsibility among other things as well. Dria had a job here at one time, and also learned to be an excellent flower arranger - still does time to time to calm herself down when she is upset."

Laurie smiled, "And I was just thinking that Drew and Dria had forgotten about little old me. So whatcha here for boys? Drew, you were saying that you wanted to enjoy nature all day today by fixing a wonderful small park, damaged by hooligans? I think I can help with the supplies with that? But what about workers? I'm not sure you can do all that all, and what about you, sir? Jason is it?"

Laurie nodded to the young man watering the flowers. "Kane, will you round up the others, we're going to have a day at the park." He nodded and walked into the back room.

Drew turned to Jason and smiled. "Remember what I said? Laurie is always looking for opportunities to teach all the kids in her group home how to have a good conscience." His eyes went to the floor. "Jason, many of these kids; life hasn't treated them as well as us." He frowned. "I'm going to work on getting lunch for everyone too. You coming?"

Dari, was still looking sadly after Kane.

Drew grinned. "I was thinking subway. Laurie tries to teach the kids to try to eat better:" Drew knew that his family was doing well, but also remembered the hard times - when Dria disappeared... Mom and Dad had spent every cent (literally), both to get him help, and to find Dria. They were blessed to be a family again, and to get it all back.

Dari jumped off Drew's shoulders and trotted out the door without a word. There was a bit of a flash. Then a human boy, who could have been Drew at eight-years-old, except for his chocolate brown eyes walked in. He had dreads that reached his chin and wore a black t-shirt (to not stain it) and some jeans. He wore no shoes.

"Hello, I'm here to help. But I can only stay one hour." He said quietly.

"Excellent, except that I'm paying you back half of it!" Drew said. After the Order was made, Laurie brought the kids out, Kane, a set of red-haired boy-girl twins about 17, a set of brown-haired twin boys about 12 and a young girl about 8.

Laurie nudged Drew, and gestured to the young boy with chocolate-colored eyes that looked similar to him, and asked, "So who is your friend, Drew? He's another one I haven't met. And where are his shoes?"

Drew and the boy grew tense. "He's uh, my cousin, Dare" (pronounced Dar), "and he's come to help to today. He's a little shy. And as for the shoes... He's going through a phase... "