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 Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 1:31 pm
Today was one of those sunny days where if you were inside, you thought to yourself "Hmmmm, I should go outside and enjoy this sunshine!" Many students were out and about, many hanging out after class, and others practicing their various sports. Yvette was not immune to this lure of the sunshine. She had just gotten out of her last class of the day, so she was still dressed up in her school uniform. Exiting the classroom, she had to shield her eyes slightly. Even though the bright light did sting her eyes initially, she could not deny that she needed to be outside.
Where as many students were hanging out with friends, Yvette walked by herself. She didn't know where she was going, but as long as she was in the sunshine, she didn't care where her feet led her. She admired the scenery, even if it was mostly just buildings and man-made features. Yet gradually, the scenery went from artificial to natural, with many plants bordering her pathway. After a lovely stroll, her feet had managed to lead her into the student gardening area. When many students had the gift of growing plants (in some sort or fashion), they needed to have such a place dedicated for their benefit. She smiled a bit as she went past the beautiful flowers and elegant plants, admiring them each casually as a civilian without real knowledge of the subject.
However, she soon enough came across other plants which did not seem to fit as well. Lush green turned into a dried up brown color as Yvette wandered up to what seemed like a patch of cactus. Her expression clearly did not try to hide the fact she was confused, but curious.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 1:46 pm
Because of the specific nature of the plants that she was growing, Calintha had been given a small patch of a land and an elegant little greenhouse all to herself. The outside plants were ones that would do well in the climate: cacti, hardy blooming plants and the crawler vines that needed trees to feast on (of which there were a few, framing the greenhouse). Inside where the more delicate plants, tropical varieties of rare flowers (some of which were obtained by Cali in... less than legal ways), and her favorite, the carnivorous plants. Trumpets, bloodwarts, venus fly traps and other blood thirsty varieties decorated most of the inside.
She'd gotton out of class earlier that day and headed straight to the garden. Wiping some dirt on her face, Cali grabbed her gloves and trimming tools and stepped outside the greenhouse. She turned her attention immediately to the crawler vines; they'd been a little neglected as of late and needed a good trimming, particularly to keep them out of the greenhouse.
Once outside she noticed another student wandering down the path. The blonde didnt recognize her much, she'd definitely seen her around somewhere but for some reason Cali couldnt recall the other girls name. It wasnt often you saw a non-gardening student down this far- Cali's patch was near the end of the row, nearest to the woods on the side.
Part of Cali hoped the other girl would see her and come talk to her, and the more awkward side of her was hoping to be left to her gardening in peace. Caught between the two, all she could do was manage an awkward half wave.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:07 pm
It took her a moment or two to get over the initial shock of the cactus, but when she did, her eyes blinked, then glanced around the vicinity. There were a couple of trees with vines on them of all things. It looked strangely beautiful, but again, Yvette pointed out to herself mentally she did not have a trained eye for this sort of stuff.
However, a small hint of movement attracted the attention of her deep purple eyes. Blinking as she turned to look, she soon enough found a girl standing there, waving politely. Now, Yvette wasn't 100% familiar with this girl, but she liked to think of herself as a (quiet) social butterfly. If she recalled correctly, the girl's name was Calintha. The dark haired girl wasn't 100% certain, but it did sound about right.
Carefully, she began to make her way towards the edge of the path, as close as she could without overstepping boundaries (or in this case, off the path). She called out in greeting and returned the wave, but her voice was quite small, so it might have been hard to hear: "Hey there!"
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:49 pm
Calintha also felt her own feet moving towards the other girl, who's name certainly started with a 'Y' but that was where her memory stopped. This encounter could turn out to be very awkward and Cali was getting nervous about it. "H..Hello." The girl smiled awkwardly at the other while she picked her way through the desert garden. Thankfully her feet knew the path well otherwise she would be stumbling all over herself.
Once she got to the path she stopped abruptly a few feet away from the other girl. Cali was a dirty mess in her gardening outfit-ripped jeans which had been turned a sandy brown color from the dirt and dust, and a looser fitting dark red tshirt with the sleeves rolled up with some no-longer readable text on it. "What brings you so far out into the gardens?" Might as well make small talk, it was one of the things that Cali was good at.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:39 pm
Thankfully, the blonde made her way towards her, rather than expecting poor Yvette to get herself tangled up in the cactus. She mentally shuddered (while keeping her physical self quite collected) at the thought of getting covered in little needles. Being familiar with sewing needles, she had in the past pricked her finger on many occasions. Sewing needles and cactus needles were very different, but getting pricked by a cactus ensured at least a whole patch of prickles, rather than just one small p***k.
Taking a quick look over the girl, she could tell she didn't come from a class just now. Maybe she had a free period to tend to her plants. Yvette was hesitant to call such a garden, since it really seemed like anything but a garden.
In response to the questioning, Yvette's cheeks seemed to grow a bit rosy, as they did from time to time. Rather honestly, she admitted "I was just enjoying a walk, since the weather is so nice today." She paused here, then made certain to double check something she had mildly wondered about earlier. "Calintha, right?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:30 am
Calintha nodded. "Yea, its super nice today. I managed to get out of one of my classes to tend." She smiled. It was just math anyways, who really needed that? As long as Cali brought her math teacher fresh flowers (graciously loaned by one of the other gardening students that Cali got along with, who's specialty included gorgeous blossoms) all would be forgiven.
"Yup, thats my name...though I must admit, I'm horrible with names. I know that yours starts with a 'Y', but I cant remember the rest." She blushed, embarrassed by her lack of knowledge. I mean, she'd practically been at this school since forever (right?), she should know everyone by now.
Scuffling awkwardly, she waited for the other girl to respond, hoping she hadnt offended.
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 12:01 pm
Now, Yvette had a tiny voice, this much was well known. Yet, just now, she giggled, and surprisingly enough, the giggle was even tinier than her soft voice. It almost sounded like a gerbil in pitch, but it was even quieter.
"Well, I think that means you've seen my name on paper then. I'm Yvette (prounounced Ee-vet), which doesn't look the same way it sounds."
She glanced over to the cactus patch and sighed gently. Having a bunch of cactus wasn't exactly a bad thing. It brought variety to the gardening area, and it evoked a whole different emotion than the beautiful flowers ever could.
"You know, I wish I had brought my sketch pad with me today... I really like what you have going on here." Her cheeks flushed as she admitted such so plainly. Calintha probably heard this all the time, and she probably didn't need to hear about her emotion evoking cactus patch. People who heard compliments over and over again tended to get a bit irritable when you repeated something over and over again.
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:51 pm
Calintha barely heard the tiny giggle, but she thought it was a pretty sort of way to laugh none-the-less. Very unobtrusive, at the least. "Thats good to know." She smiled, happy that she didnt offend by her lack of name memory. "Yvette... its nice to meet you."
Cali was shocked, however, at the next statement. A compliment on her garden? The only thing she ever got compliments on from her peers was her gardening techniques, NEVER the plants themselves. None of them appreciated the beauty in the strange, nor in the amount of thought and detail that went into the layout of her garden. "You, you like my garden?"
It was kind of a new thing for her. Most people found her plants ugly particularly being raised by her mother who hated every living thing that Calintha could actually care for. "Would you like to see more then?" It was a hopeful thought, but she was beginning to like Yvette quite a lot.
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 8:05 pm
Offering a very gentle smile, the dark haired girl nodded. "Yes, of course I do! It gives a completely different message than all the other gardens here! The other ones just speak of grace and beauty. Yours appeals to cunning, and I'd even dare to say strength!"
Oh, she had said to much again! Shutting her tiny mouth up tightly, she looked up in a nearly embarrassed fashion at Calintha. Oh, she really had done it now. This blonde looked as if her words had broken her like one of those cheap little toy dolls with the soulless eyes. She shuddered slightly before returning to reality.
She has more? Not wanting to speak any further, she nodded her head in response. Well, she did just come out from that green house... oh wait, now I have to go through the cactus! Poor Yvette gulped in a bit of air, not liking the idea of becoming a pincushion.
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 10:57 am
If Calintha had rarely ever gotten compliments before... well, then she'd NEVER had a compliment like that. It made her well up with so much pride and happiness that she could barely speak! "Thank you!" It was a little breathless, but there was a whole lot of meaning and excitement in it.
Excited with the prospect of finally showing someone her greenhouse (no one but herself and her professors ever really went in there) Cali wore a huge grin. She did, thankfully however, have enough foresight to step onto the path and motioned for Yvette to follow her a little ways further, which led to a real cobblestone path leading through the garden. After seeing what she was planting, her teacher had insisted and the Barren Pines crew that'd always definitely been around forever had came and laid it down the next day.
"Follow me?" The blonde girl gestured to the quaint little path. The path led around the cacti, through the small patch that held thistle flowers and other sorts of nasty things, and finally through some of the tree's with the creeper vines on them that Cali had started to tend earlier.
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 2:46 pm
Obediently, like a lost little puppy looking to go home with anyone, the dark haired girl followed the blonde. Fortunately, there was a safe path for her to go down, 100% prickle free. Letting out a nearly inaudible relieved sigh, Yvette continued to follow. They passed the thistle, then as they passed the trees, she let out a curious "These trees look like they've been here a long time. They are not yours, are they?" She didn't exactly have a lot of knowledge about plants, but one things she did know is that trees took a long time to grow. So focused on the puzzle of the trees, she hadn't even noticed the vines curling up around the bark of the tree.
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 4:00 pm
Cali smiled, easily taking on the role of tour guides. She'd rehearsed it in her head in case her little sister had ever come to visit (but that never seemed to line up, something always prevented it from happening. To be honest...had her parents even seen Barren Pines? I mean...they must've...its definitely always been here forever. What a silly thought), or on the off chance that someone actually seemed interested.
"No, those trees were transplanted for me by the school. I'm not really sure where they got them, but they're some type of ash tree. The vines on them are mine though, and in a year or two I'm going to need several more tree transplants." She shrugged it off. It was the simple fact of life that some plants needed to kill other more boring varieties off to live on their own. If she got lucky, her vines would end up to be self-sustaining in the end, but that was a rare occurrence after the death of the host tree. Cali had been more shocked when they took to the ash tree like a champ, and flourished.
Behind the trees was a little greenhouse with its door open. The little house was made up of frosted glass and wrought iron, and little touches of charm had been affixed in the form of iron vines that snaked over the greenhouse. It seemed almost Victorian, and very out of place considering the flora around.
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:56 pm
She nodded her head as the took in the explanation. Yvette was not exactly a super artistic person when it came to most aspects of art. However, her mind was very keen on finding various themes that she herself would never really portray too frequently. Clothing didn't require themes like life and death, or as in this case, suffocation. After the explanation, she quietly added "That is pretty interesting! I would have never imagined someone growing the vines over the trees." Offering a very polite smile, she continued to follow along as she was guided to a very quaint greenhouse. Just the architecture was something that Yvette could have a sketchbook field-day with.
"So, what other sorts of plants do you grow? I highly doubt I am going to see roses in there." She offered a tiny gerbil giggle again before returning her deep purple eyes to Calintha's.
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:07 pm
Life and death was certainly prevalent in Calintha's garden. Nearly every plant there needed to kill something in order to survive, or hoarded its resources like a penny-pinching miser. "Oh, the vines need the tree to survive in the first place. They're creeper vines, and eventually they'll kill the host tree. Sometimes the vines become self supporting, but most often they either die or move to a new tree."
At the mention of roses, the blondes cheeks flushed, and she caught part of Yvette's stare with her own eyes before glancing away. "To...to be honest? I cant grow roses. Roses, violets, lilies, daisies- really anything that can be considered normal just, well, it just dies in my care." That had always been her mothers little jab at her. Why can't you grow normal things? It must mean your not normal Calintha. Why can't you grow your dear mother some roses? The thought of her mother's verbal assaults made her skin pale a little, and made her even more shy.
So, without much of a word the girl led Yvette into the greenhouse itself. The carnivorous plants were on the east wall, to the left. On the right were strange blooming things that required tropical environments (they were covered with misters and heat lamps on timers). The back wall held things that needed to be kept in isolation.
In the middle there was a workbench with a few books scattered about and a potted plant that looked like it was about to die. "These are all of the different plants that I grow- carnivorous, tropical, poisonous, well, if it takes extra care or looks strange chances are you'll find it here." She blushed a little again at the mention of strange. As if the pretty violet eyed girl in front of her needed more reasons to think her strange. "If you see any that you have questions on, you can certainly ask me about them..."
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:33 pm
Walking into the greenhouse, Yvette could not help but feel like she had been transported into a whole new world. Some aspects of it were creepy, but all in all, everything was simply interesting. Had she been the sort to get overly excited or giddy, she would have done so probably just from the fact she was not familiar with all the plants. However, she remained politely quiet as she approached what seemed to be a Venus fly trap.
"I have never seen any of these plants before in real life. I've seen them in books. It's kinda fun." She leaned in and observed the open trap. In a gentle tone, she asked "Is it okay to put my finger in there? I recall reading it was the hairs that make the mouth close up, yes?" She blushed, realizing that she now sounded like she knew what she was talking about, when she did not really know much beyond that random fact about the Venus Fly trap. Thinking it over a bit, she realized maybe the reason she approached this variety of plant first was just out of the sake of familiarity.
She glanced up and managed to catch a glimpse of the blonde while she talked about her difficulties with the common plants. Yvette's tiny mouth puckered slightly, hinting at a sympathetic look. In consolation, she mentioned "Well, nobody is perfect at everything... otherwise... otherwise I'd be a public speaker as well!" She laughed, knowing full out that her small voice would never function for such an activity.
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