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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:37 pm
There were no electrical outlets in Meadowview lockers. Tara had to make do with a small battery-powered lamp, which she clipped to a slat in the locker door. There was a small bottle of water in the locker as well. She had stopped short of getting a tiny fan, feeling that aloe vera probably didn't care too much about wind, and even if it did, there wasn't much to be had in such a small space.
Even Tara wasn't completely sure why she had brought the plant to school. It probably would have survived just fine in her bedroom window. But shortly after she had planted it she had brought it in with her and only took it home on weekends. According to her severely limited expertise, it appeared to be thriving. At the very least, it hadn't died yet.
Though school had let out a short while ago, Tara still had some time before cheerleading practice, so she stood by her open locker, talking to the plant and checking it over. The gap where she'd broken off a leaf was healing, or so she guessed. "Let me get you some more water," she said softly, grabbing the empty bottle and running off to the water fountain.
The locker door was left wide open. Even with school officially out, there were still people in the hallways, but Tara didn't seem to notice as she ran to the nearest fountain and filled up the bottle.
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:53 pm
Calintha had been mostly minding her own business, leaving a little late after classes because she needed to fill out some paperwork for the office. She turned down the same hallway she always did, backpack slung halfway off of her shoulders, and headed for the same set of stairs at the end of the row of lockers. It was just like any other day, until she saw a flash of green next to her (which was strange, considering the Meadowview lockers in this part of the school were blue). The blonde stopped and turned a bit, looking at what had caught her eye. It was an Aloe Vera plant, shoved into a locker. A frown tugged at the corner of her lips. Perhaps, though, it was just there temporarily? The locker had been left open after all. A quick look at the rest of the locker had dispelled that theory rather quickly. The other stuff in the locker had been arranged around the unfortunate plant, and there was even a little lamp secured to the grating. The frown that had simply tugged before turned into a full fledged sad face. Calintha didn't enjoy seeing plants treated so poorly, even if it wasn't intentional. She moved in closer to take a look at the thing, not thinking about what the owner would say about it. It looked...alright, all things considered. If it was kept in such conditions much longer though it would start to die.
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Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:45 pm
In her haste, Tara spilled half the contents of the bottle on the floor. She skidded and slid on the cheap linoleum, sliding right past her locker at first. It was only when reached the end of the row that she realized her mistake- that the girl she passed wasn't peeking into a locker of her own, but into hers.
"Hey!" She skated back down the hallway, slamming into an adjacent locker when she couldn't stop any other way. "That's my locker," she said, not very helpfully. The rest of her message was implied by the look she was giving, which clearly said what mischief are you up to?
As she continued to stare, however, her ferocity lessened. "Have we met before?" she asked, her tone far more friendly. "You look really familiar. Do we have classes together? Were you looking for me, maybe?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:06 pm
Calintha was startled when another girl addressed her in the hallway. So this was the owner of the sad plant, shoved into a locker. She kept on frowning. "Is this your plant?" At the mention of having met before, the girls brown eyes did a sweep of the girl in front of her. She did have a vague knowledge of the girl, but she couldn't quite place it. It was like deja vu or something. But whatever it was, Calintha just shrugged it off, figuring that she would piece it together later. "No, I don't think so. I was just walking by and noticed your....plant." Her eyebrows furrowed a bit. "Does... Does it live in your locker?" She was almost afraid to ask. Calintha really, really hoped that she was wrong and it was temporary. Or for an assignment or something, but regardless, that plant needed to get out of the locker and into a nice sunny window.
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Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:27 pm
Despite the fact that she constantly told people she wasn't a plant expert, Tara took pride in her little aloe vera. "It's nice, isn't it? I've been taking really good care of it. I was worried about it at home all day, so I started bringing it with me. Do you like the setup?"
Tara adjusted the light over the plant and opened her bottle of water, letting a trickle douse the leaves. "It lives here during the week. On weekends I take it home. Why? Do you want one too?"
For some reason, the fact that this girl was familiar really stuck in Tara's mind. But putting together faces and names wasn't her strong suit, so she could only hope the other girl remembered first.
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Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:43 pm
One of her blonde eyebrows raised, followed by a look of 'oh really?'. She kept staring at the girl in front of her while she rambled through her explanations. For as much as she shouldn't care or be upset at how this girl treated her plants, she was. For Calintha the dedicated botanist, it was almost as bad as animal abuse (plants have feelings too!). "I actually have three of them currently, though one is set to be shipped tomorrow." The girl might have actually cringed when the other girl poured water all over the plant, and then shone a light directly on it. Her tone was business like, for lack of a better description. She was trying very hard not to get upset. "You do realize that this plant is going to die if you keep it in here any longer, right?" She stared at the girl in front of her, too upset to try and place her face. Calintha didn't want a plant to die where it could have been avoided.
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Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:59 pm
"Shipped? Do you work for a greenhouse or something?" Tara was genuinely interested, at least as long as she was working with plants herself. "I'm not much of an expert myself, but I think I've been doing-"
She trailed off, as the rest of what the girl was telling her set in. Apparently she hadn't been doing a pretty good job after all.
"Die?" Tara's voice squeaked slightly. She nearly dropped the bottle, catching it just in time and setting it on the shelf in her locker. "But why? I've been looking after it, making sure it got plenty of light, lots of water... so what's the problem? I don't get it. How can you tell?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:10 pm
"Sort of I guess. I have my own set up and sell things privately." It made it sound a lot shadier than it actually was. She was just the run of the mill high school girl with a side job! Calintha was actually nothing like the average high schooler, but that didn't matter to much, at least not to her. "Aloe vera plants are a lot like cacti, they like plenty of natural sunlight and don't need a lot of water. And when you water the leaves like that, and then shine a light on it, the water works like a magnifying glass." She reached her hand inside the locker, pointing out a few little brown spots. They didn't seem like much now, but if it the habits kept up, the plant would suffer. Calintha could get more technical about the other cultivation needs of an Aloe Vera plant, but she didn't want to overload the suspiciously familiar girl with too much too soon. "Tell me how you've been taking care of it? Like, how much and how often do you water, and how much light does it get. Also, is that a UV lamp or a normal light?" The blonde prayed the answer was 'UV lamp'.
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Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:36 pm
Yep, definitely impressive. "Really? You know, you hear all the time about kids our age running their own businesses, but I don't think I actually know any. Do you make a lot of money? When did you start? Do you have any advice?"
Not that Tara had any plans to set up her own business (yet), but she always liked to get advice. She didn't mind when other people were successful, as long as they shared some tips and weren't keeping her from being successful too.
"Oh man, that totally makes sense!" Tara peered closely at the leaves and undid her uniform's tie, wiping them dry as best she could. "I didn't mean to hurt it, I just wanted to make sure it got enough water all over. I'll pay more attention when I water it now. Should I only do it at night?" She felt the soul and decided it didn't need more yet, but felt like she should make sure.
"Um. I keep the light on all day, and late in the afternoons on days when I have practice or stay to do my homework." When she bothered to do her homework, which wasn't often. "I water it every day, uh... I don't know what kind of light it is. But I talk to it a lot. That's supposed to help, right?"
Tara looked completely abashed. The plant was supposed to connect her to Laney. It was not supposed to get sick. She didn't normally believe in omens, but if she did, this would be a very bad one.
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2010 11:01 am
Calintha blinked a few times at the sheer number of questions she was being asked. She simply interjected a few one short answers between them, hoping they would make sense. "Uh, a few years ago. I make enough to get by and cover groceries and stuff. And... I guess as far as advice, be organized?" Calintha moved in closer to the locker. She inspected the light first, and after a few seconds of looking at it reached up and popped off the little plastic piece that covered the light on the bottom. She handed it to the girl next to her. "The light is UV, but it had a shield on it. If you want to bring your plant here occasionally, this light should do just fine now." She tried to stress the word occasionally. UV lamps were a great alternative, but natural sunlight was still the best. The girl gently moved the plant forward in the locker, placing it at the edge. She poked and prodded at it for a while, checking its leaves and base. "Yes, music and talking is stimulating for plants." Finally, she grasped it by the bottom and lifted it cleanly out of the pot. Calintha had done it enough times to make sure there was minimal spillage; only a little dirt cascaded onto the ground. The roots seemed fine, though they were starting to get waterlogged. The blonde girl placed the plant back in the pot and patted the top down. "It'll be okay so long as you stop watering it so much." She turned and gave the other girl a smile. The aloe wasn't in as bad of shape as she had originally thought. The soil was a fine choice, and the terracotta pot was what was recommended. "You should only water it when the soil has mostly dried out. Stick your finger into the dirt at least an inch to check it. And of course, natural sunlight really is best." She hoped the girl would take care of it properly now. Maybe this would even spur her to do some research about it. Either way, Calintha felt like a biologist hero, saving plants one locker at a time.
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 9:05 pm
That was not exactly what Tara was looking for when she asked for advice, but she was too impressed by Calintha to notice, and too dismayed to care. She just nodded blankly, looking at her poor plant she was slowly torturing without knowing it.
"I didn't even notice," she said quietly, mostly to herself. "I should have figured it didn't need that much water. Laney's is doing fine, and I doubt the nurses water it between visits." She sighed and watched as the plant was expertly inspected, brightening slightly when it the prognosis wasn't too grim.
"Can you hold on a sec? Let me write this down or I'll forget." Tara reached into her locker and pulled out a small notebook with pen clipped to the cover. "Okay," she muttered, flipping open the cover and uncapping the pen. "UV light is not as good as sunlight, but better than not UV light. Talking is good. Watering too much is not good. Let it dry more between watering."
She jotted down a few more notes before pausing, pen still poised above the paper. There was another question on her mind, but she was having difficulty forming it. "I've got this... this friend. I'm taking care of some plants for her while she's... away. And I'm worried I haven't been doing a good job. They don't get watered as often, but there really isn't much sunlight there. Should I get one of these UV lights for them, do you think?"
Now that she had more information, Tara was determined to do a better job. While she had no plans to go into gardening full-time, she needed to know more in order to properly tend the few plants she really cared about.
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Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 1:19 am
Her eyes narrowed a bit at the mention of Laney. Well, more specifically at the mention of Laney and Nurses. It was too similar, considering the last time she'd visited, Calintha had watered an Aloe Vera plant. The girl stared at the other, the little pieces of puzzle in her brain slowly clicking into place. The blonde allowed the other girl to ask all of her questions before asking a single one of her own. "By Laney, do you mean Landscape?" It was an odd name for a girl, so if The other girl said yes, then she would know precisely why this girl looked familiar. They'd both been in the hospital after Barren Pines. This other girl was a fleeting memory for her, a group of students had left only a few days after being admitted, and those days were still a blur for Calintha.
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 1:10 am
Tara looked up from the plant, her expression clearly one of shock. It wasn't so much that Calintha recognized the name, but that she'd heard it at all, that really surprised her. Tara had a tendency to say things without noticing, and was constantly awed when people seemed to be hearing her inner thoughts.
Once she got over that bit of surprise, her eyes narrowed. "How did you know that? Did you suck it out of my mind? Are you one of them?" Tara leaned forward, inspecting every inch of the other girl that was visible to the naked eye. Nothing looked out of place, but it was difficult to tell. Aliens were so tricky these days.
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 5:39 pm
Calintha blinked in surprise. What on earth was this other girl talking about? "Am I one of who? Oh- if you mean..." She looked around at the empty hallway, dropping her voice a bit. "A Barren Pines survivor, then yes. Yes I am. That's where you look familiar from." The blonde didn't even consider the possibility that the other girl was thinking of anything other Barren Pines. That was enough conspiracy theory for her, thank you very much!
"If your worried about Laney's plants, its okay. I go an visit her every now and again and take care of them. There all doing fine." She smiled, a little weakly. It was something, at least, hopefully enough to put the other girl at ease. "My name is Calintha, by the way."
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 8:55 pm
"Oh." That was not what Tara had expected. She was momentarily disappointed that yet another potential visitor from the stars was a dead end, before she realized what that actually meant. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh," she breathed, starting to get the picture. "Oh oh oh. You're not one of them, you're one of them."
Considering what came out of her mouth sometimes, it was a miracle anyone understood Tara at all.
"I had no idea. I thought- well, never mind what I thought." If Calintha hadn't picked up on her suspicions, there was no reason to scare her away with them now. "I had no idea. I'm Tara, Tara Kavanaugh."
Questions surged to the front of Tara's mind. She wanted to know what Calintha remembered, how she was feeling, if she noticed any side-effects afterwards, if she ever craved human flesh... but the last bit of the statement finally hit her, and the questions vanished once again.
Her voice, usually energetic and a bit loud, softened, and while she was still facing Calintha, her eyes seemed to be on something off in the distance. "You visit Laney? Do you know her well? I was always bad with names, and Laney is just so much better with getting to know people. She probably knows everyone's name and favorite color, and I just..." She shook her head. "It's good to hear that other people are still coming. I'm sure she's really happy."
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