"How are we going to get out of this town?" Sleep filled Maple's voice. Her head lay in Staton's lap; slowly his fingers laced every red strand cascading down his thigh. A shallow sigh and a couple breaths later she sat up sitting on his lap leaning...
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**Julia's POV**
"Welcome in, are you ready to learn and get to work?" Becky beamed from across the room as soon as the door opened.
"I think so," I muttered, fiddling with the bottom of my shirt. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to wear on my first day, so I opted for a white flowy top with flowers along the chest and arms. Becky rushed over to me, nearly knocking me over with the gust of wind that followed her. I teetered on my heels, hoping to find some stability by the end of the day. If I could make it through the first day, then that would mean I may have a chance at making it through this whole thing.
My mind was racing. I wasn't ready to start working, but I knew the group needed me to help out. I had planned on going to college and studying random things until I figured out what it was I actually wanted to do. Now I was in the college of life and I'd have to figure out how to navigate this new world.
"It's Julia right?" Becky questioned, holding a clipboard in front of her. When did she grab a clipboard?
"Yes," I mumbled once more.
"Great, I just needed to put it at the top of the watering chart, as we are going to have you learn how to water all the plants in the shop today. After we do that we may work on some other things, but usually, we like to just focus on one big thing at a time." Becky used her hand to show me the plants. This made me chuckle because it was like I couldn't see the giant wall of greenery surrounding us. This was a plant shop, after all.
"Awesome!" I tried to say with a little more confidence. I knew I could take care of plants, so if that's the main thing we were doing today, then I would have this under control.
"Let's get started." Becky took me towards the first row of plants. Small baby succulents sat upright in their perfectly spaced round pots. "This one is the row that takes the longest. We can't use the hose on succulents as they don't need that much water. That means we have to water each one of these by hands with these misters."
Becky held up a tiny gold water can with a spray nozzle on the end. Okay, maybe this was going to be harder than I had originally thought it would be. She handed me a second watering can and showed me how to spray the plants. I tried to copy her motions, making sure to not give the succulents too much water.
"There you go, now you are getting it!" Becky cheered, and her encouragement made me feel better about the job I was doing. I tried to take a deep breath, but the anxious feeling wouldn't seem to go away. I wasn't sure if it would ever go away. It felt like it was going to take over my whole body. I wasn't actually nervous about watering plants. I was nervous about every single time the front door opened and the bell above it let out its ring. My eyes darted over the client to make sure they didn't have either a gun or an alcoholic beverage because both have nearly killed me in the last few weeks. That was what really caused me anxiety.
"Perfect. Now that we are done with those, let me show you how we water the rest of the plants in the store. Maybe later today we will be able to go back to the greenhouse and repot some of the dying flowers and see if we can revive any of them." Becky seemed to love her job, and she had a happiness that just glowed from her. I hoped if I stuck by her some of that happiness would sink into me. The longer we were away from home, the more my happiness disappeared.
