Tales Of Folklore

August

Seasons after seasons went away, and 10 years passed like a summer bliss.

Everyone had changed, but the traditions stayed the same. It was summer again, the beginning of August. That meant it was the time for the summer fest, which only the seniors were allowed to attend.

The high school organises a party every year just before the summer hits, just before vacations begin. No one was in grade school anymore. They didn't play hide and seek, and the gossips wasn't "you know, the forest has ghosts" anymore. Now they talk about who is dating whom and who cheated on whom. They grew up a little with every passing summer, but growing up also meant meeting new people, and isn't summer the best time to forget everything, every worry like the waves from the sea erasing the uneven surface on the sand? It was finally time for the wave.

"Augustine, stop putting flowers everywhere." Committee members scold.

Augustine makes an oppsie face but she isn't sorry. She'd add flowers everywhere and it still won't ever be enough for her.

Every year the summer fest was decorated by sophomore students and had a very subtle theme. This time, Augustine being the decider of the theme, "What about cottagecore?" And since the grade was filled with unimaginative people, the only idea was given by Augustine.

Everyone knew she loved nature but to cover the whole gymnasium in greens with flowers and wood was a little overboard, everyone thought. But since it was the only option, so be it.

Now they were decorating the halls and walls with blossom, just 2 hours before nightfall as she didn't want the seniors to see the wilted side of nature.

"She is doing all this for that guy she stares at in the cafeteria" her classmates mock.

"What's his name again? Doesn't he have a girlfriend?" One of them asks.

"James, and he might. I'll be surprised if he didn't though. He is at the top of his class and looks so fine". Augustine blushed. Her classmates nudges each other whole control8ng a very obvious laugh.

"So? Am not doing anything, just looking and admiring." She wasn't wrong, she wasn't even planning on doing anything about it, looking was enough, for her it was enough. The only time she had talked to James was when he came near the creek while she was appreciating the beauty of the lake.

Augustine didn't know if it was her love for nature that attracted her to those green eyes or was it the civility in his "good morning" voice. This was the first and last time they talked - which honestly wasn't much of a talk. She wasn't in love with him or anything. He was nothing more than a mere sighting she liked to see every morning when he ran by the woods.

Augustine had crushes before and she pretty much got obsessed with them for a while. Once a guy opened the door for her in 6th grade, she searched for him in the hallways for 4 months, until her attachment wore off. And when her seatmate said, "Your flower crown looks nice". Augustine for sure thought he was in love with her until she found out she looked like his sister. There were more, but none of them lasted longer than 4 months.

She had never been in love.

"How are you going into your nasty forest cabin after this?" Augustine is mostly mocked by all her classmates. They are jealous of how rosy Augustine is. She is pretty but mostly wasn’t as talkative as others. So she hangs out with any group of girls who invites her or at least keeps her around even though they treat her like trash. The girls get more attention when Augustine js around because guys would come to her but her nervous stutterings blows them off immediately and then they'd fall right into any other girl's lap. She was never the one anyone would look at for long.