How Our Garden Grows

Amazing how life goes

Amazing how life goes

Dear Lily,

I don't know how on Earth I decided to ask you to help me. I really don't. But I think it's one of the best things I've ever done, because it led to our friendship and this love that we share now. I'm almost sorry I didn't ask you for help sooner. If I'd done that, though, I'm not sure we'd be where we are.

"Hey, nerd."

"Oh, what, no quip today about how my hair makes me look like a garden weed?"

"Nah," I said, sitting down across from her. We were both silent for a while, then I asked her the one question I told myself I wouldn't. "Will you help me?"

Slowly, she raised her head to look at me, disbelief written across her fair features. "What?"

I sighed, shifting a bit in my seat; I was uncomfortable. "I don't know how to do fractions," I said, pulling the beanie off my head so I could scratch my hair. God, it needed to be cut; I couldn't see through my bangs.

She was laughing to herself, quietly, holding her glasses on her face with one hand. "I never thought I'd see the day." Pulling out her class notes from the day before and her pencil, Dandelion leaned over the table. "So you said you like music, right?"

"Yeah. I play guitar."

"That's awesome," she said. "I wish I could do that."

"I'll teach you."

For the first time in the month and a half we'd been meeting in the library, Dandelion's smile was bright and real, and reached her eyes. "Okay," she agreed readily, happily even. "But fractions first. So, when you're reading sheet music, there's a fraction there, right?"

I nodded. "It's called a time signature."

"Right, and it means how many. . . Erm. . . Counts," she said uncertainly, "are in a measure, over the kind of note that equals one count in the song, right?"

I laughed. "Yeah. And it's beats, not counts."

"So, what is it that you're having trouble with?"

"Adding them together and subtracting them from each other."

"Okay, well, let's looks at fractions like time signatures. The numerator is the top number, and the beats per measure. The denominator is the number on the bottom, and it's represented by the kind of note that equals one beat. Now, in order to add or subtract two fractions, your bottom numbers have to be the same, or else it won't work. So, if you have a time signature of two over four, and you're trying to add it to a time signature of four over eight, you have to change the first one so it has the same bottom number. Does that make sense?"

I thought about it for a while, nodding once I understood the concept she was trying to drill into my thick skull. We worked through homework problems together, talking about our interests while we went.

"So what kind of music do you like, Dandelion?"

"Yes," she said, not really answering my question.

"What do you mean, 'yes'?"

"I listen to everything, so it was faster to just say yes than it would have been to list every type of music I listen to."

"So. . . smooth jazz?"

"Yes."

"Electro-pop?"

"Yes."

"Latin?"

"Sure."

"Dubstep?"

"Not my favorite, but it does have its moments."

"Death metal?"

"Hell yeah."

"Country?"

"When it suits me."

"Pop?"

"I don't know a single person who doesn't know at least one pop song."

"Indie?"

"Why not?"

"Classical?"

"Beautiful."

I'll be the first to admit it; I was impressed. I didn't hesitate to tell her that, and I invited her to come see my band perform sometime.

"What kind of movies do you like, Alex," she asked after a few moments of silence.

"Really nerdy stuff," I said. "Don't tell anyone, because I have to keep up my cool guy front."

"Alex," she laughed, "Who am I going to tell? You're my only friend"

"Good point, Dandelion."

You're my only friend, too.