Esperança 》B. Blake

1.03

[C H A P T E R   T H R E E]
The Riverside Fiasco

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FORTY MINUTES INTO THE HIKE to Mount Weather, Roseline had already named fifteen different plant species and three different trees. The only ones who seemed even remotely interested were the two boys, Jasper and Monty. Roseline had learned quickly that they were very friendly and extremely outgoing. That made it easy for Roseline to become acquainted with the pair.

Clarke, Octavia, and Finn on the other hand (she had learned Spacewalker's name by eavesdropping on his and Clarke's early conversations), were not so easy to please. She could hear Octavia's sigh of annoyance after the fifth plant identification and frankly, Roseline was offended.

She watched as Finn picked a flower off of a stump, poison sumac, she recalled and gently brought it up into Octavia's hair with a charming smile.

"Now, that, my friend, is game," Jasper nudged Monty with a grin and Roseline giggled.

"That, my friend, is poison sumac," Monty responded nonchalantly, picking up one of his own.

"What? It is?" Octavia frantically swiped the flower out of her hair while Roseline continued to giggle.

"The flowers aren't poisonous," Monty assured. "They're medicinal, calming, actually," he popped the flower into his mouth for good measure.

"His family grows all the pharmaceuticals on the Ark," Jasper gave a half smile to the others.

"Hey, guys, would you try to keep up?" Clarke turned around with a motherly tone.

"C'mon, Clarke, how do you block all this out?" Finn grinned.

"Yeah, it's a beautiful day on Earth. Why don't you enjoy this?" Roseline backed up Finn.

"Well, it's simple. I wonder, "Why haven't we seen any animals?". Maybe it's because there are none. Maybe, we've already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us. Sure is pretty, though."

"Well, why don't we ask the one girl who knows more about radiation than the rest of us? Roseline," Finn turned to the girl with a smirk. "are we going to die from all the radiation?"

Roseline stood still for a moment, racking her brain for an answer. "Well, uh, based on the fact that we're still alive after about an hour, I'd say that we have about maybe three days. But, that's if there really is a lot of radiation, which I don't think there is."

"Something just doesn't add up," Clarke murmured, clearly still skeptical. Roseline wandered over to the blonde with a bright smile and slung an arm around her shoulder.

"Earth actually has many positive qualities, you're just too focused on the negative ones. For instance," Roseline stopped and leaned into a small bush to pull out a berry the size of her nail. "this is called a tayberry, and it's really sweet."

She set the berry into Clarke's hand with a hopeful grin. Clarke gave one look at it then carefully handed it back to Roseline with a sorry smile.

"C'mon, we don't have all day," she said, walking off. Roseline shrugged and threw the berry up to catch it in her mouth before following after Clarke.