Short Stories (One shots)

Nature Freak

My parents had always had distance with me. I never knew why. They were nice and kind to me, and to everyone else (even my brother), but they seemed to not interact with me in the way that I would see in others.

 My mum was a proud lady. She worked in a florist's shop. Although it may seem boring or a low paid job, it had it's perks. Mum was the only florist in town, and when Prom came along, the majority of the seniors sought mum out. On those times, I helped her to arrange the corsages. Mum said I had a natural flair for flower arranging, and I couldn't argue with that. 

Dad was an architect. He was a hard worker and probably more creative then me. His designs were fancy- Arches, terraces, and usually he added a water feature or two in (It all depended on the budget size). Dad worked more than mum but I still saw him often. Unlike with mum, he never took me to his office, but sometimes, when I was little, he'd show me the garden of a new home. Until later, I didn't realise why, but it seems so obvious now. I was attracted to nature. My mum and dad both saw it, why did it take me until senior year of High School to notice.

It was on the only sunny weekend we had in winter when I found out why the distance. I mean, come on, I wasn't going to turn into a flower or anything. I simply liked flowers and trees and weeds.

I woke up like any other teen on a weekend, around noon, and basically crawled to the bathroom. I hated mornings. 

It took me a few minutes till I looked in the mirror (I wasn't going to succumb to vanity that easily). I screamed and heard my toothbrush's clunk as it hit the sink.

See, I'd always wanted to dye my hair after High School. Maybe lighter, maybe darker. Whatever colour, I knew it wasn't the dark blue crawling up the ends of my hair.  

I practically flew down the stairs and I could feel the anger radiating from me, but I couldn't help it.

Mum and Dad were eating breakfast at the table, but I ignored them (Although I did notice their looks at my hair). No, I wanted James.

"Open up!" I shouted, slamming my fist on his bedroom door. "You're gonna pay for what you did to my hair!" 

I had started to sob which confused me as I wasn't much of an emotional person, but I think I knew that something was wrong when James opened his door.

James doesn't like confrontation of any kind, even though he may sometimes initiate it, so when I come to complain about him, he hides in his room for as long as possible. Mum often has to drag him out to talk "civilly" about the issue.

James looked bleary eyed and confused too.

"Whoa, what's up with your hair? It looks like something barfed blue on you."

I stared at him for a moment. "That's what I was going to ask you."

"I didn't do it!" He pleaded. 

"What's the ruckus?" Mum asked, not looking anywhere except the creeping strands of blue hair.

At this point, I think I started to become slightly hysterical. I didn't want blue hair. I was getting used to my natural hair. 

Mum guided me to one of the recliners in the living room. She sat on the sofa. She looked sad, tired and her wrinkles of age were exaggerated for a while. I saw it in her weary expression. She knew something.

"Look, if you let another of those kids at school inside and they swapped out my shampoo, I'll stop talking to you again. It wasn't funny." I said to Dad. 

"Don't look at him. That was a mistake, honey. But we, well, I have something to tell you." Mum told me.

And then she spilled all the tea she had on our ancestors. 

As Cliche as it sounds, I was apparently descended from "Fae" as Mum called them. My great grandparents were full blooded Fae, but Mum was only a half Fae as her father was human. Mum hated her Fae and longed to be normal like a full human. Dad knew Mum was Fae, and he also knew that any of their children could have the Fae blood in them. I was apparently a late bloomer. The blue hair was an indication to when a Fae was of age, and could essentially be trusted with the duties of nature that they had trained for. My mum was meant to help with the growth of plants, and that was a role only few could do. 

When I came into the picture at my birth, Mum didn't know what to do. "Raise you as a human, and give you that chance to be what I could never be? Or raise you like I was, forced to be a pawn of the systems of Earth?" She described being a Fae so hauntingly, like being supernatural was not awesome. That her florist shop was, in fact, a way to enhance my connection to nature for when I was old enough to decide to embrace my powers or not. I listened to her explain the laws of her community and what this meant for me. 

"You can study botany kind of like an apprentice of mine if you wanted." She suggested, but I didn't really want that. No offence Mum, but I didn't want to be stuck in a flower shop everyday.

"What about your community? Can we visit them?" I asked. I knew I wanted to see the potential of my abilities. I wanted to know of my new aunts, uncles and grandparents who I had never heard of. 

My mum shook her head at me. "I will not return to the one place that left me feeling suffocated. I promised myself." 

I did not feel defeated, though, but I felt saddened by my obliviousness to my own heritage. 

"Mum, I want to go visit the Fae."

"I want to go too!" James piped in, he was, after all, Fae blooded too.

"I don't want you to feel forced to do anything. Especially after learning about it only now. Listen, in a week you can tell me if you still want to go see them. Once going, there will be no reconsideration. My Mother would never allow for new Fae to escape from her." Mum said. I knew nothing of the people I so wanted to meet, but that would not deter me.

"Mum, I know I won't change my mind, but for you, I'll wait."

_________

Weird story where I had an idea of the plot, poorly executed it and then lost it altogether. But hey, at least it's something.

But Christmas is coming in three months and its extremely scary how the year ha zoomed past and I have barely posted, or even touched Wattpad since the paid stories were added.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the random idea, and I'll see you in the next post.

~Rosie