Kieran Tate is the type of person who just floats through life. He had a somewhat average childhood, has somewhat average grades, and isn't really anything special. That's the way he likes it to be; do all of the needed tricks without falling off th...
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Walking up to the school entrance, I catch my favorite girl in the distance among the small flower fields. I waste no time before approaching Lilah.
When I finally get close to her, she still hasn't noticed my presence, which is quite funny because I'm doing nothing to be discrete. I peek over her shoulder and finally catch the new fancy schmancy camera in her hands. I look where the lens is pointed and see a bumble bee on the small white flower she is examining. Just when her finger hovers over the shutter button, I let myself be known.
"Hey, cricket!" I nearly scream, pinching both of her shoulders.
She abruptly shoots up with a startled shriek, whipping around to face me. When she takes in my amused snorts, she huffs cutely.
"Kier," she whines defeatedly before pointing to the grass. "Look, he's gone."
I glance back at the flower and see that the distinct black and yellow stripes are now gone.
"Uh, you're welcome," I remark. "I love you, but making friends with something that probably wants to sting your face off definitely isn't the best decision."
"That's not true," she states matter-of-factly before kneeling down and aiming her camera at the now vacant flower. "The bee was a male, and they don't even have stingers. Even if it was a female, they aren't aggressive unless you threaten them." She snaps a photo of the flower before changing her angle. "Bees are very gentle. If you ask me, they are the most important and misunderstood bug."
If anyone else was trying to educate me about bugs, I would probably make fun of them for the rest of their life, but coming from the girl who is so passionate about any little critter, her enthusiasm is infectious. I can't help but smile as I listen to her spiel about nature while she snaps photos of all the things she finds beauty in.
"I don't think that most people realize that they are the main catalyst to our nutrition," she continues. "Yeah, they pollinate flowers, but they pollinate crops and produce too. Besides, I would never be able to drink a full cup of tea when I'm sick if I don't drown it in honey first."
"Fair point," I laugh.
She giggles softly before standing up. This time, her camera slowly pans across the whole environment and eventually to my face. I, of course, have to make an ugly face as I do every time she snaps pictures of me. At this point, she probably has more unattractive pictures of me than Jackson does, which is saying a lot since he likes to prank me in my sleep and take blurry pictures from all sorts of ugly angles.
"I just can't imagine doing so much for the world and only getting a bad reputation in return. It's sad that such a nice species is so heavily misunderstood," she says, her mouth twisting into a thoughtful pout.
"Like you." She raises an eyebrow, not sure whether she is supposed to be more confused or offended. "N-Not the species part, but the misunderstood part," I clarify.
