Evergreen Everleigh - The Wattys 2020

Chapter Fifteen - Kite-Flying

Chapter Fifteen

Kite-Flying

Cedar is the first to successfully fly the kite. He races down the slope, trying to make up for the meager breeze. When the brightly coloured mismatched fabric shines brightly in the sun,

Juniper claps her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with excitement. Aster and Teasel try to chase after the kite and Willow is laughing at Cedar's bright red face and panting breathes when he stops running.

Leaving my side, Yarrow takes the rope from Cedar and begins to run. He's fast - perhaps faster than anyone I've ever see run. For some reason, this doesn't surprise me. There is something about his long legs and lean torso that make me think of him as an athlete. I imagine him as a swimmer. I turn away when I remind myself that I shouldn't be thinking about him this way, no matter how much Anabelle or I always liked swimmers at our old school. That is lightyears ago and the here and now is all I have left.

I sit down on the grass and watch Lady Lavender begin to braid Willow's long blonde hair. Up ahead, Aster and Teasel have tackled Yarrow to the ground and are now climbing all over him. Cedar stands on the side-lines egging them on. Juniper rushes to join in and Aloe watches her go with a smile that transforms her face. I notice Perennial looking over at me through her round glasses and when our eyes meet she smiles shyly. I smile back, grateful that her smile has made me feel as though I am part of this, rather than waiting on the periphery.

When a shadow blocks the sun, I look up to see Sweet Pea and Violet plopping onto the ground next to me.

"So you took what was going to potentially be a train wreck of a day for me, and made this."
She gestures with her arm that is not propping up Violet to the field ahead of us.

I flush at this and struggle with what to say, but before I can gather my thoughts, Sweet Pea glances up to see Perennial looking at us.

"Come over here, Per!" She shouts and poor Perennial jumps in fright and flushes beetroot before walking over to us, bringing a heavy-looking picnic basket with her. When she sits down next to Sweet Pea and begins tickling Violet's gurgling cheek, Sweet Pea turns back to me.

"Seriously, thank you. This is great."

Perennial doesn't say anything but nods in apparent agreement.

"We should really thank my mother for spending an extraordinary amount of money on unnecessary clothes," I say, smiling kindly.

At this, I lie back onto the grass and close my eyes. The back of my eyelids is burnt red from the sun. When I feel a small hand clutch the frills of one of my white ankle socks, I flinch.

Yet when Violet's small and slightly sticky hand touches my skin, I relax.

"Willow and I made up a picnic and I thought you guys might want first pick," Perennial offers the basket to Sweet Pea and I understand it to mean much more than just an offer of food. 

Sweet Pea grins at Perennial and although we are all different ages, with Sweet Pea and are being in our late teens and Perennial being only fourteen, I think that if I was to pick my friends, I'd choose these two.

Sweet Pea obviously has the same idea and she plucks three blue freesias from the grass. First, she tucks one behind her ear, hiding the stalk under her orange ribbon. Then she turns to

Perennial, whose pink ribbons is woven into her long braid and slips the flower amidst the tendrils of dark brown hair at the side of her face. I flush furiously when she touches my mess of blonde curls and begins to braid my hair into two French braids. When she tucks the flower begin my ear she laughs when a curl is already escaping.

"There. Now we are the three flower princesses." She announces. I would be touched at this, but my insides have frozen from the moment when she begins to rummage through the picnic basket too when she withdraws the punnet of strawberries. Perennial and Violet reach for one instantly. Sweet Pea gently places the basket near me but doesn't hand it to me directly.

Perennial looks anywhere but at me. No one wants to witness your demons, my mother once said.

Yet, someone is looking at me. I can feel it. Looking up, I see Aloe. She is standing with Wister some distance away, but his back to us. Her green eyes are glinting and I do not think I am imagining the challenge there. I take a deep breath and plunge a hand into the basket.

When I withdraw two apples, my mind has already begun to add up the numbers, toting up the total with the slice of buttered toast I had at breakfast. I battle the instinct for self-loathing and begin to rub the apples clean on the skirt of my canary yellow cotton dress. This time, when I look up, I see only Wister who looks as happy and as proud as I have ever seen him.

A shout from further down the fields snaps everyone's attention. Juniper has fallen and is wailing, loudly. Aloe is on her feet within seconds and running towards her, and so is Lady Lavender. It appears that in Juniper's haste to keep up with Aster and Teasel who were chasing Yarrow and Ceder, she fell and cut her leg on a stray rock. As the sounds of her wails become deafening when she falls into Aloe's arms, Aster begins to anxiously rub his ears again, squeezing his eyes shut tightly and shifting on the spot.

The scene has immediately changed from jovial to tense as Wister grips Aster by the shoulders, whispering in his ear. Willow, on the other hand, takes Teasel in a deep and motherly hug as the boy began to look lost in all of the commotions.

Aloe asks Lady Lavender if she can take Juniper back to the house to calm down and she only agrees on the condition that Wister will follow on shortly once Aster is calm. It takes a long time before Juniper's cries fade into the distance. Perennial lifts Violet into her lap and lifts up her small t-shirt and begins to blow raspberries onto her stomach. Violet's raucous screams and giggles swiftly replace Juniper's tears and Aster and Teasel begin to visibly relax. Not for the first time, today am I struck by the closeness of the group of people in front of me and how intricately they understand each other's emotions.

"When was the last time someone new came to join you?" I asked Sweet Pea, suddenly desperate for an answer that will explain their closeness. Surely only a tight-knit group with friendships built over time could be so close.

"The last person to join was Willow, almost a year ago." She answers and although this has the desired effect and relaxes me somewhat, I am struck with a new question.

"A year? Don't you all have families who will want you back?" In any of the places I had stayed before, my longest stay had been three months and my shortest only three weeks.

Sweet Pea smiles sadly. She raises a hand and tucks a stray curl behind my ear.

"No, actually. Most of us don't have any families at all. Those of us who do, may as well not as they don't want them back. You're an anomaly here, actually." 

An image of Henry and Harmony's little faces comes to mind and I think of how much they would have changed them for a year. I don't want to imagine missing out on that much of their lives. I think of this during the whole walk back up to the house and am only pulled from my reverie when I push open the bedroom door to find Aloe holding my journal and glaring at me.

"Is this true?" She asks and I freeze over.

A/N:

I hope you all enjoy this chapter guys! Xx