"You'll burn for this."
Bree simply snorted and rolled her eyes.
"I'm serious." Bloom continued , "Your mom will kill you." She nudged Bree with her elbow, a forceful shove following closely behind. Bree's laugh echoed across the sidewalk as she stepped to the side, quickly evading her friend's bony elbow.
"Bloom, what's life without a little rebellion? She'll get over it." Bree's curly hair was piled on top of her head, likely to avoid the heat of the dark curls on her neck in the summer sun. A stray curl fell between her large brown eyes, and Bree huffed a breath.
Bloom opened her mouth in retort when a black car honked at them, startling her as it zipped by. "Asshole." Bloom muttered under her breath. She adjusted her crop top and lifted her wine-red hair off the back of her neck as they walked down the sidewalk, the dry desert sun already beating down on her golden skin. It was already so, so hot, and it wasn't even nine a.m. yet.
"I really don't understand the appeal." Bloom pressed, "Are you still even planning on attending college in the Fall?"
"Probably." Bree said, her sandals clicking softly on the pavement. Her yellow sun dress ruffled in the hot California breeze. "I guess it just depends on whether I'm ready to come back by then."
"How could you not be?"
Bloom was still reeling from the bombshell that Bree had dropped moments earlier: that she booked a one-way ticket to Mexico and fully intended to backpack through Central and South America. Bloom knew better than to try to talk her out of it, or warn her against all of the reasons why this was probably a bad idea. So Bloom had kept her mouth shut. Mostly.
Bree rolled her eyes, not bothering to hide the irritation in her tone. "I know it's hard to believe, but there's a whole world outside of California, Bloom. I intend to see it."
It was something Bloom had heard countless times. Bree's desire to travel unconventionally, to see the world as something other than a tourist. A life full of culture and excitement and adventure. Bloom sometimes already felt that L.A. was too big, but Bree felt trapped here.
Bloom just snorted, and rolled her eyes.
The truth was that Bree had always been Bloom's counter. Always in motion. Bree was always planning and scheming, and apparently organizing solo travels. Bloom didn't bother wondering why Bree didn't think to invite her. She already knew the answer.
It's not like this changed anything. They were already planning on attending different colleges.
The girls stopped at the large glass doors of a coffee shop that already had a line to the door. Bloom grasped the wooden handle and heaved open the large swinging door, following Bree inside the air conditioned space. You really couldn't get away with not purchasing AC in sunny LA.
Bloom didn't bother looking at the menu, she usually ordered the same thing. Bree, on the other hand, hated drinking the same thing twice. Today she ordered some coffee with so many syrup flavors, there was no way she would even be able to taste the actual coffee.
The girls were silent as they stood off to the side of the shop, waiting at the counter for their drinks. Bree, who was quietly simmering in her mild annoyance, and Bloom deep in thought at the crushing realization that her closest friend was moving away in two weeks. And that Bloom didn't want her to go.
But Bloom kept her mouth shut. Didn't tell Bree that she wanted her to stay- that she didn't want to shorten their last summer before they went to college in different states.
The barista called their names, and Bloom grabbed her iced matcha. She swirled the paper straw in the drink a few times as they walked out of the shop, before sipping her drink.
"When does your shift start?" Bloom asked, looking up at Bree through her eyelashes. Bree towered above her a good few inches, despite Bloom standing relatively tall at 5'7". Bree was incredibly lithe and slender, the toned body of an athlete.
"My shift is nine-thirty to five." Bree said, and Bloom nodded.
She let a small smile peek through as she looked at the drink in Bree's hand. "Is that any good?"
Bree bit down on her smile, "it's... unique." She let a small snort escape as she took another drink, apparently not bothered.
Bloom's eyes softened. "I really am excited for you, I know how important this is to you. Just promise me that I'll see you plenty before you leave."
Bree pulled Bloom into a hug, holding her drink up to avoid spilling it. "Bloom, of course." They stood there for some time, Bloom breathing in the familiar floral scent of Bree's shampoo.
"I'm going to miss you." Bloom said softly, "I'm not ready for everything to change." She pulled away and Bree frowned at her.
"Change is healthy." She said, stirring her drink with her straw. "Growth is important."
Bloom checked the time on her phone. 9:25. Bree's work, a pet shop, was a ten minute walk from here. They met here in the mornings for coffee, as it was between each of their jobs. "You should go, you're going to be late."
"Shit." Bree cursed, checking the time on her watch. "I do. We'll talk later, okay?" Bree turned on her heel. "I'll text you!" She shouted over her shoulder.
Bloom hiked her bag up on her shoulder and turned in the other direction.
.
The front counter thudded with the impact of the package hitting it.
Which meant it must be Thursday, which meant Bloom must be really exhausted if she had to rely on the mail service to figure out what day it was.
Seated at the front desk of the modest flower shop, Bloom smirked as she kept her eyes on the paper she was scribbling away on. Tucking a strand of her wine-red hair behind her ear, she asked, "Isn't it a little early in the day for you to be showing up here?"
The man before the counter crossed his arms impatiently. "Why delay my least-favorite delivery of the day, when I could just get it over with instead?"
Bloom continued to doodle little flames on the piece of scratch paper before her, a faint smile playing on her lips. Slowly, she brought her blue eyes up, up, up, over the package looming before her, until they met the brown eyes of Seth Winley.
Seth's eyes twinkled mischievously as Bloom set her pen down on the counter and leaned back in her chair casually. "You should know that Vanessa is out delivering today's orders right now. I'd bet she'll be back within the next twenty minutes." Bloom crossed one leg over the other, and grabbed a strand of hair between her two fingers. She pulled it into her line of sight to examine it before dropping it and letting her hand fall.
Seth responded with a smirk and simply said, "We better not waste any time, then."
That was enough for her. Glad for the break in what had been a particularly boring morning, Bloom smiled as she rose from the desk. She sauntered past Seth, flipping her hair over her shoulder and turned the deadbolt on the front door with a satisfying click.
Seth had been right. Bloom was back in her desk chair and he had been long gone by the time Vanessa Quinn strolled into the flower shop, looking more put together than any person has the right to in the stifling California heat. The back store-room had been so suffocatingly earlier that Bloom had nearly deemed it not even worth it. Almost.
Dressed in a pair of blue overalls and a cream short sleeved blouse, Vanessa strolled over to the desk, her straight brown bob swishing as she walked, and rested her slender arms on the counter. "Pretty quiet over here today?" Vanessa asked.
Bloom shrugged before grabbing a pen and twirling it between her fingers. "We got a package delivered. I put it in the back."
Vanessa perked up, a smile blooming across her tanned face. "Already? Lucky us! You know, I think that Winley boy likes you. He always delivers our packages so early." Her smile turned mischievous as she pointed her finger in Bloom's direction. "You should ask him out sometime."
It was difficult to contain the knowing smile that threatened to tug at Bloom's lips as Vanessa turned and walked toward the back of the store. "Maybe."
From the back, Bloom heard Vanessa exclaim "Yes! It's the new vases." Bloom smiled to herself and shook her head, turning her attention back to her doodles.
Vanessa didn't emerge from the back for another hour, preoccupied with the filling orders placed for a wedding this weekend. Bloom tried to help out when she could, but she didn't have the eye for arranging bouquets, and Vanessa would always go back and redo them anyways. Bloom gave up trying, and stuck to what she knew she was good at: sitting at the counter and doing absolutely nothing as each boring day passed by. She answered the phone from time to time and handled order pick ups, but most of her days were spent doodling in the notebook before her or scrolling through her instagram feed.
She eyed the notebook resting on the counter and picked it up to flip through the pages. Some of her sketches were completely random, sometimes she'd draw the flowers in the shop, and sometimes she drew things she sees in her dreams. Her eyes lingered a little too long on the face she sketched in the back of the book a few weeks ago. It was the face of a woman, and at first glance Bloom realized that it may look like a self portrait. She drew some of her own features onto the face, but it didn't feel like her face. She traced her hand over the cheekbone of the drawing.
"That's beautiful, Bloom."
Bloom let out a startled scream, dropping the notebook onto the counter haphazardly. "Jesus, mom. You scared me."
Vanessa let out a chuckle and ruffled her daughter's red hair. A red so deep it doesn't look real, and if Vanessa hadn't raised Bloom herself, she's not sure if she would have believed it were natural.
"You feeling alright, Bloom? It's not like you to let me sneak up on you." Another wink in those soft blue eyes as Vanessa nudged her daughter. "You really should go to bed earlier and get more sleep. You stay up so late doing this or that."
Bloom shrugged."Mom, honestly, I just haven't been sleeping well recently." It was the truth. Bloom had been restless for the past week, tossing and turning every hour. When she did sleep, her mind was riddled by nightmares and vivid dreams that had no perceptible meaning or motive.
Vanessa checked the watch on her tan wrist. Bloom had always envied her mom's sun-kissed complexion and almond-colored hair. She grew up hoping that one day she would wake up looking more like her beautiful mother- and her mother was seriously beautiful- but Vanessa must have forgotten to give Bloom the genes for perfect complexion or something, because Bloom's rosy cheeks and faint freckles seemed to have a mind of their own. "The day's almost over, and we're painfully slow." Vanessa trailed off, "Why don't you take the rest of the day off?"
A smile burst across her face as Bloom shot out of the chair. "Really?"
Vanessa nodded, turning to type something into the computer. "Yeah, make yourself useful and take Kiko for a walk or something."
"I'm sure he'll like that. We'll go to the park where it's cooler." Bloom agreed enthusiastically, grabbing her bag from under the desk and slinging it on. "I'll see you later mom." She gave Vanessa a soft peck on the cheek before pivoting towards the door. As the bell over the door rang out when she opened it, Bloom heard Vanessa mutter under breath, "Teenagers."
Bloom hid her smile as she stepped out into the suffocating California heat and made the walk towards her car.
It was nothing short of a grimace that made its way across Bloom's face when she turned the corner and spotted Misty Ramos stepping out of her ostentatious red convertible next to a tanning salon. Misty adjusted her large sunglasses over her symmetrical button nose and gave Bloom a literal sneer. "I thought you were on flower duty this summer."
Bloom rolled her eyes as she walked past Misty, pushing down the urge to spit out a comment about how insane it is for someone to go to a tanning salon in the middle of summer in Los Angeles. Instead, Bloom worked harder than she would have liked to pretend that Misty was invisible.
Bloom crossed the street and unlocked her old Jeep Liberty, relieved that it was still shady where she parked. Her history with Misty was long and complicated, but it resulted in neither girl being able to stand the sight of each other. Bloom had hoped that after graduating she would never have to see Misty anymore, but they frequented the same area so often that she was disappointed to find that would not be the case.
After Bloom pulled into her garage, she waited to step out of her air conditioned car until the garage door was closed behind her. She stepped onto the cold concrete and grabbed her bag from the back seat. Bloom grasped the cool metal of the doorknob that led into her modest two-story house, entered into the air conditioned hallway, and kicked off her sandals.
Bloom's golden retriever, Kiko, was at her side in an instant. "Hi, you!" She said, crouching down to his level and scratching his velvety ears.
"Is that you sweetheart?" A male voice exclaimed from another part of the house. Bloom kissed the top of Kiko's head and stood up.
"It's me, dad!" Bloom walked down the wooden hallway towards the kitchen, and poked her head out.
Mike Quinn sat at the dark wood kitchen table and looked up from his laptop as his daughter came into view. "Did your mom let you ditch?"
Bloom's bare feet padded over the wooden floor as she snatched an apple from the counter and took a bite out of it. "Yep."
"And how was your morning?"
Bloom's thoughts returned to her time with Seth Winley in the back room. She couldn't help but be thankful for the causal nature of their relationship. A graduate of the class two years before Bloom's, Seth moved away from their small town in central Califronia in favor of University in the Pacific Northwest. They hadn't been close when Seth was still in high school, but somehow, last year, they ran into each other when Seth was home for the summer working at his dad's local shipping business. Seth and Bloom always seem to find themselves in similar circumstances during the summer- roped into a full-time job at their parent's respective businesses. The nature of their relationship has always been purely to enjoy the fruits of each others' company. Bloom would have been lying if she said she hadn't wondered if they would ever be something more.
She bit back a smile before taking another bite of her apple. "Boring."
Mike nodded, and leaned back into his chair. He put his hands behind his blonde head and kept his blue eyes on the teenage girl occupying their kitchen. "And do you have any plans for the rest of the day?"
Bloom shrugged. "Mom said I owe Kiko a walk, so probably that."
Seemingly satisfied, Mike smiled at Bloom, and turned his attention back towards his laptop. "Sounds nice. Is it hot out there?"
Bloom nodded, "Atrociously so." And she meant it. Bloom hated the dry California heat of July. The only thing worse was the dry California heat of August, because August brought with it the wildfires that would bathe the state in smoke, and because August would pull Bloom's father away to go battle the fires with the other firefighters in his unit.
Bloom despised her dad's job. When she was younger, she would cry and scream and beg him to quit and accept a new one, but he never budged a single inch. He loved his job, and he loved helping others, apparently more than he loved soothing her tantrums. It was something she'd recently come to accept and respect him for. She was terrified that a dangerous profession such as his would take him from her, and she used to resent him for it. She hated fire for being so untamable that it would call people like her dad into the line of danger. But it took a different kind of bravery to pick a war with fire, and she'd decided that she was proud to call Mike her dad.
Bloom finished her apple in silence and chucked it into the waste bin before walking over to the front door and grabbed Kiko's leash off of the coat rack.
She twirled around and found Kiko standing in the middle of the room watching her. Bloom smirked and twirled the leash around her finger. "Wanna go for a walk?" She didn't need to ask him twice. Kiko bounded over to her, tail wagging, and Bloom fastened the leash onto his collar.
She led Kiko into the garage and opened the car door for the golden retriever. He leapt in gracefully and she shut the door behind him before opening her own and sliding into the front seat. The park was only a ten minute walk from Bloom's house, but with the sweltering heat, the pavement was too hot for Kiko's feet.
Bloom let Kiko out in a shady spot of the park. Quite a few people were out today, eager to enjoy the beautiful summer day. They walked through the shade provided by the trees and Bloom kicked her sandals off to feel the cool grass under her feet, thankful for the relief from the summer sun. Bloom brought them to a secluded part of the park and crouched down to remove the leash from Kiko's collar. "God, I hate the heat, don't you?" Kiko cocked his head and she scratched behind his ear. "Maybe we should follow Seth to Washington."
Bloom stood up, holding the leash in her hand. "Go on, run around, but don't wander." She commanded as if he could understand her. Kiko was a great dog though, she trusted him to stay close. Bloom crouched down and opened up her backpack, taking a small blanket out of it and unfolding it. She laid it out on the soft grass and sprawled herself out with a book. Kiko trotted around, sniffing at the bushes and trees for a good long while before eventually making his way back to Bloom and plopping himself down on the blanket beside her.
"All of the things to do in nature and you choose to snuggle up right here." She kissed his forehead. "You big baby."
She leaned back, her red hair sprawling out from her head like a halo. Bloom focused on the feeling of the sun on her skin, the breeze that tickled strands of hair around her forehead, the way the heat felt on her eyelids...
Bloom woke up to the sound of Kiko growling. She jerked upright, disoriented by the lack of light. It was dusk. How long have they been there? Kiko was crouched over her, growling with his eyes focused on something through the trees. She didn't need to check to know that the fur on the back of Kiko's neck was sticking straight up.
A bright light punctured through the treeline, making Bloom jump back with a gasp. It could have been the flash of a camera, she supposed, but it had seemed so close. Slowly, she got to her feet and stumbled towards the source of the light.
...
Stella of Solariea bit back a curse as the creature delivered a near-bone-shattering blow to her side. She had to use a last-minute shield of light to prevent her ribs from cracking under the power of her opponent's blow. Her light caused the creature to be temporarily blinded and she used the opportunity to swing her scepter towards the creature's head, resulting in a sickening crunch that splattered black blood onto her face.
Sun-Weaver had been at Stella's side for as long as she could remember. The scepter, a powerful tool for channeling and amplifying her magic, was given to her as her birthright. She adjusted her grip around the ancient metal that was forged long, long ago. As the ugly creature slunk to the ground, Stella walked towards it slowly, malice lacing her eyes. She raised Sun-Weaver above her head and took a deep breath before she brought it down again on the unconscious creature's head, hard. A crack echoed through the grassy knoll that Stella stood upon, and she fought the urge to throw up as she yanked Sun-Weaver out of the creature's battered head once, twice. It finally came free with a squelching sound. She tossed the bloodied scepter to the ground and leaned forward with her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. She eyed the offending creature's battered skull and grimaced. "I didn't know it was possible for you to get even uglier." She said, before returning upright and kicking the dead creature's foot.
Stella looked around at her surroundings, not quite sure where she was. It was dark in this meadow surrounded by trees, and there was too much light pollution from whatever city was nearby to see the stars. It had to be a big city in order to pollute the sky with light so thoroughly that Stella couldn't use the sky to orient herself in whatever dimension this was.
Stella listened for any signs of life nearby, and, seemingly satisfied, shrugged to herself and picked up her scepter. She gagged at the black blood coating it and-
A crunch echoed throughout the knoll, and Stella whirled to meet the blue eyes of a human girl.
Bloom had to bite back a scream when she had seen the golden haired girl bring her staff around to collide with the head of the ugly beast she was fighting. Bloom had never seen anything like it in her life. There was no way the creature was from earth, with its dark eyes and mouth full of sharp teeth. It fought with large claw-like hands, but it stood on two feet. Kiko started to growl again and Bloom had clamped her hands around his snout and shushed him.
She'd watched as the blonde girl stalked toward the creature she had incapacitated and raised her staff above her golden head. Bloom had to look away when the girl brought her staff down on the creature, which made a noise that implied no survival.
Bloom's heart was racing as she took a step back, her hand clutching around Kiko's collar to drag him with her. This girl, whoever she was, just killed some monster that definitely does not belong here. She wasn't dressed like a warrior, not even close. Her long golden hair was pulled back into two low hanging pigtails and she was only wearing an orange crop top with matching shorts, and knee-high boots.
The girl's eyes had trailed up to the stars before she bent down to pick up her staff- It was as tall as she was, a long rod with a sun surrounded by a circle at the top. Whatever the girl was holding, it hummed with an energy that made Bloom instinctively cower away. She was horrified to note that the black liquid coating the staff seemed to glimmer in the moonlight.
That girl was dangerous. Bloom took a few more steps back, not daring to take her eyes off of the lethal woman before her. Bloom's sandal collided with a stray stick, resulting in a crunch that made Bloom cringe. The woman whirled around, meeting Bloom's eyes, and Bloom knew she was dead.