Brooke hadn't always been so tired.
She remembered being young and happy and free, looked upon normally with love.
But then, her younger twin siblings, Oliver and Emil, were born with shifting flairs.
Suddenly, plant-loving Brooke wasn't so very important anymore.
She wasn't as good as her brothers and sister anymore. Her eldest brother, Daniel, was born with a flair that allowed him to turn things on and off at will. (He was very good at pranks because of this.)
Her elder brother Noah could mold water into living creatures. (Brooke remembered the many nights he created little dragons for her.)
Oliver could shift into whatever animal he last touched. (Many nights Brooke woke up with him as a rat in her room. She had no idea where a fourteen-month-old child found rats in their house, though.)
Her only sister shifted into water or fire depending on her emotions. (She always burnt her crib.)
Brooke's parents turned their attention to their more powerful, more wanted children. They trained them to be Protectors, those that used their flairs to protect civilians. Brooke, a five-year old when the twins were born, was left alone in the house most days while the rest of the family was out training, with no one but her plants to keep her company.
She was eleven when she finally discovered what she could do.
Brooke had been wandering through the woods in the city park while her family ran laps and worked on mastering their flairs. She had stumbled upon the skeleton of a deer. On instinct, she reached out and stroked it, something stirring deep within her. A few seconds later, the deer skeleton began to clatter and piece itself together. Vines erupted out of the decomposing leaves below, weaving together around the bones as if it were muscles. Bark seemed to grow before her eyes over the vines, covering the body of the plant-skeleton like a deer hide. Birch branches sprouted out of the skull.
She could do nothing but stare in awe, horror, and shock at the creature she had caused. Her emotions bounced around inside of her like pinballs as the plant-deer looked at her with empty eye sockets that were slowly being filled with red poppies.
Brooke felt strangely safe in its presence.
That was the day she discovered her true flair was necrobotany.