Frances lied down on her bed with a sigh. It was Wednesday once again. Once again, she would try to stay up to see who was the person putting the flowers at her window. "It must be Todd." Since their first encounter on Friday, he started to give her presents in person. Such as a new box of soft pastels to replace the one which had been destroyed, a green gouache ink from India that must have been really expensive, an extravagant peacock quill, and a big box of chocolates that made Philip and Georges tease her for the rest of the day, saying that they were in a relationship.
"Todd and Frances, sitting in the tree, K-i-s-s-i-n-g!" They sang before she pushed them to the side in visible embarrassment, which only caused them to laugh harder and tease her even more.
"I just need to stay up long enough to see him." She thought. She has been doing this since the 6th Wednesday but the tiredness and boredom always seemed to win over her. However, this time she had a convincing suspect and was determined to see if it was truly him. Every time she would ask Todd about something related to the flowers, he would dismiss the subject and go away or simply say it wasn't him with a sly smile. She was sure it was he and was just embarrassed in saying so or wanting to keep the mystery going.
She noticed how the lights outside her bedroom began to be blown out by who she believed to be her father and she quickly crawled to the candle at her bedside before blowing it out and hiding under the covers of her bed, pretending to be asleep. Just in time, John quietly cracked open the door to her room and saw his daughter in bed, then whispering, "Have good dreams, Franny..."
Frances didn't move an inch until he closed her door and waited until the noise of his own door being closed was heard. She then jumped and sat up in bed, staring at the night sky from out her window for a while before she lit up the candle again and started drawing non-stop for about 2 hours, hoping it would make her stay awake after she almost caught herself drifting to sleep. She jolted for a moment before yawning and looking at her window. No one had arrived yet. Frances yawned once more while leaning into her pillows, flipping to a blank page before feeling her eyes slowly drifting close, and as much as she tried to keep them open, they still fell closed heavily.
Frances suddenly jolted awake, quickly sitting up and making her sketchbook fall to the wooden floor. It felt like she only slept for five minutes, but the sun was already shining. She punched the mattress and groaned in annoyance, "GAH! COME OooN!"
She threw the sheets away, huffing in anger and marching towards the window, "Yea, yea, let me guess, another stupid flo-" She stopped her ranting and knit her eyebrows in a frown. There was a piece of paper tied to the flower, "O-Ok... That's new."
"I wish to see more of your smile, why don't you smile more?
It is so beautiful...
I wish you could smile for me...
I also love it when you blush.
You look like a dork, but it's just so cute."
She widens her eyes and blushes with the statement and when notices the heat in her cheeks, she softly slaps her own face and then covers it with the paper in pure embarrassment, "Oh God. What is this? Please tell me I am not growing feelings for- Whoever is doing this shit." She groans bringing the note down and looks around, pressing her lips tightly before beginning to pace around her room as she talked to herself.
"It must be Todd but... This note feels so different?" While the first letter found inside the soft pastels box was written front and back with a labored and thoughtful text expressing their feelings, this note felt more heart talking, as if it didn't take effort to put those words down. "And why just now leave a note with the flower? It's been two months and he is already talking and... Flirting with me in person." That feeling of having someone actually interested romantically towards her still felt weird to Frances. "I already know it's him it's so damn obvious, he could just stop it. Unless it's two different people..." She comes to a halt and blinks several times, thinking about the last statement.
Frances soon shakes her head to brush that thought away and sits lazily at the edge of her bed. "Non-sense. But why keep on doing the flower thing then...?"
...
Susan gave a gentle smile to Violetta, "Really, Vi, you don't have to make this sash for me..." Violetta smiled back as she pulled the needle through the thin fabric, "Don't worry, Su. I wanted to make a little something for you after what had happened last week... Sorry for Alfred's behavior..."
Susan touches Violetta's arm and she stops sewing to look at her friend, "You don't need to apologize, it wasn't your fault."
Violetta sighed, "Thank you for thinking that way, but... I still feel responsible for him in some way."
"I'm glad Fran got to punch that jerk though," Theodosia murmurs while supporting her head in her left hand as he read a book. She looks up and then widens her eyes as if only now she had noticed that said that aloud, and shakes her hands nervously in front of her body, "Sorry Vi, I know he is your friend and all but-!" The librarian shushes them and the girl stops talking.
Violetta smiles gently and quietly replies, "It's fine Theo, you have all the right to call him that even though I don't like to hear. He shouldn't do this kind of thing..."
"What about we talk about another subject?" Susan smiles nervously, eager to talk about something else, or just go back to study.
Mary keeps on writing as she exchanges glances between her notebook and the enormous book she was reading from simultaneously, and says, "So, Frances, what's up with Stephan? I need to talk with him."
There was no response and Mary stop writing and turns towards the edge of the table, where Frances sat behind a pile of books, "Hey I'm talking to you!" Still no response. Angelica, who was sitting beside her, leans back to look behind the pile.
"Fran?" Angelica calls and then looks back at her friends, "Guys, I think she's sleeping."
Angelica and Theodosia, both at each side of Frances, remove the pile of books and reveal a deep asleep Frances to the rest of the girls, her arms crossed around her head as she softly snored.
"Is she actually sleeping?" Violetta asked leaning forward to the table.
Mary sarcastically replies after a snort, "No, no, she actually died."
"Mary." Theodosia reprimands her.
Mary raises her hands in defeat, but her voice and eye roll show how she didn't regret it at all, "Ok, fine, sorry."
"She had been acting very tired recently... Especially during class." Angelica comments, "Do you think she's having trouble sleeping at night?"
The girl shrug and Theo suggests, "Should we wake her up or...?"
Mary lies back in her chair and crosses her arms, "Bad idea, who knows how her mood is, and I'm not willing to fight with her today." She looks up at Violetta and the blonde girl jumps when the Jefferson directs the word to her. "Why don't you wake her up? If she kills you at least you go to Heaven."
Violetta blushes and fidgets with a string of her hair, tremulously smiling, "M-My father was able to escape the wrath of your uncle during the war so... I pray I as well shall not face your family's wrath too?"
Theodosia asked pointing at the asleep girl, "Well, any ideas for a plan B?"
Mary raises her hand and excitedly says, "Let her sleep until the library close and lock her inside."
"Mary." Theodosia shots her a tired look and Mary chuckles.
Susan has an idea and stands up quietly before rushing out of the building, returning a few moments later pulling her older step-brother by the arm and gestures to Frances with her head, "Here she is... We didn't want to wake her up because we're scared she would kill us but I guess you're safe since you're her best friend and the most resistant one."
Georges close his eyes with a confident smirk on his face, "No worries, ladies. I got this." He walks towards a bookshelf and scans around thoughtfully until he seems to find what he was looking for and grabs the biggest book he could found; a huge encyclopedia.
He opens the book right in the middle and leans close to Frances, then forcefully closing it with a booming "BLAAAM!" and Frances shrikes as she jolts awake. She quickly situates herself and looks at her side, seeing Georges laughing at her and starts to slap his arm, "Are you fucking kidding me?! WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?! DON'T WAKE ME UP IF I AM ASLEEP!"
"I'm sorry! I thought you should be awake at this time of the day!" He said trying to shrug and defend himself from the slaps she kept on giving him as he still laughed. Frances then grabs the book he used and hits his arm with it, actually hurting him this time.
"OOOUTCH! THAT HURT!"
The old librarian popped up behind them with an angered expression and shouts at them, "You two! Out!" She points at the exit.
The two walk towards the door whenever Frances whisper-yelled at Georges, "See what you've done?!"
"ME?! You were the one that started to yell and punch me!"
"And who's the fault to have woke me up?!"
About five minutes later, the rest of the girls gathered with them outside the library just to see Georges trying to push his finger towards Frances' face as she held him back in panic, "GAAAH, GEORGES TAKE THAT GROSS FINGER AWAY FROM ME!"
"NOT UNTIL YOU STOP BEING RUDE!"
"OK! FINE! I'M SORRY! NOW TAKE THAT LICKED FINGER AWAY!"
He finally stops trying to reach her and she let go of him, just to him kiss her cheek, "Just because I love you."
She grumpily replies cleaning her cheek, "Shut up you bastard."
"I won't even question." Philip's voice says and only then they noticed he stood a few feet away from them at the end of the small staircase with his father and that they saw the whole scene. Theodosia quickly ran down the stairs to hug Philip, both smiling after missing each other for about two weeks without being able to spend any time together.
"Tsk, tsk, Frances, Frances..." Her uncle says shaking his head in disapproval, "What would your mom say if she knows about this dirty mouth you have?"
Frances snickers, "Like you would say anything to her uncle Alex."
"You wouldn't be more right my beloved niece!" He smirks, not noticing the frightened blonde girl beside Susan, who quickly looked around and opened the book she was carrying, using it to hide Violetta's face.
"Hey, Mary!" The man says once he notices another of his nieces standing with crossed arms, "Please send a kiss for your mom and a kick in the butt for your dad."
"Consider it sent." She finger guns at him as both smirked before Angie jumped the stair steps to hug her father.
"Hey pops!" She happily exclaims when they hug, "How was your meeting?"
"Great, sweetheart," He replies kissing his daughter's forehead. "But tell me, why aren't you guys inside?"
"Frances and Georges ended up getting kicked out. She started yelling at him after he woke her up and we just came after them." Theodosia explained.
"Ooh, now it makes sense," Philip murmured, making the girl beside him giggle.
Mary provocatively looks at Frances as she touches her cheek with her index finger, "Yea, I wonder what has made her so tired~"
"None of your business." Frances sharply replies and they quickly send death glares at each other before Alexander leaned close to Frances with a smirk and wiggles his eyebrows teasingly.
"Maybe she has been spending time with a certain boy late at night..."
"Wha- FOR SHAME!" Violetta shouts, popping from behind the book, and then covers her mouth when noticed what she just did, became red for the second time in the last 15 minutes. She closes the book and hands it back to Susan, "U-Uhm, eeh see you later, Susan! I'll give your sash as soon as I finish it! BYE!"
She shrugs in fear when passed by Alexander Hamilton but quickly walked away with her face burning up. Alexander points at her with his thumb and a confused expression, "Who was that?"
"A friend of Susan's," Frances replied making no big deal of it. Honestly, she wasn't very fond of Violetta. She was best friends with the whole soccer team; they used to even consider her their lucky charm for the games, the mascot. She couldn't be trusted.
"She does look familiar... Oh, is she that Seabury kid you guys told us about?"
"Yeah," Susan awkwardly answers, offering him a nervous smile.
"Uh, nice." Alex made no big deal of it either when a newcomer showed up and Mary scowled at someone behind him.
"What are you doing here, Alston?" She sharply states and Theodosia quickly stepped away from Philip. You could literally see the hurt in his eyes when she did so.
"Miss Theodosia." He cordially says, completely ignoring Mary's statement, "I think you forgot about our date this afternoon."
Theodosia looked confused and quickly looked at her friends, who were also confused about what he was talking about, before she replied, "I didn't know we had planned such a thing?"
"Oh, your father invited me. I thought he did tell you about it."
She looks down with a false smile as she murmured, "Of course he did." Joseph then offered his arm and Theodosia enlaced her arm in his, trying to keep a distance between them but it was almost impossible as he dragged her away and tried to do small talk.
Angelica cooed in pity and mumbles, "Poor Theo..."
"The worst of everything is that I liked that girl, besides her father," Alexander says rolling his eyes at the mention of Aaron Burr.
"Couldn't you do anything about it, sir?" Georges asked.
Alexander sadly shook his head, "I don't think Burr would accept anything less but my job or my head. So no. I can't." He saw the way his older son reacted to his statement, looking at the couple walking further away, eager to go after his beloved, and so quickly added, "Not that it is impossible to something stop it, but I can't do anything about that matter."
...
Joseph took Theodosia to his house. It was actually a mansion and she felt lost with the size of it and the amount of maids they had. She shot smiles to everyone who passed by them but Joseph acted as if they were invisible as he leads the girl to the back of the house, taking her to the stables.
"I didn't know you liked horseback riding, Mister Alston," Theodosia said once they walked in and she soon petted a brown horse with shiny hair by her side, it was visibly a Thoroughbred and she always wanted to ride one.
"Oh, I don't actually. I only did it a few times but your father told me you like this activity, so I thought it would be the perfect date for us."
Her father again.
Theodosia indeed loved horses, all because of her mother. She gave the girl a little colt at her 7th anniversary, not that her father appreciated the idea because he was afraid she would get hurt, but she never fell from it not even once. She named him Spirit because he was completely pitch black except for the edges of his legs, mane, and tail, which were milky white; he seemed like a ghost during the night. It was the last gift her mother gave her before she died, and so the girl felt a strong connection to Spirit.
"Indeed I do, Mister Alston." She bluntly replied, not giving the hint to talk anymore about the subject.
"Great. So, I suppose you'll be riding this one?" He asked motioning at the brown horse she had been caressing.
"Uhm, I actually would feel more comfortable to ride my own horse if I have this option?"
"Oh, I am so sorry." He actually sounded like he was sorry as he spoke, "I unfortunately wasn't aware of it. Although, I completely understand. You must be feeling insecure about riding a horse of such strain." She tilted her head looking at him in confusion, and so he added, "I suppose your horse at home must match your... Ridding abilities, right? It must be a beginner rider breed I am sure."
Theodosia stared at him dumbfounded before she smiled at him, "Indeed my horse at home matches my riding abilities. We have been riding together for 12 years already and he is just as experienced as I am. My only fear is... To your horses here not be prepared to handle my rhythm."
He chuckled and said, "If that's the case I am sure they will, Miss Theodosia." She smiled once again before he turned around to pick his own horse and she was finally able to scowl at him.
She indeed picked up the Thoroughbred and Joseph made sure to pick a horse as tough to ride like that one, considering he said that barely ever used to ride.
"Joseph, are you sure you're going to ride that one?" Theodosia asked pointing at the white horse he picked with her head. "You said that don't use to rise horses that often and this horse isn't for beginners. You should choose a-"
"No need to worry, my dearest Theodosia." He interrupted her and the girl pressed her lips tightly together in annoyance. Only Philip ever called her that and she absolutely hated to hear that being said by Joseph's voice. "I know what I am doing."
Theodosia took a deep breath in and then noticed Joseph coming closer to her, to which she took a step back. "Well, may I help you hop into your steed?"
"Actually no but I appreciate it. I can do it myself."
He touched her arm and said with a smile, "I just want to make sure you won't slip and fall, dearest. I wouldn't want to see your beautiful face scratched."
"And it won't. Because I won't fall." She stated again, slower this time to make him understand what she was saying.
"I insist."
Just as they argued about that matter, the horse didn't seem to enjoy having Joseph close by and made the man jump back when whinnied loudly and shook it's mane, making Theo snicker at him. Alston helped her up either way, brushing what just happened aside. Theodosia fixed her posture and pat the side of the horse to calm him down.
"Miss Burr!" Joseph shout startled, making the girl jump a little and then looked around in confusion, even worried that she sat on something, "You shouldn't ride like this!"
Only then Theodosia noticed she was sitting in a man's position, with her legs spread open around the horse's torso even if her skirt was still long enough to cover her legs. She sharply sighed and then spoke, lifting her head up high and only turned her eyes at Alston, to become even more superior than she already was from over the horse's back. "Well, sorry to disappoint you, sir. But I was taught this way and don't intend in changing it today."
He hummed and headed towards his own horse.
They finally started trotting out into the open field, and just as Theodosia said before, Joseph could barely control his horse whenever she speeded up hers and galloped away. He caught up to her only some minutes after she stopped at the top of a hill, a dead end, where they could see the blue sky and birds flying. Theodosia smiled at the view but it quickly faded when Joseph stopped his horse by her side.
"That was not very ladylike, Miss Burr." He scolded her but she simply kept her gaze at the horizon before replying as if it was no big deal.
"Oh yeah? You should break the compromise then."
He simply chuckled in amusement and she looked at him dumbfounded by his reaction, finding him smirking and eyeing her up and down. "No way, I like when women are kittle like you, it's more pleasurable when they fall for me."
She feels the ill to throw up and quietly groans before trotting away from him, then galloping even faster than she did before. Joseph not being able to catch up to her anymore.