Lavender's Blue [open]

[Xanu Stone]

Spring was in the air. Birds were coming home after their fly south for the winter and the plants were beginning to blossom once again. Spring was Xanu's favourite season. The plants were the main reason that they liked spring so much, but the weather finally getting warmer was another good reason. The warmer weather meant they finally got to wear the clothes they preferred, which entailed loose and free flowing clothes. So today they were wearing a skirt and a loose crop top. Every so often a breeze would blow through and they'd shiver a little, but that was the price they paid to look so nice and feel so comfortable.

So Xanu was walking around town. They weren't entirely sure where they were planning on going, but they enjoyed the act of walking alone. They hummed as they walked, a small song they had learned a long time ago. Eventually their walking took them further into the outskirts of Argi and they found that they were in a part of the city that they weren't too familiar with. Xanu didn't really wander too much like this. Of course today just felt like that kind of day to them; the lazy wander around the city kind of day.

Eventually the song they were humming formed into words.

Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue.
You must love me, dilly dilly, cause I love you.
And when I am king, dilly dilly, then you'll be queen.
They told me so, dilly dilly, that's how I know.

There were a few other verses in the song, but something moving caught their eyes. Xanu turned quickly expecting it to be something dangerous, but instead it was just a little blue jay flitting about. A smile spread across their face and they slowly shuffled over towards the bird, trying not to scare it. They held out their hand as if to offer it something, but it seemed the bird was having none of their company because it quickly flew away before Xan could even get close to it. It was to be expected. They shrugged and continued on their way.

As Xan wandered they began to get into the more familiar part of town. This led them to the entrance to Rose Park and they smiled. Maybe they would find a flowerbed that could use some helping along. They didn't have their whole backpack of ingredients, but they had pockets in their skirt and this held a small jar jam packed with different things and the other pocket had a small spell book and a smaller wand. They knew that they had the ingredients for at least one small growing spell, or at least they thought that they did.

Xanu quickly found a small bed of flowers that were just beginning to bud. They looked around and found a bench and sat down. They pulled out their jar and looked at all the ingredients they had stuffed in there. There were a bunch of flower petals and leaves and even some rocks that had shifted to the bottom. Xanu was about to pull out their spell book when they heard some whispers and laughter coming from behind them.

They were about to turn around when they heard somebody say their name. This made them sink lower into their sitting position and then pray that they were talking about some other Xanu that they knew. This seemed to be proved wrong as some kid who looked about seventeen vaulted over the bench so that they were standing in front of Xanu. The kid stared straight at Xanu. "it's totally her guys!" They called before sitting down on the bench next to Xan.

They shied away from the sound of the wrong pronoun being used for them and scooted to the far edge of the bench. When three other seventeen year olds gathered around the first boy Xanu stood and got ready to leave. One girl with long blonde hair stepped in front of them before they could though and poked them in the stomach. "Where do you think you're going?" The person sneered. Xan backed up hastily. "Um, I-I, was, um..." They looked around at the four younger kids and their panic spiked. None of them looked particularly nice.

"So what was your jist in high school? I mean you graduated before us, but gods even we remember how weird you were. Aren't you a crazy witch or something?" One of the teens jabbed at them. They stuttered quite a bit before they finally managed to get something out. "I-I have to g-g-go." It came out mostly as a mumble. At least one of the kids got what they had said though because an arm was draped over their shoulders. "Oh no, no, no. You're not g-g-going anywhere." The person mocked and turned them towards the girl with the blonde hair.

The girl gave no warning before a punch was delivered to Xanu's face. They yelped and would have fallen to the ground except that the arm that had previously been draped over their shoulder was now holding them up. Another punch connected with their diaphragm and left them gasping for air. Xanu finally managed to push the one person off and they stumbled away from the kids. The group of teens cackled like hyenas as Xan coughed. They looked around in a panic for somebody else to help them. There was no way they could fight off one person let alone four.

[Sammy Linsen]

It was a beautiful day outside, spring had come and wit it came warmer days, blooming flowers, and cool breezes. It was a perfect day to go to the park and read. Sammy had set out with her phone and a book, playing her music loudly as she walked down the sidewalk. She silently mouthed the words to one of her favourite songs as she entered the park. One side of her mouth twitched up slightly in an almost smile as she admired the sight of the park. The trees had begun grow leaves and the flowers had started to bud. This was one of her favourite parts of coming to the park, it was always gorgeous no matter what season it was.

The park seemed peaceful, but that was probably just because she was playing her music so loudly. There were children playing on the playground and a few adults lingered nearby, chatting casually as they watched their children play. There were other teenagers there of course, they were walking about and having fun, several couples held hands as they admired the scenery. It was a pretty average day, and it didn’t seem as if anything could go wrong.

Sammy made her way further into the park, scanning the area for the perfect place to settle down and read. Her search was interrupted when something caught her eye. A group of people over by a bench, several teenagers and an older looking person, possibly in their early twenties. The situation seemed casual enough, they were all talking, and one had their arm around the older person. Sammy could tell by the older ones body language that things were not as they seemed. And sure enough, when she pulled out her earbuds she heard the teens taunting voices. They were teasing the older one and wouldn’t allow them to leave. Sam was about to head over and offer assistance to the poor person the teens were picking on when suddenly they attacked their victim. They punched them in the face, then in the chest area.

“What the hell?”

Sam ran over to help, grabbing one of the teens by the shoulder and spinning them around. Then, grabbing them by their shirt collar, they pulled the boy down until his face was level with hers and calmly addressed him with an edge of steel in her voice.

“Is there a problem here?”

[Xanu Stone]

When the sound of a new voice came in Xanu turned to see a new girl come forward. She seemed to want to help so Xanu moved until they were behind the new girl. She had already grabbed one of the teens by the collar. She was almost scarier than the teens. The guy she had grabbed pushed her away and sneered. "No problem. We were just catching up with an old friend. I'm sure we'll see each other again. We can catch up later." They cackled and then glared at Xanu. They started to walk away and one girl turned and made a motion to her own nose. "You got a little something." She stated and then turned around.

Xanu whiped under their nose and it came away with a little blood. They pinched the bridge of their nose and tilted their head backwards. "Oh gods I'm bleeding." they mumbled to themself. Then they remembered the girl they had been hiding behind, who had literally just come to their rescue. Xan gave her a weak smile as they moved to sit on the edge of the bench. They kept their head tilted back. "Thanks for saving me there. I'm not really the best at fighting, or, um, most things. So... Yea I needed the help." Xanu gave a weak chuckle. They realized they probably looked stupid, but they preferred looking stupid over getting beat up.

As they held the bridge of their nose Xanu stole a glance at the girl who had saved them. She had pink hair, which was cool. Xan themself had their wild mane of black hair tied back into a ponytail, but they wondered what they might look like if they had a wild colour in their hair like pink. They would probably never do that though, as they didn't want to draw more attention to themself than they already did. Xan held out their non bloody hand to shake. "My name's Xanu. I use they and them pronouns. Thanks again for helping me." They explained to the person. They wondered for a second if they were tanking the girl too much, but decided they weren't. Xan also felt like their nose might be bleeding less at that moment. There had already been a lot of blood though.

[Sammy Linsen]

The boy she had grabbed pushed her away and she suppressed the urge to punch him in his stupid, smug face. She really wanted to throw him and the rest of them across the park, but sadly that was very frowned upon. Instead, she stood silently, glaring daggers into their backs as they walked away laughing.

“Are you alright? Did they hurt you badly?”

Sam turned around and looked up at them. They weren’t hurt too bad, that she could see, just a nosebleed. She sighed, relieved and brushed a hair out of her face. Thankfully she had gotten there before those jerks could do too much damage. When the other person thanked her for saving them, she waved a hand in dismissal.

“It’s no problem, I just can’t stand people like them. I hope they don’t come back, I might not be able to resist myself. And I doubt my parents would appreciate me punching someone, especially in public. At least, they didn’t hurt you too much.”

She happily shook their hand and smiled. Xanu, that’s a cool name. Very creative. Pulling a tissue out of her pocket, she held it out for Xanu. She figured it would be somewhat helpful in stopping the blood flow.

“My name’s Sammy, or Sam. Whichever is cool, it’s nice to meet you Xanu. Though I wish it could’ve been under better circumstances.”

Setting her book on the bench, she turned back in the direction the teenagers had gone. They had headed farther into the park, hopefully they had no intent of returning. She sat down and motioned for Xanu to join her, it would be best for them to rest. She was still pretty pissed, but she’d calm down eventually.

“Is this the first time they’ve bothered you, or does this happen often? What did they even want with you because that didn’t even remotely look like they were “catching up with an old friend”.”

[Xanu Stone]

The pink haired girl was glaring at the teens as they walked away. Xanu really hoped they never had to come across the group again. They remembered the younger teens vaguely, but the teens had been quite a bit younger than them and their memory was abysmal at best. So Xan smiled at the pink haired girl. "Oh don't worry I'm fine." they stated gently.

As the girl spoke Xanu's smile grew wider. It seemed she was accustomed to fighting, as many people were in this city. Their brow furrowed when she brought up her parents, this in term making them think of their own parents. They shuffled their feet awkwardly at the memory, but quickly pushed it away and smiled again once they were offered a tissue. "Thanks." They murmured as they held the tissue up to their bloody nose.

Sammy, or Sam, seemed really nice. When she said it was nice to meet them they nodded. "oh it's so nice to meet you too."

When Sammy motioned to the other side of the bench Xanu sat down on the very edge of the bench. They kept their head tilted back, but it seemed like the flow of blood was slowing down. They patted their skirt pockets with the hand not holding their nose and found that all of the things that had been in their pockets were still there.

When Sam began talking again Xan gave them a small, sad smile. "Um I don't really know them. I think they heard about me in school or something. I'm not really the most popular person, so you know, bullies and all that." Xan chuckled weakly as if what they said might be even remotely funny.

When they brought their hand away from their face Xanu found that their nosebleed had stopped. They turned to Sammy. "So what brings you to the park today?" They inquired.

[Sammy Linsen]

Sammy tried her best to be calm, she didn’t want to scare her companion, but Xanu looked nervous anyway. They smiled and told her they were fine, but she had a feeling this might be a recurring problem. She hoped that feeling was wrong because Xanu seemed like a nice person, why would anyone want to harm them?

Sammy glanced down at Xanu’s pocket and saw their spell book, and decided to possibly bring it up in conversation later. Magic was cool, depending on what type it was, and how you used it. Glancing up again, she nodded and crossed one leg over the other and set her book in her lap. It was terrible that people could be so cruel to others, especially when they could not defend themselves. Sadly, there was no way to fix people like that, they just did what they wanted without a care in the world.

“I figured as much, they didn’t look very friendly. Bullies are the worst, y’know?” She gave a small smile and shrugged.

“Me? Well, I woke up this morning and saw that it was such a beautiful day, didn’t want to stay cooped up in the house all day. I decided to come out here to read.” She held up her book for a moment, then set it down again and folded her hands on top of it. “What about you? What are you doing on this fine day?”