Open Allowed Here Yet?

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie had come outside the moment the sun had broken free of the winter clouds. She'd put on her hat, and a thick warm jacket and had gone to the grounds. She wasn't so interested in the forest or the lake or the cliffs - though each she knew she'd see at some later point - no, Rosie was far more interested in the gardens, and thus had come to the gardens first. She knew it wouldn't look as nice as it could down the line but Rosie was still going to have a look. She was immediately in love with them, the amount of creatures, the amount of budding growth. She was careful to not step on anything living, trying to be as light on her feet as possible even with the grass. She wandered deeper into the gardens and arrived at a spot with a sign saying wild patch.

Rosie knew this was a club, one she hadn't yet joined, the club fair wasn't for another couple of days. She could spot some beehives which were amazingly decorated, some mini-gardens in pots..she could see the amount of growth that went into this area, the roses section even more so. Rosie wasn't sure she was supposed to be here yet, but she did rather like it. She'd already decided she would sign up for the wild patch, to catching a glimpse of it now, triple her interest. She was gladly looking at the different things just left out in this area. ​

 

[Xinyi Huang]

Xinyi walked down to the wild patch, thinking he'd be helpful and do some weeding. He knew the leader put in a lot of effort and Xinyi wanted to help. Even if it was just a small way. He slipped on his jacket, keeping his hands in his pockets. He stopped short though as he saw someone standing there, and smiled brightly. "Rosie? What are you doing here?" He asked, walking over to her.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie jumped in surprised and her gave moved quickly over to the person who'd scared her. "Xinyi!" she exclaimed, clearly still trying to get her breath back. "I couldn't help myself...I just wanted to see the gardens...," Rosie told him with a little shy expression. She loved gardens, and would be sighing up for the club, so she hadn't really seen the harm in coming. "You won't mention to anyone that I came?" she asked Xinyi in case she could get in trouble for being there before she was technically allowed to be. ​

 

[Xinyi Huang]

Xinyi chuckled, smiling and rubbing the back of his neck. She was so cute. "Oh, it's okay," He reassured her, moving to stand next to her. He nodded quickly at her question. "Not a soul! Promise!" He smiled at her, before holding out his hand. "Would you like me to show you around the gardens?" He asked.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie grinned happily, "Thanks Xinyi!" she had thought he wouldn't tell, but she appreciated the assurance. At the offer she nodded, reaching out and taking his hand as she did so. "Please!" she said eagerly. "I could probably figure it out alone, but a lot of the plants are dead....so I can't easily spot," She knew that she could just wait, but she was too eager to not do accept being shown round. ​

 

[Xinyi Huang]

Xinyi blushed as the girl took his hand. He smiled shyly and started to pull her along the familiar paths. "The gardens will look better as the school year goes on," He tried to tell her, struggling to think of things to say. He tried pointing out a few plants, though he wasn't the most knowledgeable about these sorts of things. After walking for a bit, he looked down at her with a soft smile. "Are you going to join the club this year?" He asked, even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie let Xinyi guide her along the paths in the gardens. She nodded along as he pointed out different plants and every so often she gave a little detail about them. She'd grown some similar plants before and was looking forward to doing it again. "Yeah, the moment I can," she told him, since it was the primary gthing she was looking forward to do. "What sorts of things does the club do?" she asked. She wouldn't mind what they did when it gave her access to the gardens but she was keen for to at least know. ​

 

[Xinyi Huang]

Xinyi nodded, not surprised that she agreed. "Are you going to sign up for any of the other clubs?" He asked her, curious if she might have any other interests. He did, but he'd honestly just been too scared to sign up for the arts club himself. It was too soft of him, he just knew Jingyi wouldn't like it.

He thought over her question, strolling along a little slower. "Well, we built a castle? With like flowers and stuff, we paired up with the Arts club for that," He explained lamely. "There's a lot of things, sometimes they teach us stuff and sometimes we make things,"

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie gave a little shrug, "Probably, something with Aurora," she told him, since she thought there was a club that Aurora wanted them to be a part of and Rosie didn't mind doing that with her, since it would be fun to have a club for her and a club to share. "Oh wow, those all sound really cool," she thought that they could do more with the plants and do more with growing things. "What's your favourite plant here?"​

 

[Xinyi Huang]

Xinyi nodded, too shy to ask Rosie if she would join the arts club with him. If he could lie and say that he was joining for someone else, it wouldn't be so bad, but he couldn't join on his own. He let the subject drop. He smiled as she seemed impressed by what he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I like the puffapods," He told her. "If you bump them just right, they explode in this beautiful cascade of flowers, its wonderful."

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie gave a knowing nod, "Puffapods are beautiful, the flowers are beautiful," the girl told him. She didn't necessarily want the puffapods to lose all of their seeds but it was necessary for the flowers to continue to germinate. "Have you ever heard of snowbells or snowdrops?" she asked Xinyi as she was glancing about the plants in this garden. She though Xinyi had a good knowledge of plants so he might know about them, they weren't the most rare of plants. ​

 

[Xinyi Huang]

Xinyi smiled, thinking about what she said. "They are," He nodded. He paused as she asked about a flower. "I... don't think so?" He offered slowly, his mind drawing a blank. "What are they? Do you like them?" He asked, thinking it sounded pretty at least, and if she liked it they must be especially pretty.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie smiled at Xinyi, she wasn't too surprised when he didn't know what they were. "I love them, but I love all flowers," Rosie gave a little laugh, "They're little white flowers, they grow 'after the snow', or basically like in the first weeks of spring, they usually signifiy that winter is coming to an end," she said. "They aren't very big but grew in large clusters," she said. "They're pretty like daisy's," ​

 

[Xinyi Huang]

Xinyi listened to Rosie intently, taking note of what she said about the flowers. "They sound nice," He smiled softly at her. He ran a hand through his hair. "I think they're serving dinner soon though, we should... probably head back," He pointed a thumb over his shoulder back towards the castle. "I can walk back with you?" He offered with a shy smile.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie frowned a little, disappointed to already having to be leaving the gardens, but Xinyi was right and she knew if she was late for dinner Aurora would worry about her. So she nodded, "Okay! But I'm going to say goodbye to all the plants first," she told him before turning back to all the plants and saying goodbye to them all in one, reciting the plant types that Xinyi had introduced her to as she said goodbye. "Okay, all good, let's go," ​

 

[Xinyi Huang]

Xinyi smiled, waiting patiently for Rosie to finish saying goodbye to everything. That was really sweet of her. He offered her his hand before walking with her back up to the castle. They chatted idly, and he couldn't help but think of how sweet and nice she was. It was a relief to have her here at the school. He wondered idly if this was what having friends felt like. He liked it. And since she was in Gryffindor too, he could sit with her without raising any brows. He was sure his brother didn't notice Xinyi's absence anyway.