Open Tending to Flowers

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia had been glad to join the Wild Patch club. She wasn't much of a club person, but she did really enjoy plants and nature. The Wild Patch club space was wonderful, with a garden and a greenhouse, which reminded Natalia of her garden at home. She knew her mother had never quite approved of her hobby, though she never said too much about it because it was useful to grow your own potion ingredients. She had just never understood why Natalia liked doing the 'servant's work' like weeding or watering the plants herself. Natalia knew someone like Liusaidh Fergusson would think the same way, but she simply enjoyed the quiet moments in the gardens. The Slytherin was alone right now, using a free period to spend some time in the flowerbeds. She was picking weeds and tending to the flowers, working quietly and not caring about the way her hands and robes got stained with dirt. She would just have to change before her next class. Natalia sat back to admire her handiwork, pushing some hair out of her face that had escaped her hairclip. The flowerbeds were looking nice, she had done a lot of work. The pile of weeds next to her were proof of that.

 

[Pixie Longmire]

Pixie hadn't joined that many clubs during her time at school. They were a lot and busy and she tended to just do things on her own. She did like the gardens, she liked watching the flowers grow and looking at the different herbs. It was a nice enough day and she ended up heading there, spotting was she was at the wild patch gardens that there was someone already there. She knew the girl, from classes and from having met her at least once. her name escaped Pixie, but she just stared at what the girl had managed to tidy in the garden. Pixie was aware of the girl now looking up and knew she was still staring at her. But her words failed.​

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia was caught up in her work and quietly humming to herself, feeling at ease. So when she realized a girl had arrived without her noticing and was staring at her, Natalia jumped. She immediately felt a bit defensive, frowning at the Hufflepuff. She had tried to make conversation with this girl before, and it hadn't been easy. Natalia was fairly quiet herself, but this girl was even worse. "What are you doing here?" She asked, frowning. "Are you part of the Wild Patch too?" Natalia didn't think she had seen Pixie here before, but then again, she was very easy to miss.

 

[Pixie Longmire]

Pixie stared back at the girl, looking away as she spoke. She wasn't a part of the club, the idea of having her name amongst others, of having to be at the gardens when there were others didn't interest her, but she now wondered if she was supposed to be part of the club to even been at the area she might rethink it. "Just looking," she replied quietly, perhaps the easiest way to get herself out of this if this girl was a little...or ended up being a little...it just didn't help that Pixie was curious about what she'd been doing or was doing, what she was growing. Pixie opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find the words. "What's growing?" ​

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia never knew what to make of Pixie. As one of the quiet kids, she was aware of other quiet people in her year, and with most of them, she assumed they were shy or simply uninterested in others, but with Pixie, she wasn't sure. Natalia frowned slightly, then glanced at the plants in response to her question. "These are just normal flowers, most of them have no magical properties." She said. "It's for decoration. These are asters." She said, gesturing to the purple flowers she had been tending earlier. "Though I don't think you want me to name every flower here, do you?" That would probably be pretty boring.

 

[Pixie Longmire]

Pixie nodded, a little less interested if they were just regular flowers. She shook her head at the question, she didn't need Natalia to list all the flowers. her question had been dumb. She knew this now, but it had been the only thing she could think to say or ask. She didn't know what to say now. Or how to move things along. Perhaps she should just go, turn away and go find some other place to be, but Pixie felt rooted to the spot, and she just held Natalia's gaze for a moment and then glanced away. ​

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia watched the girl for a moment, frowning slightly. She didn't get her, but she could tell she was somewhat uncomfortable. She sat up a bit, pushing some of her hair back. "I was just pulling weeds. You can help if you want." She offered hesitantly. While Natalia didn't think Pixie would be an appropriate friend to her parents, she figured it wouldn't hurt to offer something like this. Besides, she was probably going to say no anyway. The girl wasn't in the Wild Patch, which likely meant she had no real interest in tending to plants. "But you don't have to if you don't want." She added after a moment, suddenly wondering if the girl would say no even if she didn't want to.

 

[Pixie Longmire]

Pixie nodded as the girl said she was pulling weeds, and even offered to let Pixie help. She wasn't sure she wanted to...sure, she knew it would be cool to be a bit involved and to have a go at gardening, despite the fact Pixie wanted to have a little cottage with a garden she didn't really know much about gardening. She was still hesitant, but Natalia seemed nice enough and she wasn't sure an opportunity where so few were around would crop up again. She nodded and then began to walk around and over to the girl. She stood, shifting between her feet as she waited for instructions on what she was to do. ​

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia didn't know why she had expected the girl to answer her with words, she hadn't done much talking so far. But when the girl simply moved closer, Natalia wasn't sure what she meant at first. "You... want to help?" She asked, frowning slightly, just to confirm. "If you do... those are weeds." She said, gesturing to a bunch of green leaves that were pushing through the flowers.

 

[Pixie Longmire]

Pixie nodded as she asked if she wanted to help and then looked to the green leaves pushing through the flowers. She leaned forward, tentatively took ahold of the leaf and then looked back at the girl. Wasn't sure if she should just pull up as she'd seen this girl do it. She didn't want to accidentally kill the flowers or anything. "This right?" she asked, she needed confirmation before doing anything. ​

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia nodded in return as Pixie confirmed she wanted to help. She got started on her own patch again, but then looked up when Pixie asked her a question. It seemed a rare enough occasion to have her say anything, so Natalia instantly paid attention. "Yes." She told her. "Try to pull it out with the roots so it doesn't grow back immediately." She instructed.

 

[Pixie Longmire]

Pixie looked back down at the weed tightly in her grasp and nodded. She looked back at Natalia for a moment before looking back and pulling the weed up. There was a bit of a tug of difficulty but she managed to pull it up and felt rather triumphant when she noted she'd managed to get the roots too. She looked back to natalia to almost see if the girl had approved of her attempt or had even been watching her. ​

 

[Natalia Novak]

Natalia focused on her work again, but she kept an eye on the other girl. She saw her looking at her, and Natalia turned her head to see what she was doing. She smiled slightly. "Yes, like that." She said quietly. "You don't have to help, but... you're doing well." Natalia paused, then quickly shrugged and got back to work. She wasn't trying to make friends with this girl, she reminded herself.

 

[Pixie Longmire]

Pixie nodded, she'd managed to do it right. Feeling a little more reassured and even quite pleased with the compliment. She turned back to the patch and grabbed another weed, tugging it upwards in the same as she'd done the first time. Pixie took a moment to look more closely at the weed, and what it looked like. She was just curious about plants, if she wanted to have her own garden one day she needed to know what these things looked like. Pixie went to grab another weed and to continue to pull them up as she'd been shown, content to work in silence next to Natalia. ​