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rainbowfic2012-05-06 01:46 am
bookblather) wrote in rainbowfic2012-05-06 01:46 am
Entry tags:
- author: kat,
- color: green,
- color: lilac,
- story: shine like it does,
- style: graffiti,
- style: miniature collection,
- style: photography,
- style: saturation,
- supply: acrylic,
- supply: brush,
- supply: canvas,
- supply: charcoal,
- supply: feathers,
- supply: glitter,
- supply: glue,
- supply: modeling clay,
- supply: novelty beads,
- supply: oils,
- supply: seed beads
Lilac Saturation with Green 2: Bouquet
Author: Kat
Title: Bouquet
Story: Huge Scary New Story
Colors: Lilac saturation, green 2 (the grass is always greener).
Supplies and Materials: Miniature collection, canvas, seed beads (anything not with Charlotte, Miranda or Jackson), brush (validate), acrylic (sustainable energy), oils (atonement), modeling clay (love), feathers ("I just don't love you anymore"), novelty beads ("I know you've got your career in order. Don't forget to have a happy life." - Colonel Potter, M*A*S*H), glitter (roller coaster picture), glue (everything feels complicated today... you're tempted to withdraw as a defensive tactic), photography, graffiti, charcoal.
Word Count: 2500.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Another glimpse of the Hennessys, and some of their friends and family.
Warnings: racism, classism, minor depiction of depression, sexism.
Notes: Again, please please tell me if I fuck anything up.
1. daisy - innocence; cheer
Benjy knows the world is scary. His daddy tells him so all the time. People look at him, at his black skin, and decide that he's worthless, that he's nothing. He sees this everywhere he looks.
Except he also sees his daddy, who looks at all the kids in his class and on his team with equal warmth in his eyes. He sees Miss Charlotte, who lifts his fingers into arches, and plays the piano so prettily. He sees the world, which is beautiful and, sometimes, friendly.
Benjy knows the world is scary.
He also thinks it's worth the risk.
2. narcissus - egotism; formality
Thomas Hennessy knows what's due to him and his family.
Respect, to begin with. Obedience-- he signs the paychecks, after all. The unrestricted ability to manage his company and his family. They belong to him, all of them; they owe him that much.
He sits back in his leather chair, enjoying the creak and the scent of it; swirls his brandy in his glass. An era is passing. He can feel it going by. His son, maybe, will live as he ought, but his grandchildren?
He sighs, sips his brandy.
Well, he'll make the best of it while it lasts.
3. rose - beauty
Miranda saunters through the hallway, her heels clicking against the faux-marble floors. Hennessy and Family will be hers someday, every imposing, legal inch of it, and she loves that everyone here knows it.
She loves the heads that follow her, the awe in their eyes, the way they hastily look away when she glances in their direction. She loves the fit of her business suits, the way her arches ache after a day in heels. She loves walking into a room, and knowing she is the most beautiful and the most powerful person there.
This is strength.
She loves it.
4. violet - modesty; faithfulness
Charlotte keeps her promises.
Oh, it isn't as if it's a rare quality, not in her immediate family, but then again, they almost never make promises. Charlotte makes them all the time. When she's teaching, she promises kindness, a good education, the ability to at least pick out a tune on the piano. To her family she promises love, understanding, family dinners when one of them is in town.
To the world, she promises something nebulous, in return for all the gifts she's been given. She promises to leave something more than she's taken.
It's a hard promise to keep.
5. apple blossom - preference; good fortune
This is the life.
Fast cars, faster women. Good booze and better drugs. He loves the parties every night and the room service every day, the nightclubs and the short-skirted girls that inhabit them, his bed that's big enough for four. He loves this life, every red-hot minute.
They keep telling he has to make something of himself. Whatever that means. Tommy's not stupid; he gets decent grades, and he got into Princeton early decision. So what if this was the way he chose to live his life?
It can't hurt him.
Anyway, he's enjoying himself too much to stop.
6. goldenrod - encouragement, precaution
Daniel tries to date again, as Benjy gets older and the sharp pain of Alicia's loss cuts less deeply. None of them really interest him, though. They don't have Alicia's eyes, her smile, the way she always seemed to know what he was thinking.
Besides, he doesn't know how they'll be with Benjy. His poor kid already has it rough in life, being black in an America that won't admit it's racist. He doesn't need a stepmother, or even a father's girlfriend, who will treat him with anything less than adoration.
He keeps to himself more, as Benjy gets older.
7. mimosa - sensitivity, secret love
Watching Jack self-destruct is breaking Felix's heart.
They've been friends since college, since Felix ran into him at some party somewhere that his roommate had dragged him to. Jack sat down beside him and started talking, bright and friendly as always, and sometime during that conversation, Felix fell head over heels in love.
They've been best friends ever since.
Not that Felix wouldn't love more. But Jack is his friend, first and foremost. First and foremost, Felix wants him happy.
He's not even that, and it's breaking Felix's heart. But what can he do?
He can't change what Jack is.
8. larkspur - fickleness, levity
Jack has no idea how to maintain a relationship, and he thinks it's time he faced up to that fact.
For God's sake. He's dated so many people and fucked even more, and he's never been able to hold on to someone for more than three months. Either they get sick of him or he gets restless. He wants to be in love, but he's never managed to find someone he can stay with.
Well. Besides Felix. But Felix is Felix, and Jack doesn't know what he'd do, if he lost Felix.
He'll keep trying. It's all he can do.
9. lily - elegance, purity
Miranda feels rather pleased with herself when she finishes dressing. White lace dress, over silvery satin, white pumps. She's done her hair in an old Hollywood style, draped a silver mink stole over her dress. She feels perfect, and perfectly lovely, every item of clothing calculated to send a careful impression: elegant, but unreachable, a carved goddess on a pedastal.
She hesitates, her fingers lingering over her jewelry, before she finally chooses a silver-and-crystal confection her father had made for her sixteenth birthday. It doesn't quite fit the picture, but...
Well, she's allowed a bit of sentiment. A tiny bit.
10. baby's breath - happiness; pure in heart
Her first grandbaby is so small and sweet, Marguerite thinks maybe Alicia was right about marrying Daniel. Not, of course, that she has anything to say about her baby girl's life, not anymore. Not that she doesn't like Daniel. It's just... they married so fast.
Marguerite is intimately familiar with the consequences of marrying too young and too fast.
But she has to admit that Daniel is a good man, very gentlemanly. And Benjamin is the sweetest little baby that ever breathed, with that soft new-baby smell she just loves.
Alicia has a good life.
And Marguerite has a grandbaby.
11. coneflower - life; conviviality
The first time Isobel brings him home to meet her family, Christopher is utterly overwhelmed.
There's so much joy bubbling out of the Rueda household. Her grandmother pinches his cheeks, cries out "Tan guapo!" and pats Isobel's cheek. Her mother feeds him until he genuinely thinks he might explode. Her father sits him down for a man-to-man talk that turns into a baseball discussion. Her brothers swarm over his car. Her sisters swarm Isobel, talking and laughing.
In an hour, he holds more babies, shakes more hands, recieves more hugs than he ever has before.
He wants this so much.
12. gardenia - good luck; you're lovely
Christopher sent her flowers before every opening night.
Every movie. Every play. Even that stupid little commercial. The day each one premiered, he sent her a bouquet of white-petaled gardenias: for good luck, he said, when she asked him after the first time. She knows, though, that they also mean "you're beautiful."
Sweet-scented flowers, heavy with pollen and promise, droop on their stems in her dressing room as she adjusts the veil atop her head. She should have known he would remember. He remembers everything.
Her bouquet is of white roses, expensive and rare. But she carries the gardenias instead.
13. peony - shame; bashfulness
Charlotte can't look her maternal relatives in the eye.
Their lives are much better, now that her mother is who she is, but it's still so much less than she's had all her life. Her cousins ask her endless questions, and every answer makes her feel more guilty.
How could it not? She doesn't deserve what she has. She has so much more than they do, just by virtue of being born a Hennessy, and how in any world is that right?
She gives them things, jewelry and clothing they admire.
It's not anywhere near enough, but it's a start.
14. phlox - unanimity, sweet dreams
Jackson's mother used to sing him Spanish lullabies, when he was little. She'd tuck him in, gather him close, and sing softly, her voice like warm milk, soothing, relaxing every muscle. When she finally got up to go, he'd be close to sleep, his eyelids drooping, and she'd bend down and kiss his forehead, call him chiquito and wish him sweet dreams. He would roll over then, secure in her love, surrounded by her scent, and sleep well until his papa woke him in the morning.
He hasn't slept well since she stopped doing that.
He doesn't think it's a coincidence.
15. snapdragon - presumption
They keep telling him it was a mistake.
He doesn't see how it could have been. Alicia wasn't doing anything wrong; she went out while he watched Benjy, because as much as she loved their son, she needed time off sometimes. She was so excited. She was going to get her hair and nails done, sit in a café and watch people, maybe do some shopping. She wanted to get a massage.
Instead, she got two cop bullets to the chest. If she was a white woman, they'd be calling it murder.
But she wasn't white, so it's a mistake.
16. safflower - marriage, welcome
Katie still lives at home, so she's heard everything: her father's ranting, her mother's hysterical tears, the both of them refusing to attend the wedding, their insistance that she refuse to go as well. But Christopher has always been her favorite relative, and she likes Isobel, no matter what her parents say. She sneaks out of the house and takes a taxi. Her father would have a heart attack if he knew.
She sits in the back, and leaves before the reception. But she knows both Isobel and Christopher saw her.
She hopes they know that she wishes them well.
17. sweet pea - goodbye; thank you for a lovely time
It's a point of pride with Jackson, that he never leaves before his lovers wake up.
He doesn't stay much past that. He's never had a relationship that lasted longer than a few months, mostly thanks to his inability to be the same person two days in a row-- when he isn't with his family, anyway. But he knows what he owes to a person gracious enough to share his bed. Pleasure, honesty, the right to consent, the right to refuse, and the courtesy of warm thanks and farewell.
He can't give them love, but he can give them this.
18. tuberose - voluptuousness, dangerous pleasure
Miranda doesn't know if this guy knows who she is. She hasn't told him, and she doesn't plan to, if she doesn't have to. She doesn't want anything from him, after all, besides this fumbling encounter in the dark.
It's all she can have, after all. She is Miranda Hennessy, and she must be impartial, apart from everything that might possibly influence her. So she puts on short skirts and goes to clubs, finds a stranger to satisfy her for a night. Not even a night. An hour.
She's never mentioned this to her parents.
She doesn't think they'd understand.
19. tulip - perfect lover, fame
Samantha doesn't know how long she's spent crying over Jackson Hennessy.
The worst part is that she can't even blame him. He never made her any promises, never lied to her. He wanted nothing more than a good time; he made that clear from the start.
She really thought she would be different, though. She really thought she would be the one to change his mind. They'd have such beautiful children, the pair of them, and she would be Jackson Hennessy's wife. She'd have everything she ever wanted.
He doesn't want her. That's the end of it.
It still hurts.
20. chrysanthemum - abundance and wealth
Isobel can't quite get used to living this way.
Christopher, God bless him, has never understood what it is to worry about money the way she has. Isobel's family wasn't exactly poor; they always had food and clothing and enough to pay the rent. But there's always been limits, things she couldn't do; things like going to college, or owning her own car.
Now she's married Christopher and there are no limits, none at all. She can send her siblings to college. She can buy them all cars, if she wants.
It's unbelievable. She doesn't even know where to start.
21. bluebell - constancy, humility
Charlotte pays her own way through college.
Her father keeps telling her she doesn't have to. They're more than rich enough; even if she and Miranda and Jackson all go to Ivy League schools and stay for six years, it won't be more than a drop in the ocean.
He doesn't understand that their wealth is the reason she's doing this. She did nothing to earn it. Not even her birth qualifed her, as their extended family and social peers have made painfully clear.
She'll make her own way. It's what she deserves.
She loves her father for suggesting otherwise.
22. foxglove - a wish, insincerity
It isn't that she doesn't like Elizabeth.
Isobel, Christopher insists, when they talk about her, but this is America, and the girl's American name is Elizabeth. And it isn't that she doesn't like her. Elizabeth is bright and engaging, and very prettily behaved for one of those people. Nancy would like her well enough in some other context.
But not-- please God not-- marrying her son.
Christopher has such a bright future ahead of him. Marrying one of them will blight that future, whether or not the girl means to do it.
She doesn't understand why he can't see that.
23. snapdragon - strength, gracious lady
She met Daniel in autumn. He proposed in winter.
Her mother disapproves. Whirlwind courtships never end well, she says, sternly, but Alicia can't regret anything. What's love, if it's not a gamble? What she has with Daniel is perfect-- why wait when it feels so right?
So she says yes, on the small condition that they wait to marry until they graduate in the spring. He agrees, of course. They're both the first in their families to go to college. They both know how important it is.
But their love is important too.
She's counting the days to their wedding.
24. orchid - luxury; refinement
Christopher Hennessy has grown up in sweltering luxury, the most refined surroundings anyone could imagine. He's been nannied and trained and taught since he was a baby, given anything he could possibly want before he could even voice the wish for it. He should have been the most dreadfully spoiled child on the planet.
He isn't. That's his brother. He is left to himself. He has everything a child could want, except love.
He watches Tommy spin around the driveway on his new motorcycle, kicking up sprays of gravel, laughing like a demon.
He'll never do this to his children.
25. freesia - trust
Charlotte is a Hennessy.
He can't believe it. He can't believe that someone like her would come from such a wealthy background. He can't believe that someone like that would live the way she does.
Which means she had a plan. She had a purpose, this whole time, and he was just some kind of pawn in whatever twisted game she was playing. Or maybe he was entertainment, a way to pass the time. Either way, he never wants to see her again.
She's left him a message, her voice choked with tears. It hurts to hear.
He deletes it.
Title: Bouquet
Story: Huge Scary New Story
Colors: Lilac saturation, green 2 (the grass is always greener).
Supplies and Materials: Miniature collection, canvas, seed beads (anything not with Charlotte, Miranda or Jackson), brush (validate), acrylic (sustainable energy), oils (atonement), modeling clay (love), feathers ("I just don't love you anymore"), novelty beads ("I know you've got your career in order. Don't forget to have a happy life." - Colonel Potter, M*A*S*H), glitter (roller coaster picture), glue (everything feels complicated today... you're tempted to withdraw as a defensive tactic), photography, graffiti, charcoal.
Word Count: 2500.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Another glimpse of the Hennessys, and some of their friends and family.
Warnings: racism, classism, minor depiction of depression, sexism.
Notes: Again, please please tell me if I fuck anything up.
1. daisy - innocence; cheer
Benjy knows the world is scary. His daddy tells him so all the time. People look at him, at his black skin, and decide that he's worthless, that he's nothing. He sees this everywhere he looks.
Except he also sees his daddy, who looks at all the kids in his class and on his team with equal warmth in his eyes. He sees Miss Charlotte, who lifts his fingers into arches, and plays the piano so prettily. He sees the world, which is beautiful and, sometimes, friendly.
Benjy knows the world is scary.
He also thinks it's worth the risk.
2. narcissus - egotism; formality
Thomas Hennessy knows what's due to him and his family.
Respect, to begin with. Obedience-- he signs the paychecks, after all. The unrestricted ability to manage his company and his family. They belong to him, all of them; they owe him that much.
He sits back in his leather chair, enjoying the creak and the scent of it; swirls his brandy in his glass. An era is passing. He can feel it going by. His son, maybe, will live as he ought, but his grandchildren?
He sighs, sips his brandy.
Well, he'll make the best of it while it lasts.
3. rose - beauty
Miranda saunters through the hallway, her heels clicking against the faux-marble floors. Hennessy and Family will be hers someday, every imposing, legal inch of it, and she loves that everyone here knows it.
She loves the heads that follow her, the awe in their eyes, the way they hastily look away when she glances in their direction. She loves the fit of her business suits, the way her arches ache after a day in heels. She loves walking into a room, and knowing she is the most beautiful and the most powerful person there.
This is strength.
She loves it.
4. violet - modesty; faithfulness
Charlotte keeps her promises.
Oh, it isn't as if it's a rare quality, not in her immediate family, but then again, they almost never make promises. Charlotte makes them all the time. When she's teaching, she promises kindness, a good education, the ability to at least pick out a tune on the piano. To her family she promises love, understanding, family dinners when one of them is in town.
To the world, she promises something nebulous, in return for all the gifts she's been given. She promises to leave something more than she's taken.
It's a hard promise to keep.
5. apple blossom - preference; good fortune
This is the life.
Fast cars, faster women. Good booze and better drugs. He loves the parties every night and the room service every day, the nightclubs and the short-skirted girls that inhabit them, his bed that's big enough for four. He loves this life, every red-hot minute.
They keep telling he has to make something of himself. Whatever that means. Tommy's not stupid; he gets decent grades, and he got into Princeton early decision. So what if this was the way he chose to live his life?
It can't hurt him.
Anyway, he's enjoying himself too much to stop.
6. goldenrod - encouragement, precaution
Daniel tries to date again, as Benjy gets older and the sharp pain of Alicia's loss cuts less deeply. None of them really interest him, though. They don't have Alicia's eyes, her smile, the way she always seemed to know what he was thinking.
Besides, he doesn't know how they'll be with Benjy. His poor kid already has it rough in life, being black in an America that won't admit it's racist. He doesn't need a stepmother, or even a father's girlfriend, who will treat him with anything less than adoration.
He keeps to himself more, as Benjy gets older.
7. mimosa - sensitivity, secret love
Watching Jack self-destruct is breaking Felix's heart.
They've been friends since college, since Felix ran into him at some party somewhere that his roommate had dragged him to. Jack sat down beside him and started talking, bright and friendly as always, and sometime during that conversation, Felix fell head over heels in love.
They've been best friends ever since.
Not that Felix wouldn't love more. But Jack is his friend, first and foremost. First and foremost, Felix wants him happy.
He's not even that, and it's breaking Felix's heart. But what can he do?
He can't change what Jack is.
8. larkspur - fickleness, levity
Jack has no idea how to maintain a relationship, and he thinks it's time he faced up to that fact.
For God's sake. He's dated so many people and fucked even more, and he's never been able to hold on to someone for more than three months. Either they get sick of him or he gets restless. He wants to be in love, but he's never managed to find someone he can stay with.
Well. Besides Felix. But Felix is Felix, and Jack doesn't know what he'd do, if he lost Felix.
He'll keep trying. It's all he can do.
9. lily - elegance, purity
Miranda feels rather pleased with herself when she finishes dressing. White lace dress, over silvery satin, white pumps. She's done her hair in an old Hollywood style, draped a silver mink stole over her dress. She feels perfect, and perfectly lovely, every item of clothing calculated to send a careful impression: elegant, but unreachable, a carved goddess on a pedastal.
She hesitates, her fingers lingering over her jewelry, before she finally chooses a silver-and-crystal confection her father had made for her sixteenth birthday. It doesn't quite fit the picture, but...
Well, she's allowed a bit of sentiment. A tiny bit.
10. baby's breath - happiness; pure in heart
Her first grandbaby is so small and sweet, Marguerite thinks maybe Alicia was right about marrying Daniel. Not, of course, that she has anything to say about her baby girl's life, not anymore. Not that she doesn't like Daniel. It's just... they married so fast.
Marguerite is intimately familiar with the consequences of marrying too young and too fast.
But she has to admit that Daniel is a good man, very gentlemanly. And Benjamin is the sweetest little baby that ever breathed, with that soft new-baby smell she just loves.
Alicia has a good life.
And Marguerite has a grandbaby.
11. coneflower - life; conviviality
The first time Isobel brings him home to meet her family, Christopher is utterly overwhelmed.
There's so much joy bubbling out of the Rueda household. Her grandmother pinches his cheeks, cries out "Tan guapo!" and pats Isobel's cheek. Her mother feeds him until he genuinely thinks he might explode. Her father sits him down for a man-to-man talk that turns into a baseball discussion. Her brothers swarm over his car. Her sisters swarm Isobel, talking and laughing.
In an hour, he holds more babies, shakes more hands, recieves more hugs than he ever has before.
He wants this so much.
12. gardenia - good luck; you're lovely
Christopher sent her flowers before every opening night.
Every movie. Every play. Even that stupid little commercial. The day each one premiered, he sent her a bouquet of white-petaled gardenias: for good luck, he said, when she asked him after the first time. She knows, though, that they also mean "you're beautiful."
Sweet-scented flowers, heavy with pollen and promise, droop on their stems in her dressing room as she adjusts the veil atop her head. She should have known he would remember. He remembers everything.
Her bouquet is of white roses, expensive and rare. But she carries the gardenias instead.
13. peony - shame; bashfulness
Charlotte can't look her maternal relatives in the eye.
Their lives are much better, now that her mother is who she is, but it's still so much less than she's had all her life. Her cousins ask her endless questions, and every answer makes her feel more guilty.
How could it not? She doesn't deserve what she has. She has so much more than they do, just by virtue of being born a Hennessy, and how in any world is that right?
She gives them things, jewelry and clothing they admire.
It's not anywhere near enough, but it's a start.
14. phlox - unanimity, sweet dreams
Jackson's mother used to sing him Spanish lullabies, when he was little. She'd tuck him in, gather him close, and sing softly, her voice like warm milk, soothing, relaxing every muscle. When she finally got up to go, he'd be close to sleep, his eyelids drooping, and she'd bend down and kiss his forehead, call him chiquito and wish him sweet dreams. He would roll over then, secure in her love, surrounded by her scent, and sleep well until his papa woke him in the morning.
He hasn't slept well since she stopped doing that.
He doesn't think it's a coincidence.
15. snapdragon - presumption
They keep telling him it was a mistake.
He doesn't see how it could have been. Alicia wasn't doing anything wrong; she went out while he watched Benjy, because as much as she loved their son, she needed time off sometimes. She was so excited. She was going to get her hair and nails done, sit in a café and watch people, maybe do some shopping. She wanted to get a massage.
Instead, she got two cop bullets to the chest. If she was a white woman, they'd be calling it murder.
But she wasn't white, so it's a mistake.
16. safflower - marriage, welcome
Katie still lives at home, so she's heard everything: her father's ranting, her mother's hysterical tears, the both of them refusing to attend the wedding, their insistance that she refuse to go as well. But Christopher has always been her favorite relative, and she likes Isobel, no matter what her parents say. She sneaks out of the house and takes a taxi. Her father would have a heart attack if he knew.
She sits in the back, and leaves before the reception. But she knows both Isobel and Christopher saw her.
She hopes they know that she wishes them well.
17. sweet pea - goodbye; thank you for a lovely time
It's a point of pride with Jackson, that he never leaves before his lovers wake up.
He doesn't stay much past that. He's never had a relationship that lasted longer than a few months, mostly thanks to his inability to be the same person two days in a row-- when he isn't with his family, anyway. But he knows what he owes to a person gracious enough to share his bed. Pleasure, honesty, the right to consent, the right to refuse, and the courtesy of warm thanks and farewell.
He can't give them love, but he can give them this.
18. tuberose - voluptuousness, dangerous pleasure
Miranda doesn't know if this guy knows who she is. She hasn't told him, and she doesn't plan to, if she doesn't have to. She doesn't want anything from him, after all, besides this fumbling encounter in the dark.
It's all she can have, after all. She is Miranda Hennessy, and she must be impartial, apart from everything that might possibly influence her. So she puts on short skirts and goes to clubs, finds a stranger to satisfy her for a night. Not even a night. An hour.
She's never mentioned this to her parents.
She doesn't think they'd understand.
19. tulip - perfect lover, fame
Samantha doesn't know how long she's spent crying over Jackson Hennessy.
The worst part is that she can't even blame him. He never made her any promises, never lied to her. He wanted nothing more than a good time; he made that clear from the start.
She really thought she would be different, though. She really thought she would be the one to change his mind. They'd have such beautiful children, the pair of them, and she would be Jackson Hennessy's wife. She'd have everything she ever wanted.
He doesn't want her. That's the end of it.
It still hurts.
20. chrysanthemum - abundance and wealth
Isobel can't quite get used to living this way.
Christopher, God bless him, has never understood what it is to worry about money the way she has. Isobel's family wasn't exactly poor; they always had food and clothing and enough to pay the rent. But there's always been limits, things she couldn't do; things like going to college, or owning her own car.
Now she's married Christopher and there are no limits, none at all. She can send her siblings to college. She can buy them all cars, if she wants.
It's unbelievable. She doesn't even know where to start.
21. bluebell - constancy, humility
Charlotte pays her own way through college.
Her father keeps telling her she doesn't have to. They're more than rich enough; even if she and Miranda and Jackson all go to Ivy League schools and stay for six years, it won't be more than a drop in the ocean.
He doesn't understand that their wealth is the reason she's doing this. She did nothing to earn it. Not even her birth qualifed her, as their extended family and social peers have made painfully clear.
She'll make her own way. It's what she deserves.
She loves her father for suggesting otherwise.
22. foxglove - a wish, insincerity
It isn't that she doesn't like Elizabeth.
Isobel, Christopher insists, when they talk about her, but this is America, and the girl's American name is Elizabeth. And it isn't that she doesn't like her. Elizabeth is bright and engaging, and very prettily behaved for one of those people. Nancy would like her well enough in some other context.
But not-- please God not-- marrying her son.
Christopher has such a bright future ahead of him. Marrying one of them will blight that future, whether or not the girl means to do it.
She doesn't understand why he can't see that.
23. snapdragon - strength, gracious lady
She met Daniel in autumn. He proposed in winter.
Her mother disapproves. Whirlwind courtships never end well, she says, sternly, but Alicia can't regret anything. What's love, if it's not a gamble? What she has with Daniel is perfect-- why wait when it feels so right?
So she says yes, on the small condition that they wait to marry until they graduate in the spring. He agrees, of course. They're both the first in their families to go to college. They both know how important it is.
But their love is important too.
She's counting the days to their wedding.
24. orchid - luxury; refinement
Christopher Hennessy has grown up in sweltering luxury, the most refined surroundings anyone could imagine. He's been nannied and trained and taught since he was a baby, given anything he could possibly want before he could even voice the wish for it. He should have been the most dreadfully spoiled child on the planet.
He isn't. That's his brother. He is left to himself. He has everything a child could want, except love.
He watches Tommy spin around the driveway on his new motorcycle, kicking up sprays of gravel, laughing like a demon.
He'll never do this to his children.
25. freesia - trust
Charlotte is a Hennessy.
He can't believe it. He can't believe that someone like her would come from such a wealthy background. He can't believe that someone like that would live the way she does.
Which means she had a plan. She had a purpose, this whole time, and he was just some kind of pawn in whatever twisted game she was playing. Or maybe he was entertainment, a way to pass the time. Either way, he never wants to see her again.
She's left him a message, her voice choked with tears. It hurts to hear.
He deletes it.
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Also, while it's hard to pick a favorite, Charlotte is standing out quite a bit.
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Thank you. And I love Charlotte too; she's the main character. :D
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This was good. I loved this. ^^
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Anyway. Thank you.
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tl;dr it's a fun story to write, and I'm glad you like Miranda. She's working her way into my heart pretty fast.
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I especially like...
#3, because of how you used the rose prompt. And I think I like Miranda too. She seems like she's up to something, anyway.
#7 has so much awesome plot written all over it. And you can really feel how tender-hearted Felix is.
#11 too. I WANT TO SEE WHERE THIS GOES HOLY EVERYTHING.
#16 I can get behind someone who sneaks out to take a taxi to a wedding. I can get behind that any day of the week. And the way you put it- sitting in the back, her father's theoretical heart attack. It's so bittersweet matter-of-fact.
#24 I wish to emblazon the phrase "sweltering luxury" somewhere on my body.
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As for 11, may I ask what intrigues you about it particularly? I wish to know for reasons.
Thank you!