Chapter 9: Flower

Raven had us huddled up.  There weren't very many girls here, which was quite sad. As we huddled up, a grey mass lumbered over to us.  It must have been Rhett. Raven signaled for him to come here and then pulled a round tin from her pocket.

            "Here, smear this on your faces." She instructed as she passed it to Jane. Jane was one of the only popular girls that played. There were a few others that Jane had mustered up, but otherwise that was it. Our team was very unfair compared to the opposing team which had just about all the boys in the whole school. I had no idea how this was going to be pulled off.

            When the tin came to me, I looked inside to see what exactly we were smearing on our faces. It was black shoe polish. This would be fun to get off. I dipped my finger in and smeared it under my eyes anyway and then passed it to Whitney who was smiling. Rhett had changed back to his human form and was standing next to Whitney. The two of them were grinning their heads off.

            Once everyone had smeared shoe polish on their face, Raven left to retrieve our flag from the head referee.  While I we waited, I had spotted a camera and waved.

            "What are you waving at Flora?" Betty came up to me and asked. I pointed to the camera. Betty waved as well.

            "The whole school can see us!" Whitney was talking to Rhett, so his face was covered up by the camera. Raven returned and we headed deep into the woods to hide it.

            "I wanna hide it in a really tall tree. They'll have to have a bird to find it." Raven said. Nobody disagreed since nobody had another idea. Raven changed and flew up to a tree to hide it.  When she came back down, we lined up on an orange line that was spray painted.

            "Raven? What do I do?"

            "Could you lay some vine traps? They'll be hidden in the brush so the boys won't know what hit them."

            "Yeah."           

            "Good, do it when the gunfire goes off." I nodded and prepared to run. We waited silently for the gunfire to sound. Whitney, Jane, Rhett, Betty, Raven and the others had already changed to their animal so I was the only one that was still human. I was sort of jealous that I couldn't change into an animal. It would be really cool and I wouldn't have to wear a swimsuit and swim in a pool full of animals when I wanted to clean myself off. It was sort of embarrassing. I missed a regular shower.

            The gunfire had still not been sounded when something rustled loudly in the brush.

            "What the hell?" Raven swore.  When did she change? Raven stood next to me and listened. Whitney padded over and rubbed against Raven's leg, letting her know that she was there.

            "WAIT!" A girl's voice yelled like a two year old. Black curls. My face lost blood. It was Chelsey. 

            "What the hell are you doing here?"  Raven hissed at her when she came toward us.

            "I wanted to play!"

            "Then why the hell did you wait 'till now to come running!?" Raven was really angry about this.

            Chelsey smeared on an innocent face, "I didn't know when to come." Jane changed back to her human form, her eyes burning with hatred. "Jane told me to find her after dinner and I tried looking for her, I really did but I couldn't find her. I had to ask the head referee where to go. It was SO embarrassing!"

            "I didn't even talk to you!" Jane countered. She was just as mad as Raven was.

            "ONE MINUTE 'TILL GAME BEGINS!" A loud speaker blared.

            "We have no choice but to let her play now. Everyone; to your positions!" Raven walked back to her spot with Whitney trotting behind. Jane glared at Chelsey and changed back to her jaguar.

            Chelsey turned to me. I couldn't face her straight on, "Aren't you going to change?"

            "I'm different." I said, looking straight ahead.

            "What do you mean?" The gunfire sounded and I ran, sprinting away.  I saw a flash of white fur from Whitney as she trotted off somewhere. I heard distant growls and other strange noises. I stopped and urged the plants to grow. I had been practicing by myself before curfew and I didn't know how Raven knew about it.  I laid the first trap and headed on. 

            It was hard to be stealthy as I laid more traps. Every once in a while, I would see a fellow teammate run past, panting crazily. I had not seen Raven or Betty the whole time. Suddenly, another pain spasm hit me in the stomach. I doubled over in pain. Not this again. I crawled toward the boarder so I could keep an eye on it as I leaned against a tree, waiting for the pain to subside. 

            In the dark, I noticed a dark figure walking around. I assumed it was a boy. He had his hands in his pockets.  I clutched my stomach hard, urging the pain to leave. My begging must have worked because it dulled and stopped. A hissy voice laughed in the back of my head. I shuddered, hoping I had imagined it.

            I stood up and dusted my butt off.

            "Hello?" I called out. The figure turned toward me and started walking. "Hello?" I called louder.

            "Who are you?" the figure questioned. It was a boy for sure.

            "I'm-I'm Flora! Who are you?"

            "What a pretty name. I'm Ethan." The figure came into the moonlight. He was quite tall with short brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. He wore black like me, but had no black on his face. His eyes looked kind. We stood on our side of the borders.

            "I'm surprised you're not changed. I heard your captain is Raven Sterling. She is one devil when it comes to capture the flag."

            "I can't exactly change. I more manipulate something." I blushed. It was hard telling people that I was different from everyone else. Ethan stared at me in wonder.

            "What can you do and why haven't you changed." I shot back, my cheeks still flustering hot.

            Ethan merely laughed, "We have so many guys on our team, I barely have to do any work. I just patrol the borders. Capture the flag used to be so much more fun but none of the girls want to play and all the guys play so we always have an unfair advantage. "

            "You still didn't answer my first question."

            "Hello?" Ethan chuckled, "I think I did."

            I giggled, "No, not that question."

            "Which one then?" Ethan smiled.

            "What can you change into?"

            "I'll show you. You may want to step back and promise me that you won't tag me. I may cross the line."

            "Ok." I giggled. I took a couple steps back and he let the change take over him. He turned grey like Rhett and grew huge. He went on all fours and a long trunk came from where his nose should have been.  He was an elephant.

            "Wow." was all I could muster out of my shocked body.  He changed back and smiled.

            "So what can you manipulate?"

            "Plants, vines and flowers mainly, but plants."  Ethan bent down and picked a small flower. Did I grow that? 

            "You still won't tag me if I cross the border?"

            "No. You're safe." he smiled kindly and crossed into the girl's territory. He stretched his arm and placed the flower behind my ear.

            "There." he smirked and stared at the flower and then into my eyes. "You're the prettiest girl on campus."

            I didn't believe that, "Are you sure?" I had seen some of the girls and believe me, I was not the prettiest.

            "I'm positive. You're not fake. You don't wear that makeup crap that all the other girl's plaster on their face." he stopped and thought for a second. "Your eyes are beautiful as well. They're so innocent yet beautiful. Like a flower." I smiled and his eyes slid down to where my lips were. My heart rate picked. Oh s**t. He was thinking about kissing me and we just met!

            Suddenly, I saw a flash of color and I recognized who it was. It landed on Ethan's shoulder.

            "Ethan, I think you've been caught." He stared at me in confusion. I pointed to his shoulder. Betty sat their neatly. She flew off and changed.

            "You've been caught sir!" She exclaimed. Ethan smiled warmly and chuckled. He threw his hands in the air.

            "I've been caught on your border. Take me to your jail."

            Betty was about to grab Ethan's arm, but I intervened, "I can do it Betty! You were pretty stealthy back there. You should go and get more people. I'm really no use since I've set up all the traps."

            "Are you sure? Can you handle it?"

            "I think I can." I winked. She smiled and then changed back to her butterfly form and flew off.

            "I've got to take you to jail now." I said, a smile playing on my lips.

            "I need to tell you something first." He said.

            "Ok, make it fast-" I didn't even finish my sentence because he had already turned to me and kissed me. I had no idea what to do.   When we broke apart, he stared straight into my eyes.

            "Was I not supposed to do that?" He asked, concern was in his eyes and dread filled his eyes.

            "I loved it." I whispered. We stared at each other, my eyes with the remaining bits of shock and his still filled with dread.  I took his hand.

            "Are you ok? Do you hate me for it?" Ethan asked.

            I looked him straight in the eye, stood on my tiptoes and kissed him.  He wrapped his arms around my waist and I looped my arms around his neck.

            "Does that answer your question?" I breathed once we broke apart again.

            "I thought you were taking me to jail." I smiled devilishly.

            "Detour. You're my prisoner." He smiled slyly as he let me go as I dragged him to our jail. When we arrived, a couple other guys were sitting there. They all looked bored and there was no protective ring or guideline saying where the jail exactly was.

            "This is our jail?"

            "Guess so." Ethan chuckled. I let go of his arm as he walked to the other guys.

            "I'll fix that." I smiled, took a deep breath and felt the vines coming toward me. I made a cage around them. "There."

            "Damn, your girlfriend's hot, Ethan." Once of the other guys who had watched had said. Red crept across my face. Ethan winked and I waved as I walked back into the brush.  Then I heard the scream.

Author's Note

ignore grammar