THE BRIGHTEST GREEN , nell!

You should be working right now, the reasonable voice in Nell’s head scolded her as she strolled thhrough the gardens, popsicle in her mouth. Nah, it’s okay, she reassured herself, wondering if it was an odd thing to be having conversations in your head. Schizophrenia? Oh god, she hoped not, that would just be bringing her one step closer to the pit of psychopaths she called her family. But they weren’t her family anymore, and they never were.

Oh, why were these thoughts even occupying her mind right now? It was such a nice day, and she was in a terrific mood. And she had a popsicle! Grape flavored, they were the best kind. Unfortunately, they turned her mouth purple. At least its better than the blue ones. Then she would be mocked for ‘blowing a smurf’, and she didn’t even understand what that meant. Well, she was pretty sure it wasn’t something polite by the snickers that followed a comment like that. In any case, there was no more eating of blue foods when around her immature friends.

So when shirking assignments she should be working on in the library, she found a great place to be were the gardens. The first thing she usually did was make the flowers crowns she’d been creating since she was little, never figuring out why she loved them so much. Probably because they were like natural clothes for her head. It wasn’t like she could pull an Adam and Eve with a leaf, so the fact she could create something to wear out of nature was pretty darn cool to her.

Just as she was finishing up the crown, walking through the labryinth of vegetation without any true aim, she looked up and saw Ashton as she placed a crown on her head. She heard his voice, and grinned when she saw the rosebush he was in front of. Almost certain that he hadn’t seen her coming, she dodged to the side, trying to be as quiet as possible. Nell crouched low behind the rosebush, and taking the popsicle out she lowered her voice to respond to the fellow Earth student’s exasperated question. ”Because I command you, Ashton Raleigh. Bow to me.” It wasn’t very convincing at all, of course, but Nell was just being silly.

Giving it a second or two, Nell popped out from behind the plant, whistling nonchalantly as if she hadn’t just walked out from the most obvious place to be. Stopping in her tune, she asked Ashton with a befuddled look, ”Did you just hear that? Man, how weird…” Shaking her head, she bit off a large chuck of her popsicle and screwed her eyes shut against the brain freeze. Recovering, she looked at her friend with a smile, and came to stand before him as he sat on the bench. ”How is it that whenever I come across you, you’re always working on something?” She said this as if she were totally confused by how he could be working on a project when the weather was so nice and there was much more entertaining things to do. Great, now she was goading others into her procrastination. ”You need to take a break, eat a popsicle or two.”

Nell felt kinda bad about the fact that she chuckled when Ashton jumped. But the fact that she meant well by it made her feel better, since he obviously recovered quickly enough and was joking about it being the wind. ”What are those Wind students doing around here?” she said, holding up the ruse. ”Really, some people.” She gave him a sly grin as she innocently said, ”Heya, Ash.” She didn’t really want to disturb him or anything if he was doing anything important, it was just nice to actually see and speak to him. If he shooed her away, she’d definitely leave him to his business, but she hoped he wouldn’t mind her company for a little bit.

She pursed her lips before telling him lightly, ”Don’t say that! I’m sure you’ve got a lot of smarticles.” Of course she was joking in general, just like he was, so she smiled right after when he went into what actually kept him so busy. ”Sounds like a lot of pressure,” she said, almost apologetically. ”But you seem to be in good shape. Not losing weight or anything, right?” She asked this only half-jokingly, smile transfixed to her face, but she did worry about him. She worried about all her friends, all the time, but now that Ashton was a full-fledged leader it meant more responsibility, apparently. And she didn’t want that to negatively affect him, especially when it came to his physical health, which was a top concern on Nell’s list. ”Anywho, congratulations on the step up.” She didn’t know whether or not she’d congratulated Ashton on this ‘promotion’ before, so she decided now would be a pretty good time.

”I would be a very happy girl,” Nell said about conjuring popsicles. She didn’t know whether she ever told Ashton about her garbage disposal worthy appetite, but it was something hard to miss with her since half the time she was eating something. Like now with her popsicle. Going back to work on the treat, she looked at the pot Ashton had, having a flashback to when they’d first met. Still having trouble with these plants, huh. She could definitey relate, since it was an Earth student lesson she’d had a tough time with herself. Especially since she wasn’t very trained before coming this year, even things that she should have been decent with had to be slowly honed. I’m getting better, at least. She watched as the multicolored flower popped out, and giggled at it, feeling kind of bad since it was at Ashton’s expense. As it shrivelled away, Nell assured, ”You’ll get the hang of it. Wouldn’t be an Earth elemental if you didn’t.” Since it was bred into them, she believed that a lot of things could be eventually learned. Or maybe she was wrong about that like she was wrong about a lot of other things.

He didn’t seem to bothered though, and she took a seat next to him. ”I’ve been pretty good,” she said to his question. The war seemed far into the past by now, and she was glad that things returned to some sort of normalcy. Save for papa coming back. That little detail did not need to be made known, however. Then he started talking about rumors, and she looked at him, eyes furrowed. ”What kind of rumors?” She then remembered Nora asking her when she was going to ask Josh out, and a blush made itself known on her face. Instead of confirming or denying anything, she raised an eyebrow and said to Ashton, ”Speaking of rumors… What about you and that Asha chick? I’ve heard some…things.” Of course, she steered clear of the infamous Fire girl, but the things that came through the rumor mill were quite interesting. She just wanted to hear from Ashton first hand, and it also gave her some leverage to tease him with.

Nell tapped her head as if to point to her brain and said, ”Yep, smarticles.” She nodded when he talk about him being an average student, which was good by any means. As long as you weren’t completely flunking out, she guessed that was all right. After all, she wasn’t a straight-A student, but she considered herself pretty good. Her elemental prowess was growing—it was certainly much better than when she started out—and her academics were great when it came to english and history. Math just completely devastated her in terms of grades, and science was at least somewhat better. Oh, the Fuentes’s would be so proud. ”You’re welcome,” she replied with a bright smile. She really was proud of Ashton and all. Who wouldn’t be proud of their friend’s accomplishments? ”Well that’s good,” Nell said, a bit envious about how good he apparently was in dealing with stress when during the war she’d completely crumbled underneath it. That’s because papa’s an asshole and you’re a murderer. She hoped that justified it enough.

She noticed the change in Ashton’s expression with her blush. Thanks, face, thanks for betraying me. Part of her wanted to hear about this rumors so she could know what was going on, but the other part wanted to turn and walk away so she could do something about the heat in her face. But Ashton’s words only made it worse. ”How do you get less innocent than that?” she squeaked. Making out in school? Could you get any worse in school? Josh and her didn’t even make out once, how do people get it in their heads? Her inexperience with school life had her totally unprepared for how people could get. Nell had to resist hiding her face with her hands so Ashton wouldn’t have to see how bad it was getting. Being aware of the blush only made it worse, after all. ”Something between us…?” Stop blushing, dammit. Was it at all obvious between the two? It couldn’t be. They just acting like friends. Or what she supposed friends acted like. Wait. Did that mean she was doing something wrong? ”Ah, well..he’s my boyfriend?” She said that as a question, because she still wasn’t used to the term. And then her face turned even redder when she flailed her hands around as if trying to wave away any of Ashton’s thoughts that may be about…wrong things. ”But we’re not doing anything like that! No, no, no. So yeah. Rumors are bad. And wrong”

Oh thank god they could move on from that. And on to Ashton and Asha. As her face cooled off, she smirked a bit when she said, ”Well, some people told me they saw you hanging around each other. And they’re kind of wondering why since…well, Asha isn’t the nicest girl.” Especially to the Earth element. Even though she didn’t judge people, she knew it to be at least somewhat true even though she’d never had real problems with the Fire girl. ”People say the darndest things, yanno,”

Nell’s blush kept getting so intense that she wondered if it was at all possible to pass out from being overheated because Ashton was bringing up her boyfriend’s…history. ”Right, right,” she said, scratching her cheek. Even she wasn’t innocent to those rumors, and she tried not to think too hard about those things, because they made her feel very insecure. It seemed she’d confused her friend by the way she phrased the ‘boyfriend’ thing, and she did manage to chuckle, even though that was sheepish and light in itself. ”No, he definitely is my boyfriend, but…” She forced herself not to start fanning her face and make herself look even worse. ”I don’t know exactly…I’ve never been in a relationship before,” she finished bluntly. There, she said it, it’s out. She was a greenhorn when it came to experience in relationship. She was glad that Ashton at least knew her enough to see that she wasn’t…well, wasn’t like Josh. But it probably made her look even more naïve. At least her blush was fading. ”Thanks for that,” she said. It was nice having the benefit of the doubt from your friend when it came to something you were sure of.

Luckily for Ashton, Nell tried to keep away from those that liked to spurt rumors like a fountain. Well, the Water students were pretty mischevious and they liked to tell tales, but she’d rather not hear things about her friends behind their backs. ”I guess that means you get the side of Asha that others don’t,” Nell said, because obviously no one could be mean all the time. She supposed Josh was the same way. It confused her just a bit that Ashton didn’t the situation he had with Asha right now, because she figured relationships were just directly stated as Josh had put it. If people wantd to go out with each other, she assumed it was just said point blank. Jeez, if I’m having this much trouble understanding, I can only imagine what it must be like for him.And oh, is he blushing? Yep, he definitely was. Weren’t they just two peas in a pod? ”That’s what friends do,” she said with a wink, laughing at his next comment. ”I guess so.”

He moved on to the topic of a fair, which interested her. ”Ooh, a fair? I haven’t heard about that,” she said, her eyes imploring as she wondered about what would be there. Something else she’d never been to before, a fair. ”Now that I know about it, of course I’m going.” They sounded like fun and Nell loved to have fun, therefore fairs were the perfect place for Nell. It seemed she neglected to mention whether or not she lived in the hollow. ”Yeah, I live in an apartment downtown,” she explained to him, gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb as if he could see it in the direction she pointed. ”I’m sure they will. After all, they let you board here year round. Are you going to be staying in a hotel?” She didn’t have worry about parents or anything like that. Except for the fact that her father was hellbent on having her move in with him, which will not be happening any time soon. Taking the last bite of the popsicle, she looked at the stick in her hand and chuckled. ”Hey, wanna hear a joke?”

Ashton, you are not helping. Actually, he was helping a little bit since the thought of why she’d never gone out with anyone before and had been ignorant of the term gave her enough time to recover from the heat. Her lips pulled into a smile when she heard the surprise in her friend’s tone. Well, it was nice to know he thought she could be good with relationships. ”Just…it never happened,” she explained with a shrug of her shoulders, proud that she’d come up with something better than ‘it’s complicated’. She couldn’t use that with everything, after all. Rather than going to anyone who would probably bust her balls about being so naïve and probably take advantage of that, she would very much like Ashton’s help. Even though he was a guy and there were some questions that she felt that maybe she shouldn’t ask him. ”Hey, we should have slumber parties and paint our toenails and talk about our…flames,” she joked, winking as she said the horrible, horrible pun. ”Seriously, though, it’s nice to have a friend who can teach me how to navigate the tumultuous seas of dating.” Even if his relationships had supposedly sunk like ships, in keeping with the sailing allegory. She felt that asking what had happened would be too personal, and so she left it there. All the while she thought of the fact that she’d never expected Ashton of all people to have more experience than her. Am I the only virgin in the world? It was kind of a depressing thought.

She wanted to ask more about Ashton’s relationship with Asha in a friendly good-natured way, but again she kept mentally kicking herself to remind her that not everyone like to openly talk about their personal lives. She didn’t even like that, and she certainly wouldn’t want to talk about her and Josh because she wasn’t so sure about the entire thing herself. Plus, even the mention of it all made her face heat up like a boiler. ”These things just have a weird way of happening, huh,” she commented, giving Ashton a lop-sided grin. She’d tried to help Josh, and he’d threatened to cut her. So yeah, things between them were quite…weird. Like the fact that they were even able to form a friendship after that, let alone a relationship. Nell didn’t think she was going to go telling people that’s how she met Josh, though, considering it didn’t sound like the best decision to date a guy who once pulled a knife on you while drunk. ”I guess I’m lucky I wasn’t aware of too many stereotypes before I came here,” she said about the mean Fire students. She didn’t ask what Josh and Asha had done since he skipped over that little detail, instead thinking about how it might have been a good thing that she didn’t have to endure the Fire students’ hazing as a freshmen. Stereotypes were unavoidable, so she guessed a part of her had wondered if all Water and Thunder elementals were complete assholes thanks to her family, but decided that wasn’t true. Even after the war, she didn’t hold it against them. ”Well, I’m sure the people with sense will realize that not everyone in an enemy alliance should be immediately declared as evil.” Just as their could be good ones found in a bad bunch, there were bad ones there too. Nell couldn’t help but snicker when Ashton’s plant retreated once again under the soil.

Nell was interested to hear what Ashton was planning to do for the fair, as she was always liked to be involved in her friends’ lives. Not to the point where she was jumping down their throats whenever they mentioned in passing that they were doing something or going somewhere, but she liked to invest herself in other people. ”That’s a great idea,” she exclaimed when he talked about getting a job. ”It’s always nice to feel like you can provide for yourself. The satisfaction of getting a paycheck at the end of every week is the best. I’m guessing you don’t have a year round job, then?” She liked paying her bills and supporting for herself like an adult, with the side option of sucking her father’s bank account dry with random expenses. She laughed as he talked about having a little extra cash. ”Tell me about it,” she said with a sly smile. Yeah, she knew about having that extra cash, and oh my god, you’re turning into a leech. Or a parasite or a vampire or some other term to describe something that drains the life of another person. Papa deserves everything he gets, she thought with conviction. Well, moving on from that… She read off of the popsicle stick, ”Where do plants play sports?” After a short pause, she read the other end of the popsicle stic, ”The Ivy League.” Nell couldn’t stop the fit of laughter after reading that, holding a hand over her stomach as it started to hurt. ”That was just so bad,” she said, tearing up a little. Hey, at least a couple of Earth students could enjoy it.

Nell had to giggle at his reassurances when he patted her on the shoulder. He was such a great friend and made her feel better about the whole relationship deal and her ignorance of it. The Earth male was probably too nice for his own good. She decided that his words were a good way to look at it all so she didn’t feel so uninformed and oblivious. Like maybe it wasn’t so bad that she wasn’t as experienced as Josh. And then she remembered that he didn’t seem too confident about it all, either, but she really didn’t know why. Laughing, she slipped her feet out of her sandals and wriggled her toes. ”Look, they’re rainbow! You can’t tell me that you don’t want rainbow nailpolish.” She looked at him disbelievingly as she slipped her feet back in, but was smiling again as she replied, ”Yeah, I guess we never had the chance to before, huh?” She felt almost regretful about that, since she liked Ashton and it would have been nice to spend more time with him before the war started. Now it was her turn to pat him on the arm as she said, ”I’m sure you’re a good relationship boat…captain. I’ll stop with the analogy now.” Nell laughed, realizing how awkward that sentence had sounded.

Still smiling as Ashton spoke she said, ”Well, maybe it’s her showing her true colors. There’s gotta be good in everyone, I think.” But what about her mother and her family? No, she didn’t think there had been much goodness left in her mother by the end, but she didn’t even know her family well enough to judge. But Josh certainly surprised her by showing the goodness he was capable of by switching sides to protect her and keeping her secret during that war. Just because he was a Fire student didn’t make him completely horrible. He even when against the Fires. So maybe there was good in just about everyone, something to redeem them. She’d really like to believe that. ”The hazing experience is one I’m glad that I did miss,” she said. It was bad that she couldn’t be on the same level of other Earth students her age, but at least she could cling to the fact that she hadn’t been bullied. Well, she was, but not in school. She understood what she went through was worse than upperclassmen picking on the underclassmen, but a part of her was glad she didn’t have to balance what she was dealing with at home with what she could have gone through at school. You shouldn’t be glad about anything in your past. Throwing her arm around Ashton’s shoulder, she gave him a squeeze and said, ”Your Earth homies won’t be so bad! I know I understand. And even though I can’t speak for everyone else, not everyone is completely judgmental.” In a perfect world, but they were both optomists…

Nell nodded her head and said, ”That’s a good point.” He was a grade younger than her so his parents were still probably doing as parents should and providing for him. Nell didn’t know if she envied him that. She liked not being taken care and living on her own. She even had a kitten to care for now, which was even better. She was more of an adult than she’d ever been, and she was still only seventeen-years-old. Scratching the back of her head, she chuckled when Ashton said she sounded like she spoke from experience. And then she realized he didn’t know where she worked. Well then… She was almost shy when she admitted, ”I’m a bartender, actually. It’s something I’m pretty good at and I like all the tricks I’ve been learning.” She was really trying to justify why she had such a…deplorable job. It would have been nicer if she worked in a better bar with better pay, but still, she wondered if Ashton’s opinion of her would change after learning that she mixed drinks and broke up bar fights for a living. ”I’d like better pay, but I mean, who wouldn’t? So I’m looking for a better place.” Then she wouldn’t even need her father’s money as much. Not that she needed his money. Nell kept laughing when Ashton found the joke funny, amused by the fact that he was amused. ”I think I’m going to right in and give them suggestions for jokes. Any ideas?”

Nell giggled as Ashton played up the dramatics. ”Thank you!” she said when he complimented them. ”They’re the result of procrastination. You can always find something random to occupy your time when you’re supposed to be doing something else.” She worked hard a lot, but even she wasn’t immune to procrastination. Sometimes when sitting on her couch, she can easily lose focus. Painting her nails sure did not help her finish the assignment, even though she always got her work done…early in the morning. ”Weekend sounds good, it just depends on the time,” she said, a bit thoughtful. She did have a job, after all, so it wasn’t like she was free all hours of the day, even on the weekends. Her life was packed full with a lot of things, it was sad to think of the limited time she had to spend with her friends like Ashton. ”You know what, I can make itme.” She spoke with conviction, since she really wanted to hang out with her friend, and didn’t want anything (like her father popping by or any of the shit she wished he didn’t do) to get in the way of that. She handed over her phone when he gave his own, and after adding herself to his contacts as ‘Nell Is Awesome’, she said, ”Definitely no more putting it off. I may not have a lot of free time on my hands, but like I said, I can make the time.” She didn’t really know how she’d go about doing that, but she would.

When Ashton lifted his eyebrows, she wanted to duck her head as she blushed. But she guessed she shouldn’t have been surprised when he approved of her shady occupation. Well, it was shady when you considered where she worked and the fact that she did it illegally, but the occupation in itself wasn’t so bad. ”Oh definitely,” she said with a wink. ”Brings in the tips, which helps with the paychecks I get. And I learned it all from movies.” That was true in a way. A lot of the tricks she had used were learned from movies, but after teaching herself those things she started inventing things of her own. She was a creative thinker, after all, and she liked doing her own thing when it came to learning. She was a bit shocked when Ashton said he’d drop by since he seemed like a good kid, but she wouldn’t judge since she had a lot of friends who partied and went barhopping. ”That would be awesome, actually.” Nell would love to have someone to talk to, since things can get a bit hectic and stressful at work. She handled it well enough, and she was glad that she was mature in that sense.

”Probably the Blackjack Bar,” she said with a bit of a nod when Ashton didn’t seem like he was able to come up with the name. ”Yeah, it’s a really nice place. I’ve been there a few times.” She could have added ‘with my father’ because that would be easy for most anyone else to say, but not in the situation. No one except for Josh knew that her father even existed. ”You know what, I think I’m going to look into working there.” They’d be tougher on her when it came to the fact that she didn’t look the age she said she was, but bartending was something she was good at and the bar would be much better pay. Nell couldn’t stop the laughter and she covered her mouth with her hand, using the other to hold her side. After recovering from her little bit of hysterics she said, ”I am going to send that in and give you the credit and you’ll be a…millionaire or something.” She didn’t even know if they gave money for sending in jokes to put on popsicle sticks, but it would be pretty nice.