s e v e n ;

For the next few months, Raven and Roseanne started spending all of their time together. They had their meals together every day. They spent their free period together, and even their daily homework time together. He even picked her up from her dorm in the mornings and walked her back there at night. She started seeing less and less of her other friends in the group and they seemed to be resentful and even jealous of Raven. They felt as though he had taken one of their friends away. Their instructors noticed them too and their head instructor even pulled them to the side one day after intelligence classes. 

"Black, Pink..." She started, looking from one to the other. Neither Raven nor Roseanne knew what this talk was going to be about. Their academics were top of their class--both of them were tied for first rank at the moment at ninety nine percent academic success in every thing they did. Both of them were rank one at the moment, with Scarlet as rank two at ninety seven percent, Ciel as rank three with ninety six percent, Mauve as rank four with ninety three percent, and Seville as rank five in their classes with ninety one percent. The instructors had no reason to scold them about anything. But when she started talking, it dawned on the two that their growing relationship seemed like more to outside eyes. "We've all noticed the way you two are spending so much time together. But as you already know, romantic relationships are forbidden in the garden since it can inhibit your ability for concentration. Love basically makes you weak and a group is only as strong as its weakest link. We can't let your vast potential go to waste like this."

Roseanne immediately gave a shake of her head. "There's really no need for this talk. Raven--I mean, Black--and I are just friends." She remembered that the instructors at the facility did not recognize their chosen names as their official names. In the Garden, Raven was just Black and she was just Pink. They would never bother to learnt heir names because it didn't actually matter to them. The kids that were brought into the garden were merely pawns used for space exploration. "Plus, you're the one who asked me to get to know the other crew mates better. Since I've spent almost a year with the others, I thought I would get to know Raven more."

"Yes." Her instructor nodded in agreement, bringing her hands together as she continued to explain. "But to get to know someone doesn't mean you have to seduce them, get in their bed, or anything like that. Merely the basics would have sufficed."

Roseanne felt her heart drop at their instructor's words. In a facility with only one hundred and eight crew members and about twelve joining every year, everyone saw everything and people didn't hesitate to start rumors. They didn't have anything better to do for fun. Roseanne herself had heard a rumor about two kids from generation 3000--a brown boy and a white girl. He was from Province of Lumber, while she was from Province of Grains. They were currently seventeen and it was said that the two were in a relationship. The instructors didn't pay too much attention to the rumors, since they were basically kids and they thought the two would grow out of it eventually.

But with Roseanne and Raven being older and being a part of the most upcoming mission, the administration felt like they needed to do something about it. 

Roseanne saw from the corner of her eye how Raven's hand balled up into a fist in anger by his side. And she looked towards him, giving him a look that begged him not to make things worse for them. She didn't want to have to leave their training group, and she didn't want him to have to leave either. When he opened his mouth to speak, she was relieved and surprised with what he said to her. "Roseanne isn't like that. There are rules at this facility, you can rest assured we are following them. Just because a boy and a girl are friends doesn't mean they're in a romantic relationship. And even if I did have romantic feelings towards her, and she towards me, that doesn't mean we're going to be sneaking around breaking the rules. We've worked too hard to get to our mission. I don't think either of us wants to throw that away."

The instructor had her jaw dropped at his response. But it was mostly because she had never heard him talk so much before. He was normally quiet during classes or spoke when he was spoken directly too. She didn't know him the way Roseanne did. She didn't know the way he vented to her whenever something went wrong during training or when an instructor put him on the spot during classes. She didn't know the way he only told Roseanne about his day because he only trusts her enough to do so.

Raven then walked out of the room and Roseanne followed behind him. 

"I can't believe she would say something like that about me." Roseanne said to Raven and there was an evident amount of hurt in her words. Not because of what the teacher thought of her, but because of what the entire facility was thinking about her. Just because she was from Province of Flowers, she had to be some kind of easy girl who liked sleeping around with her crew mates. That just wasn't true. 

Everyone seemed to think that Raven was innocent in all of it and she was the evil witch going around seducing boys. 

Placing a hand on her shoulder, Raven was quick to offer her reassurances. "As long as you and I both know you aren't like that, it shouldn't matter what everyone else says or thinks. The other members in our crew know it too. You're not like that."

-

As more months went by, rumors about Raven and Roseanne continued. People said that the two were sleeping together and that they were sneaking around at night to spend time together after curfew. The instructors talked to them a few more times, threatening that they would separate them if the rumors continued going around. About a month and a half after their instructor talked to them the first time, Ciel and Raven started talking and became good friends. Mauve had asked Ciel to switch rooms with him, since he and Seville had become best friends and were into the same things. They wanted to share a room together. Ciel didn't mind since he only had to sleep there and could spend the entire day out of the room if he wanted to, in case he and Raven ended up not getting along.

The first night he moved in, he had talked to Raven and asked him if he didn't mind that he and Mauve switched rooms. Raven said that he didn't mind at all. Only half of the room was his and he had no say in what the owner of the other half wanted to do with it. If Mauve wanted to leave, Raven couldn't stop him anyway. 

Ciel then asked Raven if he was really going out with Roseanne, to which Raven responded by going red in the face. His face said it all to Ciel and he told Raven that he thought so, this was before Raven even had the chance to recover long enough to respond. "I hope there's no hard feelings between us since she and I had like a thing going." When Raven shot him a look of confusion but stayed silent, Ciel continued. "I don't want to start any beef with you since you seem like you're chill. I just want it all out in the open so things won't be weird or anything right off the bat. Scarlet told me that Rose had a crush on me last year, and I thought she was cute. But I wasn't sure about dating a pink girl. You know what they say about them and then plus my boy Mauve had a big crush on her, I couldn't do him like that. But she turned out to be pretty cool. Then I heard she was dating you so I guess she's over me."

"Don't go around believing everything you hear." Raven gave him a few words of advice. It was all he had to say after everything Ciel said to him.

Ciel nodded in agreement. He no longer believed those things about Roseanne after he had gotten to know her, and he still thought she was pretty. But since he thought she was dating Raven, he would respect that relationship and back off. Raven seemed like a pretty nice guy too and he thought they could be friends. 

From that first day forward, Ciel started urging Raven and Roseanne to sit with everyone at lunch. As Mauve often put it, the others were always simping for Ciel, and they didn't protest when he asked the two others to sit with them. Scarlet was overjoyed to have Roseanne sitting with them again. It was merely Raven who she was uncomfortable with. But Mauve already knew him from having shared a dorm with him for nearly a year, and Seville remembered him from their early years in training. He started talking to his crew members about old memories in the Garden and they seemed to click immediately. 

It had been towards the end of November, with about a year and a month before the upcoming mission that another member was added to their group. A nameless blue boy from Province of Ocean who had just turned eighteen about two months prior. He was tall, taller than all the boys in their group, which made him a head taller than Roseanne and still even taller than Scarlet. The two girls were like dwarfs compared to him. 

Their instructor explained that the boy would be a part of their training group for a month, and if he seemed to fit in and do well in his academics, he would stay as a permanent member. As the instructor left, everyone greeted the boy with friendly smiles. This seemed to confuse Roseanne because he was the seventh member of their team. Raven had been the sixth and it took them almost a year to warm up to him, yet they were inviting the blue boy in with open arms. She thought about province privilege. He was from one of the richer provinces, like most of the others in her group. Roseanne and Raven were from the two poorest provinces. 

As they all introduced themselves with their respective names--Ciel, Seville, Scarlet, Mauve, Roseanne, and Raven--the boy grinned at them. "You guys have actual names. Cool. They just call me Blue around here since my parents didn't get to name me before they gave me up." 

"Roseanne can give you a name." Scarlet offered with excitement, turning towards her friend who was sat next to her at the lunch table. "She named all of us."

"Except Raven." Roseanne pointed out. "He named himself and he named me when we were kids."

Everyone seemed surprised at that. None of them knew that the two knew each other from before, or that he had been the one who started with naming people. They thought it had been her idea from the start. 

Roseanne looked towards Raven and they both got to thinking of a name for their newest crew mate. Something that had to do with the color blue, or something that had to do with the ocean. Raven's eyes lit up as an idea for a name came to him. "What do you think of the name Indigo?" He asked the people sitting around the table.

Roseanne grinned at that. It was a variation of the color blue and it sounded pretty to her. "And we could call you Indy for short." She suggested.

The blue boy who stood at the front of the table nodded in agreement. He had to admit that he actually liked the name. And it was better than going by Blue all his life. There were about nine other kids that went by Blue at the facility. But he would be the only Indigo. It made him feel happier than he thought he would, to have a name of his own that no one else had. Mauve slid his tray further into the table to make space for their new arrival.

Indigo nodded his head in appreciation and sat down with his new group. 

There was only one more year before the start of their mission. With only seven members, it was very likely that at least four more members would be joining the team before lift off. And it seemed like the team was starting to come together and accept everyone as part of the group.

-

another update for the day and then i have to clean up my room.

im getting a new bed, so i want to have the room clean and space cleared out by thursday. so my crush has been texting in the group chat. but he hasn't texted me personally. idk. sometimes he has his days where he acts weird. but im honestly kinda starting to get over his shit. 

like sometimes he's so nice to me and texts me every day and sends me good morning and good night texts. and like the next moment i dont exist to him or something. 

im just gonna be friends with him and remember all the good moments. 

thank you all so much for reading guys.

-clary