Gavi

"Oh I'm sorry Nick! Silly ol' me forgot to introduce you to my... friend," I rushed over to his side, trying to recover from this. "Nick, this is... This is-"

"Jesse,"

"Jetson. Lovable ol' Jetson."

"Uh, Gavi? It's actually-"

"Anyways, if you'll excuse us Jetson, me and Nick were about to have a little chat in the kitchen. By ourselves. Like, now." I walked over to the kitchen doorway. Nick stayed where he was. I beckoned him to come along, but he nodded no.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to excuse me," Nick said as he checked his wristwatch.

"Actually, I think I should be heading out too. I'll just-" he made his way to the front door and opened it, "I'll just, yeah, I'll let myself out." He stood there, holding the door waiting.

"Until next time, my fair maiden." Nick reached out for my hand, bowing down slightly as he did so. He gave me a quick kiss on the back of my hand. I could feel my cheeks warming up, blushing. I tried to hide it, but Nick must've noticed, as he smiled when he stood back up.

He made his way out the door, being held open by a waiting Jetson. He waited till Nick was out the door until he started closing it. He took a pause.

"Bye Gavi! See you some other time!" He waved.

"Likewise. Later Jetson." I held up the peace sign. He looked at me confused, but shrugged it off a moment later.

"Actually, my name is Jesse, not Jetson. But yep, until next time!" He tried to give a peace sign in return, but he mistakenly kept his fingers closed. Nevertheless, he smiled as he closed the door and left.

"Ha," I said. I walked back into the kitchen to finish up my iced tea. Looking at the tile floor, I noticed there was a dirty paw print. It led to more prints, which then led to the living room. I gasped at the sight of paw prints everywhere. All over the floor, on the furniture, even on the walls! I groaned. I was gonna have to clean them all up. This is gonna a long afternoon...

Jesse

Nick was ahead of me. He was already all the way down the brick pathway. I picked up the pace to catch up to him.

"Hey!" I said to catch his attention. "So you know Gavi huh? Do you-" He swung his arm at me. I ducked in time, but his other arm came soon after he missed the first one. It hit me squarely on the side, and I went down. Clutching my side, I looked up, and saw Nick towering over me. He looked down on me. He smirked.

"Pathetic. I thought at least one of you people would put up a fight." He took off his fedora and brushed his hair back into place.

"Wha-what? What are you talking about...?"

He scoffed again. "Forget it, I wouldn't expect one of you to understand." He put his fedora back on. He held his hand out, offering to help me up. I took his offer and reached for his hand. He pulled me up hard, right up to his face. "Listen to me little runt, I don't like you or your kind. Now stay away from Gavi or I'll make you stay away myself."

"I-I don't- Why- Let go..." His grasp on me was tight. I struggled to breathe, let alone talk.

He loosened his grip, enough so to let me back away a bit. He held onto my wrist, looking over my bracelet with an intrigued look.

"Nice bracelet you got there. Pretty sparkly ruby too. Here, let me clean it up for you," He took his free hand and started rubbing down on the ruby with his thumb. I watched in horror as the ruby was losing its bright red, turning into a pure black color.

I tried to shake him off, but it was no use. He strengthened his hold on me, stopping any further chance of a struggle. The ruby was fully black now. It was only then did Nick let me go. He shoved me down onto the rocky terrain.

"There. That takes care of that problem." He clapped his hands, dusting them off. I sat up. He's still towering over me... "What? Got something you wanna say?" He said.

"Um I...I..." I tried to talk, but the words wouldn't come out.

He scoffed. "Didn't think so." And with that, he left. He walked off with a rhythm in his step and his fedora shadowing over his face. 

I sat there, still dazed from what just happened. I looked at my bracelet, and the now intimidating black jewel it held. "Okay, let's see if a color change did any damage..." I said as I got up. I had to test it, see if it hopefully still worked. I rubbed it, and wished for the best. 

But nothing happened... I forced myself to open my eyes. Everything was same. The same, ordinary self. I rubbed the gem again, and again, and again. Each time I did it, nothing happened, and I felt myself losing hope inside. 

"Nick... He did something to my bracelet... He broke it...!" 

I groaned to myself. I was gonna have to tell Madam about it, and I have a feeling she won't be too happy about this... 

I started walking along the rocky terrain. With each step, I was getting farther away from Gavi's house. But that also meant I was getting closer back to Madam's with each step. I sighed. At least I had the walk back home to rehearse in my head how was I gonna tell her. Better make it perfect...

******

Evening 

Nightfall already came by the time I got back home. The walk was much longer than I expected. It was a good thing Ferris was around to somehow teleport me the first time around. That spared me the walk. But not this time. I had to ask directions several times. I'm still new to Oasis, and it seemed like every corner I turned seemed like an entirely new world.

I dragged my feet walking up to the front door. I knocked twice. 

"Come in, we're still open!" Madam answered. I let myself in, and greeted her with a smile. She was tending to the inside garden. "Well welcome back Jess, glad you made back before supper." She smiled back.

"Yeah! Happy to be back at home..." I accidentally lost my enthusiasm at the end of the sentence. Madam noticed it immediately. She faced me with a worried expression on her face.

"Is something the matter Jess?" She asked.

"Oh, um, it's nothing really. I'm just tired from walking a lot today." Which I was, but Madam didn't fully accept that answer. She nodded.

"Honey you don't have to keep secrets from me!  Now, what's really on your mind?" She focused her sights on me. I felt myself swallow.

"Uh... Will you see, I was sorta wondering..." I swallowed again. I pressed my arm against my side. I just can't tell her. At least not yet. "I, I was wondering if I could ask a few questions about some stuff I saw today. Yeah, I saw some cool things and I wanna learn more about them." I forced a smile. Madam simply returned with a blank expression. She looked down, possibly towards the arm I was trying to keep out of sight. She didn't say anything. Instead, she burst out in hearty laughter.

"Oh ho ho ho! Was that all? That's just fine dear! Please, ask away while I finish up here." She seemed to have dropped her suspicion. But I was still anxious.

"So, I noticed something that's been happening a lot lately," I started talking, but I had no idea where I was going with this.

"Well what is it?" She asked. I thought I'd figure something out mid sentence, but I couldn't think of anything on the spot. I put my hand in my pocket for safe keeping. My bracelet caught onto a thread, and I felt the thread getting yanked off. Hold on, maybe I could talk about that part of the incident...

"Lately, I've been getting attacked non-stop. Do you know why Madam? It's like I have to be on guard all the time now and it's getting tiring."

"Well, about that," She stopped watering a flower pot to point out a specific flower. "Take a look at this flower, it's called a Foxglove. Tell me what you think about it."

I looked at the plant, as she told me to do. It was a big stalk plant, with dozens of magnificent purple bell shaped flowers.

"Those are lovely flowers, Madam. What about them?"

"These flowers are beautiful, and one of my personal favorites. But, there's more than meets the eye Jesse. These flowers have two special qualities about them. Do you know what they are?"

"Hm... They can be used as actual bells?" I took a guess. I had no idea.

"Sadly no, but that would be cool wouldn't it. Anywho, the first is despite being a pretty flower, Foxgloves are actually quite dangerous due to their toxicity. Witch gloves, they used to call this because of it."

"Wowsers... That's, uh, pretty scary for a flower..."

"Don't underestimate the power behind the beautiful Jess. But that's not all, you see this flower has another special quality. If done correctly, Foxgloves can be a life saving medicine. Pretty special flower huh,"

"Yes very. So much in such a little flower..." I looked at the Foxgloves again. They swayed a bit. They seem so different now that I know what they're capable of. It was... amazing...

"You know, in more ways than one, you are like a Foxglove Jess." Madam stroked my hair. She chuckled as she did.

"Oh? Why is that Madam?"

"Because, both you and these flowers are special. You already seen some of the reality we live in, that the beautiful things in life are often hurt for no good reason at all..." She stopped stroking my hair. Her voice became more stern than it once was a moment ago.

"Do, do you mean like the bees?" I asked her. Madam's sight was fixed.

"Yes... Just like the bees..."

"Yeah..." I didn't know what to say. The atmosphere was growing heavy. "Well, I think I'll go tidy up before dinner Madam,"

"Hm? Oh! Yes yes you're right. Hope you enjoyed that little lesson in flowers Jess,"

"Oh yeah! It was so cool and interesting... It was co-teresting!"

She laughed her full laugh. "Now don't go making up words now you hear? I already have to keep with the younger customers' slang, any more of this and my brain will go poof!"

She tapped her head with a plant measuring stick she was using. To my surprise, the stick did disappear with a poof! I laughed, then she laughed with me. For a good moment, life was perfect again. Even after all I've been through in the last few days. Still laughing, I made my way to the living room.

"And Jess?" She called for me.

"Yes Madam?"

"If you really like learning about nature's gift, I'll take you to the library tomorrow to check out an encyclopedia. Who knows, maybe one day we can a little trivia contest,"

"Yeah! That'd be fun... The library!" Cynthia! She told me I had to go to the library for a book too!

"What's the matter!? Why'd you start yelling?" Madam was yelling, I think I scared her.

"Huh? Oh, nothing! I'm just really excited to go to the library tomorrow!"

"Yay! I'm so glad there's still some book lovers left in this world of technology. But save some of that pep for tomorrow, you'll need it!"

"Will do!" I quickly went into the living room. I didn't want to accidentally slip out something important.

"The library... This should be fun!" I said as I went into my room. Little did I know, the library was gonna be anything but fun...