She laughs. “No thanks. I’m all filled up from that scone.” She pats her stomach.
I point to a garden shop next door.
“Do you mind?”
She shrugs and I push open the door. While she’s distracted looking at the bouquets in the front of the store, I walk deeper into the back and find a small section dedicated to fairy gardening. Different types of moss, decorative stones, hot glue guns, and tiny wooden birdhouses dot the shelves, along with tons of fairy figurines. I can’t wipe the grin off my face. It would be so fun to work on a fairy garden while I’m here, though I doubt I could find any place private enough to do that.
“What’s all this?”
I jump. “Oh... this is stuff to make fairy gardens. I think.”
She eyes me and then picks up one of the birdhouses to inspect it.
Nerves work up my spine. My fairy gardens aren’t something I announce to others anymore. I learned that the hard way during my sophomore year back in Virginia. My old friend Laura and I had always done fun stuff like this growing up. We’d spent years making up stories about fairies and unicorns and gnomes that lived in the bases of trees. We’d even started our very own fairy club together, complete with delicate flower crowns, wings, and elaborate fairy gardens. Every time we got allowance money, we’d beg one of our moms to take us to the craft store so we could choose a new figurine to add to the gardens.
As we got older, we dropped the wings, but I stayed loyal to the gardens. I didn’t see anything wrong with them... until I asked Laura and a few girls from her lacrosse team to spend thenight. Their eyes went wide when they saw the gardens spread out across my bedroom.
“Are those... do you play withfairies?” one had asked.
Laura looked horrified. “You still have this stuff?”
I glanced between her and the others, who were smirking and starting to giggle. “Yeah...”
“Jesus, Ellie, what are you—eight or something? No wonder no one wants to date you.”
That had made the girls crack up. Laura didn’t hang out with me much after that. I ate lunch with some girls from my French class and never brought up my hobbies again.
“Do you like to make this kind of stuff?” Sage asks.
I immediately shake my head. “No. I mean, I used to. But it’s for kids.”
“This isn’t a children’s store,” she says with a frown. “You should get some”—she points a finger at me—“as long as it doesn’t make the room messy.”
“Oh... I don’t know.”
“Ellie, you’re not fooling anyone. I can see you pining for it.”
She takes my school supply bags so I have two hands. The nerves that had been building in me fizzle away. Sage doesn’t seem the least bit judgmental about this. In fact, she looks pretty intrigued. Smiling, I pick up a few supplies, including a bag of iridescent blue stones to make little streams in the gardens. I take it all up to the register, stopping twice to pick up more houseplants to use in the gardens. The woman at the cash register hands me a flyer with my purchases.
“Thought you might want to pop by for this. We’ve got someproducts coming in for the fairy gardens and we’re doing a program at the local park to demonstrate the new techniques.”
I skim the advertisement. It’s clearly a program created with children in mind, but all ages are welcome. And it’s on a Wednesday afternoon. If I hurry after my last class, I should be able to make it to Northampton in time. I pocket the paper, grateful for something else to look forward to.
Back in the van, our purchases take up two seats. I peek into one of the garden bags, already imagining what type of fairy garden I could create for our window, while Sage rummages through the school supplies.
“Thanks for letting me tag along,” I say quietly to her back. “I know this probably wasn’t what you had in mind when you decided to go to Northampton today.”
“No, it wasn’t.” She pulls out my new planner with a flourish and hands it to me. “It was much better.”
Warmth tingles through my chest. “Yeah, it was.”
“And we haven’t even gotten started yet. Just wait until we transfer all your due dates in here. We’ll get to use the entire rainbow of Sharpies!”
This morning I would have rolled my eyes at that, but now it actually sounds pretty fun.
Chapter
10
