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JustAWind — Apprentice Memoirs Book 2 Part 2
Published: 2011-12-01 16:41:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 340; Favourites: 0; Downloads: 1
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Apprentice Memoirs, Chapter ten
We, Snake and I were walking by the
hallway to get in our herb knowledge and plant growing class.
"Group photo!"
Snake yells as he jumps on Stray's side and pulls the other in to a
tight hug that almost crashes his ribs. Stray doesn't even have time
to complain though as the blinding light overtakes his vision and
Stray has to blink several times to get his vision back.
"You can't
take group photos with two people in it." Stray growls as he
swats the camera away once he finally got his vision back. "Two
is company and three is a crowd." Stray murmurs, and takes
longer steps to shoo the other's arm from his shoulders.
"Maybe for
you, sour puss, but to me, there can never be too much people
around!"
Stray just huffed.
He had seen that, but he wasn't to say anything to that. Besides, if
he himself was ever to form a small group for himself, then he'd have
to up his social skills greatly.
"Seriously, I
don't get why you want to be a Nemesis anyways. You are so damn
quiet. You'd just be better to leave all the talking to your
nemesis."
Stray huffed as
Snake's stupid words. He would become a nemesis someday, and that
would show him.
"If I'd be a
Nemesis, I'd have sidekicks like you to do the talking for me."
Snake seemed to
find this really amusing as he ran to catch up with Stray: "You
are tight! We two would be the best Sidekick and Nemesis team ever!
I'd do the talking and I'd gather the information as well and poison
everyone, when you are the actual brain of the whole operation!"
Stray sighed and resisted his will to say something like "I
don't think it's such a good idea," or "I doubt you could
be able to take things like that seriously enough."
They went in to the
underground greenhouse. The greenhouses were really hot and moist
inside, and on the roofs there were many lamps that were to provide
light to the plants. On the roofs there were also many pipes going
around, leading water to the sprinklers that watered the plants.
There were many
plants everywhere, like vegetables, that were made for food to our
school cafeteria. There were also many medical herbs to be used at
the hospital department. There were also many kinds of dangerous
plants, as well as the possible cure. There were plants of all kinds,
and Stray was sure that they just passed a bush of plants that he
knew wasn't used for anything else except as a drug to get you high.
"Why drink and
drive when you can smoke and fly?" Snake sniggered as he tore
some leaves from the plant and put them in a shaggy bag bag he
carried around with him. Stray only frowned as he ignored the other's
antics. Snake would probably sell those weeds onwards, Stray doubted
that he'd use them himself.
"It's such a
shame that my clothes don't have pockets... It would be easier to
snatch this stuff with me." Snake whine and Stray nodded.
Indeed, Snake was dressed in way too tight clothes. But on the other
hand, they were made to fit in snugly. If those clothes would be
anything else, they would get stuck when Snake was supposed to
squeeze in tight spaces like he usually had to.
"Evening,
class." A loud voice was heard and every student rouse up to
stand so they could greet the professor with respect: "Good
evening professor Holus."
It was a unsaid
rule that every student was to greet their professors while standing,
and with audible greeting. It was never told to do like that in the
school laws, but the students had noticed the efficiency of it.
If you didn't greet
your professor with disrespect, it was like a unsaid challenge to the
professor. If you didn't show them respect, they didn't have to
either. It was like asking for them to pick you as their pray and
thorn in their side. This usually resulted with bad grades and pure
torture, and out right bullying to the student, and the worst thing
was that they couldn't even have anything to say about it, since
professors had all the power in the school.
Miss Holus may be
like some of them, but generally she was a really sweet woman.
Miss Holus was a
old, short woman in her sixties. Her back was crouching with age, and
she had a small, potato like nose. Her cheeks were always as red as
an apple, and she wore a scarf on her shoulders all the time. She
also wore a old, long skirt that reached her angles, as well as brown
leather slippers and a self knitted woolen shirt. She also wore a
nice, slightly dirty and covered in black dirt apron made of cotton.
She reminded you of that good grandmother that lived next door to you
and always asked if you wanted some of her cookies that she had fresh
from the oven.
Miss Holus may be
one of those really sweet grannies, but you shouldn't cross with her.
She may be really sweet, and almost disgustingly nice until you
disagreed with her and she decided to yell and use old fashioned
torturing methods that she had gotten used to in "her old days."
She always complained how youngsters nowadays were growing weak and
were wasting their potential with all those electronic whatnot that
she couldn't stand. She was a technophobic, and she wouldn't touch
any mechanical machine that was supposed to ease her old days.
"Class, now
you all must go fetch a pot from the windowsill." Miss Holus
explained as she went to sit on her special made wooden chair that
couldn't be adjusted at all. Stray had heard from Snake that she had
gotten so tired of students adjusting her chair which she herself
couldn't return back to it's original position that she decided to
replace the chair with a rocker chair she now had. Miss Holus had
found it comfortable to be sitting in a rocker. From there she used
to lay orders for the class, and with respect she had over age she
expected the students to obey her.
"No, no,no,
no, you in the front seat! Stop doing that! You are now in my class,
you don't crochet in my class! That's not professional!" Miss
Holus started to yell at the girl in front row. The girl had picked
up a crochet hook and she had begun to crochet. She got startled by
Miss Holus' yelling, and quickly she put away her tools.
"I don't want
to look at you for the rest of the class, quick, gather your things,
fetch your pot, and go sit in the last row next to that amphibian!"
Miss Holus yelled and swung her cane angrily, and she even made a
show of hitting the cane on the very first row of tables, startling
yet another student that had just laid her pot in the table as she
hit the cane on the surface loud enough to make the pot shake, and
finally get topped over in the table.
"HEY!"
Snake yelled. He was not scared by the whole cane thing, but he was
offended instead: "I'm no amphibian! I'm a Snake!"
"Aaron, shut
your mouth, I have had to look at you for two years already, and you
are not staying for third if I have a say in it! You will pass this
class, and be out sight for good!" She yelled with high voice,
and she even rouse to stand from her rocker.
Aaron was left
sputtering as others laughed. Everyone knew he was on the first class
for another yer, and no-one got enough from teasing him about it.
"I'll show
you." Miss Holus murmured as she walked to the side of the room
and went to a bookshelf like shelf, but instead of books, there were
many plants in a row. She took one with really cute looking buds of
flowers yet to bloom in it. The plant was beautiful, it was light
green, and the leaves were long and thing. They were pretty, and they
moved a little bit occasionally. She brought the flower to our table,
and the flower smelled really delicious. The taste was really sweet,
and it was coming from the buds. One couldn't name the smell, but it
made your mouth water, and when you staid to smell the flower, it
soon felt like the plant was singing to you. For a moment, Stray
thought that it must be the most beautiful flower in the world.
"The Apostate
shall be in your desk for the remaining hour." Miss Holus said
and laid the flower on Snake's table. Once the flower was in the
corner, it started to swoon. The leaves moved slightly, and they
reached for Snake. The other stared warily at the flower as it
reached it's vines to the boy and stroked the other's skin faintly as
the buds seemed to start singing. The singing was quiet at first,
just like a woman's sweet talking, and then it sounded like Seireen's
singing.
"Awww, ain't
that a cute 'lil plant? Come 'ere plant, all you need is some good
'ol loving and you'll be as pretty as your sisters..." Snake was
suddenly sweet talking back to the plant, and Stray didn't know if he
should swat the other's hands away from the plant or not. This was
obviously a trap!
Snake was petting
the plant's leaves, and suddenly he stopped moving altogether for a
moment, and his eyes got wide. Soon he turned around to face Stray,
and the other was smiling from ear to ear: "I should give her
some fresh moist soil and water with minerals, I bet she'd like
that!" Snake said, and suddenly he was on his way, getting
supplies as well as everyone else.
Stray looked
dumbfounded, and silently he was wondering what the fuck was going
on. If there only was someone to ask, he would find out what was
wrong with Snake. Maybe the book would mention the plant. Stray dug
his back for books and took out the book assigned for this class and
went to search for the name he had just heard mentione. It started
with a letter "a", he remembered.
Stray didn't get to
search the book yet when Snake got back to the table and started to
prepare a whole new pot for the plant. He laid small rocks on the
bottom, and then he put some soil in the pot. He made sure to make it
extra mellow. Snake was digging a round hole in within, and he was
then taking the plant in his arms to prepare to switch the pots.
Stray didn't know
that Snake even could change pots, or even take care of a plant at
all.
"I don't think
that you should be too near of that, or even touch the plant for that
matter." Stray said as he watched the small vines round
themselves around Snake's wrists and fingers.
"Ssh, my baby
need attending to." Snake sweet talked and gently took hold of
the plant and the pot and tipped the soil on his palm. He then
dropped off the extra soil and put the plant in to a new pot and then
prepared to fill it.
"I didn't know
you had a green thumb." Stray tried. He wished that he could
snap Snake out of this weird state of his, this wasn't normal, and
what wasn't normal confused Stray. He didn't like being confused, he
didn't like it when he didn't know what was going on.
"He can't help
it." This was the voice of the crocheting girl who had come sit
on the other side of Snake. Stray took a look at her, and was once
again confused of what he saw. She was a damn Barbie! Yes, she did
have all the right curves in all the right places with long silky
smooth blond hair and those most beautiful blue shining eyes, but
that wasn't what he meant by it! What he meant was that the girl was
obviously made of plastic. Very realistic plastic, but plastic none
the less. Stray knew it since he could see how light reflected more
than normal from her creamy colored, only slightly toned skin, and
when one looked at it, her skin was perfect, even more so than
normal. There was not a single flaw in her body. Her eyes were made
of perfect glass with crystal irises. She had perfect round lips that
made you want to watch her talk no matter what she had to say. She
had long and lean fingers with longish, perfectly manicured and clean
nails, and her voice was soft and tender. Her eyelashes were long and
when she closed her eyes they curved from her cheeks. Her face was
round and heart shaped, and she was absolutely beautiful.
"Excuse me,
who were you again?" Stray blurted.
"I'm Stacy
Modella. I don't have an alias yet. Everyone keeps calling me Barbie,
I don't know why." She had a dreamy tune in her voice, and she
was enticing.
"Stacy."
Stray said as if tasting the word. To be honest, he had to admit that
he was rather attracted of her. "I'm Stray. Stray Derelict."
Stray introduced himself as well: "And he is Aaron Flex. Though,
everyone calls him Snake." Stray mumbled, and then looked at
Snake who seemed to be busy with his own things at the moment.
"Wait, Snake,
won't you want to greet her?" Stray yelled and was shocked when
he saw that the other was still tending to the plant, giving it
water, and not caring what was going on in the room around him. This
was not normal. Usually he was all over the ladies, not Stray. This
was not right.
"What is wrong
with you?" Stray said as he carefully pushed Snake on the
shoulder but only got his hand shoved off. "Please, don't
disturb me, she's telling me how I should treat her. She says that
she has friends who also need to be taken care of. Can you believe
someone's been giving them detergent with their water, that's
horrible! I'll need to set this right!" Snake suddenly got up
from his seat to retrieve more pots with flowers in therm. They were
the same flowers even Stray should be taking care of just now. Miss
Holus gave them an assignment to identify the plant, it's uses, and
then find the way how to take care of it and finally tend to it.
Stray had yet to start.
"What is going
on with you?" Stray tried asking Snake, but of course the other
ignored him. Snake was too busy taking care of his flower friends.
"Look at that
faggot talking to plants! What, are you a flower fairy now? Huh,
fairy, ain't that too queer, even for you?" Some one yelled from
the group and soon people joined with him by laughing at Snake who
only lurched his back in even more deeper bow and went to take care
of his flowers while muttering "Don't mind them Apostate, I will
take care of you. Just tell me, I'll give you anything."
Snake didn't know
if to protect his friends honor, or ask Snake here to sit and clear
his head.
"He has been
lured in by the Apostate plant." Stacy said as she prepared her
own pot. She was currently picking weeds off from her pot to let the
main plant grow more freely.
"He has been
what?" Stray asked, and quickly took his pot closer so he would
at least look that he was busy.
Stacy laid a long
look at Stray, and she seemed to be judging him with her eyes. Stray
immediately felt self conscious, since he knew that a "normal
person" in this school was considered a threat. Most of the kids
in this school would never be able to get accepted in the society
again, but Stray could do so any moment. This also meant that in
their eyes, Stray could betray them in any moment. Also: Stray didn't
have any powers, thus they thought he was weaker and more stupid by
default. Stray wondered if Stacy thought of him as stupid for not
being able figure Snake's problem himself.
"Well, I guess
that you are new. I haven't seen you here before, so I bet that you
wouldn't know anyways." She finally concluded and and Stray
exhaled air. He was clad that she didn't judge him.
"The Apostate
plant is a plant that can control people. It is said to smell sweet
and tempting, and the plant is rumored to touch you with the most
gentle of caress. It has also been described to talk to you at times.
The plant is said to be cunning. It's main way of surviving is to
lure animals and such to be it's slaves. The animals are supposed to
take care of it, feed it, nurture it, take it to even better places
to grow. Once the plant doesn't need a servant anymore, or the
servant does not please it, the plant will eat it." Stacy said
with her eyes half closed. She seemed to seem serene all the time, or
maybe it was the fact that she wasn't actually a human.
"For real?
That plant is supposed to eat him?" Stray was worried and he
immediately turned to look at Snake, hoping to catch a look of
hopefully still not eaten Snake. Stray had gotten used on the other's
company, and he didn't want to lose a friend who knew so much about
this place.
"The plant is
tasting him already, though, I doubt that his tasty." She said
and pointed with her finger to where the plant's wines were curled
around Snake's fingers, and those small buds were reaching closer,
opening, and closing around the tips of Snake's fingers, and it was
clear that the plant was truly having a taste of the other. Stray
hoped that Snake was poisonous enough to make the plant lose it's
appetite.
"How can I
make him snap out of that trance?" Stray questioned as he kept
close eye on Snake.
"Kill the
plant. Or disturb their connection. If you manage to separate them
from each other and then break the plant's concentration. Fire
usually does the trick."
Fire? Where did one
get fire from? Stray dug his belt pockets for flares, he always
carried some with him.
"Look,
Apostate says I'm doing a really good work." Snake returned to
his place and laid the plant on the table, and Stray saw his opening.
The moment Snake let go of the pot Stray activated the flare and
stuck it to the plant before he threw the whole pot away, somewhere
far away from all of them.
"Oh my god,
what are you doing, you are hurting it!" Snake yelled and Stray
took a hold of his shoulders to make the other stay still before he
slapped him straight on the face.
"It was a
fucking plant!" Stray yelled straight on Snake's face, and the
other stared at Stray long and deep.
"Damn man, you
are right. It was just a weed." Snake said and then sat down.
"Jesus man,
look at all this crap on my table! I have like, tons of these pots on
my table! And they are already made! Man, someone just did my work!
Hah take that Stray, What have you got? Nothing, I'm so owning you in
this class!" Stray sighed.
"You did that
all by yourself. And you should thank Stacy for being here and
talking to us in the first place." Stray explained. "What?
What did I miss?" Snake asked, and then turned around to face
Stacy. "Hi there Barbie. Will you let me be your Kent for the
night?" Snake sweet talked with his best charming voice as he
swiped his hair back with other hand, and another was reached for
Stacy to shake.
"I'm not sure
if I should, my mother might need me as her aid for the day, and I
promised to go." Stacy said as she cautiously shook Snake's
hand. Once she let go of Snake's hand, the guy turned around to
whisper to Stray: "She's so on to me, see, she didn't outright
deny!" Stray just shook his head. He saw that Stacy was too
naive to understand, and was clearly confused of Snake's hit line.
"Anyways
beauty, would you like to go grab some lunch with us, the class is
nearing it's end already." Snake said, but soon got yelled at
again by Miss Holus: "Young man, you better shut up already! I'm
merely pleased of your effort today!" she came over and
inspected Snake's plants with care. "Though, I must admit that
these are really well attended to." She mumbled, and the took a
look at Stacy's flowers. "Stacy, excellent work as always! You
do have such delicate, handy fingers and apparently a green thumb as
well." She praised, and then took a look at Stray: "What an
blasphemy! You haven't done a single thing during the whole class!"
She screeched, and stared at Stray with disbelief.
"Miss Holus,
Stray did do something during this class. He took care of the
Apostate before it could do any harm to Snake."
"A prostate
what?" Snake mumbled, but he didn't manage to interrupt miss
Holus as she already started to jabber. "You did what! Even if
it is rather admirable of a newcomer like you to be able to take care
of Apostate, do you have any idea what that plant is worth! Look at
it! Look at what you have done! I will let this pass once, but mark
my work if I see this happening again, I will make you clean that
mess with bare hands!"
Stray could only
nod here and there as an answer, not that it mattered, Miss Holus
ignored Stray with his efforts. Of course, all this yelling at the
two of them got the other students in the class to look their way and
laugh for their misfortune.
Stray didn't like
being looked down upon.
"Class
dismissed!" Miss Holus yelled, and Stray threw his back on his
shoulder as he was the first one to exit the class with haste.
Snake and Stacy
were quick on his heels.
"Stray wait
up!"
