Miss Bell's Home for Spiders

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

[Camilla Bell continued from The Slippery Slope Fallacy]

Snap, snap, snap.

Camilla pulled the sticky blue tack out, into fingertip-sized bits. She played with the remainder in between her finger and thumb for a bit. It was strangely satisfying, rolling tack into nice smooth balls. If you did it right, one could mistake them for bouncy rubber balls. Rubber balls were another oddly satisfying thing, at least the way they bounced. It might be the sound of them hitting the floor. Boing. Tack, even when rolled smooth, never made that sound. If you were lucky, you'd here a tiny squishing noise as it stuck to the floor.

You see, the thing is that there was a key similarity between sticky tack and rubber balls. Both had an uncanny ability to soothe Camilla's frazzled nerves in their own ways. You know what else had that ability?

Plants. How did they do it? Existing and being healthy.

She smiled at the photo on the poster of a small spiderette clinging to its parent. Underneath, some basic information was printed- where and when you could buy these spider plants, and for what price.

Soon, it would become to big for the parent spider plant to support, and break off. In the wild, it would have likely landed safely in a nice soil patch. A school windowsill wasn't nearly as forgiving for such a thing. That was the hardest part, though- in comparison to the wild, a houseplant is living its life on easy mode once it gets its own pot.

She turned the paper around to the blank side, and pressed the upper half against the wall with one hand. With the other, she stuck two pieces of blue tack onto the corners. Perhaps putting up posters in the transition before free period wasn't the best idea, but it was the earliest time she was available to do it. Besides, she wouldn't be here long. Just put up some posters by the computer labs and go on her merry little way.

[Jilly]

((Abel Zelenovic continued from Just Chill))

Abel, you madman. You fucking pulled it off once again.

His jitters were finally slowing down from their all-day high as the fourth, the fifth, and then the sixth sheets of paper finished rolling out from the printer. He grabbed a hole punch, pierced the pages of his report, and bound it in the folder and called it a day.

He knew better; that's what he kept telling himself, berating himself. But once again, he waited until the literal last minute to finish the report. The English report. The stupid English report on some book or something. He was so sleep deprived that he couldn't even tell you where he was right now let alone the plot of this book as he was currently astral projecting across the twelfth dimension. He got like, one hour of sleep last night, maybe? Or perhaps two.

But it didn't matter. This book report was finally done.

The book report that was assigned like a month ago. "Eh, I'll start working on it tomorrow," he kept telling himself. But a month came and went, and Abel was out of tomorrows.

So as usual, he had to pull off an all-nighter aided by coffee injected via IV along with the real MVP, SparkNotes; he did actually read the book though, to be fair.

...Fine, okay, maybe more like 30% of the book. Just enough so that he could feasibly slap some gobbledygook down and at worst get a C with how thorough Ms. Prescott was. It wasn't like grades even mattered at this point; Abel already got into the college he wanted to go into, and all he had to do now is ride out this final semester without managing to fuck anything up.

But even with the all-nighter, Abel had been only about 70% of the way through the report. The home stretch, but not enough to get a passing grade. His first thought was to just eat the point deduction for turning in a late paper and get the free day, but he knew he would just return to the position he was in right now and waste away that extra time.

Then it hit him: if he used the computer lab and worked quick enough through his free period, he just might be able to finish and smack it down on Ms. Prescott's desk and abandon it with its new mother. And that was good enough for him.

And somehow, he fucking did it. Just in time to enjoy the break before English.

He moved to where the rest of his belongings were and caught his reflection in the blacked-out monitor nearest him. Yeah, that was a mistake; even without much of a backlight source you could easily make out his gorgeous under-eye circles. Maybe it was wise to stop by the bathroom and at least try to freshen up for now.

Abel gathered his stuff and left the computer lab, turning the corner to see a girl putting up posters advertising some sort of plants for sale—her name was like Camille or something, right? It really hurt to think.

Abel kept moving on, walking past Camille or whatever while also taking in the poster through the corner of his eye. 'Spider plants', huh? They looked kinda cool in like, a basic kind of way. Kind of a badass name, too. Actually, one of them might just do as a present for Mom's birthday in a couple of days... not that Abel was waiting until the last minute to get something or anything.

But he marched onward, continuing the limp to the restroom as he strategized about how he was even gonna make it through the rest of the school day along with baseball practice without collapsing from exhaustion.

...

...

...Aw, fuck it.

Abel turned back around and approached the girl hanging up the posters. "Hey, uh..." he pointed at the photo, struggling to string together coherent words, "...what are those?"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla had seen out of the corner of her eye a very tired-looking guy walk past her, only for him to stagger right back. He seemed to be asking about the plants.

She turned her head to face him. Immediately, she noted the dark circles under his eyes. Oh, the poor boy. What he was doing to be so tired was none of her business, but it was tempting to wonder. Anyway, what was this kid's name? If memory served, it was Abel. Right, so here's Abel asking about plants.

"Oh, these?" she started to explain as best as she could, hoping Abel wasn't too tired to understand. "This is a spiderette, a young spider plant. The gardening club is gonna be selling them for three dollars each this Friday in the bio classroom."

She turned back to her work, and slid the poster up so that the lower half was at eye-level for her. Then she took the remaining two bits of blue tack and stuck them on the bottom corners, as she continued to speak.

"The one on the lower floor, on the right side of the hall. You interested?"

[Jilly]

"...Oh, cool, cool..." said Abel as he nodded along with Camille or whatever's explanation before she turned back to continue hanging up the poster. $3 for a plant doesn't sound too bad; plus Mom really liked those little bamboo stalk things Dad got her last year before they started yellowing and died. She'd definitely love a real houseplant again. "...Yeah, I might be interested," he said with a half-smile.

"So, uh..." Abel continued, closing his eyes momentarily to try and focus on what to say, "...Are they easy to take care of? Like, are they something you have to kinda babysit?"

Friday would be a day too late though, but maybe Abel could work something out with her. For now he just kept mindlessly looking over the poster Camille was setting up. "...Do you need any help?" She didn't seem like she was particularly struggling to get the poster up, but he wanted to ask anyway.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla turned the poster over, and pressed on each corner to make sure the tack was sticking to the walls. She felt her mouth curve slowly into a small smile as Abel indicated that he would be interested. He even asked about caring for one! That probably meant he wasn't just saying it to be polite, right? Well, if he just wanted to be polite, she felt that he would have just said 'maybe', or 'I'll think about it'.

She turned back around to share her knowledge, only mildly worried about Abel falling asleep in her excitement.

"Yes, actually. Spider plants are great beginner houseplants, actually. As long as you keep the soil moist they should be good, and that only take a minute out of your day. These are young ones, and they actually need less water for the first week or so. If you want really good growth, you should also fertilize them about every two weeks in the spring and summer- but no more than that. You don't want to overfeed them."

Oh? Didn't he ask if he needed help?

"Ah, I got this, " she replied reassuringly.

Hm... maybe she didn't need help right now, but you know what she would really appreciate? New members for the gardening club. Best she not come on too strong or obvious about it though. Don't want to scare off prospective members. Just start small, and casual.

She leaned her shoulder against the wall, trying to gather her thoughts.

"So... you like gardening?" she asked.

[Jilly]

Abel nodded along, half listening as Camille talked at him about the basic care and steps for the plant. Yep, it would be a good gift for Mom; low maintenance is best maintenance.

Then she asked him if he was into gardening. "Oh, uh... no, not really," Abel chuckled, scratching the back of his neck as his cheeks blushed. "I kill everything I touch. I just kinda thought about getting one for my mom's birthday in a couple of days. She likes plants."

Now that he thought about it, he didn't even know the school had a gardening club. Heh, maybe this girl was actually just a lost ghost aimlessly wandering the halls with poster boards and sticky tack.

Nah, that wasn't likely. Beryl probably wouldn't let another ghost girl cross her turf. Scary thought.

Oh yeah, he might as well ask her now; Abel snapped back to reality and spoke, "Uh... actually, is Friday kinda set in stone? Can I stop by on Thursday? It's uh... no big deal if it has to be Friday, though."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Thursday? Well, one day early wouldn't be an issue for the plants. Camilla was planning to put the spiderettes in their pots on Wednesday after all. Though, if Abel gets a plant early, a whole bunch of people would start bugging her, asking why he got 'special treatment'. That would be an awkward conversation, both with the other gardening club members and with other potential buyers. Well, he wasn't being pushy or anything... though, why would he need a spiderette a day early? Was that a weird question to ask?

Actually, wait. It was for his mom's birthday, right? Hm, that would make sense then. Can't exactly change birthday dates.

"Your mom's birthday is then, I assume?" she asked. Wait, he got that right? I mean, no insult to his intelligence. Just... it was vaguely worded.

"Before Friday, I mean," she clarified. Now, continue-

"If that's the case, why don't you come by after school to pick one up? You can pay me then."

Hm... Abel said he wasn't good at gardening. She figured the gardening club would be a tough sell, then. Though, his mother seemed to have some appreciation for plants... even if he wasn't good at it now, she could find a way to get him interested through his mother! That was how this worked, right?

She picked up and clutched the remaining poster boards, still squishing the rest of the sticky tack in between her fingers.

"So your mother likes gardening, huh?"

[Jilly]

Abel perked up as Camille agreed to let him pick up a plant early. But after school today wouldn't work; Mom was pretty much always home, so it'd be hard to sneak a plant by her and hide it for a couple of days. Not to mention that even though Abel was comfortable with his masculinity, bringing a plant to practice might be kinda... well, strange. He didn't want more fuel for his teammates to tease him with, if he was even coming today.

"After school today? Oh, I don't think I can-" Wait, back up. She was probably talking about Thursday, you dumbass. Abel shook his head and continued on, "Oh, after school Thursday would be good. Sorry, I uh... I'm really out of it today. I got like an hour of sleep last night." He chuckled and rubbed the corner of his right eye; it would really be nice if he could get that third wind sometime, like, soon. "Papers really suck."

She went right back into the gardening interrogation. "Oh, uh... I'm not sure. She likes houseplants but that's about it. I think she tried growing tomatoes like five years ago? We're still waiting for them to sprout."

Time to swerve back on track. "So, uh..." said Abel, losing himself in thought momentarily, "what time can I stop by Thursday? Would right after the last bell be okay?" He looked around to make sure no adults were in his field of vision, and when the coast was clear he pulled out his phone and began setting the reminder.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla nodded in agreement as Abel made his complaint about papers. In truth, she didn't really mind papers. That was obviously an unpopular opinion, though. I mean, look at this poor guy who's deprived himself of precious sleep for the sake of a paper. Camilla preferred to do them on the free periods after it was assigned and right after she came home from school. With that schedule, she should finish them with plenty of sleep time to spare. That being said, it wasn't like she had much of a life outside of school and school clubs anyway. She guessed the people who weren't asocial losers had to cut a bit into their sleep time to finish papers before they're due and also avoid becoming asocial losers.

Hold up, Abel's mom planted tomatoes five years ago and they haven't sprouted? That didn't sound right. Though, she would hate to be so blunt as to tell him those plants were probably dead in their seeds to his face...

"Five years? And you're still waiting? Damn."

That was all she could manage. Oh, she should reply to the time question, right?

"But yeah, right after the bell sounds good," she confirmed. "Same classroom I told you before."

[Jilly]

"Yeah, I think she's hoping they're just late bloomers," Abel snickered as he finished setting the reminder on his phone, stashing it away in the blink of an eye before one of the lamer teachers could reprimend him.

Camille reiterated the plan to stop by at the end of school Thursday. Abel nodded his head and was about to speak when the warning bell rang, sending him on high alert and gave him the third wind he desperately seeked.

"Shit, I need to get going," said Abel as he took account of his things and made sure the paper was still there. So much for freshening up, but maybe he could just straight up snooze through English since it was another "classroom discussion day". But was the risk greater than the reward? That was always the question, but Abel felt particularly lucky today. He deserved that nap after killing himself over this damn report.

"I'll see you Thursday, then, Camille." He took off for his next destination, thinking about how much he hoped Mom would enjoy a real houseplant again. With a final "Thanks again!", he turned the corner and disappeared into the last minute rush of the classroom shuffle.

((Abel Zelenovic continued in It's Raining Somewhere Else))

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla blinked as she heard the bell rang. Well, Abel had to get going, she had to get going. She nodded at his farewell message, but before she could open her mouth to speak...

Did... Did he just call her Camille? Oh godammit, not another one!

"It's Camilla!" she exasperatedly called out after him. Alas, he had already vanished around a corner. She heaved a long sigh, and walked the other way with her posters.

[Camilla Bell continued in Such Poolishnes]