"Duh huh," Came the booming laughter of his underclassman. "Huh! What is /that/?" Groose pointed to Pipit's ear, to a peach colored carnation that was tucked behind it.
He shrugged his response, looking back down at the math homework he was trying to figure out. "It's a flower."
Groose stared at him silently a moment before another round of laughter came out of his mouth. "But whaterya wearin' it in yer hair for?"
Honestly Pipit had forgotten about it. His face colored as he stared down at the homework. Karane had given it to him. It was ironic that she gave him flowers far more often than he gave them to her.
Today she came with the single flower and tucked it behind his ear. Pipit never had a problem with that. He never concerned himself with the idea that it was girly—because Karane was the only person ever meant to see him with that flower there.
But he'd forgotten to remove it before he walked down to Groose's dorm for the tutoring.
"Well?"
Pipit removed the stem from his ear, admiring it briefly. It was just a plain flower. Nothing special about the exterior of it. But behind the petals was the fact that Karane gave it to him. So he tucked it back into place and rolled his eyes. "Tell me how to do this one."
Groose peeked at his paper, an eyebrow still raised. "Gotta make all the denoma-whatevers the same." Pipit took the words to mean denominators. "Ya multiply 'em all by six. Tops too."
He focused on the problems, and then finally glanced back up into the honey colored eyes that were still questioning his choice in accessories.
"Ya didn't answer my question."
"What question?" Were they still talking about the carnation?
Groose rolled his eyes. "Why do ya gotta flower in yer hair?"
"…" Pipit gave a genuine smile. "Because it's mine."