This is a test, a wake up call/ And a mission to talk/ Shock to the heart, blow to the head/ And a reason to fall- This is a test: Attack! Attack!
.
Katie,
I'm sorry that I'm such an idiot, but you knew that when we got together, so you should've expected it really.
Love Fred xxxxxx
Katie snorted with laughter and examined the bouquet, shaking her head. Roses. How cliché.
She grabbed a pen and scrawled a note to him.
Fred was talking to a customer when Katie's owl flew in through the open door. He quickly finished with the customer and hurried out to the back where her screech owl was waiting, clicking his beak.
"Am I still in trouble?" he asked the owl, who blinked in reply.
It had been a week since the meal with Katie's family, but Katie was still, in Fred's opinion, being a stubborn drama queen and refused to speak to him.
Fred was just humouring her with the flowers. He was planning on giving her no more than four days to sulk and then he was breaking into her flat.
He ripped open the note and read it. He frowned at it, and shook his head.
Then he grinned.
Roses? Get some imagination please, and maybe I'll consider accepting that you're a twat. Katie.
Fred wandered down to the flower shop, humming to himself. The bell chimed as he walked in, fitting, just as he planned, with the final note of the tune.
"Hi Viola." He called cheerfully.
"Hey Fred." Viola's voice came from behind a large set of flowers she was arranging. "Girlfriend forgive you yet?"
"Nope. She said roses were boring." He leaned one elbow on the counter.
"I did tell you."
"I'll just take one flower today." He continued. "See if I can find one that she likes better before I buy a whole bunch."
Viola emerged from the flowers, a leaf in her dark brown hair.
"Lily?" she suggested "They're beautiful- expensive and they remind me of funerals, but beautiful nonetheless."
Fred sent the lily with a note asking if it was less dull.
Katie replied that she preferred colours.
On Tuesday he sent a carnation.
On the Wednesday he sent a freesia.
Thursday was a marigold.
Friday was a tulip.
On Saturday Viola told him to ask one of her friends.
"I don't think Kate really has a favourite flower." Said Fred "I'm not sure she even likes flowers actually."
"Every girl likes flowers Fred." Viola said despairingly. "Go and find out."
"A- in the words of Leanne Fletcher- a 'bigass daisy thing'. I don't know what that means." Said Fred "She said it was like a gerbil daisy or somethi-"
"A Gerbera Daisy." Viola interrupted. "Colour?"
Fred shrugged and Viola sighed.
"You're useless." She said "No wonder she's still pissed off at you."
"Your time is up, please put your quills down and remain silent while your exam papers are being collected."
Katie put her quill down, pleased with how her History exam had gone. All week she'd had her exams and every day she'd had a flower from Fred, which had gone into a vase in her bedroom, liking how they all clashed.
But not today. That had surprised her actually. History was her best subject and as she was planning to take it further it was her most important exam.
"How did you find it?" asked her friend who'd sat with her throughout all the catch up classes.
"Not bad." She said, "You?"
"Terrible," the girl groaned "I'm going to fail. I'm so not taking history further, it's just-"
Katie stopped listening at this point. She stopped walking too actually, just narrowed her eyes at Fred who was holding a flower and smiling hopefully at her.
"Is this good enough for you?" he asked, holding out a bright yellow Gerbera daisy. Katie said nothing, just took it and looked down at it. Then she smiled and gave him a kiss.
Fred took that as a yes.