Chapter Thirty-Six: Rocky and Olenna
Meera's bully problem only gets worse. On Tuesday someone fills her car with frogs. These are not cute frogs; these are big ugly slimy ones. They put at least 1000 frogs in her car. And on Wednesday, someone broke into her locker and destroyed the coral rose Robb left for her. They plucked out the petals and scratched out his very sweet message and wrote: "No one likes you, bitch."
That same day, someone put itching powder in Meera's gym clothes, and put a wasp's nest in her locker. Then at lunch a couple of girls cornered her and poured glue on her and stuck feathers all over her.
When she was coming back to her seat someone picked her up and threw her in a trash can upside down. Robb pulled her out of the trash and personally walked her to the front office so she could call her dad to come pick her up.
When they left I saw Jeyne smiling, and she gave a thumbs up to one of her friends. Sansa and Margaery have had enough. After they cuss her out in a very unladylike way, Margaery dumps chocolate pudding on Jeyne and Sansa sprays her with mustard. Arya joins them by pouring a bucket of worms down the front of Jeyne's uniform. Arya rescued the worms from the science lab to take home with her, but she thought this was a much better use for them.
I stayed out of it, because I did not want to lie to Robb. When he asks I can honestly say I had nothing to do with it.
I tell Renly about my day at our first gardening club right after school. The lady at the exotic flower shop is the club leader. Our meetings are held in her giant plant nursery and the back gardens. We will start planting more flowers since its spring. One of our club activities will be to breed roses, and for that I am excited.
Today we are tending to Japanese bonsai trees. We get to take our trees home at the end of the session but we are supposed to bring them back next week to show how they are doing. We used to do this in my karate lessons.
Renly nips his tree incorrectly and one of the tiny branches falls off. I frown. At least he is trying. He is enjoying spending time with me. We get to talk about our day and engage in a shared interest.
Renly thinks the Meera situation needs to be solved soon before she tries to harm herself. I never saw that as a possibility until now, but he's right. Kids who are bullied often take to cutting themselves or worse.
The negativity in what he says is not good for the trees. Renly notices it too because he says his tree looks unhappy. He says something positive to his tree to perk it back up. He is beginning to understand that plants have feelings just like people.
Our gardening club is a two hour session once a week. It's free, which is great. I doubt Renly would do it if we had to pay for it. When our first club ends, Renly says he enjoyed it and cannot wait for next week.
Renly named his bonsai tree Rocky to be ironic, and he keeps it in the kitchen. I call mine Olenna after my grandmother and keep it next to my bed. While Renly is cooking dinner I hear him talking to Rocky as if it were a person. I smile. He really did enjoy today. I am glad he was not just pretending, not that he would. If Renly dislikes something he would tell me, not just humor me, so I know he is telling the truth.
Friday is date night. I am so excited. I have everything planned out. We are going roller skating at the park, Renly has never roller skated or bladed so I am going to teach him. Then we are getting pizza, going go cart racing, and then we're going to a space exhibit at the local museum, I booked the museum for 7 pm. We are going to have the whole exhibit to ourselves for an hour. Renly has been dropping hints about this exhibit for the past few days, so I thought we would go. I planned this date so I have to pay, even if he has to drive.
But Friday at school, Robb and I get there early to put Meera's next gift in Margaery's locker since the wasp nest is still in Meera's. She was stung three times when she got all her books out. Robb puts a velvet cushion on the top shelf of Margaery's locker and places a porcelain music box on it, and gently places the coral rose beside it.
That music box cost Robb $137, plus shipping, because he ordered it online through the manufacturer. He had it customized; the inside has spinning heart that turns to the tune of the first song Robb and Meera ever danced to. I nearly cried when he told me the story. He was in eighth grade and she was in seventh. There was a school wide dance and Robb had been watching Meera all night, and at the very last slow song he plucked up his courage and asked her to dance.
The interior is green satin. It even has a crank at the bottom to wind up to play the song. It's such a thoughtful gift, I am glad Margaery is letting him put it in her locker for Meera. I told Margaery all about it. She is delighted to be the middleman.
After he places the note on the pillow he shuts Margaery's locker gently and we go to his father's office to wait for the bell to ring. We hear a lot of laughter outside, and Sansa comes in to get her father. She is very frantic. Robb and I follow his dad, Sansa, and several teachers outside.
Meera is duct taped to the flagpole, about halfway up. Several girls are throwing tomatoes at her. She is screaming out. Margaery, Arya, Gendry, and Jojen run up to us.
"How did this happen?" Robb asks Jojen.
"Dad dropped us off and some girls waited until he pulled away then grabbed Meera. They used a scaffold to climb up that high and three girls held Meera against the pole while the other two taped her to it," Jojen explains.
"Who were the girls?" I ask.
"They were juniors and seniors, but I don't know them," Jojen says. It's probably Jeyne's friends again. They never talk to Jojen, so it would make sense that he does not know them.
The gym teacher climbs up a ladder to get Meera down. She looks like a baby in his arms when he throws her over his shoulder to climb back down. Mr. Stark puts his hands on Meera's shoulders and walks her to the front office. She is in tears. As she passes us she reaches for her brother. Mr. Stark's secretary beckons Jojen forward.
Robb, Sansa, and Arya go to the office to try to see what's going with Meera. I look around for Jeyne. She is laughing hysterically not far behind us. Gendry, Margaery, and I move as quietly as we can closer to them. Gendry and I both take out our phones to record them. I should teach a class: eavesdropping 101.
"That was the best prank ever! You did nice work," Jeyne says.
"Did you see her face? It was priceless. Jeyne, you are an evil genius."
"That bitch needs to get the picture and just move away already. The further she is from my boyfriend the happier I will be. I can't deal with her. The stress is too much for my little boy. I know he's going to be the spitting image of his daddy. That frog bitch will not be the surrogate mother to him."
The girls giggle. I look up at Gendry who looks extremely pleased that Robb is having a boy, but his smile disappears.
"Why do you hate her?" One of the girls asks.
"You would too if your boyfriend screamed out her name while you were making love."
Oh. My. God.
"You're kidding."
"I wish. It's happens almost every time. That's why I must get rid of her. She is a threat to the future of my tiny family."
I stop recording and look at Gendry. He shuts off his camera. The three of us go inside. Meera is still in the office with Mr. Stark, and Robb and the girls are waiting on them. I lean against the glass windows by the entrance and process the information I just heard.
I have no idea what to do with this information. I look to Gendry and Margaery for answers, but they seem as confounded as I am. Margaery sits on a bench and pulls the edges of her skirt to her knees very ladylike. Gendry sits beside her.
"What am I going to do?"
"You have to show Robb," Gendry says.
"No. He'd hate himself for it. I can't do that to him. Maybe I could handle it without him knowing."
"How are you going to do that? We can't beat her down, she's pregnant," Margaery says, "Otherwise, allow me to throw the first punch."
"Maybe I could pay her to back off. If not, maybe I could her friends the ones who are carrying out her evil deeds. I have enough money and they seem stupid enough."
"We have to do something," Margaery says.
"Mags is right. This can't go on," Gendry says.
Robb runs out of the office. He sees us and asks Margaery to get Meera's gift out of her locker. He notices Gendry sitting there and turns red.
"I knew it was you," Gendry says, smiling.
Margaery gets up to get Meera's gift. She comes back carrying it on the cushion like it's the crown jewels. She has the rose placed next to it. Robb asks her to take it in his father's office and give it to her.
"Why?"
"Because it will cheer her up," Robb says.
Gendry is still smirking.
"As you wish," Margaery says.
The three of us watch as Margaery walks through the glass doors of the main office. Meera is just coming out of Mr. Stark's office when she sees the velvet pillow. Her eyes light up. We watch her turn the crank on the bottom and open the music box. I cannot hear the song, but I can watch her enjoy it.
"I can keep a secret," Gendry says.
"Thanks," says Robb.
Meera comes outside with her brother. She wipes the tears off her face. I step out to hug her first, but Margaery beats me to it. Meera is holding onto her little music box. She winds it up and opens it. The music is very sweet.
As the little heart dances in this box, mine dances in my chest whenever I think you. I desire you more than a man lost in the desert desires water. –Your Secret Admirer
I actually really like that. That was sort of poetic and sweet. Meera sniffs the rose, and then sniffles. I really think Robb should reveal himself as Meera's secret admirer.
"When you're down and everyone is kicking you, there is always that one person who shows you kindness that reminds you that people care. I feel like I have a guardian angel," Meera says.
"You do. It's all of us," Robb says.
"Meera, are you ready to go?" Mr. Reed asks.
"I'm going home," Meera says, sniffling. She smells like tomatoes and she still has some in her hair.
We run into Robb on a date with Jeyne when we are getting pizza at the go cart place. Renly beat me, but barely. I had go cart trouble. I ran into a haystack, that's not my fault. I have never driven anything before. But it was really fun. I think we may play around in the arcade here after we eat our pizza before we go on to the park to roller skate.
They sit down at a table near ours and Robb orders a large pizza with everything but the little fish and mushrooms. He asks for extra bacon and pineapple.
I tell Renly the events of the day in hushed tones even about Meera's "secret admirer" gift. He is very impressed that Robb spent so much money on her. He thinks the prank was cruel and he hopes that little act of kindness is enough to keep Meera from doing something dangerous. I whisper to Renly that the reason Jeyne is doing this is because Robb screamed Meera's name in bed.
"I screamed your name when I was in bed with Oberyn Martell. He was really pissed at me for it, because when I invited him over he was under the impression we were getting back together. We got really drunk and slept together, but I called him by your name twice. I knew that I had made a terrible mistake sleeping with him," Renly says.
That's really sweet. I am actually no longer mad that Renly slept with someone else. I hold his hand under the table. He lets me. He leans across the table to peck me a kiss. Jeyne scoffs, as if she is disgusted. It makes me want to grab Renly and make out with him in front of her.
Renly and I go to the skate park after that. I needed to get away from Robb and Jeyne. It's not him, it's her. She's pure evil. Robb's son is going to be half-evil. That makes me sad, because his father is such a saint.
Renly cannot skate, but he looks adorable failing at it. He falls on his butt eight times in a row. He grabs my arms so I could balance him. I skate and he moves his feet with me. I finally let him go to see if he can do it by himself after I showed him, not so much.
Every time he falls he laughs, then gets right back up and keeps going. I admire that about him. He holds my hand and we skate along together going slow, he nearly stumbles but I help him regain balance.
We talk about anything and everything from our ambitions to politics. Renly is thinking of getting a tattoo for his twenty-first birthday in a few weeks. Brienne is taking him out drinking and then he's going to get a tattoo. I advise him it would be wiser to get the tattoo before he gets drunk.
We sit down on a park bench and watch the sun set. Renly wants to take off his roller blades. He is going to be so sore tomorrow. I lean my head against his shoulder.
"Do you want to have kids someday?" I ask.
"Yes."
"Me too, do you think we'll have kids together?"
"It's not physically possible."
"I meant adoption."
"I actually thought about becoming a foster parent, but I don't think I'd be able to give the children up when the time came. I get too attached to people. Like you and Margaery and Gendry. I am going to miss you all like crazy when you leave."
"I'm not going anywhere," I say.
"You're going home for the summer aren't you?"
"I actually was going to ask if I could stay with you. I figured I'd go home for a month and see my family, and then come home and stay with you," I say.
"Where do we go from here?"
"Where ever the wind takes us, I reckon."
"No. I meant what is your next date destination, my flower?"
"Oh, the museum is next."
Renly and I have a wonderful time at the exhibit. Watching Renly's eyes light up like a child in a sweets shop make me fall in love with him all over again. The exhibit is mostly hands on. He touches everything. The curator tells him several times to wash his hands every time because little kids were touching the exhibit all day.
After our hour is up, Renly and I explore the rest of the museum. He is really interested in Ancient civilizations, like stories of the Children of the Forest and the First Men. We see a very menacing lifelike replica of a barbarian with bells in his hair, killing a lion at least twice his size.
"He's scary looking," I say.
"I think he's kind of hot," Renly says.
I laugh, but Renly just shrugs.
In the next exhibit are strange animals I have never seen before, and funny looking trees with faces. There is a roar of thunder, and the sudden sound of rain. Another drum of thunder and I clutch Renly's arm, shaking. He just laughs.
"It's just the exhibit, my flower," Renly says calmly.
Another roar of the thunder sends me to the floor, where I pull my knees up to my chest and rock back and forth with my hands over my ears. I close my eyes. I can feel the floor shake with another thunderclap.
"Loras. Loras, it's okay. It's the exhibit. She's turning it off now," Renly says, but it's muffled. He lifts my face. I open my eyes. He's staring at me. I am shaking from head to toe when I stand. There is another loud boom, and I shake so badly I nearly fall over. Renly leads me out of the exhibit and sits me on a bench where I lay down and curl into a ball.
"Is he going to be alright?" the curator asks.
"He's terrified of thunderstorms," Renly tells her.
She immediately makes it stop, and gives me a cup of ice water. Renly rubs my back. She apologizes for scaring me. Whenever we have thunderstorms at home, I always crawled in my mother and father's bed to sleep, or I would crawl under my bed and plug my ears and wait it out. When I got older and could no longer fit under my bed I would mainly just go to my mother's room and crawl in bed beside her. She would hug me and sing me sweet songs.
"It's alright now," Renly says softly, petting my hair like my mother used to. I miss her so much right now. I try to take a drink of water but my hand is shaking Renly has to help me.
"I'm sorry I ruined your evening," I tell Renly.
"No. You didn't ruin my evening. I got to spend it with you and that's all that matters, my delicate flower. We could watch paint dry and I would still enjoy it because you would be with me."
We leave after I calm down. The sky is clear outside and not a cloud in the sky. Renly notices I am still shaking so he stops at a gas station and buys me a bar of chocolate which I slowly munch on while he drives us home. The chocolate is soothing.
My parents totally bought me "Game of Thrones" as an early birthday present. I am so excited! I'm also getting a dinosaur cake; I'd be legit if there were "Game of Thrones" patterns. I could imagine the direwolf of Stark. Anyways, since I can't share my cake with you, I am giving you an extra chapter.