I was early for the meeting today.
I wasn't the earliest, it did surprise me that the only person there was Sally, cutting into a weirdly folded piece of paper.
"Where is everyone?" I asked, sitting down in one of the chairs that been set up, presumably by Sally.
"On their way." Said Sally, not taking her eyes off her paper and scissors. "Except Tina, she's ill."
"Oh." I wasn't quite sure what to say to that. I'd never been ill.
"Nothing serious, it's just a cold, but she doesn't want to leave her flat." Sally shook her head, her plaited bit of hair swinging. "She can be such a drama queen sometimes."
"Right." I said, still not sure on how to respond, I still wasn't great one on one with the Branch, in a group fine, I had Billy to bounce off of, but alone, especially with Sally, who didn't talk much, I found myself struggling. I leaned back in my chair, but I still couldn't help watching what Sally was doing.
"What are you doing?"
"Making snowflakes."
"Couldn't you have just asked me?" I asked, trying to make a joke. It seemed to work as Sally smirked.
"I could, but there's something fun about making paper snowflakes. You're never quite sure what it'll look like until it's done."
On cue she unfolded it to reveal a round piece of paper with holes cut out of it, and it did look like a snowflake.
"Wow." I said, looking at it. "How did you do that?"
"Easy." She reached into her bag and pulled out another pair of scissors and bit of paper and handed them to me. She grabbed another bit paper for herself. "Watch."
She folded one side down along the other edge to make a square, then cut off the length at the bottom. She then folded into a triangle, then folded it in on itself to make another right angle triangle. Finally she took the two longer corners and folded one halfway across the triangle, then the other corner was folded the same way around the back. Finally Sally took the scissors and chopped off the two ends sticking out.
"And then you cut patterns into the sides." She said. "You try."
I frowned and tried to put what I'd seen into actions as I folded and cut the paper. After messing up a few times on the folding I got to the final stage, and started cutting patterns into the sides, like Sally was doing.
I was starting simply, so not to mess it up, but I was tempted to try more complicated cuts, like maybe half an animal or something? I kept it to swirls and circles though, since this was my first one.
"Ready to unfold?" Asked Sally, once she saw that I was actually out of space on my snowflake.
"Yeah."
We unfolded at the same time and my heart plummeted. Sally's was really pretty, perfectly round with large chunks cut out, making it look delicate like a proper snowflake. Mine was oval and childish, with small shapes cut out, making it look chunky.
"Hey, that's good for your first time." Said Sally, clearly seeing my face fall. "I've been making these for years."
"Still not good." I muttered, resisting the temptation to crumple up the snowflake.
"You shouldn't expect perfection first time round. It takes time to learn a skill." Said Sally softly. "Here." She handed me another piece of paper. "The others might still be a while, let's see how many we can make before they arrive."
"Okay." I took the paper and began the same folding movements. "What are we going to do with these?"
"I was going to decorate the meeting hall." Said Sally, and I looked around at our meeting place. The walls were plain, light woods, with the floor being the same laminated wood. The only things that said that this place was used was the ajar equipment door to the right and the targets at the far end, which were too big to go in the equipment room. The room didn't even have any windows, it was lit entirely by several bare bulbs that swung between the rafters above our heads.
"I guess it could use some decoration." I agreed, and got back to making snowflakes, determined to make them at least half decent.