Hi, I'm back again! Sorry I take forever and a bit to write chapters, I'm just really bad at everything, lol. No, I'm just lazy and busy, which is a bad combination for getting things done. But I'm here now. And that's what matters. Enjoy!
Cam was busy preparing his flower stand, his mind whirling about what he was going to say to Ash. There is never a non awkward way to talk about kissing your best friend. Cam crossed his fingers that maybe Ash wouldn't bring it up. Cam turned around to get some pink roses, when, all of a sudden, he felt a pair of hands cover his eyes.
"Guess who?" Ash said, cheekily. Cam smiled and laughed.
"Erm, is it James Bond?" Cam asked, sending Ash into laughter. Cam looked at the rancher, thinking about just how much he meant to him... If he didn't want to lose him, he could never say anything. Ash was recovering from his giggle fit, and walked back over to watch Cam pick flowers. Ash always admired the care Cam put into his work, and how much passion he really had for flowers. He really saw the beauty in them, in a way no one else could, and he saw flowers in a way no one else did. And it was a truly uplifting thing. Ash smiled to himself as he thought about it.
"Hey Ash, what are you all smiley about?" Cam asked, with a smirk of his own. Ash brushed it off.
"Oh, just nothing." Cam shrugged.
"Ok, why don't you help me wrap these flowers? It's a special order from Rutger. I've got to make a hundred of these bouquets to liven up the town hall. Are you going to help me?" Cam looked at Ash, and held out a roll of flower wrapping.
"Oh course I'll help you!" Ash said, taking the wrapping tape out of Cams hands. "Just tell me what to do, boss!" Cam smiled.
"Ok, you just take two Carnations, one Sunflower, and three Pink Roses, put the Sunflower in the middle, a Carnation at either side, and then arrange the roses around it. You then take the wrapping, and wrap it round three times, not two and not four, but three times, and then you tie a ribbon around it like..." Cam finished wrapping the bouquet he was making and tied a gold wrapping string around the light pink tissue paper used to wrap the flowers. "There, just like that. Got it?" Ash nodded with a grin.
"Yup, now let me try!" Ash started to copy what Cam did, arranging and wrapping the flowers, and ties the bow around the paper.
"Like that?" Ash asked, his hopeful eyes looking to his florist friend for approval. Cam nodded slowly.
"Yes, just like that. Now we just need to do that ninety eight more times." Cam smiled and turned away to get more flowers, and Ashes jaw dropped.
"Ninety eight more times! Seriously?! Why does Rutger need so many flowers?!" Ash asked, clearly stunned by the huge order.
"He said half were for this town hall, and half were for Konohana. Which I guess makes sense, I mean, the town halls pretty big so..." Cam paused. Ash got the message, and quickly got more flower paper.
"Let's do this." Ash said with a grin, hand Cam one roll of paper, Cam handing Ash a bucket of flowers, each freshly picked that morning. Both boys got straight to work, consecrating while trying to arrange to perfect bouquets. After half an hour, they had wrapped exactly one hundred bouquets, having wrapped fifty each. They sat down on the bench opposite Cams flowers, and signed in relief that all the flowers had been wrapped. After a while, Ash broke the silence.
"What time is Rutger coming to pick up the bouquets?" Cam looked at his watch.
"In about twenty minutes. Why?" Ash shrugged.
"I dunno. I was just thinking, do you think Rutgers been acting a little strangely lately?"
"Not that I've noticed. Why?" At that moment, Laney walked out of the cafe.
"What haven't you noticed?" Laney asked, placing a tray of mini pastries on Cams stand. "Eat up, and don't work too hard!"
"Thanks Laney." Said Ash, him and Cam walking over to the tray.
"Ash was saying that Rutger has been acting weird." Cam said. Laney thought for a moment.
"Y'know, the other day, I was in the bakery, and Rutger came in and ordered one hundred mini cakes. I thought that was pretty weird." Ash and Cam looked at each other.
"Rutger just ordered a hundred bouquets off Cam!" Ash said. Him and Laney looked at each other, and then at Cam.
"Well, I suppose he has been acting pretty weird..." Cam said, finally.
"Yeah! I think it has something to do with the mayor of Konohana... He always seemed pretty weird when she's around." Ash slouched back, finishing his sentence. When he finally realised what he had said, he shot up, and the three friends shared a glance.
"Hey, you don't think?"
"No!" Laney said, defensively.
"Well, he could..." Cam added, suspiciously.
"But what about Rose?" Laney said again, still in shock. Both boys just shrugged.
"I'm not entirely sure I want to know, honestly. It's none of my business." Cam said, after a while.
"How can you not want to know?" Laney shouted. "Doesn't it drive you insane? I need to know! Oh, I was perfectly fine until you brought it up, now I need to get to the bottom of this!"
"No, you really don't..." Cam said, gently.
"Yes I do!" Laney snapped. "Are you two going to come with me, or what?" Both boys looked at each other, then looked back at Laney.
"Fine then!" She said, "I'll find someone else to help me. I was just on my way over to Konohana anyway, so I can do a bit of sleuthing..."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "Oh, going over to Konohana, are we?" He stood up from his bench and walked over to Laney.
"What are you doing over there?"
"Nothing." She said quietly, her gaze dropping to the ground. She blushed.
"Oh, of course, just nothing. Wouldn't be going to she a certain Konohanan doctors apprentice, would we?" He smirked.
"Stop saying would we at the end of everything. It's freaking me out." She said, blushing even more. Ash chuckled slightly.
"Oh, so your not going to see Hiro? Its ok, just make sure you always use..."
"Bye guys!" Laney darted off towards the path to Konohana. Ash laughed, and shouted after her, "Remember to stay safe!" Then he burst into uncontrollable fits of giggles. Cam, having just watched the whole the unfold, was laughing too, and the two boys were left laughing so hard they couldn't breathe. After all the laughter died down, Ash spoke up first.
"Hey look, there's Rutger." Ash pointed at the Bluebell mayor coming towards the flower stand.
"Hello boys, I'm here to pick up my flowers..." He was interrupted by Ash.
"Here you go, Sir! Exactly one hundred flower bouquets, each made with one Sunflower, two Carnations, and three Pink Roses!" Ash's smiled was so wide, it looked like he had stuck a coat hanger in his mouth. But, then again, it was his first time serving a customer.
"Ah, thank you boy!" Rutger replied, clearly impressed.
"You are very welcome, Sir!" Ash said, a little over enthusiastically.
"We'll help you load them into your cart." Cam chimed in from behind Ash, who had clearly forgotten he was there.
After all the flowers were loaded on to the cart, and Rutger had said goodbye, Cam and Ash started packing away the stand.
"Hey, do you want to go for a walk?" Ash asked, in a friendly way. Cams heart almost melted. But he kept his cool, and tried his hardest to act casual.
"Yeah sure."
Did you like the second chapter? The next chapter will be the events of their walk! And I'm planning on making it a VERY eventful walk :) I'm not actually sure where I'm going with this, I have ideas, but I felt it would be better to give them something to do, like an over laying story line while they work out their problems, and... I dunno. I'm not sure.
Wow, please excuse my long rant. Anyway, R&R as always!