Chapter 17: You are different.
"I'm so so sorry!" Willow peers at the potion splashed all over the grass. It's not like any other she has seen before… But the colors… They remind her of something… But she can't remember what exactly.
Boscha's face goes red, and tears stream down her face.
"Was that potion important?! I'll replace it I'm sorry." Willow says, scolding herself for being so reckless. Not only that, but Boscha already seemed a little upset… Poor thing.
Boscha sniffles. Willow kneels and hands her a handkerchief. Boscha takes it and wipes away some of her tears. She feels pathetic.
"Hey…" Willow says, her voice low and comforting. "Are you okay?"
Boscha shakes her head in response.
Willow notices a soaked label on the floor. She picks it up and checks the writing. Boscha panics. She attempts to swat it away from Willow's hands, but it's no use. Willow already read it.
"This is… Medication?" Willow's ashamed of herself for being so careless.
Boscha's heart sinks in her chest, and the tips of her fingers grow colder at Willow's words. How is she going to explain this…?
"Please… Don't tell anyone." Boscha begs through broken sobs.
"Woah hey okay!" Willow assures her. "I won't. I promise."
Nobody else knows about Boscha's medication. Not Amity, not even Skara! How would they react if they knew about this? They'd laugh at her… And Willow…
Boscha's voice cracks. "Are you… Are you going to find someone else to help tutor you…?"
Willow gasps softly at Boscha's statement. "Of course not, Why would I?"
"Because I'm…" Boscha hiccups. "Like this."
Titan… Has she been worried about that all this time? Is that why she's been running off every time they walked back to class…?
"Boscha," Willow places her hand on Boscha's shoulders. "Whether or not you take medication, you're still one of the best teachers I've ever had."
Boscha doesn't respond… She finds it hard to believe someone as powerful as Willow wouldn't have lost all respect for her. She shakes her head, waiting for her tears and frustration to ease. It still takes a few more minutes for her to calm down and reply.
"You're only saying that…"
Willow hugs her tenderly, which surprises Boscha. "I'm saying it because I mean it."
Willow holds Boscha in her arms for a while, and as Boscha's breathing evens out, Boscha feels a subtle warmth bubbling in her chest…
It's comforting… It's… Familiar…
She keeps yearning for fond old memories.
It's always been so tiring… Trying to prove yourself worthy of being respected… Life is difficult, people will be shitty to those who are inferior…
Boscha hopes Willow's different.
"Willow…" Boscha says. "Can you promise me you won't tell anyone?"
"Of course," Willow says.
"Can we shake on that?" Boscha casts a small spell circle and attempts to reach out her hand, before the circle flickers and fades out. "Oh right…"
Willow giggles. She casts the spell circle herself. "A promise is a promise."
Boscha huffs. It's embarrassing not being able to cast just a simple promise ring… But at least Willow was kind enough to help her.
"Can you tell Principal Bump I had an emergency?" Boscha says. "I need to go home and grab another potion…"
"You got it." Willow shoots her a finger gun, and Boscha looks at her confused. But ultimately, Boscha brushes it off as a weird Willow thing.
Willow waves Boscha goodbye and heads back into the school. On the way to Principal Bump's office, she bumps into Luz, who greets her with a book in her hand.
"Willow! I found the book you were looking for!" Luz hands her a thick book titled: 'The Oracle's Guide to the Dreamscape'.
"Thank you!" Willow says.
"No prob, Bob! Return it to me tomorrow so the teacher doesn't scold me okay?"
Luz walks off to find her next class. Willow finds Principal Bump and tells- or well attempts to tell him what happened… She settled on just telling him through a game of charades, and he got it eventually.
As she returned to her classroom and sat down, she uses the time to read the book a bit. She scans through the dream meanings section, which were conveniently arranged in dictionary fashion.
'Abandonment - past feelings…
Babies - warmth and new beginnings…
Cabins - Independence and success…
Death - change in yourself or someone else…
Earrings - wise advice…
etc. etc…'
Bla bla blah! So far nothing useful, because it's not like she can actually remember the dream anyway. She checks the index, finding anything about recurring dreams.
'Recurring dreams typically occur when the person fails to notice their surroundings. Typically, they're too preoccupied with either the past or the future, that they fail to notice what is happening in the present.'
Okay? But how does she make it stop? She skims through a few more lines.
'One must take the time to reflect on what is currently happening.'
Willow groans. What could she possibly be missing?!
She attempts to think about what could have changed. She has a lot of friends, she's not bullied anymore… This is so frustrating! She groans and complains. She flips through a few more pages…
'If you are the victim of recurring dreams, consider telling people how they make you feel to assess the...'
'But I've already been doing that!' Willow thought.
She sighs. Maybe her head will be clearer if she actually reads everything else before that section…?
She attempts to read paragraphs upon paragraphs, to the point where her eyes start to feel weary. She yawns.
"It's so hard to read when you haven't been sleeping properly in days…"
Willow's head droops down onto the table…
Maybe… Take a nap…
Drowsiness overtakes her body, and she feels herself drifting off. As her eyes close, and the classroom around her disappears, the first thing she sees after the flickering darkness…
Is a hospital room.
Willow gasps. She jolts awake, stubbing her toe on the table.
"OW!"
She feels her heart beating fast in her chest, and for a second it seems her body refuses to let her breathe. She stabilizes her shaky breath, and the exhaustion kicks in again.
The room around her flickers in and out, and a dimly lit hospital room appears before her, with only the light of an open door outlining the shadowy figure of an entity… It charges at her–
And she snaps back to reality.
Her mind keeps playing tricks on her, she assumes. At this point, despite her exhaustion, she doesn't want to fall asleep again…
But the book.
She searches for anything related to hospital rooms in the dream.
Hospitals - a hospital room can symbolize a healing process for you, someone you know, or the mending of any kind of relationship. It can be physical, emotional, or spiritual. But a…
'…is it Amity?'
Soon enough, the bell screams, and class is over. She closes the book, and on her way out, she searches around for Amity…
But she already left.
Defeated, she walks home with a feeling of dread.
She sits down on her bed with her uniform still on, as you do after a long school day, and glances at the book. She realizes she's had a habit of having her mind jump around so many things.
Willow sighs, "Will I ever catch a break?" She says, possibly towards her multitude of potted plants, and the laffodils laugh at her.
"…That isn't very helpful." She says. She knows laffodils only laugh when they need water but that doesn't mean it didn't add insult to injury!
She sits up and waters her plans as per usual. She notices her prettiest plant, the Valentino bush, whom she named 'Sweetheart', had been growing larger, with its drooping leaves nearly touching the floor.
"Oh, Sweetheart, you've always made me feel better." She sighs, smiling at the plant. "It's a shame I've been kind of neglecting you for the past week…"
"…" The leaves sway.
Every time she's spoken to plants she always thinks about stopping that habit, but it's not hurting anyone so…
"I don't suppose you know how to help me?"
"…"
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
Willow grabs the plant and sets it down on her bedside table. She lays down, almost mimicking a therapy session… "You know you look kinda different compared to the tree you came from. You look more like a mini willow tree than the actual Valentino…"
"…" The plant sits there… Like a plant.
"Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't judge. Can't expect you to look exactly like your mother." Willow laughs to herself.
"…"
Willow lays there, attempting to make sense of what her dream means…
"Sweetheart…" She says. "You'll protect me, won't you?"
"…"
Willow laughs. "Who am I kidding? You're a plant! I'm supposed to be the one protecting you!"
Her fathers call out to her for dinner. She tells them she'll skip it despite their worries.
After changing into her sleepwear, and tucking herself in. She sighs, and closes her eyes…
Author's Note:
The reason I don't write long chapters is because I'm mostly writing for my enjoyment and I tend to lose focus on longer chapters. (Ironic, considering it's a slow-burn, I know.) And also my eyes are blurry so it's harder for me to edit the longer it is ;~;