Nurturing A Garden In The Corner
"Amelia! Hey, Amelia!"
Amelia went rigid at the sound of a very familiar boy's voice echoing over the murmur of Hexside students that filled the halls. Boscha looked away from her locker to glance over Amelia's shoulder. "Ugh, what's that beanpole doing calling for you?" Her three eyes were narrowed with suspicion, and Amelia had to think quickly.
"Probably reminding me about an assignment in class," she said, rolling her eyes and putting as much derision as she could into her voice. She affected a smirk. "Let me handle it." She turned on her heel and held her books to her front as she purposefully strutted to meet her caller: Jerbo.
"Hey, Amelia!" Jerbo said happily, his face reddening in a way that was kind of freaking adorable as he stumbled to a halt before her. Amelia couldn't completely bite back the smile it brought to her face.
"Jerbo, listen carefully," she said, her tone quiet, but firm. It had the hoped-for effect of wiping the besotted smile from his face into a look of confusion, which Amelia had positioned herself to let Boscha see over her shoulder. "Okay, I'm acting like I'm saying something scathing and hurtful to you," Amelia said, shifting her books to one arm and propping her free hand on one propped hip. "Now I need you to look like you're really hurt by it."
"Amelia, what's going on?" Jerbo asked. He looked more concerned for her than hurt. Titan, that was sweet. But it wasn't enough.
"Just trust me," she said, schooling her body language to look combative from behind, but keeping her eyes soft for him. "I'll explain later. For now, just look like I broke your heart."
Jerbo's concerned expression broke into pain as he took a heavy step back, clutching his chest over his heart as actual tears beading the corners of his eyes. Amelia went slack in shock and she had the overwhelming impulse to reach out and try to comfort him, but his next words stopped her. "I'm trusting you," he murmured, lips barely moving and just loud enough for her to hear, then turned and stiffly walked off, hands clenched at his side for added effect.
Amelia swallowed thickly and took a shuddering, cleansing breath. She'd message him later to meet up somewhere out of the way to explain.
"Damn, girl," Boscha said from behind her. Amelia schooled herself into a look of smug satisfaction and spun again on her heel to see Boscha grinning with her arms crossed under her bust. Cat hung behind her, looking decidedly neutral. "That looked harsh," Boscha continued, her tone approving. "Serves that creepy nerd right, going after one of my girls!" She punched Amelia on the shoulder with a laugh and turned to head to her class.
"Amelia?" Cat prodded, her eyes searching.
"I'm alright, Cat," she replied. "I'll see you at lunch, okay?"
Cat kept looking at her for a subjective eternity that only lasted a few seconds before nodding, her expression still smoothly unreadable. "Yeah. See you, girl." Then she stepped past Amelia to head to the infirmary or Healing homeroom.
"Oh, Titan," she whispered, holding her books like a lifeline, "that was a close one."
"What do you mean she can't see us together?" Jerbo asked, his voice affronted and now genuinely hurt. They'd met in the store room for the greenhouse to talk, given it was the only place that could easily be explained away as two Plant track students working together despite their wide disparity in the social hierarchy.
"I mean, Boscha's not exactly a cuddly malk, whether you're a friend or not," Amelia said carefully, rubbing her arm with shame at her own request. "Even with the whole Hunter-Golden-Guard thing taking her attention, she's still quick to notice anything off about her group. And that includes me." She clasped her hands together with a deep breath and eyes closed as if in prayer. "Look, Jerbo, I know this isn't fair-"
"That's one way to put it," he commented, arms folded.
"But Boscha's already threatened my place on the grudgby team over just being friendly to Willow," Amelia continued as if he hadn't spoken. "What do you think she'll do if she finds out I like a guy she thinks belongs at the bottom of the pyramid?"
Jerbo's gaze was firm, but she could tell he was thinking it over. "Is being a Banshee really that important to you?" he asked, his voice remarkably calm, even thoughtful.
"More than anything," Amelia admitted. She bit her lip at being so vulnerable. The last person she had admitted that fact to was now using it to blackmail her. "I don't care about going pro, I just love the sport. I love it, Jerbo," she stressed, eyes swimming. "I can't lose it."
"And you really think that Boscha will kick you off the team?" he asked. She hadn't mentioned that the day before at the diner.
"Without hesitation," Amelia said quietly, hurt now in her own voice at how callous her friend could be.
Jerbo's lips were tight as he looked into her eyes, but something he must have seen made the hardness in his gaze crack and he sighed heavily, running his hands through his hair. "Okay, alright," he bit out. "Fine. I'll keep …" he gestured between them, "whatever this is a secret." He lowered his thick brows. "But not forever," he stipulated.
"Not forever," Amelia agreed heavily. Her heart felt warm at the fact that he was going along with this. He had nothing to gain by it, but was doing it because, for whatever reason, he trusted her not to abuse that very trust. Amelia stepped closer and lifted onto her tiptoes to place a gentle kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Jerbo. You really are a sweet guy."
"Oh, uh-!" Gone was the heavy, low-key badass from before. Back was the blushing, awkward teenage mess. "N-No problem."
Too cute.
"So, how's our next class sound to break the news to Willow?" Amelia asked. It was best to be sooner than later in warning her and Hunter about the newest development in Boscha's obsession.
"Maybe, uh," Jerbo faintly stammered, then swallowed down his nerves, "maybe we should tell everyone who can help all at once," he suggested. "And there's kind of a special place we can do that under the radar."
Little could they have suspected the results of the plan they would come up with …
Mission success. Boscha's been arrested. So, go team?
Amelia stared at the words on her scroll, messaged by Willow to the group chat they had set up for the plan. She blinked as the wheels turned in her head, rolling onto her back on her large, soft bed to consider what might have happened tonight.
Boscha had been arrested?
Granted, they had considered the possibility that her ego would push her to do something … unwise, but it had apparently never really hit Amelia that it might actually happen. For as long as she could remember, Boscha had seemed like something of an untouchable figure. That image had been shaken by the grudgby match against Willow and her friends, and the emotional win they had secured in the face of Boscha's technical one. But this, how their planning had seemed to pin Boscha in a corner and leave her to undeniably lose, it-
It made her seem even less invincible.
Amelia picked her scroll back up and messaged back to the group chat. You can't leave it at that, girl! DETAILS! …Please?
Messages poured in from Willow, Amity, Jerbo, and even Hunter to try and fill her — and by extension Viney and Barcus — in on the events of the night. She read them all in record time to piece together what had happened. And the picture it painted was … bittersweet. She sighed and signed off with a "Goodnight" before tracing a spell to shut off her bedroom lights and burrowing into her blankets.
She'd think about it tomorrow.
Amelia hummed to herself the next morning as she tilted her watering can over the perzik tree in the small grove she kept in her parents' backyard, her thoughts more clear as she tended to her personal plants.
She brushed a thumb over the blossoms that were slowly falling from the thin branches, smiling at the heralds to the sweet fruit that would follow. She turned to face the rising sun and closed her eyes, breathing in the morning air as wind softly blew through her chin-length hair. She brushed a hand through the tresses and smoothed the linen smock over tights that she wore for gardening.
It was somewhat rare that Amelia got to water her plants on a Shatterday morning without feeling rushed. Especially around this time, Boscha would be hounding for early grudgby practice. But after what had happened the night before, with her arrest by the Golden Guard, Boscha's mother had messaged all of the Banshees and informed them that Boscha would be sleeping in after her night in jail. Amelia knew the details, but had messaged back something that sounded like support and good wishes.
Her smile wavered at the thought that Boscha was out so soon after the arrest by the Emperor's own right hand. Amelia's family, the Sages, were no stranger to money and its influence. They had a strong grip on the Isles' spice industry that had begun with Amelia's great-grandfather and kept them among the faux-nobility of the Boiling Isles's richest families. It was the main reason that Odalia Blight encouraged Amity to befriend her, though not as vehemently as with Boscha or Skara. Clearly, Boscha's parents had struck a deal with someone in the Emperor's Coven to get her a lighter sentence.
'Amelia?' came a soft voice. The girl looked up at her palisman, Jewel, fluttering around her and looking concerned. 'Do you need to talk?'
"Nah," she said, brushing away her moody thoughts. "I'm fine, sweetie." She held up a finger for Jewel to perch on and continued watering her fruit trees one-handed. She enjoyed spending this experience with her palisman, who had bonded to her over the wish to grow trees just like this all over the Isles and use them to feed the hungry.
Just as she finished watering her crabapple tree at the end, her scroll pinged with a new message. She fished her scroll out of her gardening smock's pocket to check … and smiled at a message from Jerbo.
You okay?
Amelia sighed at the simple text and messaged back, Feel like breakfast at your diner? I want to talk. Please.
She put up her watering can and returned to her room, careful not to make too much noise that would wake her workaholic parents from their much-needed sleep, and changed out of her gardening clothes. She moved to take up her usual style, but paused halfway to her wardrobe, then began gathering something different from her usual ensemble. She slipped on a green blouse embroidered with red leaves in an artistic breeze, a spring-green stole draped over her shoulders … and her shortest denim shorts to show off her legs, along with her favorite strappy sandals that wrapped up to her calves.
She was just finishing brushing her hair when she got Jerbo's answer. Sure, I could eat. And the company is well worth it. He'd followed up with a zombie's smiling face, and Amelia giggled.
She left through the back door and rode her staff to the diner where they'd had their first kind-of date. Amelia had been calling it Date Zero in her head. She landed lightly and Jewel reverted to her true shape to perch on Amelia's shoulder and nuzzle into her stole. She entered and spotted Jerbo in a booth further back. He looked up as she approached, keeping some swing in her hips for the fun of it, and he stood in something like old-school politeness, his cheeks reddening.
It seemed Jerbo had decided to dress up a bit, too. He was wearing an open plum button-up over a charcoal t-shirt, with denim pants of his own held up by woven leather suspenders — the latter something he consistently wore and made her want to laugh lightly with how unashamedly, archetypically nerdy it was. His boots were polished, she noticed, and his longish lanky hair combed a bit.
His adorable hedgehog palisman, Sonny, was perched on the table and squeaked in greeting, waving to her as he twitched his little nose.
"Hi," she greeted with a smile, waving her fingers to Sonny before looking at Jerbo.
"Hey," he said, blushing even more fiercely, his hand twitching to presumably keep from rubbing the back of his head. "Hey, hi. Good morning, Amelia." He cleared his throat. "You look, erm, really nice."
"Thanks," she said brightly, starting to flush herself. "So do you."
He gestured at the booth and took a seat. Amelia pursed her lips and grinned just a bit before stepping to his side and sitting, pushing him further along the bench with her hip. "Do you mind?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes.
Jerbo was so red, he might start smoking. "Nope," he squeaked, and Amelia couldn't help but laugh behind her hand.
"What can I get you two?" a matronly waitress asked, a small grin on her face as she looked them up and down and seemed to know what was going on.
"What would you like, Jerbo?" Amelia asked. "I'm buying." Jerbo seemed to think for a split second and started to open his mouth, but Amelia placed her finger against his lips and fixed him with a no-nonsense look, eyebrows arched and lips pursed. "And that means you get something as pricey as you want, you got it? Heck, if there's something you've always wanted to try but couldn't afford, get it now."
Jerbo looked at her with wide eyes before nodding and she removed her finger. He cleared his throat and sighed with resignation. "The two griffin eggs with sixteen ounce country schvine steak," Jerbo said quietly. Amelia lifted an eyebrow and he added, "With an extra large scoffee, please."
"Short stack of slapcakes with bacon and goreange juice, please," Amelia added with a polite smile, handing over their menus. "And it'll all be on my ticket."
"You got it, missy," the waitress said, finishing jotting down their order. Then she fixed Amelia with a steady look and smiled. "And nicely done, I might add," she said, glancing at Jerbo before walking off.
Amelia looked at Jerbo and her smile faded at seeing him suddenly seem a little skittish. "Are you okay?"
"Never been bullied into being bought a big breakfast before," he replied uneasily. Then he blinked. "Whoa, now that was alliteration."
Almelia burst out a bark of a laugh before covering her mouth, cheeks blazing. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bully you." She placed her hand against her heart. "But I invited you, so I pay." She brushed one side of her hair behind her ear. "After all, that's how dates go, right? Especially early on?"
"Eh?" Jerbo's mouth fell open before he shut it with an audible click and he began to stammer. "Bu-But-! You said that-! Boscha! And the team! What about-?" Amelia silenced him with her finger again.
"Well, as it turns out," Amelia began with a grin. And she told him about her short conversation with Boscha to set her up for the Hoia Park encounter, giving particular emphasis on Boscha's assurance that she couldn't afford to kick Amelia off the team.
"And you believe her?" Jerbo asked. "I mean, you seemed pretty sure that she'd boot you before all of this."
"I was panicking a little," she admitted. "But I've given it some actual thought and realized that Boscha is actually kind of strapped for players. If she gets rid of me, the Banshees will be at a crazy disadvantage for the season." Her eyes glittered. "Which means place security for me as long as I keep kicking butt, you know?"
Jerbo gazed steadily at her, and Amelia could practically see the gears turning in his head. "What are you really saying?" he asked.
Amelia's grin softened into a gentler smile and she slowly, but deliberately, took Jerbo's hand in hers, even weaving their fingers in an unmistakably intimate way. "It means," she said clearly, but softly, just for him, "that you don't have to wait as long as I thought."
She placed her head on his shoulder with that same soft smile, and Jerbo leaned his head on her's, expression blank with shock and his cheeks delightedly red.
Boscha was growling to herself as she landed on the grounds of Hexside the following Maulday. Her dad had insisted that she "take it easy" after "run-in with the law" and just stay home for the weekend. Her mom had gotten in on it by taking her scroll and sending out periodic messages that she'd be staying in, which left her with little to do but go along with it.
At least now she was back at Hexside, where she ruled the halls and things made sense.
She pushed open the doors with force to find only Cat waiting for her, arms crossed and expression carefully neutral in her "medic's mask," as Boscha preferred to call it. "Where's Amelia?" she grunted, the wrinkle in her routine already an annoyance.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Cat asked, lowering her face to look over her glasses.
"Why else would I ask, Cat?" Boscha demanded, her patience too thin for this. Cat shrugged and walked off, presumably leading the way. Boscha scoffed and petted Maya to calm herself, following Cat's brisk stride. They arrived a ways from Amelia's locker, and boscha stopped in shock at seeing Amelia giggling and blushing with someone. Someone that was not even close to the Banshees in the Hexside food chain.
That was one of those dumb multi-trackers that was so cozy with the human! What was his name? Germ? Fitting, she thought.
Boscha bristled and relished in it, ready to stomp over and set the situation right … but Cat stepped in her path, her arms crossed, her hip jutted, and her neutral look gone to be replaced with unyielding steel. "Don't even think about it, Boscha," she said, not loudly, but cold, calm and serious.
"What are you doing, Cat?" Boscha asked, keeping her voice level, too. "You showed me that," she gestured at the pair, who were too wrapped up in their own world to notice the exchange. "What do you expect me to do?"
"I expect you to respect Amelia's judgment," Cat said, her tone undaunted. "Jerbo's a sweet guy and he clearly makes her happy. Heck, she's been keeping her distance from him for a while just because she was scared you'd kick her off the Banshees."
"Good thing she's scared," Boscha snapped. "She's gonna-"
"You kick her off for this," Cat cut in, "and I walk, too."
Boscha's anger evaporated at the notion, her faintly pink skin turning bone-white. What? "What did you say?" she asked.
"You heard me," Cat affirmed. "Amelia's happy with this guy. And you're gonna have to deal with that. Or else try playing the season on your own."
Boscha stared into Cat's eyes and saw no anger there. Only calm resolve. This was a promise. It was not a threat, not unless Boscha made it one. The triclops looked over Cat's shoulder at Amelia and Jerbo, that was his name, before snarling and shouldering past Cat to stomp to her own locker close by.
The couple — ugh! — finally noticed her and tensed at her approach. She scratched at her locker to open it and pointed at Jerbo. "Nerd," she growled and hooked her thumb backward, "beat it." He paused to look at Amelia and Boscha almost threw up at the puppy-like look in his eyes. Amelia smiled and motioned for him to go. He smiled and made tracks.
"Boscha-" Amelia started, her tone hard.
"Save it," Boscha growled, removing her familiar Golden Guard spiral to tuck into her bag. "Do what you want." She slammed her locker closed, the beast snarling with discomfort. "You just bring your A-game to practice and games, you understand?" she added fiercely.
"Always," Amelia said.
They parted ways for class, and Amelia finally noticed Cat watching closely. Cat grinned and winked behind her square spectacles before turning to head to her own class. Amelia gaped for a moment, realization crashing upon her that she had interposed herself between her and Boscha … and she almost cried at such an act of kindness.
Then again, Cat had always been the kindest of them. Part and partial for being a healer, she supposed.
She summoned her scroll and messaged Jerbo to fill him in, her heart full of affection for him, for Cat, and even a little for Boscha.
Hello, readers! It's been a while since we've seen a new tale. My inspiration has been shot as work and the daily grind do just that to my time and energy. But I've been looking forward to this premise for a while, and I'm happy to finally present it!
As always, if you have prompts for suggestions for tales from the Ash & Ebony AU, don't hesitate to mention them!
*This begins just after chapter 11 of "Masks" with Amelia and Jerbo's "first" date and then progresses to the morning after chapter 15 after Boscha's arrest trying to find out the Golden Guard's identity. Then it caps off with the following school morning.
*The perzik fruit - based on peaches and named for the Persian word for the fruit - is borrowed from my early Huntlow story "Search For The Violet Magnificence."
*Jerbo's hurt expression can be seen directly in "ASIAS" after Viney says, "I had an opening for one [a new friend]."
*A malk is my take on a cat-like demon, at least partially based on the three-eyed cat beast from Hooty's board of beast-type demons.
*I'm imagining Tara Strong as Bubbles voicing Amelia's palisman, Jewel the hummingbird. That's two voiced by the legendary T. Strong with the other being Shimmer (Gus's palisman, named long before we knew her canon name) in the style of "Teen Titans'" Raven.
*Jerbo's order is based on the most expensive breakfast at my favorite diner in my hometown. Schvine is based on the German word for pig and is my longtime stand-in for a pig-like beast demon that is my excuse to have bacon on the Boiling Isles.
*Slapcake is derived from an actual synonym for pancake and flapjack, called slapjacks. Man, I wanted to use the original, but it was too much like Flapjack, you know?
*FYI, the alliteration was NOT planned. It just happened!
*The ending feels between Amelia and Cat were not part of the original idea for this chapter, but they slipped in and I just love how that turned out!
As always, I hope this was a fun one! Leave a review if you like! And may your own works be fun to read and to write!