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One sunny Monday morning, Nico stomped into homeroom with a scowl on her face. While that wasn’t an altogether unusual occurrence for her, what was unusual was the armful of brightly colored flowers she was holding.
Karolina, already in her spot leaning against her desk, blinked in surprise. The cheerful colors contrasted strangely with Nico’s dark clothes, and as she watched she could swear that another flower popped up in the crook of her arm.
Karolina blinked again. Magically appearing flowers?
She almost dismissed it as a figment of her imagination, but then she remembered what Nico had seen her mother use. The fancy staff that was probably magic.
This might be cause for concern.
She straightened and watched as Nico kept her head down, weaving through the desks to get to her own spot. Ignoring the eyes on her, Nico huffed and dropped her bag before stepping around the table to dump the all flowers in front of Karolina.
“You like flowers and shit, right?” Nico muttered without looking her in the eye, instead occupying herself with brushing off her clothes. She came up with three more flowers, and promptly tossed those in front of Karolina with the others.
“Uh, yeah, I like flowers,” Karolina nodded in confusion, leaning onto her elbows and starting to sort through the pile, “What’s going on?”
“I was checking out my mom’s staff again,” Nico said quietly, “Trying to figure it out, you know. Then I felt this like, wave of magic, but when nothing happened I figured it was all fine?” Another flower fell out of her jacket, and Nico sighed. “And then I woke up and stuff was just – materializing, or something. My kitchen is full of balloons.”
Karolina’s lips twitched at the image, and she quickly schooled her features when Nico shot her a look.
“Do you know what you did?” Karolina asked curiously, tilting her head and glancing around surreptitiously to see if anyone was listening to them.
Nico opened her mouth and then stopped, cheeks flushing red before waving a hand. “Nothing, it doesn’t matter. I don’t know, apparently it does stuff depending on what I’m thinking about. When I was looking at Amy’s snowflake, it started to snow.”
“So what were you thinking of this time?”
“I was just… you know, us.” Karolina blinked at her, heart jumping, and Nico hastened to add, “Like, all of us. The whole group. Just how, like, things have changed.”
Karolina nodded, willfully ignoring her pang of disappointment at the words, and Nico straightened from where she had been slumped against the desk, blush still visible on her cheeks. “Anyways, yeah. Enjoy the hell flowers.” She hurried back to her spot, and Karolina had to stop herself from smiling after her.
In the middle of third period, there was a yell of frustration from inside a classroom, startling Karolina from where she had been walking to the bathroom. Up until now the halls had been completely deserted, and she jumped back in surprise when Nico came barreling out of the science lab.
“Oh, hey Karolina,” Nico said miserably when she noticed her. She seemed to have colored bits of foil paper sticking to her clothes, but she was moving too quickly for Karolina to be sure, spinning around and shaking out her arms as things hit the floor. She also had some more foil in her hair, and that was when Karolina realized that they were actually little wrapped Hershey's chocolate kisses.
“Is everything okay?” She asked, trying to stifle a laugh at the put out expression on Nico's face.
Nico only groaned and let her head fall back, pressing the heels of her hands over her eyes.
“What uh, what's going on?”
“This,” Nico waved her hand for emphasis and Karolina giggled when a bunch of kisses fell out of the folds of her sleeve and clattered to the floor, “This keeps happening.”
“Okay, well… free chocolate?” Karolina felt the corners of her lips turning up, and Nico groaned again.
“Sure, but not when it keeps – falling off of me! Everyone thinks I’m weird!” she protested, “And like, a bad weird. Like some hippie who keeps spreading flowers and chocolates around school!”
Karolina reached over and plucked one out of her hair, accidentally grazing her cheek as she retracted her hand. “The horror,” she commented playfully, averting her eyes and hoping Nico hadn’t noticed while she occupied herself with unwrapping the chocolate.
“Yeah, yeah, shut up, just please help yourself. I don’t want these.”
“If you say so,” Karolina shrugged, reaching out again and pulling a bunch off to stow in her pockets, taking care not to touch Nico this time. “Flowers and chocolate, huh? At least it’s not like, food. Or tiny animals or something.”
“Oh god,” Nico said in horror, shaking her head, “I think that’s too far even for the Staff.”
Karolina shrugged, sticking another chocolate in her mouth. “Who knows? It’s magic, you don’t know what it’s trying to do. Maybe it’s got a plan.”
Nico blinked at her. “Oh, hey, you’ve got a little…” she pointed at Karolina’s mouth, “A little bit of – on your lip, there’s…”
“Oh,” Karolina quickly ducked her head and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, “Good?”
Nico hesitated. “No, it’s – do you want me to – here, let me…” she gestured at her own lip before hesitantly reaching out, wiping her thumb across the corner of Karolina’s mouth and then quickly drawing back and staring at her with wide eyes. “Sorry, I… I’m going back to class now! See you.” She spun on her heel and darted back through the door, leaving Karolina in stunned silence.
“…Bye,” she whispered, bringing up a tremulous hand to touch the corner of her mouth and feeling the imprint of Nico’s fingers.
“Uh, Nico?” Alex tried tentatively when they all met up at Karolina's locker for lunch, “You’ve got a little bit of, uh, well…”
“I know,” Nico growled through gritted teeth, “I am very much aware, thank you, Alex.”
“Okay, right, yeah,” Alex nodded, wisely taking a step back, and Karolina pressed her lips together in an attempt to stop herself from laughing.
Nico, in all her goth glory, was standing there with her arms crossed and covered from head to toe in glitter.
“Well aren’t you looking sparkly today!” Chase greeted, walking up with a smirk on his face.
Without even looking at him, Nico said, “Another word and I will end you, Stein.”
Chase held his hands up and grinned, letting her go back to violently brushing herself off, and a couple minutes later they were interrupted by the arrival of Gert and Molly.
“Hey Nico, what’s with the teddy bear?” Gert asked, and Karolina looked up from her conversation with Chase in surprise.
Nico looked confused before her eyes widened and she spun around to yank her bag off her shoulder. Sure enough, there was the fuzzy head of a teddy bear sticking out of it, and Nico regarded it with dismay.
“It’s, um… I brought it for Molly!” Nico said, pulling the bear out and shoving it in Molly’s direction. To her credit, Molly only fumbled it once before accepting it with both hands.
“Uh, thanks, Nico,” she said in confusion, examining it before shrugging and putting it into her own bag.
Seeing Nico glaring down at herself, Karolina hooked an arm through Nico’s and pulled her into her side, saying, “You guys go ahead and get a table, me and Nico are gonna go to the bathroom and see if we can’t get some of this off.”
Nico heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Karolina.”
The others nodded and headed off, and Karolina laughed as she led Nico towards the nearest bathroom.
“I guess you aren’t having the best day?” she asked conversationally, opening the door and gestured for Nico to go first.
“You could say that,” Nico muttered as she strode towards the sinks and set her bag on the counter. She stared at herself in dismay before looking down and trying to pat herself off again. “Do you think water will help or make it worse?”
“No idea,” Karolina said, “Here, pass me your jacket.”
Nico shrugged it off and held it out, immediately grabbing a paper towel and swiping at her face in an attempt to remove the streaks of glitter there.
“I can’t believe this,” she muttered, turning her head from side to side, “And I know you’re laughing at me.”
Karolina gave her a lopsided grin and shook off the jacket again, turning her head away from the sound. “You have to admit, it’s a little funny. Your whole Queen of the Night thing is kind of ruined.”
“No, it’s shitty and ridiculous is what it is.”
Karolina smiled softly and held up the jacket to help Nico put it back on. “I think you look great,” she told her, looking up shyly to meet her eyes in the mirror as she smoothed down the jacket over her shoulders. “You can totally rock the sparkles.”
Nico held her gaze with a measured look before clearing her throat and brushing herself off one last time. “Thanks. I guess I’m going to have to for now.”
The rest of lunch passed more or less peacefully, with Nico cautiously looking herself over every once in a while, but nothing else appeared. It was only as they were standing to leave that a shower of paper stars fell from the folds of Nico’s clothes, scattering across the table. They all stopped and stared, Nico’s face blushing dark red, and then they burst into laughter.
Nico scowled and stomped off, leaving a trail of paper stars behind her, and Karolina grinned to herself, gathering the ones closest to her into a neat pile.
“Back to the flowers, huh?” Karolina said with a grin as she walked up to Nico at the end of the day. Nico gave her a sour look over her shoulder before continuing in her efforts to stuff all the errant flower blossoms into her locker, and Karolina laughed.
“I have to get home before my parents and grab my mom’s staff again, figure out if I can make this all stop.”
Karolina nodded, eyes drawn to the bright spot of color blooming next to Nico’s ear. “Hey, you’ve got a little something…” she trailed off as she reached up to pluck a blossom out of Nico’s hair, grinning as she presented it to her. Nico was still sparkling faintly, having been unable to rid herself of all the glitter, and Karolina smiled softly at the sight.
Nico sighed but accepted it, and Karolina raised an eyebrow at her. She was shifting from foot to foot and biting her lip, obviously deliberating something, and Karolina tilted her head as she waited.
“I… Hey, Karolina, I was wondering…”
A flower blossom slipped out of her sleeve as she was talking, and Nico instinctively looked down to catch it before it fell to the floor. Karolina waited as she examined it, fingers gently touching a petal, and then Nico looked up and appraised Karolina with a shockingly vulnerable look on her face.
“…Here,” she finally said, stretching her arm out to give Karolina the flower, “I, um, I have to go.” Her face was unreadable again in an instant, and Karolina watched in confusion as she turned to grab her bag, sweeping her hand halfheartedly to try and keep the flowers from tumbling to the floor. She slammed her locker shut and hurried off, and Karolina looked after her, cradling the flower blossom in her hand.
Too preoccupied with watching Nico, she didn’t notice when Gert sidled up next to her, a sly grin on her face. “So she gave you more flowers, huh? You noticing a pattern yet?”
“Hm? Pattern?” Karolina turned her head towards her, confused expression still on her face as she wondered what Nico had been trying to say.
“Did you open any of the paper stars from lunch?”
“No?” Karolina said, finally giving Gert her full attention. She had scooped a bunch of them into a baggie and tucked it into her backpack, but she hadn’t considered opening them.
“They’re all sappy lovey-dovey compliments. You know, standard stuff, and then they get all, ‘Your golden hair is more beautiful than the sun’, and ‘Your light outshines everything else in the world’. Sounds a bit familiar, don’t you think?”
“It – it was the Staff, she doesn’t know how to use it yet,” Karolina shifted awkwardly, eyes wide as her brain scrambled to understand what Gert was insinuating.
“But it reads her mind, doesn’t it?” Gert shrugged. “I think it’s working perfectly.”
“No, she said she was thinking of us when it happened,” Karolina protested halfheartedly, now realizing how flimsy the excuse sounded. “…All of… us.”
Gert quirked an eyebrow, eyes shining behind her glasses, and her face made it evident she was thinking the same thing. “Come on Karolina, don’t perpetuate the stereotype of dumb blondes.”
“But – but what does it mean?”
Gert sighed, lacing her hands together and rolling her eyes. “Dude, I think the Staff is telling her to ask you out.”
Karolina stilled at the words and then blinked at her. “W–what?”
“The Staff does what she wants, right? What do you think she was thinking of to get all of this?” Gert waved at the flower blossom in Karolina’s hands. “The flowers and chocolate and stuffed animals, are you sensing a theme?”
Evidently Karolina took too long to answer, because Gert rolled her eyes again. “These are all romance things, Karolina. Not platonic. Romantic. Like what you bring a date. I mean, it's totally a terrible convention to put so much value on physical objects, but such are the pitfalls of living in our consumerist society.”
“Sure,” Karolina said faintly, busy trying to make her brain resume functioning from the standstill Gert had pushed it into. “So what – what do I do?”
Gert tilted her head and hiked her bag higher on her shoulder. “That, my friend, is up to you. I would recommend, you know, maybe considering how you feel about her?”
Karolina’s eyes widened even more and she heard an embarrassingly strangled sound leave her lips.
Gert half smiled, her gaze softening. “How do you feel about her?” she asked carefully, and Karolina felt her heart rate pick up immediately.
“I – I… I don’t – ” Karolina flushed, and Gert held out her hands and shook her head, seeing her very obvious distress.
“No, it’s okay, it’s okay, you don’t have to tell me. But just think about it, okay?”
She waited for Karolina to nod before smiling, already backing away. “Okay well, I have to go meet Molly. See you tomorrow?”
“Wait, Gert!” Karolina called after her desperately, clutching the flower blossom against her chest. “That’s – that’s not – I still don’t know what to do!”
“You’ll be fine!” Gert called over her shoulder, and Karolina shook her head vigorously.
“No, I will not be fine! Gert!”
Gert only laughed and gave her a casual salute as she disappeared around the corner, and Karolina gaped after her.
Apparently she had to talk to Nico.