Chapter Text
It all starts with a bundle of flowers.
Small orange blooms, still attached to thin-but-healthy looking green stems dotted with heavy leaves, and they're tied together by a piece of string looped in a very sturdy knot. Their arrangement is a bit sloppy, Fern thinks, as if whoever assembled the bouquet didn't really have an eye for those kinds of details, but they still smell sweet and make Fern's stomach give a little swoop. Fern downloads an app that informs her that the flowers are petunias, which leads her down a quick rabbit hole about the unusual history of that particular breed of the flower, and she has to force herself to stay focused before she gets too sidetracked.
Fern finds them in her locker, dangling from the small slits at the top of the metal door, but there's no note attached and a quick glance around the hallway offers no clues as to who left them there. Strange.
At first Fern assumes the flowers are meant as a gift, but then she thinks about it a little more and she starts to get nervous. The flowers clearly didn't come from any sort of florist, and besides, wouldn't a gift usually be accompanied by a note? What kind of person would leave something like this anonymously? And what reason would someone have for hastily shoving a bundle of handpicked flowers halfway into her locker in the first place?
See, the thing about Fern is that she's still "the new girl" at school so she doesn't really know what's going on sometimes. Is this some kind of Pine Ridge tradition she doesn't know about? Is she being hazed? Is this a warning? Should she expect a dead horse's head to show up on her doorstep next? Does she need to call the Ranger Hotline before the flowers sprout humanoid hands that drag her into an alternate dimension and summon kind of alien monster?
Her friend laughs when she asks him about it, which does a lot to ease her mind and keep her from catastrophizing too hard, but he also doesn't have any idea how they could have wound up there.
"Sounds like a mystery," he tells her. "And I know exactly who you should talk to about a mystery."
The BuzzBlast headquarters are way nicer than Fern expected- she's always thought their content was a bit, well, cringe, but apparently cringe pays the bills! (Though as someone who films reaction videos, Fern supposes she should be less judgmental.) The large open concept office space is warm and inviting but lively, a polite way of saying "packed," and Fern is picking her way through the crowd looking for the girl her friend told her about when a voice catches her ear.
"Fern?"
When Fern turns around she's greeted by the familiar face of Izzy Garcia, her track and field rival, looking good as always in one of those soft green shirts that Fern has come to think of as her signature outfit. The other girl is standing next to a desk with a few other young adults Fern vaguely recognizes from the crowd at track events- a brunette in pink leaning back in a chair, a very stern looking guy in blue perched on the edge of the desk, and a round faced man in red standing beside them -who have all paused their conversation to stare at Fern.
"Hola Izzy!" Fern greets as she darts over to meet the other girl, and she smiles wide. "What are you doing here?"
"My brother works here-" Izzy begins, but something is off- Izzy isn't returning her smile, and Fern notices her forehead is furrowed the way it is in class when the teacher asks a question she can't answer. "But what are you doing here?"
"Me? I'm looking for someone," Fern offers vaguely, a bit taken aback by Izzy's obvious confusion. She frowns, suddenly concerned, and tilts her head down a bit. "Is... everything okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
(The girl in pink perks up and leans forwards in her chair. "A ghost?"
"Down girl," the boy in blue says with a roll of his eyes.)
"No!" Izzy exclaims, then she shakes her head, takes a deep breath, and Fern watches as her shoulders relax. She smiles at Fern, looking a bit more like the Izzy that Fern knows. "No, I'm fine, I just- I wasn't expecting to see you here today! We never really get to see each other outside of school."
"Huh," Fern nods, but she still feels like she's missing something. "Yeah, I guess that's true."
"Izzy, are you going to introduce us to your friend?" The man in red asks Izzy, who blinks like she'd forgotten he was there.
"Oh right, sorry!" Izzy says, and she points around the table. "Fern, these are my friends Zayto, Ollie, and Amelia. Guys, this is Fern, we go to school together."
"Nice to meet you!" Fern waves, a little awkward at being put on the spot, but Zayto smiles at her like he's meeting some kind of celebrity and Ollie doesn't seem to particularly care about her either way so she supposes she's fine.
"Oh, so you're Fern," Amelia says knowingly, and Fern doesn't miss the way the girl's eyes quickly dart up and down as if she's the subject of a story Fern doesn't know about. "We've heard all about you from Izzy."
"Yes, Izzy says you're quite the athlete!" Zayto chimes in. "She says you might give her a run for her money." He pauses, beaming as he looks around at the group. "Get it? A run? Because it's a popular English figure of speech, and a reference to how you two are both athletes!"
"Oh really?" Fern giggles, because her sense of humor is a bit corny, and she can't resist the urge to tease a little bit. "Izzy, I didn't realize you were keeping track."
"Well," Izzy says gleefully. "Let's not leap to any conclusions."
"And you think my humor is bad," Ollie mutters to Amelia. Izzy catches Fern's eyes over his shoulders and winks, and Fern swallows another laugh. It takes her a second to realize that someone else is talking to her.
"So, Fern, what brings you in to Buzzblast today?" Amelia asks, and Fern suddenly remembers the mystery burning a hole in her bag.
"You're Amelia Jones, right?" Fern asks. Amelia nods. "I was looking for you actually. Someone at school told me that you're the person to ask about weird things in this town and, well, something pretty weird happened to me."
Fern pulls out the bundle of flowers and at the sight of the orange blossoms, Izzy flinches, which makes the nerves start crawling back up Fern's spine. Perhaps there is something to the flowers that she doesn't know about? She explains the situation as carefully as she can, though there isn't much to tell, and as she speaks, she does her best to avoid sounding too paranoid about something as small as a bouquet of flowers because well... she has been known to catastrophize and she doesn't want to embarrass herself in front of Izzy and her friends.
Amelia somehow produces a giant magnifying glass from one of her pockets and scrutinizes the flowers as Zayto and Ollie hover over her shoulder doing some examination of their own- but, Fern notices, while everyone else is looking at the flowers, Izzy is staring at her. Fern is usually pretty good at reading people, but she can't quite figure out what to make of the expression on Izzy's face.
The girl in green folds her arms in front of herself. "Wait, so you think that getting flowers is... weird?"
"I mean... in this case, kind of," Fern admits with a sigh, and she stares down at the orange blossoms wistfully. She feels a bit foolish for making such a big deal out of something so harmless but the appearance of the flowers was such an oddity that it set inside of her a burning desire to know what they were about. The mystery was enticing, exciting, and perhaps a bit dangerous in a delicious way, but the unknown comes with confusion as well. "I mean, why would someone just leave them there with no explanation? It is a little bit creepy."
"Creepy?" Izzy asks in disbelief, and she frowns. It looks like she's about to say something else, something Fern is very interested in hearing, but Amelia interrupts her.
"I've got it!" The reporter declares, her eyes sparkling with excitement, and she thrusts the bundle of flowers in the air triumphantly. "There's no other explanation, it's gotta be aliens."
"Excuse me?" Fern chokes, confused by the random leap in logic, but Amelia just nods enthusiastically. Amelia's friends, however, seem less convinced.
"It's not aliens, Amelia, it was m-" Izzy's eyes widen and for some reason she drags out the "mmm" sound for a beat too long before finding the word she wants to say next. "Most definitely, probably, a person! Like, maybe someone from the school! That would make sense, right?"
She gives a strangely nervous chuckle and Fern nods in agreement, because that's more or less what she figured was going on, but before she can say anything Ollie beats her to the punch.
"Izzy's right, we need to apply Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is the most likely," he cuts in, somewhat condescendingly. "Think about it guys, why would an alien be giving anyone flowers?"
For some reason that makes everyone look at Zayto, who offers them a bright smile and begins speaking in a somewhat wistful tone.
"Well back on Raf- I mean, back home, where I'm from, on this planet," (a somewhat unnecessary disclaimer, Fern thinks) "the act of giving flowers was a part of our courtship rituals. The embasio trees would grow thousands of flowers, each one a different color, and in the growing seasons the orchards would blossom and the petals would blow away and turn the whole countryside into a mosaic. We'd celebrate this with a festival, Basiyoton, when people would declare their love for each other by scaling the branches of the trees and collecting flowers in their partner's favorite colors to weave into a crown."
"That sounds beautiful!" Fern breathes out, picturing the flurry of color in her mind. Where is Zayto from, she wonders? "What an amazing tradition, I'd love to see that someday."
"I'd like that too," Zayto murmurs, and for the first time since she's met him the smile drops from his face and he looks a little teary eyed. Amelia reaches up to give him a friendly little rub on the back for some reason, and he mumbles excuse me before wandering off. Fern glances after him, concerned, but Izzy catches her eye and mouths he's fine so she lets the topic drop.
"Well, it's definitely not aliens," Ollie picks the conversation back up, and Amelia pouts a little, but Ollie rubs his chin and addresses Fern. "However Zayto does bring up a good point- the most common reason that people give flowers is as an expression of romantic interest. You could have an admirer Fern."
"Wait, so you think someone gave them to me because they like me?" Fern is a bit taken aback by the idea- it is the obvious explanation but she's very new in town and isn't very close with many people yet. Who could it be? She glances at Izzy for help, but Izzy seems distracted by her own shoes because she's staring straight down at them.
"That could be it, but I better consult my flower dictionary to check just in case," Amelia muses thoughtfully. "The language of flowers is complex and nuanced, there could be any number of meanings to a bouquet like this."
"The language of flowers?" Fern and Izzy ask at the same moment, sharing a confused glance before turning back to Amelia.
Amelia slides open the bottom drawer to her desk far further than Fern was expecting and when Fern peeks in, it's full of folders divided into sections with labels like "Bigfoot," "Ghosts," "Curses," "Gnomes." Fern takes a second look at Amelia, by all accounts the preppiest girl she's ever seen, and once again remembers that you really can't judge a book by its cover.
"Yes, the language of flowers!" Amelia chatters away as she flicks through the files in the drawer. "Every plant has special meanings if you know where to look for them, there's folklore and secret codes from all over the world and luckily-" Amelia finds what she's looking for and slams a huge binder down onto the desk. "I have all of them right here! Let's see, petunias..."
"I didn't know that flowers had a language," Izzy mutters nervously as she watches Amelia, and Fern is once again hit with a pang of concern for her friend. What's going on with her? Fern wonders.
Ollie scoffs, distracting Fern from her thoughts, and she glances at him with curiosity. He scoffs again, a bit more loudly, then a third time, until Amelia looks up with a withering stare.
"Yes Ollie?" She asks, exasperated.
"Well, since you asked," he begins, and Fern guess from his tone that he's about to mansplain something. "This so called 'language of flowers' is no kind of language at all. Languages are a system of communication that are structured and specific, there are rules of grammar and syntax. A simple flower might be pretty, but it doesn't convey any information. In fact, the whole concept of 'giving flowers' to a partner is ridiculous. What's so romantic about giving people the dead remains of a plant's sex organs?"
"Dude, don't be such a buzzkill," Izzy scolds him, sounding a bit defensive. "Someday when you have a crush on a girl, you'll understand."
"Nope," Ollie reaches for the bundle of flowers on the table, but, suddenly protective, Fern snatches it away before he can get to it. He shrugs and crosses his arms firmly. "I'll promise you this: you'll never see me agonizing over giving a bundle of flowers to a girl."
Amelia hums thoughtfully and then plucks a small piece of paper from one of the files and holds it out to Ollie, who accepts it with a bit of confusion. Fern sneaks a peek at it and catches a glimpse of a picture of a small pink flower.
Ollie's forehead quirks. "What's this?"
"A geranium," Amelia says dismissively, and then she turns to Fern and holds a separate file out to her. "Here you go Fern! This file should tell you all about the different meanings of petunias- that should give you a place to start."
Fern accepts the folder gratefully, but before she can say anything Ollie leans in and interjects himself between her and Amelia. "Wait, what does this mean?" he asks Amelia nervously.
Amelia ignores him and rises to her feet, picking up an unrelated stack of papers. "Sorry to run girls but I have to go get these drafts to Jane," She shoots Fern and Izzy an apologetic smile (pointedly not looking at Ollie) and then offers Izzy a quick wink. "Keep me posted, okay?"
"Amelia?" Ollie calls out, but the girl is already strutting off. He spares Fern a quick, absentminded wave goodbye, then he scurries after Amelia waving the photo around in the air. "AMELIA WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?"
Fern watches the two of them disappear into the crowd, and then she glances back at Izzy and the two girls lock eyes. Fern bobs her head towards the departing duo, and Izzy nods in silent confirmation, and then the two of them are laughing together.
"Your friends are funny," Fern remarks. She knows she's sometimes quick to judge, but they seem like good people- perhaps a bit unusual, but if they're Izzy's friends then they can't be all bad.
Izzy smiles mysteriously. "Trust me, you have no idea."
It's just the two of them now, or at least, it would be if they weren't surrounded by people. Fern looks down at the file in her hands, then back up at Izzy.
"I think I'm gonna go look at this somewhere quieter," she announces, and Izzy nods. She slips past Izzy and makes for the door- but then pauses and looks back over her shoulder. Izzy hasn't moved. Fern tilts her head to the side.
"Aren't you coming?" Fern asks. A smile breaks across Izzy's face, and she jogs after her.