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Fernella gazed out the school’s window as she waited for her English teacher to start class. The vibrant fall foliage has entranced her ever since she first moved to Golden Grove. After moving there, she couldn’t help but fall in love with the season. A clap from the center of the room pulled her attention from the outside world. As she shifted her gaze, she snuck a little smile at Qiu, who was sprawled across the desk next to hers. They returned her smile with a smirk of their own, not bothering to pick up their head to look at the teacher instead.
“Okay class, today we’re going to write poetry,” the teacher said cheerfully, “I want everyone to come up with a poem about Fall. It can be any kind and any length. We’ll take about 30 minutes and you may chat quietly with your seat neighbor.”
The classroom filled with hushed chatter as everyone pulled out their notebooks and pencils. Qiu sighed as they pressed their face into their desk. Fern patted their back gently as she began to brainstorm her own ideas. One of her hobbies was writing, however she wasn’t extremely familiar with poetry. I know poems don’t have to rhyme but I can’t think of another type. Hmm fall, leaves, orange, yellow…she continued mentally listing all the things that popped into her mind related to the season as she slipped a pen onto Qiu’s desk, subtly encouraging them to start. Cold, rain, autumn...autumn! Qiu! Inspiration had struck, she could write a poem that was both about autumn and secretly Qiu. The words flowed easily onto her page. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Qiu lazily writing as well. Once Fern finished, she read over her poem to check for any errors. She was feeling fairly confident about her work until she realized that it seemed an awful lot like a love poem. She glanced at the clock on the wall, crap I don’t have time to write something else. It’s fine, only the teacher is gonna read it, no big deal. It’s not obvious who it’s about…right?! Crap, it's totally obvious. Why did I write this?! She sighed as she took a deep breath as she closed her notebook, concealing her poem.
“Fernella~ let me read yours,” Qiu nudged her playfully, “you can read mine too but don’t get your hopes up.”
“No way,” her face flushed as she smacked a hand over her notebook, “it’s embarrassing-”
The teacher’s voice cut her off before she could explain any further. “Time’s up. Please take this time to share your poems with your desk mate.”
“Pfft! Now you’ve gotta let me see it,” Qiu laughed at their friend’s fluster, “come on, I’m not going to judge you, it’s probably really good.”
“Okay…just read it quietly please?” Fern asked sheepishly as she opened her notebook to flip to the poem page. Once she found it, she slid it over and accepted their poem. She lifted their notebook, hiding her face behind it. If she had to look at them while they read she might actually die from embarrassment. Her face felt extremely hot as she tried to focus on the poem mere inches from her face. The first letter of each line in Qiu’s poem spelled out the word ‘fall’. Clever. It was fairly simple and straightforward, however she was content to read it over and over if it meant not having to face them ever again. Qiu had different plans, they gently pushed their notebook away from her face, smiling softly at her.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed, Fern,” they reassured her, affection radiating from them, “this poem is really good. Uh, would you write it in my journal? I wanna remember it.”
“Oh…okay I can do that,” she blinked, that was not what she was expecting, she didn’t know what to expect but still, “why do you want that though?”
Qiu leaned in close, a sly smile on their face as they spoke just loud enough for Fernella to hear, “because my heart yearns as well.” Noticing just how red her cheeks were now, they smirked while a slight blush spread across their own face.