Flora

Chapter 14

Flora was having another one of Rudy's mandated social sessions. She had done this a few times by now. As far as making friends, she only really had Milo, but one friend after none her entire life was plenty in her opinion.

She had started bringing her journal with her. She used to bring it with her to the library to draw people, so she reignited that hobby at the community center. On this particular day, she and Milo were occupying a couple of swings.

"You should try... some of the kids playing soccer." He suggested.

"Moving targets. Tricky." She nodded in approval, starting to sketch some quick poses. He leaned over and watched her work. "You sure this is entertaining enough for you?" She asked, "We can do something else if ya want."

He shook his head, "This is the most interesting thing I've done here."

She laughed and kept up the drawing. When she finished a few she held it out for him to see. "What's the verdict, chief?"

He nodded, "Not bad. Could use some color though."

"Alrighty. Let's make that happen." She said, hopping off the swing. They wandered over to the little kids' coloring table and settled on a couple of the little plastic seats. "Gimme a hand with this, aye?" She said, grabbing a broken green crayon and nodding at a pile of others.

Milo grinned and grabbed one himself. She had never let anyone else draw or write in her journal so this was a bigger deal than he would probably ever know. Of course, as per usual, their pleasant time was interrupted by Bitch Girl and her cronies. Bitch Girl's name had turned out to be Carmen, and she really didn't like Flora. Probably because Flora didn't care that she wasn't liked.

"Aw look at the little babies at the baby table! Writing in your diary?" She cooed sarcastically from somewhere behind them.

Flora huffed, tossing her crayon down and closing her journal with a snap, turning around to face her and her entourage. "They babies are much better company for us than the alternative."

Carmen's smug face turned into a grimace. She especially didn't like when Flora simply accepted her insults and turned them around to make them more insulting toward her. The boy that was with her before was still there, she hadn't learned his name, but she and Milo had a theory that he had a big-time crush on Carmen. What with the way he trailed after her like a lost puppy. For her part though, Carmen very obviously liked some other boy that visited the center sometimes. He didn't seem interested in her though.

As much as Carmen annoyed the living shit out of them, her love life was their own personal telenovela.

"Carmen, would you leave them the hell alone?"

Ah. And there was wonder boy, right on que. Cedro was his name and even though they were the subject of Carmen's teasing, it was worth it to see her panicked face at being sassed by her dream boy. He had apparently been one of the boys playing soccer on this particular day, as he had just come away from the ongoing game and was pretty sweaty.

"I- I was just saying that they-."

He cut her off by walking over and sitting down on the stool beside Flora. He turned to her, "So, we coloring or what?"

"S'pose we are." She replied, grabbing a spare coloring sheet from the center of the table and handing it to him. She and Milo shared a sheet, eventually the little crowd they had drawn dissipated, leaving them alone again. Cedro was quiet beside them, so she decided to be polite and speak to him. Alejandro's voice echoing in her mind about it being important for kids her age to communicate with each other.

"Hate to say it, but that girl o'yours is a real ass wipe." She commented. Okay, maybe that was a poor choice for conversation, but it just slipped out.