Don't Judge A Flower By Its Color

Chapter Two

Oceana stood in our small half bath before the mirror. She ran an electric blue wand through her long wavy locks. A sizzling echoed occasionally out the open doorway into our quiet bedroom.

She hummed an upbeat song stuck in her head. No ounce of concern upon her face as she went ahead with finishing her hair. She wasn't anything to kill her mood.

Yes, she knew as well as I did we were going to be receiving a report from Mary-Ann that could make or break us yet she didn't worry.

She sat down the straightener then added a thick glob of glitter gloss to her lips. She struck a pose and judged the causal outfit she wore. The navy jumper definitely fit her kindly.

"What do you think, Rosie? This too settle for Barney's?" She asked while turning to see my reaction.

I gave her a thumbs up, "it looks good."

"Are you sure?" She scrunched up her nose and tugged at the baggy sleeves. She didn't know what to think.

It didn't make much sense to me why she was more worried about her outfit rather than if Dr. Manor be terminating us but I knew not to say anything. Oceana always unfailingly looked at the bright side of things. It might have never crossed her mind that we could possibly get a negative review.

I should have been more like her.

"I'm positive."

Oceana took my word and flipped off the bathroom light switch. She fell to the carpet floor beside me. Her face glowing.

She went on about this boy called Zander who she planned to meet up with. They literally had ran into each other at the grocery store. He was buying gummy vitamins as she was searching for water jugs.

She thought nothing of him until he followed her to the check out line and asked if she liked to dance. Of course, this led her to tell him about how she mastered the whip and nay-nay. He laughed at her for a good solid five minutes.

"Then he said if I really liked to dance I should join him at the bar around ten pm."

"I'm glad you're taking advantage of your freedom privileges."

As Dr. Manor's successful experiments, he tended to keep us close. We were allowed to leave the household for missions under our alter egos but it was rare of us to ever step off the property. It wasn't until recently he let Oceana do so.

He gave her outing hours that she could use once a day or in a bundled package. For the last two weeks, she been saving them to go visit the ocean in Lawless City. She wouldn't have gone out this morning if she hadn't notice we didn't have any filtered water for her fish tank.

Oceana noticed the distress on my face. She forced a smile, "you'll be able to go out by yourself soon."

I shook my head. It was highly unlikely. Dr. Manor was very strict with me.

This didn't mean I was his favorite. In fact, it meant the opposite. I was his least liked out of all the others successes.

Unlike them, my powers weren't as strong as theirs. They faltered a lot. It was a fifty percent change they would work or not. Dr. Manor saw this percentage as failure.

"It'll happen Rosie" she winked, "then when it does you can go find Mr. Dandelion and make kissy face with him!"

My breath hitched at the mention of the occurrence that happened this morning. His chiseled face ran through my head. His smile so recognizable and comforting.

Dare, it seems someone has your smile....

Suddenly, Oceana begun to make smooch sounds.

I couldn't help but laugh at her, "really?"

She continued along with teasing me with dramatic scenes similar to Romeo and Juliet except their names were changed to match my situation.

She outreached a hand to the luminous bedroom light calling, "that which we call a Rosie, by any other name would smell-"

There came a rapid knock against the door. We weren't given the chance to answer before Dr. Mary walked in. Her black hair tied in a tight bun and mouth held a deep scowl.

She studied our room for a minute with a scrunched nose. After she noticed nothing changed, her sights landed on me. She released an odd sounding snort before throwing open her yellow folder.

"Project Seventeen," Her curt tone called, demanding full attention, "You have a mission this evening."

I looked at Oceana unsure what to do. What had Dr. Mary meant? A mission only for me? I never had done one without back-up before.

Oceana climbed to her feet, "Dr.-"

Dr. Mary cut her short with a mischievous smirk, "it's Mary-Ann to you."

Small goosebumps begun to grow on Oceana's arms. She straighten her posture and awkwardly hid behind her hair. Dr. Mary always found a way to embarrass her.

I didn't want to ruin their little mood. It was rare of Dr. Mary and Oceana to get a chance to talk without Dr. Manor around but I needed some answers. He couldn't possibly send me alone.

"Is Oceana going to be joining me?"

Dr. Mary released an annoyed sigh. She shook her head no before handing a slip of details to me. It was a pretty small list.

"Project Thirteen will be busy with personal business. She'll be visiting my quarters after her night out."

Oceana released a tiny giggle.

As they were flirting, I read through the list. Dr. Manor was sending me to the edge of the city. Supposedly, there was an upcoming delivery of strong chemicals and he was worried about thiefs showing up at the port. He wanted me to stay on look out.

"It sounds like it'll be an easy job. You'll do fine." Oceana said once Dr. Mary decided to leave.

I was too nervous to ask about how she planned to balance both her dates tonight. It didn't feel right that Dr. Manor send me alone. Why didn't he choose somebody more qualified?

When I voiced this curiosity aloud to Oceana, she didn't know how to respond. She thought about it for a couple minutes then decided to shrug. "Maybe he thinks you're ready to act alone?"

I glanced to the paper in my hand where a pencil sketch of a random freesia was, "maybe."