Pollen Count | ✓

o n e

In a brief moment of distraction, Allegra looks out at the sun-streaked fields off in the distance. Sometimes she thinks about what it would be like to live out there – really out there, out in the wilderness, almost – and then she remembers her allergies.

Her nose twitches up just thinking about it.

She's the most cautious seventeen year old to have ever lived. Rather than risk the sniffles, the watery eyes, and the infuriating scratchiness of the throat, she chooses to spend her summers indoors, where it's much easier to hide from the pollen count. 

Plus, staying indoors means she doesn't have to knock back an anti-histamine or two just to live her life.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the beach later today?"

"I'm fine, Mom, honestly," Allegra says, a smile making up for the way she rolls her eyes.

"People are gonna think you're a vampire, Allie," her father teases.

"Ha-ha," she replies, thoroughly sarcastic.

"We shouldn't complain, Mark," her mother begins. "The girls at work love me. This'll be the third cake this week. What did you say this one was, Al?"

"Lemon drizzle."

Her mother and father share an impressed look.

"You're gonna help me win employee of the month," her mother laughs.

***

Allegra has a decent view of the narrow street from the kitchen window, and she finds her concentration slipping from icing her cake to watching a familiar group wander along down the street. They pause outside the building.

They're some of the most annoying classmates Allegra has had the misfortune of studying with. She fantasises about opening up the window and dousing them with the sink sprayer, but the moment passes as they keep walking, jostling each other boisterously.

It's probably for the best.

And, of course, opening the window would probably have set her allergies off again, anyway. She'd already had to shut the window when she began baking because her eyes had been starting to feel a little scratchy.

Looking down at the cake, Allegra remembers what she was doing and starts to ice it again until an almighty crash shatters her concentration for good.

Peering back outside, she can see that one of the girls - the one with pink hair - has knocked into their trashcan, and now she's flailing around in the flowerbeds. The others are laughing raucously, and it seems like the girl is cackling too. One of the boys offers a hand to the girl, while the rest continue messing around until they see Allegra's figure in the window. They scatter, likely thinking she might be an adult ready to get them in trouble.

Allegra darts out and down the hallway, and has the front door swinging open in time to see the girl brush herself down. She's trampled the flowers her parents spent hours planting and tending to. They're destroyed. Allegra can't stop staring at all their hard work, ruined.

The girl looks up and sees Allegra in the doorway. The name pops into in Allegra's mind – Daisy. She's potentially the most annoying of the bunch.

Daisy smirks and shrugs.

"Oops."

Allegra stares after her, speechless, as the pink-haired menace turns on her heel and bolts after the other troublemakers.

***

After spending all day stewing about how rude Daisy turned out to be, Allegra finds herself in an awful mood.

Once trying to think of cool, witty comebacks has worn thin, she turns instead to the one thing that always makes her feel at peace: baking.

Her browser is opened to a page on how to bake perfect poppyseed muffins and she's almost done reading the introduction when the doorbell rings. There's the quiet rumble of footsteps downstairs, and then a call of her name.

"Allie! You have a visitor!"

She flashes up the screen of her phone, confused. None of her friends had mentioned wanting to drop by...

Allegra pulls her favorite pink hoodie on to cover up the vest top she's been lounging around in. As she heads down the stairs, clutching the banister with one hand, she zips the hoodie up halfway and discreetly hikes it up, too, so it doesn't hide her shorts.

"Hey," Daisy says.

She's grinning like she isn't the culprit of the messy, ruined garden outside.

She's stood in the doorway, peeking up at Allegra on the stairs. Allegra almost freezes as she hits the bottom step.

"Hi," she mumbles back, after a long beat.

None of the witty comebacks she's worked on find their way to her mouth.

"I'll leave you kids to it," her mother smiles, oblivious.

"Sure," Allegra says, eyeing Daisy warily.

They both wait a few moments, until Allegra's mother is well and truly out of earshot.

Allegra's eyes use that time to rake up over Daisy. Her boots are scuffed and muddy, and there's a big semi-healed graze on her left knee. Her t-shirt is a faded band shirt. Allegra can't even tell if she's wearing shorts – although she assumes and hopes she is – because a clearly oversized blue plaid shirt is tied low around Daisy's hips.

"You didn't tell them it was me, right?"

Allegra thinks about the mess that Daisy left behind earlier in the day. She'd picked up after her to the best of her ability – the trashcan was upright, if dented, the flowers were broken and scruffy-looking, but some of them had been salvageable.

"Not yet," Allegra shrugs. "You should have been more careful."

"Yeah, well. I didn't exactly choose to dive into your petunias," she jokes, but there's an edge to her voice. Something a little unkind.

Allegra notices that she actually knows what flowers they were. Petunias. Allegra's father had made a joke about calling his next dog Petunia while he'd been planting them - that's why she remembers. 

She wonders why Daisy knows.

"Right."

Something heavy sits in the air between them, and Daisy eventually huffs, looking back out at the street.

"Look, it wasn't my fault, but, uh. I guess I feel bad or something," she says, shifting from one foot to the other. "Can I come by tomorrow? At around eleven?"

Allegra blinks at her.

"Um. Sure? Wait, why?"

"Eleven, cool." No explanation. It grinds Allegra's gears, but not as much as what Daisy says next: "You're Amy, right?"

"Allegra," she reminds her, tone terse.

"Allie," Daisy says, clicking her fingers like she should've known.

"Allegra," she repeats, as she closes the door on her.