The Secret Garden [Eric & Alice]

[Autumn Buckland]

It had taken Autumn hours to find somewhere to start her garden. There were too many children everywhere and nowhere secret that she knew of. She'd cased the pond, the courtyard and everywhere else, and she'd found no secret spot.

At least, that had been till now.

Mostly out of curiosity and a need to escape from the funny looks and the pretentious teenagers, Autumn had climbed over a brick wall. She knew it wasn't the external wall - much much higher - and that no one had specified any walls were not for climbing anyway, so she felt no qualms in getting red brick smudges up her legs as she'd scrambled over the wall and dropped down on the other side. Stinging nettles and weeds had broken her fall, but the red head seemed to have an immunity to plant based stings, so she'd simply been grateful and thanked the weeds repeatedly for being so kind as to stop her hurting herself. After a moment of dazed mumbling, the girl had realised this was IT! Her perfect little garden she'd promised to Alice, the place they could escape to! Sure, they'd need to work hard to make this perfect, but this empty square surrounded by walls was ideal.

Wrinkling her nose, the girl had carefully explored the square till she knew every corner, and desperately she hunted for another way into this square of forgotten, overrun land. Pushing her hair out of her face, Autumn had finally found a small exit, blocked by a hedge that could be used to gain entry. It was a squeeze, and the redhead had very politely asked the hedge to move when she'd wiggled out, but when she sat on the outside again, it just looked like an abandoned brick wall. This was too perfect. No stupid fat feet trampling over beautiful rows of bluebells, no snorts of disdain from those snotty teenagers outside... it was just so perfect. Memorising the spot, the girl had ran all the way back to the main building, calling out for Alice eagerly. The girl would be delighted!

But then, she paused.

Eric would like a quiet garden too.

The girl blushed a moment and stamped her heel on the floor as if cross with herself, then, with no word of warning, she had simply upped and dragged the pair from their various places on campus over to the wall, and she gestured at the hedge, scrambling round it once more and sitting in the middle of the weeds with her biggest, brightest smile since coming here.

"It's our garden." She said breathlessly, flopping backwards, chest heaving as she tried to regain her normal breathing pattern. "We can buy seeds! I can grow trees! We can have rows of flowers, vegetables, fruits!" The girl grabbed handfuls of the dried grass and tossed it above her head. "No one can know. It's our secret, like our secret garden, but with a hedge instead of a door and on a stupid school ground instead of in a manor house grounds!" Autumn's green eyes were positively wide and eager as she leapt to her feet and grabbed both her companions hands tightly.

"Please say you like it! Please!"

[Alice Perette-Johnston]

Alice was already staring wistfully out her window when a voice floated to her. She thought it might be the mailbox again, as it often tried to taunt her out of her dormitory, but this voice seemed familiar. It was a bright warm orange sound, like the rain in spring or the blooming of flowers. Flowers. Excitedly Alice mashed her face up against the window, only to see Autumn waving frantically at her from below.

Nigh squealing with delight, Alice rushed out of her room, dress billowing behind her as her socked feet slap against the linoleum of the halls. She hardly had time to reach Autumn before she was dragging Alice and the brown-haired boy whose name Alice could never remember (but he did neat things with trees sometimes) away to some corner of the school. When they reached a large wall made of Jello, Alice was delighted! Autie had found the Jello wall Alice had always dreamed up.

However, when the gypsy girl wiggled through the sugary red desert, Alice squinted. She cleared her mind and focused her thoughts, realizing that the wall was not, in fact, made of Jello. Her discouragement only lasted the moment it took for her to squeeze her too-thin body through the hole near the hedge. When she laid eyes on the secluded patch of green she bursted into delighted laughter and seized her friend in a tight hug.

“Autie its beautiful! Wonderful! Just perfect!” She said with wonder welling up in her vocal chords as she hopped from one foot to the other like an excited bird. “Isn’t it great--!” She paused and trailed off, standing stock still for a moment and staring at Eric with a stupefied gaze. “…You…are….” Biting her lip and looking a bit embarrassed, Alice simply trailed off. Why couldn’t she remember the boy with the brown hair?

[Eric Bower]

Sitting out on the lawn and listening to his ipod had gotten him into some trouble in the past. Thought he did make some friends, he liked to avoid accidentally using his powers. So he was sitting next to the pond, just laying on his back with his foot tapping to the beat of the song playing in his ears. He couldn't remember the name of the song, or even the band it was played by, because he forever had it set to shuffle, repeat, so he never actually had to look at his music. He just listened. It was more...surprising that way.

Though when he started to hear his voice being called frantically, he pulled the headphones out of his ears and sighed up into a sitting position. His eyes landed on Autie, one of the brand new and still shiny additions to his friend collection. She was quirky in ways that bordered on flat out weird...but Eric was alright with it because he could really be himself around her and not really worry about getting that 'are you for real' look from her. Whatever she had to show him was terribly important and he just managed to get his bag over his shoulder with his books inside before she was dragging him over to a brick wall.

That was...brick....y.

"That's really interesting Au--" He began but then she just slipped behind the hedge and...disappeared. He blinked a few times at this...amazing feet of whatever, and tried to understand what in the world was going on, because he had previously thought that was the wall to the outside world. A place Eric wasn't really keen on joining anytime soon. He couldn't even dance without flinging people into walls and nearly crushing others. But yeah.

He glanced at Alice as she started to squeeze around the hedge and he realized that the hedge covered a doorway. That took most of the mystery away, but he looked hauntingly at the hedge when he realized that he was supposed to go in next. He wasn't a big guy by any means, and he definitely had room to grow, but on the other hand he wasn't rail thin like Autie and Alice. He glanced around him to see if anyone was watching, because something told him this was a covert operation, when he started to squeeze himself through the gap, he held his breath because that would totally help.

He got most of his torso through, followed by his hips and both arms, when his foot caught on something. He wiggled his leg and tried to shift his weight by leaning on the doorway, but that gave him little room," h-help..." He stammered as his foot came free and he fell the rest of the way into...where ever Autie brought him too. He pushed himself up to his knees and listened to Autie's little speech as he started to finally look around. It was actually pretty awesome, and the fact that Autie felt the need to share the secret with him was...well something special. It was terribly nice of her.

He was about to tell Autie just what he thought about it, and how amazing and wonderful it was and how much he appreciated it, when Alice spoke to him directly, and trailed off, obviously haven forgotten his name. His smile fell. There was never anything quite like the feeling of being forgotten. "Eric." He supplied her with a small frown. "My name is Eric." He looked down at his shoe and mopped around for a little bit, when his eyes started to take in his surroundings again, and all at once he was smiling.

"But wow, Autie! This place is fawesome!" Fawesome was code word for 'freaking awesome' but Eric was one of those people who liked to combine words, for whatever reason.

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn crossed her arms and fidgetted slightly as Eric tumbled through the entrance and fell. Part of her wanted to instantly run over and look after the boy, and the other part was stubborn and wanted no part in a stupid pox of a crush that she had. It was this other part that left her wrinkling her nose at Eric's tumble and tutting softly under her breath. "Are you alright?" She added, a little concern in her voice as she instinctively dusted the extra bits of grass off of Eric's top. "Lucky the grass broke your fall." She mumbled softly, moving back once more.

The whole place was overrun and needed a great deal of TLC to look anything like what Autumn had dreamed it to be, but she reckoned three hands (one of them particularly green fingered) would make light work of the weeds, the dead plants and the forgotten, crumbling brick. "I'm so glad you both like it." She said, her hands rising to her cheeks as though disguising a blush. "I was bored and exploring when I found it, I'd like to think it wanted to be found. Like it was sending out a call to be made useful again." The girl's voice was soft and excited, as though she really believed every word she spoke. "We'll need to find some trowels. And buy seeds. I can help grow some of the plants, but we need to clear the earth so they wont be choked." She said brightly, stepping around the weeds and stinging nettles daintily, dress billowing out behind her.

"What sort of flowers would you like, Alice?" The red head asked gently, as she instantly toiled at pulling up the dead grass. "And you too, Eric. This is your space too!" Plucking up more handfuls of the dead grass, she began to make a pile of it, till one tiny patch of earth was bare and untouched. The girl chewed her lip absently for just a moment, before resting her hands on the dirt and concentrating hard on the image of a small, beautiful patch of wild bluebells. Sure enough, after a few seconds of nothing, suddenly stems broke from the earth and in that tiny patch of earth sat three bluebells, nodding solemnly at the teenagers. "It's a start." She said eagerly, tugging both her friends down to help her clear more grass.

The girl then sat up again and looked at the two people she now trusted this secret garden with. She trusted both of them implicitly; Alice for her gentle, carefree nature, and Eric for his understanding and fun loving side. Her lips curled into a bright smile for a moment as she helped them clear the grass, and she wiggled her toes behind her. "Oh, Alice!" She said suddenly, fishing around in her pocket for the necklace she had made for her. "I made it just like I promised, for you to wear and be protected from evil necklaces forever and ever." Autumn then turned to Eric. "I could make you a bracelet with lots of dark stones, so you wouldn't feel..." Her voice trailed off as she thought of the word. "... Imansculated." She said forcefully, as though saying the word like that would make it right.

But more importantly, the red head was now extremely happy, as her mind whirled with thoughts of a wild little garden with carrots and cabbages and quaint little rose bushes and apple trees and raspberries. "We have to protect this with our lives." Autumn said gravely, covering her heart with a hand. "I solemnly swear that no one aside from us will ever pass into this garden. On the sun and the moon and all that's inbetween." The girl rose and went over to the hedge. "Dear Mr. Prickly Hedge, you may help guard this garden with your spiky thorns and your big branches that unfortunately tripped Eric up." The girl sighed. "Please don't do that in future, Eric is not wanting to be acquainted with the floor again."

[Alice Perette-Johnston]

Alice felt awkwardly ashamed when she was reminded of Eric’s name. It wasn’t that she’d forgotten him it was just that there was so much to remember that Alice sometimes lost names. “Eric.” She repeated quietly. “Ah…Sorry.” She said again, twisting her hands in her dress. The silence that rang in her ears while Eric kicked at the dirt made Alice even more crazy, but as per usual Autumn’s easy happiness was contagious.

She giggled softly to herself as Autie shuffled around the garden space, looking as if she might simply pop with joy. The girls had made plans for this garden together, and while Alice certainly didn’t mind sharing it with Eric (Eric, Eric. Alice made the decision to think his name three times every time she thought it. That way she could remember), she was glad to see their dream coming true. “I’m sure we can find trowels in town. They sell the old trusty ones in the antique shops.” Alice blabbered quietly, not really speaking to anyone in particular as she wandered around the walled-in space. “With the nice blu---round. Wooden handles. And big scooped blades. Very nice.”

Humming softly and kicking at some of the dead grass, Alice tilted her head nearly upside down, her birdlike body bending into a strange shape. “I like the big velvet blue flowers that sometimes bloom in the courtyard when I play my cello. They dance.” She murmured. “also posies.” She added, smiling up at the red-head. “I like their little faces.” She added with a nod. In her experience, posies were also rather durable. They’d hold up well in the newly turned earth.

Flopping down like a ragdoll in the bristly grass when Autumn tugged at her, Alice threaded his spidery fingers in the grass and began to tug. She mimicked Autie’s movements and pulled at the grass, piling it up to her side. She jumped and sat upright when Autie said her name. She shied away slightly from the necklace, though she smiled broadly. The last thing she wanted was to hurt Autie’s feelings…and necklace was so beautiful. Alice gingerly reached out and took the necklace, holding it at arm’s length for a moment. “its beautiful.” She cooed. “Thank you so much Autie!” She chirped, satisfied that it was not going to attacker, she fasted it around her neck, running her fingers over the smooth stones.

Alice looked to Eric. “You would look nice with a bracelet from Autie.” She said distantly, looking back to Autie. “you should do it anyway. And if he doesn’t like it you can give it to someone else.” She said, nodding slowly. “But I think he would like it.” When Autumn began to make her vow, Alice crossed her legs, pulling her dress down over knees, and also covered her heart. Opening her mouth to repeat the pledge, Alice looked over at Eric. She couldn’t remember all the words.

[Eric Bower]

"Hm. Oh yeah, I'm fine." He said like the manly man he was. As Autie dusted bits of grass from his shirt he craned his neck around his shoulder to look and see if there was more. After she stepped away again he turned in a circle, as if moving would help him see down his spine. He was just chasing his tail, really... He dusted off his backside, more self conscious. "Thanks." He mumbled. He looked around the place as Autie continued to talk about it and the things they'd need for it. Maybe there was a garden shed somewhere on campus they could raid? Eric didn't have much extra pocket money, though he did have a debit card that worked as his weekly allowance. Twenty dollars a week, just like when he was still at home. His parents got weekly reports about his grades and behavior, if his grades dipped then so did his allowance.

He nodded a little over at Alice, "It's fine." He meant it, because he knew her scatterbrainedness was something that couldn't be helped and it was who she was, anyway. He picked a spot on the ground to sit and started to pull up the grass like his two friends were doing. He watched, in amazement, as Autie made the bluebells grow out of the ground. He was so amazed everytime she used her power because not only did she have some control over it, but because her power was sick. And by sick, that meant really, really great. He glanced between the two girls as Auite produced the necklace and he chuckled a little bit. Were girls always like that?

He didn't know.

He looked a bit surprised when Autie offered to make him a bracelet with stones. Now, Eric wasn't one to wear jewelry, but he hadn't been raised to think it was a wrong thing. He just didn't do it himself, but if Autie made him something then he probably would wear it all the time. He smiled a little and at Alice spoke he rolled his eyes a little. "I would like it. I'd wear it all the time. Probably never even take it off." Not to mention, that if he did take it off, he'd probably lose it.

"But you don't have to make it if you don't want to. If you're too busy with the garden or something." He also said because he didn't want her to feel obligated to do that because she made Alice one. Eric wasn't one to be jealous.

As he turned his attention back to the ground and pulling up the grass, he tried to think of some flowers. The images came to mind but he didn't know what they were called. He only knew the names to trees, because since that was where his power lay, he tried to learn all he could about them. "Uhm...the really colorful ones? And the ones that grow bunches together?" He wasn't sure.

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn felt awash with happiness as the three of them pulled out the dead grass to reveal fresh soil underneath. Every now and then, she'd look up at the doorway almost worriedly, as though someone were to appear and tell them they must get out at once. The redhead had decided that if she had to stay at the damn school, she was definitely going to claim somewhere for herself, and this abandoned little room was too good to be true. Her imagination was already running wild as she imagined creeping flowers up the decaying bricks, trees laden with fruits, and dear little cabbages fending snails off with their pretty pale green leaves. Autumn herself didn't need to eat, but she liked the taste of fruits and vegetables; they had a purpose to be eaten, and it felt quite odd not to give them what they had earnt for in life - appreciation.

"Posies, poppies, petunias, peas..." The girl rambled, thinking of lots of p-plants, then laughing. "Roses, of course, cabbages, carrots, potatoes, apple trees and pear trees, bluebells, marigolds, carnations..." Her voice died as she looked at the handfuls of dead grass piled beside her. They had so much work to do, but Eric and Alice's enthusiasm restored her to full vigor. "We'll have a special patch for eatable plants." She said calmly, getting to her feet and grabbing a piece of string from her pocket, marking out a large semi circle on one wall. As she stepped back, she suddenly squeaked, and the red head nearly nosedived straight to the floor, hands cupping around one tiny, tiny little daisy, alive amongst the dead grass.

"Look." She said sweetly, offering the daisy out, her eyes sparkling. "Miss Daisy says it would be awfully kind of us to bring her some new friends, as long as she may stay in the garden and watch us." The girl's voice was very matter-of-fact, as she set the daisy back down next to the trio of sombre bluebells.

Her interest quickly tweaked back to Eric and Alice, and she laughed gaily behind a hand, hair littered with little flecks of dead weed. "I'm so so happy you like it." She breathed to Alice, before seizing Eric's hand with a little blush and looking thoughtfully at his wrist. "Lots of blacks, maybe some greys and polished browns." She said to herself, taking out another loop of string and winding it over his wrist. "I promise you it'll be the best bracelet ever! I'll write lots of little luck symbols on the stones, and ones for concentration too." Autumn eventually let go of Eric's wrist and looked at the circle that remained with the string, biting it to cut it. As it dropped back into her pocket, the redhead glanced around her and nodded gently.

"We can try and get some trowels! It's the seeds that might be a bother..." Resting her chin on her knees, the girl assessed the area calmly. "I will sell some flower rings and necklaces at the weekend in town." Autie said assertively, as though this were the only course of action acceptable. "Then we can all go to the garden centre with our money and pick up lots of packets of seeds. And some paint! We could paint the brick walls blue... or lilac... or yellow... or even green." Her voice was soft, and dreamy.

"Eric?" She finally added, one hand resting on Alice's small shoulder. "Shall we meet tonight and try and st-... borrow some trowels? I shouldn't imagine anyone would miss a few, not since everyone is far too busy looking at the sky to see the stones missing beneath their feet." An odd saying, and something her grandmother had said one night when reading her a story, and Autumn had liked the phrase so much she had decided to use it at least once a month, to prove her quick wit and use of archaic phrasing, whatever that meant.

[Alice Perette-Johnston]

Alice looked warmed with relief when Eric brushed over her stumble, making a note to try and remember that at least Eric was as friendly as he looked. Maybe that would be how she could remember his name. He was just so nice! Just like Autie. If she could remember Autie’s name, surely she could remember Eric’s. Humming softly as she dug her spindly fingers into the dirt, Alice rocked slowly.

“I didn’t say you wouldn’t like it. I said if you didn’t she could give it to someone else.” She said thoughtfully, still seeming slightly distant as she focused on the sight of her fingers digging into the earth, which had suddenly begun to turn a shocking violet hue. Clearly she wasn’t actually paying attention, she just reacted to the words that were coming in her direction. “But I don’t think she would give it to anyone else, even if you didn’t like it. Not that you won’t like it. You will like it. Autie?” She asked, looking over at the red head with a suddenly concerned expression. “Is the soil purple?” Alice inquired, just to be sure she was telling people the right thing. The real world was never quite as colorful as Alice’s.

“Eatable plants are good.” She suddenly replied, her previous question forgotten as she spilled forth a river of gibberish. “Eatable. Eatible. Edible. Ateable. Could we bring them out of the garden or should we eat them here?” Alice hummed and removed her fingers from the dirt, as they had simply been resting there for the past few moments. “I wouldn’t know what to say if someone asked me where I had gotten my delicious eatables. I couldn’t very well respond ‘My secret Garden, like in the book only its behind a big brick wall with a hedge that likes to trip Eric.’ Now could I?” Alice murmured, wrinkling her nose and scratching her chin, smudging some of the dirt on her neck.

Alice actually stood to look over Autie’s shoulder at the daisy, her eyes softening at the sight as she recalled the first day she’d met her dear friend. The young romani girl had likened Alice to a daisy, and the blonde had never been happier to be called something so odd. Daisies, since then, had symbolized the joy of friendship for Alice, and she couldn’t help but burst into a wide smile when Autie translated for the small flower. “We’ll be sure to make it a very friendly…for flowers and for people.” She said, smiling over at Eric as she squeezed Autie’s arm.

She then flounced off to another corner of the garden, examining the wall with intense interest. It cracked and crumbled in such an interesting pattern that all of Alice’s attention was drawn to it for a good time. She vaguely heard Eric and Autumn discussing behind her, but instead ran her hand over the bricks. “I have money saved up for something I want to buy but I’ve never wanted to buy anything so we can use it to buy supplies.” Alice said, murmuring more to the wall than to her two schoolmate companions.

[Eric Bower]

He was beginning to that zoning out thing, where the only thing he thought about and noticed was directly in front of him. He was just pulling grass pretty lazily. Then like rushing to the surface of water, the rest of the world smacked into him and he looked around liked a frightened rabbit for a moment, almost in that 'what was I just doing?' sort of way. He cleared his throat, though he was pretty sure his little zombie state went by unnoticed. The two girls were pulling out the grass muttering things to themselves. You knew you were in good company when it wasn't weird to talk to yourself, right? "Right." Eric mumbled to himself with a goofy half smile.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Autie hit the deck and he half rose to go see if she was alright, he was about to call out her name when he heard her voice speaking to something he couldn't see. Right. Erm....he sat back down and glanced between the two of them, turning a little red from embarrassment. He pulled up a few more strands of grass, lists of edible plants running through his head, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, radish, peas, corn...uhm...what is it, that long stuff that is really crunchy. It starts with a C um..... His brows furrowed in thought as he smacked into a thought barrier and he couldn't come up with the name.

"Celery!" He declared when it finally did. He glanced between the two of them again. He was pretty sure they'd notice him yelling randomly. He flushed again. "Er." He started to say in reply to Alice's very good question. "We could eat what we wanted here, and then like, put the vegetables and stuff into our bags, maybe not our main book bag but some sort of bag and carry it out like that." That's covert, right? Or something sneaky-like. Or at least in Eric's mind it was.

Eric blushed a little as Autie took his wrist, and not just because she was touching his wrist, but because because she was touching him, she was standing pretty close. She smelled like earth and sunshine. He looked down at his wrist and nodded along with what she was saying. He just might need luck stones. For uhm...things. "It will be awesome." He already liked his bracelet without even getting it yet. He grinned a little over at Alice and then went back to the weed pulling.

He wasn't really sure about painting the bricks any other color, because well..that would be expensive. And because bricks were...well bricks, and you didn't paint them. But well, if that was what Autie wanted...he'd go along with it. He smiled between the two of them for a moment, just glad to have them as friends so they could do this weird stuff together. He really appreciated being included in this escapade. He grinned a little more when Autie invited him to 'borrow' some shovels and he nodded his head in agreement. "Sounds good."

"I also got some allowance I haven't really spent yet 'cause there wasn't anything I really needed. So..." he lifted his slightly dirt covered thumbs into the sky with a smile towards the two girls.

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn's mind was already racing towards the evening, where she could spend her time with the plants and use the newly borrowed trowels to cultivate the neglected land. She assumed that Eric would want to go to bed instead of staying up, but just in case she made a mental note to sneak a few candles into the garden so Eric could see.

Wiggling her toes as Eric blurted out "Celery", she laughed brightly, her green eyes flashing with amusement. "I think we can grow some celery too." She said softly, her hands tangling up in a massive clump of grass and lifting it expertly. "Say." She paused, tossing her hair over her shoulders as she turned. "What if we sold some of the extra vegetables for money?" Autumn's brow raised as she massaged the exposed earth. "Not all of them, and not in school, but maybe outside somewhere in the town." The girl finished crumbling the tightly packed earth between her fingers and turned back to the pair of them.

"And I'll work on the bracelet in here so people don't ask in patronising voices why I'm playing with stones." She said decisively, petting one of the bluebells and cocking her head. "I'm quite tired of having to explain everything to people who want to know absolutely nothing." Her breath hissed softly between her teeth, and she rose calmly, pushing her hair behind her ear and pacing back and forth as though thinking something through. Eventually her eureka moment appeared, and she suddenly beamed. "Think, we can practice our powers out here and no one will know! Maybe I can help you with the trees, Eric?" The red head's voice softened, and she dropped to her knees. "If you start with saplings, nothing too awful can go wrong." Her smile brightened, then she pretended to sneeze as an excuse to cover the blush creeping over her cheeks.

"Lets meet at the garden center later, then?" She quizzed, her brain whizzing around as she made a mental list of seeds she'd need. "I'll use the money I got last week from selling bracelets and necklaces, and then while we're out I can find some nice round stones for your bracelet." Giving Alice a soft hug, she looked over to the bricks where she stared. "Those bricks remind me of the crust on Grandmama's pie." Autumn said simply, tilting her head and squinting at the bricks. "Some nights she'd put great big turnips in it if we didn't have anything meatier."

"Do you like turnips?" Her voice lilted as she toppled back and smiled. "I once had a conversation with a turnip, and he told me all about pythagorisis theory." She added, utterly content in her garden with her two most favourite people in the world, and the likelihood that they'd make a beautiful place no one would ever know about.