Chapter 3: What Did You DO?!“So, any questions?” I finished. Every person in the room raised their hand, except quiet Abigail. I could almost read the question on their faces;
What does it eat? I couldn’t answer that! I called on my friend Kate.
“So, if you haven’t been able to identify it,” she started in her clear, to-the-point voice. “How have you been keeping it alive?” I bit my lip.
“I’ve just been trying different things.” I muttered. “Uh, how about…Braxton!” The blond emo boy with the back of his hair dyed black lowered his hand. I cast a nervous look at the plant next to me. It was starting to wilt. Uh oh. That couldn’t mean good.
“Can we touch it?” He asked from his seat in the back of the room. He was a trouble maker.
“You can get a closer look,” I started, “But don’t-” my voice was drowned out by the babble of twenty two or so students as they swarmed to the front to take a look at the flytrap. Or bloodtrap, whatever you want to call it.
“Guys!” I called over their heads. “Guys, don’t touch-” Suddenly there was a quiet cursing and the sound of jaws clamping shut.
“Matt!” Nick, Angelica, Rachel, and others rushed over to help Matt get his finger out of the plant. Just my luck, it decided to bite the free-bleeder. Nick and Zack escorted Matt to the nurses A.S.A.P as everyone stared at me with accusing eyes.
“It has thorns in its mouth!” I stuttered. “Sometimes it’ll snap shut if anything goes near its mouth! It wouldn’t harm a fly, really!” Regardless, Twoey and I were sent to the principle’s office. I hung my head sadly and made my way to the office, in serious trouble for the first time in my life.
~*~
“Twoey, why did you have to bite Matt?” I demanded of the plant. “You got me suspended!
For three days! How am I supposed to explain that to mom?!” I was pacing around my garden room in front of Audrey II. Mom was still at work, thank God. I was truly dreading facing her. I already got chewed out over the phone. I wasn’t looking forward to face to face.
“I mean, you could have picked any of the guys in the room; Zack, Braxton, anyone! They wouldn’t have made a big deal! But you just had to bite the hemophiliac!” I was very angry with my plant. “No dinner tonight! You can go to bed hungry and think about what you did!” Then I head a car door slam, and flinched.
Here it comes…“LAURA! GET IN HERE!”
“Coming Mom!” I called, and shot a final glare at Twoey before proceeding to my murder scene.
Chapter 4: Meet My Friend“Uh huh. Yeah. That’s great, Jess. Listen, I want you to come over, I have to show you something. Can you come today?” I listened at the receiver for a reply. Jessica, AKA Jess, was my best friend, and I knew I could trust her with anything. “Good, you can come over today? Okay, come straight to the back building, okay? It’s super secret, no one can know. See you when you get here.” It was about a week after the suspension incident. I hung up the phone and went to the back building, AKA the greenhouse. Yes, I had changed it from garden room to greenhouse. I had been spending a lot of time back there, seeing as I had to care for Audrey II. I walked in and stared at it. It had gotten a lot bigger than when I found it. It looked like it was almost bigger than my mom’s ivy. And my mom’s ivy was huge! The plant ‘looked’ at me when I came in.
“Okay, listen, we’re going to have a visitor, and she is. Not. Food. Okay? No biting. Well, no biting anyone besides me.” I had grown used to being bitten by the plant now and then when I didn’t notice it was hungry, but Jess didn’t know the big secret was bloodthirsty.
~*~
Jess wandered into my garden room. “So, what’s the big secret?” She asked eagerly. She had dark skin, not really dark but more like a dark Mexican. She had no Mexican accent, but her father was Mexican. “Have you finally gotten a crush on someone?” I scowled.
“No!” I snapped defensively, like I always did. “No, I wanted to show you something I found in my mom’s garden a couple of weeks ago.” I gestured to Twoey. The plant didn’t move a muscle.
“What, you just wanted to show me a stupid plant?” Jess said incredulously. She leaned close to the plant and reached out a finger to poke it.
“Jess, don’t-!” But my warning came too late and I heard jaws snap.
“OW!” Jess pulled back quickly, examining her hand. “What the f***? That b****!” Jess glared at Audrey II and flipped off the plant. I grabbed my big ‘plant stick’ and whacked the plant over the head with it.
“No Twoey!” I snapped at it. “Bad plant! I told you. Jess. Is. Not. Food!” Audrey II ducked its head as though ashamed, but something told me it didn’t regret biting my friend’s hand.
“What the Hell, Lor-lor?” Jess demanded, glaring at me. I blinked.
“I think I forgot to mention, my plant’s a little blood thirsty.” I muttered. “It’s named Audrey II. I didn’t think you’d like it…” Well, no one would like a plant if, out of nowhere, it bit you. Twoey had its trap open, begging obviously for food. I rolled my eyes, pulling my little pocket knife out. I slit one finger open and let the plant suck on it. Jess raised an eyebrow at me.
“So this is why you’ve been all cut up?” She asked. “Why you’re always complaining of your hands aching? You’re letting this-this-
thing, drink your blood?!” I nodded. Jess shook her head and left. I let her go. There was nothing I could say at the moment to make her stay. I sighed sadly as my friend walked away. I thought that she, of all people, might understand my strange new pet.