After School let out, Valerie went someplace where no one would find her. It was her secret garden.
It was in the woods behind the orphanage through 5 thick layers of vines to cover the beautiful spot well. She had found it while playing ball with the other kids, the ball stumbled into the garden and she thought it was such a breathtaking spot in the forest, she never told anyone about it and used it as her escape from life.
Today in her secret garden she found something she'd never seen there before. It was a boy, a nicely dressed boy with neat black hair forced back.
"Um, excuse me, sir, why are you in this part of the forest?"
"I like to come here to get away from life, kind of like a secret garden, well not a secret garden I suppose since your here now."
"Well, I like to believe that this is my secret garden, or at least I used to."
"Could we possibly share the garden? It's big enough for the two of us."
Valerie thought about his offer. She realized that it would be better for the two of them to share the garden than to have a conflict over it.
"Well, Mister I do suppose we can share the garden."
"Ah, how rude of me, I'm Malphus, who are you?"
"My name is Valerie, nice to meet you."
"Do you want to know how I got in?"
Valerie shook her head furiously, up until this point she had thought there was only one way in, and they're still might be, but she was still curious.
Malphus lead her through vines opposite to the vines she entered to get to the garden. There was a path that leads to somewhere, though that somewhere was unknown to Valerie as it seemed the path went on for miles.
"Do you walk that far every time you want to come to the garden?"
"Yes, but the beautiful scenery, that now has one more piece, is worth it." One more piece? What did he mean? The only thing he hadn't seen here was-. Valerie turned bright pink. He had meant her, she was the new piece to the beautiful scenery! He had meant she was beautiful too!
They stayed together in the garden for another hour before Valerie heard her name being called by the girls of the orphanage.
"Aw, do you have to go now? We were just getting to know each other more."
"I'm sorry Malphus, I will return tomorrow at the same time, see you then, okay?" Valerie tilted her head to the side and her brown long hair flowed off her shoulder as if it were water and she was a cliff.
They waved each other off and they both disappeared threw vines opposite one another. That night while Valerie was doing the dishes she couldn't stop thinking about how boy lucky she got, and girl lucky too. Although she only had one female friend, she really liked that one female friend.
To top it off one of the boys she met would rendezvous with her. Rendezvous? She had only heard that word in the plays. It usually had some romantic tie to it. Did that mean they had a romantic tie? No, no they'd only just met and she wasn't one to believe in love at first sight.
Once she was finished with her portion of the dishes she went to wash her school clothes, as she only had one school shirt and skirt.
She hung the soggy clothes on the clothesline and went to slip on her regular gown. It was a washed-out blue gown that reached her ankle. Her sleeves were short and she had a white patch near the seam of her dress where it had ripped open.
The next morning she woke up extra early to make her own breakfast and lunch. She liked to make food but when everyone else is up it gets too chaotic.
She arrived at school early as well so she didn't have to walk through a crowd of whispering money. She thought it was mildly eerie, only half the torches were lit and there wasn't a sound to be heard, although she could swear she heard breathing. She brushed it off and walked to her class to find the boy from yesterday, Oscar, writing something on parchment.
He lifted his head and sent her a smile.
"Good morning Princess, what are you doing here at this time of day?"
"Good morning Oscar, I came here early to avoid the whispers in the halls and to study up on yesterday's work."
"Mm, persistent, and smart, I like you."
"Thank you."
Valerie hurried to her seat with a bright pink face. She had taken Oscar's compliment to heart, and for the rest of the day she had so much confidence, she was practically glowing!