Dottie scrunched her forehead in confusion. There had to be traces of Paul somewhere, as they moved into the area around the same time after all. She found him in her year books, looking the same as ever, looking in the quotes at the bottom to see what he had left as a direction of what he was doing after school. It said unknown, "fairy gardener if that's a thing". She felt like she was missing something. Maybe if she looked at her homework for another hour it would make more sense afterwards.
Sighing, she turned back towards her group project for the mental health class. She had various sources that she had pulled out on her topic, and was needing to skim through things and take notes. She had started on some already, but it was barely a dent in the pile. She was thankful that the rest in her group had a pile of resources to pile together as well. As she was dealing with the recent fallacies about the topic, she had both notes on the facts (taken with the girl doing the facts on the issue) and lots of paper stories and magazines, not to mention various sites that mentioned various fallacies as well. At least she had finished her daily chapter in the fastest paced class in the term. She opened up the magazine, adjusted her pencil and paper, and prepared to take more notes.
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Reuben sat in the clearing under the crabapple tree, stretching. He had been weeding around the edge and neatening the ring of gravel that edged it half-buried under the turf in spots. He grinned, feeling accomplished in what he had done, as well as the paper work he had finished in the office today.
Seeing a floating light coming towards him, he blinked. He rarely saw any of the fairies, and so seeing one was a bit out of the ordinary. He watched it curiously as it flew towards him and landed on a blade of grass by his hand. Seeing more movement, he watched as more fairies came towards him. As a particularly bright one landed on a leaf close to his head, he blinked again, before bowing his head.
"Hello, your highness."
She tittered.
"I am enjoying the sunshine in your glade today. How are you?"
The little being clapped her hands.
"Wonderful, simply wonderful, my gardener of my front lawn. Have you found anyone to help with your burden yet?"
"I am sorry, your majesty, for I have not. I am thankful for the help you have given me, though."
She laughed again.
"It is no big deal, gardener of my front lawn. I am enjoying watching you and the story teller."
"The story teller?"
"Oh, you can't say you've missed her completely. Some days you miss each other by mere minutes. There was one full moon where you sat behind the shrub opposite the entrance and listened. You tended to avoid her after that though."
Reuben thought for a minute.
"Oh, her. Yes, we cross paths often when she's jogging down here."
"Why is she not part of your pack?"
"I haven't bitten her because if I do without her permission it will be considered rude and could make her hate me. If we're going to be running around together, I would like not to be attacked by my pack mate."
"She's pretty," the fairy princess told him bluntly.
Reuben nodded.
"She is."
"Don't make the story teller hate you, because we'd hate someone that pretty to hate you."
"Thank you. I will do my best not to."
The little fairy bounced, and left her perch. With a giggle and a sweep around her miniature host surrounding him, they lifted off and flew away.
Reuben sighed watching them leave, before closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the bark of the tree.
"How do I even do this? I guess some more conversations would be a start. Maybe ask her out for coffee?"
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Walking down the halls of the high school, Dottie stopped at the picture of her year's graduation. She was cleaning today, and the pause was enough for her to catch her breath. She named everyone in the picture before she noticed something that was slightly off about Paul. Since when was he looking that much worn out and older? She looked at the picture again, before scratching her head and continuing on. Apparently the mystery of Paul was either bigger than she wanted to admit, or he had not told her, but he had been dying of an incurable disease. That would even be a reason for him to leave her alone as much as he did in the last two years at school. She would have noticed and asked questions. Of course, she was as socially oblivious as he was, so she didn't notice until that there was a gap already there.
Today's cleaning went fairly smoothly today. There was no new tagging in the bathroom stalls or hallways that she had seen, no leaking soap dispensers, and the paper towels were only minorly scattered around the garbage cans. Of course, there was paint on the counters again, as it was the painting unit in art class currently. It had been roughly cleaned up, but she was there to finish the job that they had started. Of course, then there was the dirt on the floors from everyone's shoes, and all the garbage that typically accumulated. That was quickly swept up, and the mop and vacuum followed soon after. The garbage was collected, and she wearily took them outside to fulfill the second last task, besides locking up. She grabbed the key, and ran around the building making sure the doors were all locked before signing out for the day, and left.
Dottie took a deep breath and enjoyed the fresh air outside the building as she walked home. It was a great benefit to her area of town. It was very green, and the shape of the river valley made it so that while everything possible in the valley had been built on, it was still rather isolated and lush and green. She could listen to the river, the birds in the trees, a couple of squirrels, and the wind as it whistled through as she walked home. While there was the sound of distant traffic, there was hardly a car driving down. It was the perfect way to end a work day, though this day she still had to at least read that chapter when she got home.