Project Bloom: Reveal Teaser · 6:34pm Apr 24th, 2018
Wearing a fuzzy green bathrobe, Wallflower Blush walked into her bedroom, and sighed.
A shower should have been exactly what she needed. Usually, as the warm water washed over her body, she did everything she could to allow relaxation to wash over her emotions. To center herself. To imagine herself in a quiet, lonely spring rain in the middle of an endless garden, one with nature and its tranquility.
Normally that was something she could do, and after doing so, she always felt better and ready to handle the rest of the night, or the next day.
But she couldn't tonight.
Today's lunch hour, and its consequences, had hovered over the rest of her thoughts for the rest of the school day, and still did so now. In the end, all she'd had to show for her time under the water was cleanliness and damp hair. Any girl could do that. She huffed in frustration, blowing a few stray strands away from her face.
Can I really do this? Wallflower asked herself yet again as she got dressed, slipping on a t-shirt and comfortable flower-patterned pajama pants. Sunset and Rarity really believe in me. Heck, it's only been a week and so many people seem to want to be my friend now.
She sat at her desk, resting her chin in her hands, and staring out the window into the Canterlot City evening skyline. Dusk had just passed, so there weren't any stars out yet for her to wish on. But there would be soon.
Not that she cared. Wishing on stars was childish. She certainly hadn't ever wished on stars for the ability to get someone to notice her. Or to make even a single friend. Certainly not every night since elementary school started.
Maybe the stars were taking their time. Maybe all of her wishes had come in at once. Maybe that was why she now slowly getting all of the friends. It was weird, either way.
It would of course, be so easy to just dismiss it all as "pity friendship" in the wake of the whole Memory Stone affair. Even so, Wallflower considered it a moot point. Pity friends were better than no friends. She'd been there and done the latter all her life.
But even given all that, Sunset and Rarity still... sound like they believe in me. Like, they really like me. Rainbow and Indigo seemed nice, too. Photo, and Sunny...
And Juniper...
Wallflower bit her lip with a lazy smile. She couldn't remember having as much fun as she'd had talking with Juniper. Mainly because such a time just didn't exist. She had to force herself to not get herself lost in that diner conversation yet again... or how close they'd been during it.
Instead, she turned her head, and eyed her computer monitor, with her lockscreen set to a screenshot of her Canterlot High School garden. She rolled her chair to her keyboard, unlocked the computer, and opened her web browser.
Who are you, exactly?
The World Online Movie Database was a few keystrokes away—as was Juniper's profile. The credits weren't glamorous—they all read "Production Assistant" as far as the eye could see—but they were long, starting several years back and coming up to this year's Daring Do movie, where she was curiously listed as simply "Thanks", and nothing else. Still, Wallflower could barely believe what she was seeing.
Oh my gosh. She wasn't lying. Juniper had consistently worked alongside world famous movie director Canter Zoom, for a whole bunch of his productions. How amazing was that?
Now what do I do? I really did just share a smoothie with an Applewood star. And now I'm supposed to just ring her up like it's nothing?
She got up from her chair, walking around her room—a room dotted with potted plants, and walls painted sky blue for tranquility. They barely helped at the moment.
Okay, Wallflower. Calm down. Just talk to her. Just like Rarity said: all you have to do is say 'hi.' I know saying 'hi' has failed for you a whole bunch of times in the past, but... she's already said she wants to be your friend.
She glanced over at the potted violets next to her. After looking at it for several seconds, she turned to face the pot, and stared, hands on hips.
"What are you looking at? Seriously, why do you look at me like that whenever I pace?"
Silence.
"Yeah, well. You're just jealous you don't have legs."
Wallflower walked over to her bed, picking up her phone from her nightstand, and Juniper's business card. She unlocked her phone, staring at Juniper's number in her contacts.
After some time, she tilted her head, tensing up. "Oh my gosh, you guys, give it a rest! I know I'm procrastinating," she said, walking to her full-length closet mirror. "Just... give me a minute. I'm not used to doing this."
She looked in the mirror, suddenly very conscious of her slouched, ground-gazing stance—the same one she always had when walking around school, and even around town.
I must have looked awful to her. To everyone. Just like every day. No wonder I'm so easy to ignore. She looked at the card in her other hand. Maybe she really did just pity me for how we, uh, technically met.
She raised her phone, ready to send a text... then froze yet again. "Argh!" she said, clutching her head. "Why aren't I better at this?" she said to the empty room. "Why is this so easy for everyone but me?"
Because I've been burned way too many times before. But this time, someone came to me. This is what I wanted, right? I can't throw it away.
Balling her fists, she strode to her bed, sat down, and raised the phone one last time. She pressed the Text button.
No more going in circles. No more hating myself. Juniper took a chance on me. For that alone, I'll step up to meet her. It's... it's how I'd want people to treat me.
She slowly exhaled, and once she was calm again, opened her eyes and brought up her phone's on-screen keyboard. "Hi, Juniper?" she tapped into the phone. "This is Wallflower. We met at the Sweet Shoppe a few days ago?"
She shut her eyes, and hit "Send". There. It was done. Now to wait. But, for how long? What if Juniper was asleep? Or busy? With better friends? Already, Wallflower regretted even trying to send—
Her phone dinged, three times, in quick succession, snapping her to attention. An "O", an "M", and a "G" were texted, rapid-fire, one after the other. Wallflower couldn't help but giggle.
"Wallflower!" came the next text, with a red heart beside her name. "How are you?"
"I'm doing well." Wallflower wrote, trying avoid reading into Juniper's choice of emoji too much. "How about you?"
"Better, now that you're here. Glad you found the number! Been a few days—was wondering if I'd been too subtle about it, lol."
"Nah." Wallflower grinned as she typed. "Just the right amount of subtle."
Project Bloom (final title TBA) is a novella that follows Wallflower Blush, post-Memory Stone scandal, as she tries her best to make peace with herself and her social struggles. The world around her is still cold, uncaring, and apathetic, but with the help of some new friends--and one new best friend--she might just be able to prove to herself that she matters, after all.
Current progress: 10/17 chapters finished.
ETA: Summer.
~B
WE DO IT
I wish you the best of luck Bookish, as this sounds intriguing, to say the least. (Also, love that photo at the beginning of the blog, caught my attention as soon as I saw it and made me think... Hmm, what could this blog post contain?)
That picture look like my dream place but my friends nightmare. Jokes aside, where is that, it's beautiful.
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4846623
Thanks!
And yeah easily one of the biggest things I've learned doing research for this story is that gardens are... just... freaking beautiful. It's been so long since I walked through a professional botanical garden that I'd seriously forgotten (it looks like a few exist where I live, so I'll definitely be taking a trip within the coming month), but I definitely see why Wallflower would be into them.
I wish to everything that I knew exactly where this garden was--I just got it off of GIS, and it's used as a stock image for a pest control page with a Netherlands domain name.
And there was much rejoicing.
I especially love how Wallflower talks with her plants. (Not to. With.)
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Sure there's a botanical garden near you, most cities have one I think. Just don't go to one that has a Corpse Flower, (Yes that's a real thing) just... don't. Trust me, if you even smell the flower's well-earned name, you'll probably be regretting it.
👀
so looking forward to it
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Always with. I mean, if you think about Wallflower's social life up to this point, it pretty much had to happen.
...think I should link this in the Wallflower group? I'm always of two minds about these things.
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I just looked this up. Very much appreciate the warning.
4846637
You're welcome.
4846618
Can't wait!
Your beautiful, relate-able writing style shines through again, though there are some proof-reading notes:
I'm pretty sure you only wanted one "be so easy" there.
I think a verb is missing here.
I hope this helps.
Oh wow, it's almost ready alread—
—y never mind, carry on.
Popcorn recipe satisfactory, quantity leaves audience hungry.
4846721
Thank you! They have been fixed here and in the draft file.
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Yeah, I wanted it to be ready pretty much now but writing a novel(la) really is that mentally and emotionally taxing! It's like, initial interest HYPE carries you for a month tops and then it's "WHY AM I EVEN DOING THIS IT'S HORRIBLE" and then "okay now I know what I'm doing this but now I know this thing inside and out and I'M SO BORED" and now I'm slowly getting to the stage where it's just "this is so easy to finish and still pretty fun, let's just do it already"
This is still a much better pace than the seven-plus months it took me to finish BJM tho
Color me VERY interested. I still haven't seen the special (the new job is just beating me the hell up right now, but I'm hoping I'll finally get my chance soon-ish), but I can already see this going to some VERY interesting places, and it whets my appetite to the max to know we're talking "Being Juniper Montage" Scale in terms of size (and emotional themes, though that's more a parallel than a similarity at this point).
Between this and me going to see "Avengers: Infinity War" with the family on Thursday, it's turned into a VERY exciting week. XD
4846776
Yeah this is all sounding pretty familiar lately except the last part.
Glad it's going smoother this time around though.
Still waiting for wall-chan's full, uncut song.
Not sure why she's so sore about being "invisible."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Gyges