The Star and Flame Chronicles: Team Work

      Spring had finally sprung! Now was the time to dig up wild plants, now was the time to race around outside, now was the time to garden! Each year, we have a gardening competition to see who can make the best garden shape. We each get assigned a plot of soil and we have to make a shape in it. You could use the whole square or you can use a circle of it.

      My twin brother, Star, is the best. He is talented at quieter activities like reading, writing, art and gardening. I’m his opposite as I do better in louder, more energetic activities like battling and sports. But even though we are different, we love each other in that strong brotherly-sisterly way. We’re best friends. Things have been a bit different since I lost my Xweetok form and became a blue Wocky, though we still are close.

      Last year I had much practice and was second place. Reeses tries to do the worst because he thinks it’s funny. He grew different colored roses in a way to make a picture of a meepit wearing a clown hat. It wasn’t that neat; the meepit’s eye was more diamond than circular), but our Mom, RP, awarded him the funniest garden award.

      There were five awards- the funniest, the best, the most creative, the weirdest, and the coolest. They sounded the same, but cool meant it didn’t have to look like anything (it could), but it was judged on how awesome it looked. Most creative which meant it would be unique, (like a half faerie half Darigan Xweetok picture) and didn’t have to be real. The best would be the best garden of all. The weirdest could be anything (one year Reeses went for that one and made daisies catch on fire)!

      For some reason, we all go for one of the five awards. Reeses and I go for weirdest and funniest, Lucky goes for most creative and coolest, our Mom doesn’t go for any of them- she just grows her garden and takes what she gets, and my twin brother hopes for best. This year I have a great idea. But I am unsure that I can do it by myself.

      I was hoping to grow a flower picture of me and Star- but I really want to do it with him and not alone. Yet I knew teamwork was better than being alone, so I decided to ask him for help. I’m the only competitive one in my family, and Star is happy to help anyone who needs it.

     “Hey, Star, can I ask you something?” I asked cautiously, as I peeked into his room.

     Star put up a hand. “Hold on, let me put away my drawing paper and pencil.” He quickly packed away his art supplies and turned to face me. “What do you need?”

     I fidgeted and stepped into our room. “Well, the art piece for the garden competition I was going to do is kind of hard. And I want you to help me. Not because you’re good,” I said quickly, “but because I want to work alongside my blood brother.”

     “Well, tell me the piece. If it’s hard enough for two people, maybe I can do it,” Star said with a grin as he threw his paint-splattered art smock into the closet.

     “This.” I produced a piece of paper from behind my pack and showed it to him.

      It was crudely drawn, but the picture of my whole family stood out. There was Mom, Lucky, Reeses and together with our smiles identical, me and my twin. We were standing in a meadow with grass all around us and the bright blue sky in the background. Crudely drawn flowers stuck up from the ground.

     “Perfect. It may be tough but it is possible,” Star replied and placed the paper in his pocket. “Come, we must start right away!” We ran outside to the gardening area of our backyard.

      Our square patch of dirt was about the size of a Kiko. Star went on his knees and began plotting out the design. I watched. I usually just dropped seeds in and hoped they turned out right. My twin took out a ruler and measured the distance from the outside to a certain spot in the middle. Then he pushed his fist into the spot where our Mom’s head would be.

     He turned to me. “Flame, get colors for Mom’s picture such as peach, purple, blue and stuff because we need the exact colors. I’m going to make the flowers grow blue and purple to make it look like she’s wearing jeans and a purple T-shirt.” I nodded, approving.

      Quickly, I scampered to the garden shed where we held a collection of seeds, flowers, petpetpet habitats and other things. Reeses was there, murmuring about not being able to find any green. I showed him to a spider weed seed box and he thanked me. I have learned not to get too competitive. I gathered the right colors and raced back to Star. He thanked me and took a handful of brown flower seeds. He sprinkled two of them in the center of the fist circle.

     “For her eyes,” he replied. “I want this picture to be exact.”

      For the rest of the day, Star and I plotted and planted the right seeds to form the picture. Now all we could do was wait... Each day, Star and I tended to our flowers. We pulled weeds out the instant we saw them and even planted a fence too tall for a petpet to go over to protect it. We sprayed petpetpet-be-gone spray over them.

     ”Flame, FLAME!” I heard one morning as I read the newspaper. It was my brother.

      I threw down the comic part of the newspaper and hurried outside. Star was crouched over the flowers and was looking at me wide-eyed. I raced over to him. The flowers had blossomed, but instead of the right colors, all the colors were wrong! Lucky’s face was supposed to be a pale periwinkle, but instead was a bright yellow with red stripes. Our Mom’s face was supposed to be peach, but instead it was blue.

     “Oh no, this is my entire fault!” I cried, grabbing my brother, “I’m sorry Star, I am so sorry...”

     Star looked at me. “It’s not, it’s mine. I forgot to check the bags...”

     “Now what are we going to do? The picture is perfect, but the colors are crazy!” I sniffled. “How are we going to fix this?”

     “Hey... Doesn’t it look kind of cool this way? Some artists made their pictures with wacky colors to make it look better!” Star said suddenly. “We could win unique!”

     A smile began to grow on my face. “You know what? It does look kind of cool!”

     ”Quick, get the camera; I want to get a picture of this before they die!” Star urged and I raced inside to get the camera.

      Star took the camera from me gently and snapped a picture of the flowers. The contest was tomorrow. We didn’t get to see our siblings’ flowers until the contest. Lucky’s was beside the great oak tree, Mom’s was next to the flower bed (not contest flower bed, real flower bed), Reeses’s was right next to the porch, and ours was beside the tall white fence.

     **********************************

     “Let’s start the Annual Gardening Competition! We will all vote for whom you think gets the right award,” RP, our Mom, announced and we all walked around the yard gazing at our siblings’ work.

      After we all look, we cast a vote for who we think deserves to win the certain award. This year, Reeses planted a picture of him in a clown suit being attacked by meepits. Lucky grew her flowers in a pattern to show the sky. A sun was in one corner behind some clouds with a rainbow coming out of the bit of sun visible. Mom grew a set of the best faeries (she and Star share the same art enjoyment) sitting side-by-side on a cloud. The rainbow fountain faerie sat beside the Space Faerie and Fyora. The other faeries were the Soup Faerie and Siyana.

      Then it was time to vote. I took my paper from my Mom and gazed at the choices. I quickly selected Reeses’s flower patch as funniest, Lucky’s coolest, Mom’s the best, and ours the most creative. Apparently, I made the right choice because almost everyone seemed to get the award I voted for them.

     My Mom stood up on the porch. “The winner for the funniest garden patch is... Reeses_Love!” My Mom shook his hand and handed him a yellow tulip lollypop. Reeses said thank you and began chewing on it happily.

     We cheered for him. “Yeah Reeses!” Star and I cried.

     “And for the coolest garden patch... Lucky!” We went into a fit of cheers and Lucky danced right on the spot, stopping only to accept the Chokato snapdragon lollypop Mom gave her.

     I shut my eyes and crossed my fingers. “The most creative... me?” Mom announced then looked at us. “You really think so?”

     Star looked at me. “But I voted for best...”

     ”Yeah, so did I,” I whispered, “Mom, Lucky and Reeses must have voted for her.”

     Mom took a twirlyfruit lollypop from her pocket, ripped off the wrapper, and began to suck on it. “And for the best...”

     Everyone held their breathes. The trees seemed to stop swaying, petpetpets stopped their scuttling and even the petpets stayed quiet as if the tiniest breath would be much too noisy.

     “Star and Flame win the best garden award!” Mom yelled and we screamed with joy.

      We flew into the air with our wings, gliding around happily. Reeses and Lucky joined us, congratulating every second. When we went back on the ground, Mom passed us two cherry rose lollypops. Mm, tasty! Me and Star sucked on them noisily, slurping up cherry juice and licking the pop.

     “You know what,” I said to Star half way through my lollypop,

     He craned his head at me, still chewing a bit of the pop. “What?”

     “Teamwork makes everything better.”

The End

Yay! Another story in! This is the second story in my short story series: The Star and Flame Chronicles! Expect more!