Tulip

"I use to wonder what it was like to fall in love. I imagined it to be sweet like a chocolate covered strawberry, or smooth like one of those cream filled caramel candies. I use to dream of a place to call my own, a place to call home. I wish that love would have been kind to me, because then I wouldn't have to wish. Ah, my bad, I forgot to introduce myself. Hi, my names Ginevra and I am what you would call, a hopeless romantic. I spend my days floating on a lily pad in the pond near my house. It's a small pond with only a couple fish but luckily they don't mind me. Mom says I need to train my wings so that when the time comes I can leave our little hut, but unfortunately for me, I am afraid of heights. Ironic isn't it? A fairy afraid of heights. You can laugh, it's okay. I think when the time for me to leave comes I'll just walk. I'm small enough that the humans can't see me unless they actually look, but they're usually nose deep in their phones or tablets so I'm sure it will be fine. What was I talking about before? Oh, right.. love. I love the idea of love. I love to see the humans holding hands and sharing a milkshake.. or to see two birds huddled in a nest together protecting their eggs. The idea of love simply melts my heart, but if we're being honest here.. maybe love isn't in my cards. Anyway, thanks for listening to me but I have to get back before mom catches me again. Talk to you soon."

I close my diary and bury it under my pillow. The sun shines in angrily through my curtains. I let out a deep sigh and stand, stretching in the process. "Ginevra, time for breakfast! I won't tell you again." I roll my eyes as I pull myself down the stairs into the kitchen. "What are we having, mom?" My mom stands before me holding a cup of coffee. She scowls when she sees but instead of saying anything back she points to the table and leaves the kitchen. On the table, I see pumpkin seeds lying comfortably on a rose petal. "At least she got out of bed today." I mutter to myself. I walk over to the table and pop a seed into my mouth. "How's my little girl?" I spin around, still chewing the seed, and smile at my dad. "You mean, How's my son?" My dad frowns at me and says, "You know your mother and I love you, but you can't expect us to understand all this trans business.." I frown back at my dad and walk out of the kitchen. "Hey! Did I say something wrong?" I ignore him yelling in the background as I grab my satchel and slam the door behind me.

"It's bright out today. I hate it. I hate the stupid sun. I hate my stupid parents. I hate my stupid little house and my stupid little room. I wish everything would just disappear." I march towards the pond and jump immediately onto my lily pad. "I wish they could just understand." Frustrated, I lay back onto the lily pad and close my eyes. The crickets are chirping, and the frogs splashing back and forth. I hear footsteps approaching the pond, and birds chirping above me. Wait a min.. I open my eyes wide and look around. By the edge of the pond, furthest from me, I see an adult human fall onto their knees to pick a tulip. "As long as I don't move, they probably won't notice me." I whisper to myself. I sit and watch the human as they pick petals off and recite, "Loves me, Loves me not." The last petal falls on a "Loves me not", and I almost expect the human to be upset but instead they smile and say aloud, "That's okay. It's only a flower." They throw the stem into the pond and meet my eyes. We hold eye contact for a split second until I realize what's happening. I look around to plan my escape but the lily pad had drifted into the middle of the pond and I can't risk trying to fly. I am a sitting duck in this situation, trapped against a wall. Amidst my panic, the human looks at me warily and says, "Hey little guy, don't be scared.." I stop fumbling about and turn to look at them. The human smiles and says again in a voice you'd use to talk to a pet, "Hi there buddy, it's ok, I don't bite." The human begins to reach out towards me. "You may not bite, but I will if you don't back away from me." I show my teeth in hopes to scare them off, but instead they laugh. "Ok tough guy, I don't want any trouble." The human mockingly puts their hands up and continues to laugh. I roll my eyes and crouch down, attempting to use my hand as an ore. The human stops laughing and watches me as I struggle to move the lily pad. I feel their eyes on me, so I turn around and put my hands up. "What do you want? Why are you staring so hard?" Feeling defeated I sit down and cross my arms. "Why don't you just fly?" I look up once more at the human, who is now also sitting in the grass. The human asks again, "You have wings, can't you just use them to fly away?" I fail to hold back a laugh, "I don't fly, and even if I did, it's rude to ask such things." The human stands and grabs a long stick. "Wait, wait, what are you doing with that?" I jump to my feet and walk to the edge of the lily pad. "Trust me." The human leans with the stick in hand and attempts to reach the lily pad. Upon realizing the stick is too short, they roll up their jeans and step into the water. Full panic falls over me and I feel as though this is it, until they hold their hand out towards me. "Let me help." Clouds cover the sun, the crickets fall silent, and the world feels like it hit the breaks. I look up at the human who is exactly one arms length away from grabbing me and just as I begin to move towards them, I am scooped up from the lily pad. "Ginevra, are you okay?" That's my moms voice but it sounds so far away. "Ginevra!" I struggle to catch my breath and soon everything goes dark.

I wake up to rain pounding off of the roof on our tin can hut. My parents and the village doctor gather around my bed. I open eyes slightly and see my mom holding my diary. "What's going on?" I sit up slowly and look directly at my mom. "Why do you have my diary?" The doctor frowns at me and leaves the room, followed by my father. "What were you doing with that human, Ginevra." Her voice is cold like ice. "You know how dangerous they are, you could have been killed!" She begins to raise her voice while maintaining an icy glare. I climb out of bed and yell back, "And so what. Wouldn't that just make you and dad so happy if I did die? You always talk about how you're mourning the loss of your daughter but you still can't love me as your son. This is the first time since I transitioned that you have even sat in the same room as me, let alone talked to me, so what if I died." I push past my mom out of the room leaving her speechless. I reach for my satchel only to realize I left it at the pond. Filled with anger and despair, I trudge my way back to the pond. Upon arriving at the pond, I notice a trail of flower petals. "The human must have been asking about their love again..?" I roll my eyes and begin to look for my bag. Time drags on for what seems like forever and I have searched the entire pond, and my bag is nowhere to be seen. Assuming the human took it and left this trail of petals on purpose, I take a deep breathe and begin to follow the trail.

It has been at least 20 minutes of following petals and I feel like I haven't gotten anywhere. I begin to feel tired again, so I cover myself with a leaf and rest in the roots of a big tree. I expect to wake up drenched and cold, as I was when I began to rest, instead I wake up wrapped in a cotton ball. My eyes spring open and I scan my surroundings. It was foolish of me to fall asleep in the wild, but I thought the leaf would have provided coverage. I wiggle free from the cotton ball and jump to my feet. "Oh, you're finally awake." I turn suddenly only to find the human from before sitting in front of the fireplace. "Where's my satchel? I know you took it." The human gives a soft chuckle before responding, "You wake up in a strange place and your first thought is about your satchel, which I don't have by the way? You're a strange one, aren't you?" I let out a deep sigh and cross my arms. "I know you have my satchel. It wasn't at the pond and you were the only other person to see it there so that must mean that you took it." The human smiles again and whilst ignoring my question asks, "What's your name?" Feeling taken aback by the sudden change of conversation I stutter, "Ginevra." "Ginevra. What a pretty name. My name is Samuel, but my friends call me Sam." Sam extends their hand out to me as if to shake hands but soon realizes that doing so is impossible. I reach my hand out and shake the tip of their pinky finger. "Nice to meet you, Sam." Sam smiles warmly and stands. "So, what exactly do you eat?" I look at them sarcastically and say, "Oh, you know the usual.. we drink the dew from a fresh morning mist, eat the tops off of mushrooms and for dessert we enjoy freshly picked berries." "Really?" "No man I'm messing with you, we eat normal food like you and anyone else, gosh what do you think I am?" Sam's face turns bright red and they begins to get flustered. "Oh, I, Um.." "By the way, where are we? I should probably get home soon so my parents don't worry.." "Right! Right. Sorry, I can take you back to the pond.. unless you wanna stay for dinner?" I smile softly and accept Sam's request, and after a nice warm meal they take me back to the pond. "When can I see you again?" Sam gently places me on a tulip by the pond. "Well, idk Sam.. when do you want to see me again?" "If I'm being completely honest, I don't want to not see you.. I've been thinking about you from the moment I laid my eyes on you. That's actually how I found you in the forest. I was coming back." Sam shrugs his shoulders and begins to get nervous. "I have never felt this way about anyone before." "Sam stop before you say the wrong thing." Sam stops talking and looks me in my eyes. "I think it was love at first sight.." I stand and immediately climb down the tulip. "Ginevra, wait." I begin to ignore them and start walking towards my house. "Ginevra-" "Sam." I turn on my heels and immediately cut them off. "Are you foolish or something? Love is only for fairytales.. not for people like me." Sam frowns. "You deserve more than you think, Ginevra. Don't sell yourself short." Tears fill my eyes, "Sam, if you want to see me again come to the pond tomorrow at noon. If you do just that then I'll know you mean what you say." And with that I turn and run straight to my house, leaving Sam alone at the pond.

Walking into the house, I find my satchel sitting by the door, and my mom runs to me with open arms. "Ginevra, honey, where have you been?" I can tell that she's been crying for hours because her eyes are puffy and red. My dad walks in behind me and hugs me tight. "We were looking for you for hours, we thought something might've happened." My parents both began to cry. "Guys, I'm fine." "Where were you?" "I met someone.." "WHO?" "Sam.. the human.." With that my parents faces went blank as if they had just seen a ghost. "You are not to see him again!" My dad stands tall and uses his most stern voice. I begin to laugh uncontrollably. "First of all, I am 20 years old and you will not be telling me who I can and cannot date. Second of all-" My dad raises his hand and thus forth silencing me. "Is this what you really want?" "I don't know.. I think so.." My dad walks over and puts his hand on my shoulder. "Listen... son.. if this is something you really want to do then your mom and I are behind you every step of the way. We haven't been the best parents lately but that's behind us now. Also." "Also?" "The elders have a potion. The drinker of the potion can transform into their true loves form. The only problem is, the one who drinks the potion gets amnesia. They forget everyone and every memory they had and to make the love work their partner has to make them fall in love again. Is he worth it?" "I.. don't know, dad." After more communication and family time, I walk back to my room. The night drags and my fathers words stay on my mind. "Is he worth it?" Eventually, I fall into a deep sleep.

Morning is here and I am more nervous now then I ever have been. I put on my nicest outfit and walk down to the pond. "Hi." Sam sits against a tree skipping rocks. "Hey." I walk over and climb up on their shoulder to talk to them. I tell Sam about what my father told me about the potions. "I don't think we should do it.." Sam frowns. Shocked, I look up at him. "What do you mean? Weren't you just confessing your love to me yesterday?" Sam's eyes go wide. "No no, I mean yes I said that but that's not what I mean. I do love you Ginevra, but to forget the memories means you'd forget your parents.. you'd forget me.. and what if I can't make you fall in love with me again.." Sam begins to cry softly. "For as little time as I have known you, my love has grown every second. I can't risk losing you." "So what do we do then, Sam? Your love will be worthless if not to be able to hold my hand in the least." Sam's voice begins to shake. "Then we stay friends. I love you so much that I can put my own feelings aside just to keep you as you are. If all we can be is friends then so be it." They begin to sob more heavily. "Sam, in the end, if friends is all we can be then I can accept that.." I strain my wings until I gather enough strength to fly up to their cheek. "I love you, Sam." I then lean in and plant a small kiss upon their cheek. Sam stops crying and asks, "Wait, what did you say?" "I said, I love you Sam." "Ginevra, I love you too." Sam wipes their tears away and smiles. Then like magic I am transformed into human form. "Sam what's going on?" "This, Ginevra, is the power of true love." And with that I learn that true love isn't just for fairytales.