Characters: Rose and April Setting: April’s place to start and then Rose is showing her the space she found Summary: Fun non dangerous planning of things Rating: Low
You’d think an island this size it would be relatively easy to find a place but it had taken Rose longer than she’d anticipated. But she’d finally found one that she thought might work for her and April to dance in. They would have to do some work but she didn’t mind work. It would give her something to do and it would be almost like setting up her own studio and what dancer didn’t want that on some level when they were being totally honest with themselves?
She knocked on April’s door, her bag bumping against her back as she moved. “Hey!” She said happily as soon as the door opened. “You busy?”
***
April was pouty, and she didn’t like being pouty. Pouty was not fun or polite. So she’d kept to herself until the pouty went away. Which hadn’t happened yet. Hearing the knock on her door, April answered it quickly, hoping that it was someone else. She was vaguely disappointed, but still offered Rose a smile and stepped aside to let her in. “Hi! This is a surprise, but no, I’m not busy.”
--
Rose gave her a quick hug as she walked in, dropping her bag on the floor. “Good! Because - I think I might have found a place we can use that’s not my living room. Which is where we’re going to have to start our dancing.” It took a moment for her to realize that April seemed a little down. “Is everything okay? Did something happen?” She asked, noticing the expression on the other woman’s face.
***
April returned the hug warmly, because hugs were the best, even when she wasn’t in her usual perky mood. “Really? That’s great. I can’t wait to dance! I tried watching some videos on the computer, but I don’t think that’s the kind of dancing I used to do. It looks… hard.” When Rose asked how she was, April just shrugged. “I’m okay. Just confused, people are confusing sometimes.”
--
“I was hoping you’d want to go take a look at it with me this afternoon. There’s some work to do before we could actually use it but...I couldn’t wait to show it to you and see what you thought. What kind of videos have you been watching?” Rose asked her curiously, wanting to rule out as much as she could to make their work more fun than anything else.
“Want to talk about it? Whatever happened that’s got you so confused by someone?”
***
April smiled, excited about the prospect of getting to learn to dance again. She didn’t so much mind about where it happened, so she left that up to Rose, the expert. “I would love to see it. And well, I tried to find videos of myself dancing but then I got kind of scared, so I just watched all sorts of dancing. Some kinds look really hard.”
April hesitated before deciding to ask. “I think boys are confusing. Or, one boy.” April recently realized that all of her friends were boys. Which was nice, except when they were being confusing, then she needed girls to talk to.
--
“I don’t think I’ve ever watched a video of myself dancing now that I think about it. I guess I’m too scared of what I’ll see. If you want I can try to look up some of you later and try to make myself more familiar? Or at least see if there’s any that you might want to see down the road?” Rose asked curiously.
Rose gave her a small smile. “Boys are always confusing in my experience. But what’s this one doing that has you so confused? Maybe I can help you figure it out.”
***
April smiled and nodded. “That’s a good idea. I would like that a lot, if you don’t mind. But, I would have to give you my real name.” Which felt strange to say out loud, even though it was the truth. And April tried hard to always tell the truth.
April sighed and shrugged. “He’s all hidey. I know he doesn’t like people a lot, but he is my friend and he says I am his friend but then he’s all grumpy and I don’t know why and I want to help but I can’t and that’s not okay.” Taking a deep breath, she realized that was one giant sentence, but at least she got it all out.
--
The mention of having to give her her real name took Rose by surprise but she hoped she covered it well. “I don’t mind. It’ll give me something to do. It’s dangerous when I get bored. I start moving furniture.” She said with a smile. “You might want to write it down for me though so that I don’t misspell it when I go to do my search.”
Rose thought for a moment about the best way to phrase what she wanted to say. “Sounds to me like he might be having difficulty with the fact he’s letting someone get close. Especially if he doesn’t like people a lot. The best way to help might be to let him come to you to talk when he’s ready if that makes sense? Let him know you’re here if he wants to talk but pushing him might be the wrong thing to do.”
***
April just nodded a little, not sure if she was supposed to be telling anyone about these things, even though she’d already slipped up twice with Rose. She’d have to check with Phobia.
April listened carefully as Rose gave her advice. She nodded, still frowning a little. “That sounds like a good idea, I will try. I’m not good at friends, I don’t think I ever learned. But I don’t want to mess it up! So I will do what you said.</i>
--
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out with him. And your secret is safe with me. Three older sisters taught me that when it comes to things like this - keep your lips sealed. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help. But if you ever want to talk about him - no specifics necessary - I’m here okay? Because that’s what friends are for.”
“Now! Are you ready to go check out the space I found or...do you want to spend a few minutes looking at paints we can order online?”
***
April bit her lip and nodded with a little smile. She did have another question, but maybe that should wait for later. Considering the options Rose gave her, April bounced on her heels a little. “Can we do both?”
***
Rose grinned at her. “We can definitely do both! I might have already ordered some because now that my living room is finished - I’m thinking my bedroom needs to get turned into a rainbow too. And I’ve exhausted the paint colors they sell in the marketplace.” Rose pulled her phone out, opening the internet browser to the website she’d found earlier and handing it to April to scroll through the color options.
*** Carefully taking Rose’s phone, April looked through the selection with a small, excited smile. “I like pink. And yellow, oh and purple. There’s so many pretty colors, I didn’t know there were so many colors. It’s like crayons! I don’t know how to choose. How did you pick?”
--
“Don’t get me started on crayons. I’m still mad about Crayola getting rid of a yellow to bring another shade of blue. Although...it does look like a really pretty blue…” Rose admitted, looking over her shoulder at the colors. “For my living room - I just used what they had here to start out. But for my room bedroom - I went with a lot of purples and blues. Colors that supposedly are soothing. Darker kind of. I say just go with what you like. And if you don’t order yellow I’m ordering it for you.” She teased, giving her a friend a quick one armed squeeze hug.
*** April smiled brightly and returned the hug full-on, hugs were the best. “I like the yellow, I think I will order that. Is painting walls hard? I’ve never painted anything before.”
—
“Maybe order a couple different shades of yellow? We could do accent walls or something then. If you wanted me to help I mean.” Rose thought for a moment. “I don’t think it is but then I wasn’t trying to do anything all that fancy with mine so...maybe it is? Are you wanting to do a mural or just put colors on the walls?”
*** “What’s an accent wall?” The idea of having a bunch of different yellows did sound nice, and it made April smile. “You’ll help me? Really? I told Phobia about the painting and asked him to help and he said he would but he never did it before. Maybe you can teach us?” April was excited at the idea now. But something Rose said confused her. “What’s a mural?”
--
“Really. I’d love to help you guys out. It’ll be fun. If you and Phobia won’t mind me being around. I don’t want to get in the way of your plans.” Rose thought for a moment about the best way to explain it. “An accent wall is when you do one wall in a different color. It’s supposed to do something - make the space look bigger? I don’t know for sure but something. A mural is - that might be easier to show than explain.” She said reaching for her phone and doing a quick search to show examples of murals.
***
April shook her head with a smile. “What kind of plans? It will be nice and fun and I am glad you’ll help!” Although April did briefly consider that Phobia may opt out of painting if Rose was there. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen. April nodded when Rose explained, smiling a little. “That sounds pretty, the different color wall thing.”
--
“If nothing else you won’t have to worry about how the furniture is going to get moved around right?” Rose suggested with a smile.
“Maybe a darker yellow? Or a pink?” She added after a moment’s thought.
***
April smiled, remembering that Rose could be strong and move things. “Oh, I like pink! What do you think?”
***
“I think it’s going to look awesome! And hopefully help this place feel more like a home and less like a...dorm room?” Rose said with a shrug. She couldn’t think of any other way to describe the feeling of this place.
***
April shrugged a little. “I don’t think I ever had a dorm room. Or maybe, but not at a dorm? A dorm is like school, right?” April would like it to feel more like home, but she also had a strange feeling that she’d never had that experience before.
--
“You ever lived someplace you couldn’t hang up anything on the walls? Because they claimed it would be damaging them or something. Because oh yes a picture hook is going to cause so much damage.” Rose said rolling her eyes at the thought of it. “Same as a dorm. But we will make this place feel like your place. Promise.”
***
April shrugged a little. “I don’t know, I don’t remember. What makes a place feel like your own? Just decorating it the way you like?”
--
Rose hesitated to try to figure out the answer to that question. The best way to. “For me it helps to do that. Before I was sent here - I always made sure to have pictures of people and places that were important to me. Here - that doesn’t seem like a good option to me. Reminding myself of the things that I can’t have right now.” She said looking at one of the walls. “Maybe not pictures but little things that make you happy. I know a lot of people who swore plants made their place feel more homey but - I think it’s just what you like. To make it feel like your place.”
***
April just nodded quietly, thinking about what Rose said. It was difficult to think of things like that when she had no memory of her life before. Feeling herself get pouty and upset again, April sighed and then shook her head. “Can we maybe see the dance place now?”
--
Rose was grateful for the change in subject before she could get sucked into the hole of missing her past. “Definitely! Fair warning - it’s in rough shape right now but I think we can make it work. And no one is using it as far as I’ve been able to figure out so...there shouldn’t be any reason we can’t.” She’d just make sure not to go anywhere near her neighbor when she went up to the Facility to make sure they weren’t breaking any rules that she didn’t know about. The less time she had to be around him the more she liked it.
“Grab your stuff and we can go”
***
April nodded with a renewed smile. Quickly grabbing her things so they could go, she was bouncing again in excitement, her mood quickly shifted from somber to happy once again. “Is it far? Did you have to ask permission? Are other people going to use it for things too?”
--
“I haven’t asked for permission yet because I wanted to get your opinion on it first. And I was thinking about opening it up to other people. Maybe trying to offer dance lessons or something to the residents here. And the employees families. But if we can get permission - I don’t see why other people couldn’t use it for things you know? If the government would approve it of course. If not well...We’ll figure something out.” Rose said, linking her arm with April’s to lead her to the place she’d found.
It was a bit off the beaten track but not in an area that was exactly hidden away so no one could claim that she was trying to hide what she was up to. All of the walls were still intact but the windows had been broken in and the door didn’t look like the most securely attached in the world. “Like I said it’s going to take some work but the walls and floor are good and the roof is too as far as I can tell.”
***
April went along with Rose happily. She didn’t really know much about how and why people got to do things on the island, mostly because she never asked. She just didn’t want Rose to get into trouble for anything. Once they got to the site, April looked around and then looked to Rose with a shrug. “I can help with things if you like.”
--
“I would love your help with it. Do you want to go inside and look around or...what do you want to do?” Rose asked, watching her friend curiously.
***
April really really wanted to get right to learning how to dance again. But she knew she needed to work on being patient, so instead she just nodded eagerly. “We can go in and look around.”
--
Rose grinned at her. “And after we can go back to my house and I can show you a few exercises and moves you can do at your place. Sound like a good plan?”
***
April nodded with a smile. “That sounds like fun!”
--
“Now. I’m not responsible for any broken glass on the floor in there. Well a little right in front of the door where I had to get in. But the rest of it was like that before I went in.” Rose said as she reached through a broken pane to unlock the door so they could go check the place out.
***
April didn’t really understand what Rose meant, but she followed her inside anyway with a smile. If she’d have realized that Rose meant she’d broken in, April probably would have been a little more hesitant. She looked around the place, then to her friend. “How did you find this place? No one uses it, I wonder why.”
***
“I was out for a walk, trying to explore and -” avoiding her neighbor but Rose wasn’t about to tell her friend that. “Looking for a place and found this building just sitting here. No furniture so not being used for anything regularly at least and they were able to open that clinic up so why not a place we can get some exercise that doesn’t involve using our abilities?”
***
April shrugged a little. It sounded reasonable enough to her. But April also didn’t really know how things worked around here, or anywhere really. “That sounds good, I think.”
--
“Hopefully whoever has to approve things like this will agree with us about that. If not...well my living room it is and I’ll work with people in small groups. Or let them hang out in my place while I nap in my room or something.” Rose said with a shrug. “Come on - I want to show you where I was thinking about putting the studio,” she said leading her friend further into the building to a long room with a wall unbroken by windows or doors.
***
April followed along like an eager little puppy, curious about what Rose had in mind. “Do you really think other people will want to dance here? Or learn to dance? No one else has ever mentioned it, that I noticed.”
--
Rose gave a small shrug. “I hope so. But even if they don’t - we can use it. And if there’s people that want to do drawing or anything it might help them to have mirrors to look in. I was thinking about trying to put some mirrors or something like that up. And a barre along that wall.”
***
April didn’t really know much about art or other things, but it sounded like a nice idea to have a place where people could go to be creative. There wasn’t anything like that here, and maybe it was what people needed. “That sounds like a good idea. Do you need help with those things? I can try to help.”
--
There was no hesitation before Rose responded. “I would love your help. I was thinking I might open it up for other people to volunteer if they wanted to do something to help. Because I know where my strengths lie and it is not in hanging windows and things.”
***
April smiled and nodded. “Maybe I can ask some of my friends to help too.” Or one friend in particular. “Do we need things too? Like do we need to buy things and order things for it? I have money, I can help.” April was getting better at budgeting her stipend each month, but a lot of it still went to candy. She needed to work on that.
--
“I would love it if you could ask your friends to help. And we are probably going to need to order some things but I want to check the market here first. Try to avoid shipping costs as much as we can.” Rose thought for a moment. “Why don’t we work on the list after I show you those exercises this afternoon? Make this our project to keep busy? With your friends to help with some of the actual labor. Sound good?”
***
April nodded with a smile. “That sounds good to me. I will ask everyone I know and see who can help. And I can help with anything else too, I like to help!”
--
“This place is going to be amazing when we get it finished.” Rose said confidently.