Hey it's me! Again! R'nt u happy? Gaia u don't like tris so y r u readin' it, huh?

Reflections

Trisana Chandler stared at herself in her mirror. Her dress bulged in areas where it didn't use to bulge. She sighed. She was fat. That's all there was to it. She looked around. Everyone else in her home was skinny, why couldn't she be?

Ever since she could remember she had never been skinny or even the normal weight. She had always been teased. Even the people at Winding Circle, as nice as they were, had made fun of her weight. It was only a few boys, that annoying voice in the back of her head contradicted. So what if it was only a few boys, but they had noticed, and that hurt.

She looked in the mirror with new found determination. She was going on a diet. She was going to lose weight. She was going to be skinny. She was going to make Briar notice her. Wait-where had that come from? She didn't like Briar. She shook her head and continued on with her resolutions. She was going to make her dresses so baggy, she'd have to get new ones. Determined, and ready, she headed down to dinner.

"Hello, Lark. What's for dinner?" Tris asked as she entered the kitchen. Lark was busy adding seasoning to a nice and greasy roast, and Sandry was leaving with some sausage. Tris heart dropped.. All greasy foods, her diet was not starting easy.

"Roast, sausage, and salad," Lark added, "Gorse never adds enough seasoning to his roast. He claims it's fine, but Rosie don't think so." Lark smiled, finished with adding seasoning. Tris groaned. It was fattening enough without all the seasoning on there.

Sandry returned from putting the sausages with Briar in tow, "You okay, Tris?"

"I'm fine. I'm just not feeling to good. I came down to tell you that I may not eat much at dinner," Tris half-lied.

Briar's eye's lit up, "More for me."

Tris was disgusted. How could Briar eat so much, and still stay thin? He actually works, that annoying voice taunted again. Tris had a huge desire to just kill that voice, especially when it had a point. Like now. She didn't work all that much. A weather mage really didn't need to.

She would limit her intake and exercise more. She could take Little Bear for walks. That would work. Briar would probably be happy to get rid of that chore. It was summer and he spent all day weeding.

With her new plan, she walked over to get the plates and utinsels. Briar apparantly had the same idea, for as she reached for them, he did so too. Where his hand had grazed her arm, it tingled and she jerked her hand away.

He turned to her, his eyes filled with laughter, "What's the matter Coppercurls? Afraid of me?"

"No," she retorted and reached for the plates before Briar got them. And with that she went to set the table.

"Hello, Tris. What are we having for dinner? It smells wonderful. I could probably eat it all," Daja told her.

I bet you could, and still not gain an ounce, Tris thought. " Um- roast, sausage, and salad."

"Yummy, but why so many meats?" Daja asked.

"I don't know." It's a conspiracy against me, Tris added mentally.

"It's because the fruits Rosethorn and I have been growing haven't ripened yet, so we have to eat meat until they are," Briar informed them as he laid down the utinsels next to the plates Tris had set.

"Why aren't they ripe?" Daja asked.

"I don't know. Me and Rosethorn have done everything the same. We don't know," Briar finished.

Rosethorn and I," Briar's teacher corrected, " And we have theories, but none have been confirmed."

"I was close, " Briar grumbled.

"What are we talking about?" Lark asked coming to the kitchen with the roast, "And can we talk about this during dinner?"

Everyone sat down in their normal spots, and Rosethorn explained that they were talking about the fruits and vegetables crisis.

"I don't understand. Crane's are doing just fine, and mine are doing poorly," Rosethorn complained

"And he never stops talking about it. He thinks this means that his greenhouse is doing better than our normal, natural environment," Briar added.

"Which of course isn't true, " Sandry said, " Your garden is much better than Crane's, and he knows it. He just wants an excuse to show off. Besides I think your fruits and vegetables have more life and taste to them." She said this all while looking at Briar.

Oh stop flirting, Tris wanted to scream. She knew Sandry would turn it on full blast soon, and she wasn't ready for that gruesome display.

"Can we say grace, now?" Lark asked, " Tris you do it now."

Tris's mouth dropped open. She hadn't said grace in forever. "Um- Please Gods of above bless our food that we have, and the souls from which they came from. Speed up our dear friends plants so we may enjoy another gift you have bestowed on us. And help us keep our goals and resolutions in sight." She looked up.

"Thank you, Tris," Lark congratulated, "Now let's eat."

Tris looked at the food, what was she going to do? The food was all greasy, and the salad was dripping in dressing, "Sandry, can you pass the salad?" She would look for an area that was almost untouched with dressing.

"Sure," and Sandry passed it over.

Tris stared at it. There was an almost dry spot, but it would be hard to get to. She picked up the tongs, and tried to grab that hunk.

"So, Lark, if we don't have any vegetables, how do we have salad with carrots and radishes?" Daja asked picking up some sausage.

"Gorse, had some salads made, and I figured not everybody would want meat," Lark answered and looked at Tris struggling to get that one special spot of salad, "You okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm just going to eat salad. I think the meat would be too hard on my stomach," Tris plopped the salad on her plate. There was a little bit of dressing on it, but that was okay.

She dug her fork into it and started eating. It wasn't until she started chewing that she realized how hungry her stomach was. You can't eat a lot, she told herself.

The rest of dinner was mainly about Briar and Rosethorn's problem. Tris finished halfway through the meal, when they were talking about what could have caused it.

"Well it could be another mage tampering with it, " Briar suggested.

"But we doubt it's Crane. He may not like my garden, but he would put magic on a plant to harm it," Rosethorn added.

"Yeah."

"Or it could be something with the weather."

Everyone looked at Tris, who was putting her fork down after eating.

"What do you say, Coppercurls," Briar addressed her, " Will you try and find out if it's something with the weather?"

"I guess I could look into it," she told him, worried about how it would affect her schedule.

"Great, " he flashed her a grin. Her heart started to race more. Stop it.

"Or there's something wrong with the soil, but we can't find anything wrong with it," Rosethorn said.

"Yeah or one of us messed up the fertilizer or something like that, " Briar offered, " But we hope not, because that would mean that our other plants are tainted too."

And it would be Briar's fault, Daja joked.

Briar glared at her.

"And we doubt that's it, because everything else is doing fine," Rosethorn added.

When dinner was over they went to the common room, and talked. Luckily, they had stopped with the whole plant thing, but it was in the back of everyone's minds as they went to sleep.




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