By: Alicia Chen

Elaine sat on a tree, thinking about when the flowers should bloom this season. She was the fairy of hydrangea flowers. She got to decide when they would bloom, and so if the flowers still exist, even if their roots were deep underground, she would live.

She floated off the tree, coming out of the shelter provided by its leaves. As the moonlight poured on her face, she decided that it was time. Her feet danced across the grass, flowers blooming behind her wherever she went. The next day, the hydrangea season started.

Not all fairies were born in the wild, accompanied by nodding ferns and willow trees. Some were turned into a fairy because when they died, their will to live on was too strong, and so nature took pity on them and turned them into fairies. Elaine was one of these fairies.

A long time ago, Elaine sat in a filled classroom, listening to her teacher explain things about math, which she was halfheartedly listening to. She was staring out the window watching the birds sing and a rabbit eating. Elaine thought that this world was the best place that anyone could be, and she was never leaving here.

But she spent only a little time as a human. One night, as Elaine was home alone doing math problems her teacher had told her to do, she heard a knock on the door. Ignoring the sound, she carried on with her math problems, assuming it was just the mail. But when Elaine heard the knock again, she went over and checked the peephole. It was no delivery person, it was a person dressed in black with weapons, staring though the peephole through the other side. Elaine gasped and ran upstairs, hearing only her heart pounding.

She hid in the closet just in time as the door was busted. Things were being broken downstairs. Elaine’s heart stopped when she heard the person come upstairs, barely breathing. But the person still came into her room. The person opened the closet, revealing Elaine. She was too shocked to move, let alone defend herself. The biggest shock though, was that she knew this man. It was her old geography teacher, Mr. Arlert. “This is all a confusion, right? Mr. Arlert?” Elaine managed to say, but Mr. Arlert didn’t answer. His eyes were as deep as the abyss, coming to swallow her whole.

Then everything was gone. Elaine felt like she was floating in water, with the urge to stay in the human world still lingering in her mind. She didn’t want to go. The sensation became stronger. Moments later, she was laying on soft grass. Elaine noticed that she sprouted wings on her back, with new clothes. She saw that her favorite flowers were blooming under her feet. Hydrangeas.

Elaine had to watch her parents grieve, and pass. Along with everybody she knew and had a connection with. From then on, she became the fairy of hydrangeas, dancing through dewy fields every year to bring the hydrangea season.