Becoming Calder (A Sign of Love Novel)(12)

One hot day at the end of that May, we were playing Kick the Can. Only in this case, our "can" was a small piece of driftwood I had retrieved from the river that ran behind our land—our source of clean, drinking water. I tried to keep referring to the game in my head as "kick the driftwood" because thinking about a can made me think about Coca-Cola, and man, that would have tasted good right then and there, sweaty and thirsty under a noontime sun.
All of a sudden, I noticed a blonde head peeking out from behind a tree just a little way away. I pretended not to see her and just kept on playing, every now and again glancing over where I could now see Eden standing among the small grove of Acacia trees, pretty much right out in the open.
Over the next fifteen minutes, she inched closer and closer to our game field, until she was standing right on the edge with some of the other players who had already gotten out.
As she got near, a small brunette girl named Hannah looked at her with wide eyes and blurted out nervously, "Should you be here?"
Eden pulled her shoulders back and glanced around, her eyes lingering on me as she whispered, "I was wondering if I could join your game."
Everyone backed away from her slightly, looking around at each other with disbelief. None of the other council members' kids had ever asked to play with us, ever, not once.
Finally Aaron Swift declared, "No. Uh uh. Go on back up to your palace, princess. You're not one of us." But then he softened his rejection by saying, "You're a flower, we're the weeds. You're either one or the other. You need to play with the other flowers." And he smiled a small, slightly nervous smile at her.
The rest of the kids standing around nodded as Eden's cheeks flamed. She looked down and breathed out shakily, resigned. I realized then she might have been working up the courage to ask us if she could play with us for weeks, maybe even months.
I thought of those toys hidden in the canyon by the spring and realized the council kids didn't play with her either. She was an outsider in both groups. I didn't know why exactly, because I didn't know what went on up in the main lodge, I just knew that she was. Just as she started to turn away, and before I even thought too much about it, I blurted out, "That's not true."
Eden halted and turned back around toward me as several other kids came off the field to see what was going on and what the game holdup was.
I walked over to Eden and made my way around her in a slow circle as she stood still, turning her head to watch me. "Do you know anything about morning glories?" I smiled as I looked into her deep, blue eyes. She was just a kid, but I couldn't help notice she sure was pretty.
She furrowed her brow and bit her lip, as she shook her head, no.
I stood in front of her and crossed my arms over my chest. "A morning glory is a beautiful flower, delicate-like. Blue, just like your eyes." I paused and smiled again. "But the thing about a morning glory?" I leaned in closer and so did she, her eyes filled with curiosity. "The thing about a morning glory is if you let it, it will totally take over your crops, because it's not just a flower. It's also a weed, totally invasive. Stronger than it looks."
I looked around at my friends standing around. "The point is, you don't have to be just a flower or a weed. You can be both." I shrugged my shoulders. "I figure some people are both." I looked around at my friends and grinned at them, raising my eyebrows.
"Aw, geez, Calder, I swear sometimes you make things up out of the clear blue sky," Xander scoffed. "Fine, flower, weed, whatever, let's just play. Eden can be on your team."
Everyone ran to get in their positions. I looked back at Eden as a slow grin spread over her face, and she laughed out loud as she looked at me.
Her grin was contagious, I guessed, because I realized I was grinning, too, as I ran to my own position.
What I had said, though, was true. Morning glories were flowers and weeds—at least here in Arizona. I should know. I'd helped to tug out whole batches of them trying to suck up all the water from our crops.
We played in that hot sun for at least an hour before Mother Miriam came stalking down from the main lodge looking annoyed. "Eden!" she shouted. Eden ran off the field past me, her long, blonde hair and long, heavy skirt flying up behind her. She had played with more gusto than anyone else on the field and within half an hour or so, everyone was treating her like one of the regular "weeds." I didn't think the smile left her face the whole time she was with us.
Eden, yeah, she was definitely a morning glory: as pretty as a flower, with the strength of a weed.
She looked back when she made it to Miriam and although I could tell Miriam was already giving her a tongue lashing, Eden flashed me a smile as if to say it was worth it, completely worth it. I smiled back.