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Celeritas' Birthday Bash 2012  by Celeritas

It had rained entirely too much that spring, and Daffodil Burrows’ mother had had to do twice as much laundry, all thanks to her brother—and Tom.  She and Kira couldn’t take half a step outside before getting pelted with mudballs, having mud smeared in their hair, on their skin, on their dresses—it was enough to make one cry, and in fact, they had cried, quite often, for it.

“Whatever will we do?” said Kira one day in June.

“We must get back at them somehow!” Daffy replied.  “But how?”

Kira was clearly mulling things over, so Daffodil decided not to say anything until she did.  “I think I have an idea,” Kira said.  “If lads enjoy having things that smell nasty, they must hate things that smell nice!”

“Roly doesn’t hate the smell of food!”

“I mean, flowers, Daffy!  How do we get them smelling like flowers?”

“Kira, you’re sharp!  We can use rosewater!”

“What’s that?”

“My great aunt uses it on her dresses.  If we could get some, we could get Roly and Tom to smell terribly nice!”

“How do we get some?”

“I don’t know.”  Daffy frowned.  “If Mum and Dad find out, I don’t care to think of what will happen.  They won’t buy it for us, and they say we’re not old enough for pocket-money yet.”

“Could we make it?”

“Yes, but—where would we get the roses?  The only place I can think of is the gardens outside Town Hole.  Kira!  If you could just sit and look at them for a while, talk to the gardener, I’m sure I could nick some.”

“Daffy, you know I can’t walk to town without Mum!”

“Oh, right,” said Daffodil.  She’d almost forgotten about the time she and Roly had pushed Kira too far on a walk, and they’d had to spend half an hour recovering.  “Well, then—I’ll ask the gardener if I can get the roses for you, since you can’t see them yourself.”

And she did, in a week’s time, and she thought it a shame to pluck and tear the petals after all the love the gardener had shown it, but Kira didn’t seem to mind at all.  Daffy was able to fill her tea set with hot water when Mum wasn’t looking, and stuffed the petals inside.

At the end of the day, there was precious little rosewater, and it was a frightful and not-at-all-familiar shade of pink, but it smelled like roses and hopefully it wouldn’t go mouldy before they had a chance to use it.

Kira and she had been so eager to get the project completed that they hadn’t thought of that part.   Eventually, they decided it would be best for them to stick the rosewater in a bottle and wait until the next birthday party rolled around—Kira’s.

Since the waters were still high, a number of dry ditches had been filled to a foot or so, and they had a grand time splashing around in them before Kira protested tiredness and went back to the shore to sun herself.  Daffodil kept an eye on her as she carefully retrieved the bottle of rosewater and then dabbed it all over Tom’s and Roly’s shirts… and waited.

Daffy was spanked afterwards, but seeing Tom and Roly wail like babies was worth it.  And Tom’s mother had both her and Kira for tea later, and thanked them privately—while the pink stains had been no fun, she said Tom hadn’t smelt so good since he was born.





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