Makes You Wonder • •

[kinsey jacqueline sloan]

Kinsey both loved and loathed working on the college campus. It was one of the best contracts the firm she worked for had in the city, but at the same time it made her blood boil when she arrived in her truck to see plants kicked up that she had only put there a few weeks earlier. She knew that college kids got drunk and had a habit of being a menace, but why they got a thrill out of beating on the greenery was beyond her. If she ever caught them doing it they’d be in for it. She might have looked slight, but Kinsey had grown up a tomboy, and she was still tough and scrappy when she had to be. She had been the only girl in the family, surrounded by male cousins and brothers who used to tease and torment her for being a girl until she bested them time and time again. She wasn’t afraid to get dirty, which had helped around the Pine Creek Resort they called home, and ultimately had led Kinsey into the landscaping career she had now. If she didn’t go home with dirt under her fingernails she considered it a bad day – mostly because it meant she had been at the office sitting through meetings that threatened to put her to sleep.

Today was apparently about sprucing up the offices. Well, outside of them. Kinsey had seen very little of the interior of the buildings despite how much time she had probably put in working on the grounds. Unless she needed a bathroom break or popped in to buy herself lunch or a drink, she stayed outside. Since the worldwide push on mindfulness and its importance, NYU apparently wanted to ensure that everyone had a pleasant working environment. For the landscaping contract that meant adding more greenery where it might be soothing. If she was completely honest, the wording on the request sounded like it had come from a hippie lost in HR, but Kinsey didn’t question her jobs. She just came up with a plan and carried them out once they had been approved. This time that meant window planters, and then a lot of flowers. It was going to be a long job going around all of the office windows with them, but at least it was summer and it was nice to be outside. In the winter Kinsey sometimes wished she had a different career; not that she would ever switch.

Packing the dirt around the daisies, she fixed them in place and wiped her hands on her thighs. Rarely did she ever wear gloves unless it was dangerous work, but for something like this, Kinsey went bare handed. She had skinny fingers and gloves always swallowed them whole leaving her fumbling with the tools on her belt. It was easier to do it this way and come home a little dirtier. It was nothing a shower couldn’t wash away after all, and Kinsey had invested a good amount into her bathroom to make sure that she could really relax and wash away a long day. She crouched down to pick up the next plant to go in the planter when the plastic pot snapped, slicing her palm. It wasn’t deep, but it drew blood all the same. Cursing, she stood straight again and looked at the thin, long wound. It needed cleaning properly, and probably a bandage. The only problem was that Kinsey had absolutely no idea where a nurse’s station or medical bay was on this campus. Her first aid kit was in her truck but she was unbelievably filthy right now and probably not the best person to treat her own injury. Her eyes fell on the professor inside the office she was “greening up”. She didn’t know his name, but what choices did she have? With her good hand she knocked loudly against the closed window and smiled for when he looked her way, flashing her bloody hand by way of an awkward introduction.

• • •

TAGGED! Kade Geoffrey Daniels
WORDS! 671!
OUTFIT! Green Girl!
LYRICS! Stick To Your Guns (Interlude) - - - Good Charlotte
NOTES! <3

[Kade Geoffrey Daniels]

All those years ago as a child, Kade had never pictured himself so far from home. He'd honestly thought as a child, he'd be following in his father's footsteps, which were not so bad at all. But then the abduction happened and Kade became the ever curious sort. He had always been an inquisitive sort, wanting to know how things worked, why people did what they did but it wasn't until later that he found out he could make a career out of it; and a damn good one. Still, he had never pictured himself away from Britain. At least, not until he'd finished his four year course. After that, he'd thought another school, one abroad would be the most beneficial. Of course, even then, it hadn't been until he'd been accepted to the programme in New York that he'd settled on the big apple. From there, Kade hadn't known once again what he was going to do. It was almost sheer coincidence that he'd landed a contract with the NYPD. He knew from his professors that they usually chose consultants that had more experience with criminal cases, those who chose to learn about the minds of the deranged. Kade had studied a more broad spectrum psychology.

He could talk to all, young and old, a little traumatised to practically incurable. So in a way it made sense that he was the one chosen for the contract. After that, his life in New York seemed to be steady and he'd been gaining patients of his own as well. Like everything else about his career choice, he'd never thought about teaching or lecturing once in a while. He thought he'd consult for the NYPD and take care of his own patients while he wasn't helping out at the various district houses. And then one of his old professors called. He'd been made head of the department and wanted Kade to lecture. The Englishman had thought about declining but he'd been asked by one of his favourite professors and couldn't turn the older man down. As it turned out, it was the beat thing that could have happened to him and now he had a nice office with mahogany wood panels for a wall with a huge window, bookshelves lining another and a Rorschach inkblot. He was a psych professor after all.

Kade was surprised he actually liked the fancy office and the small classes he was charged with. They had some interesting characters in them and some very bright minds. He might have even liked it more than his private offices. They were some weird little geniuses and Kade was pretty sure if they hadn't decided to learn about psychology themselves, the alternate universe class would be learning about some of them. It was a fine line. Kade was reaching for another paper which he had no doubt would be another insightful look in the warped mind of another of his students when a knock on his office window drew his attention away. Probably a good thing since he was starting to think he needed a very long break. He spun in his chair to see a woman waving at him. Curious, he opened the window. "What the hell have you done to yourself?" He asked, noticing the blood dripping from a nasty looking cut.

♦ ♦ ♦

Tag || kinsey jacqueline sloan
Words || 554
Clothes || Dessed Down Doctor
Music || Hit The Gas --Kane Brown
Notes || <3

[kinsey jacqueline sloan]

Kinsey had spent most of her life outdoors. Pine Creek made for an unusual home, but Kinsey loved it. For some people it was their favourite vacation spot, but for her it was her favourite place on earth. She loved running between the log cabins when they were being cleaned out, or helping her dad clean up the fire pits and flowerbeds when the time came. She came with a streak of dirt that she was surprised hadn’t permanently embedded itself into her face after all of these years. Playing in the dirt made her as happy as some women were when they bought a pair of expensive shoes, or did their make up just right. Kinsey still didn’t know what half of the powders or palettes were about when she walked down those aisles of the drug store to replace her empty pots of lip balm, or grab another bottle of hand cream. She was hardly in a career that was gentle on her skin, but Kinsey still tried to take care of herself. She slathered on a high factor sun cream when she was out in the heat, and made sure that she wasn’t doing any damage to her skin when she was working. She was young; she didn’t want to look ruined and aged doing something she loved.

Kinsey would never be the girl in an office, sitting behind a desk day in and day out. She had been raised between pine trees, deep on the edge of a National Park, and around campfires. She needed the breeze on her back while she fell to her knees in soft soil and dug deep with her bare hands to bury the roots of a new plant that would flourish and bloom in its new home. She had friends, and she lived a decent enough city life, but the blonde woman was at home in the dirt more than she was in some nightclub when she sipped at a fruity drink and danced on a dance floor until the sun came up. Her mother had always reminded her of the importance of balance though, and sometimes dancing felt just as good as a deep tissue massage for loosening up the muscles and the joints after a long week of beautifying the gardens and parks of New York.

Thankfully, Kinsey wasn’t typically a clumsy person. This injury was a surprise to her, but then it wasn’t the first or the last, and nothing had so far been as bad as the snake bite in Africa. She was sure the fading scar still itched from time to time without her imagination playing a role in it. She let out an awkward laugh, and pulled her shirt from around her waist to sop up some of the dripping blood. It was as dirty as the rest of her, but Kinsey didn’t want to look like she was about to bleed out from a minor injury. “Occupational hazard, I guess.” She shrugged, not caring about another work shirt being ruined since most of them were already stained with sap or pollen. “So, I have a first aid kit in my truck, but I’m obviously way too dirty to clean myself up without probably making this worse. Could you be a pal and lend a girl a hand?” Kinsey flashed the professor a cheeky smile, not in the least bit phased by the pain pulsing through her hand, or the blood still pouring from the wound and soaking through her shirt. She was a tough girl; the only one in a family of boys, and there were times when it showed. This was just another one of those times.

• • •

TAGGED! Kade Geoffrey Daniels
WORDS! 619!
OUTFIT! Green Girl!
LYRICS! Stick To Your Guns (Interlude) - - - Good Charlotte
NOTES! <3