OK -- the last reply was serious, but here's one that is completely frivolous. I hope it makes you laugh!
Sherrie, Addison and Beth walked side by side through the wide mall. They were discussing the boys they had met the night before at the campus mixer. Addison had been particularly taken by Remy, a Japanese exchange student. As they passed a florist, Beth had an idea.
"Addison, why don't you just send Remy some flowers? These daffodils are beautiful, and they look sort of Japanese, in a flower sort of way, you know what I mean?"
"Oh, Beth, I couldn't do that - wouldn't that be too forward?" exclaimed Addison.
"I don't think so – you aren't committing yourself or anything. It's just flowers," said Sherrie. "Besides, I dare you."
Addison was never one to back away from a dare, so she bought a bouquet of daffodils and had them delivered to Remy's dorm room.
When the flowers arrived, Remy was alone in the dorm lobby. He was very glad no one else was there to see him blush scarlet when he saw that they were from Addison – he had really been impressed by her at the mixer. "Daffodils – now what could that mean?" he thought to himself, as he arranged the flowers in the water pitcher on his night stand. "I'll have to get a book that tells about flowers and their meanings."
Remy left his dorm room and walked briskly down the street to the campus bookstore, where he found just the right thing - a Hallmark calendar with a list of flowers and what they meant. Looking up daffodils, he blushed again, for the list said they meant "Are you available?" Now, what should he do? Searching the list, he found the perfect message - peonies, meaning "I'm bashful." He called a florist and asked them to arrange a lovely bunch of peonies, to be delivered to Addison's dorm room the next day.
There was a lot of excitement in the dorm the next day when Addison's peonies arrived.
"I wonder why peonies?" mused Sherrie. "There must be a meaning to them."
"I have an old Japanese flower book," said Beth. "I think I remember enough of my Japanese symbols to translate what the book says about flowers and their meanings. Let's go look."
Eagerly the girls searched the book until they found a picture of peonies. Beth squinted at the kanji symbols underneath the picture.
"The best I can tell, it says 'What are your intentions?' Wonder what he means by that."
"Even more important, what should I do about it?" said Addison. "See if you can find a flower that says 'My intentions are honorable.'"
Beth concentrated on the kanji under several flower pictures, and at last found one that she thought meant "My intentions are honorable." The only problem was, the girls couldn't figure out what kind of a flower it was.
"Maybe the florist can help us," said Sherrie. Back they went to the mall, and the florist decided that he thought the picture was of hyacinths. So the girls ordered a spray of hyacinths sent to Remy's room.
Remy received the hyacinths in a fever of nervousness. He hastily searched the Hallmark calendar to find their meaning, but he was hampered by the fact that the calendar had no flower pictures, only flower names. He had no idea what kind of flowers he had received. He finally decided to ask his friend Roy the biology major, and Roy assured him that the flowers were hydrangeas. Remy went back to the calendar, and found that hydrangeas meant "Thank you for understanding."
Now Remy didn't know exactly what to do - what message did he really want to send to Addison? He read and re-read the list, and finally decided that a fairly safe sentiment was the one expressed by larkspur: "The heart is a fickle thing." He hoped Addison would understand that he meant that he could like her if she wanted him to.
When Addison got the larkspur, it was back to the Japanese flower book. The girls found the picture of larkspur easily enough, but Beth had a really hard time translating the kanji.
"I think it says 'Your father drives a truck', or maybe it's 'Your uncle is unfaithful'. I can't really be sure," said Beth.
"'Your father drives a truck!' What on earth could that mean?" asked Addison.
"I know – it probably means that he understands that you do not come from a very rich family, but it's really OK," explained Sherrie.
"That's probably it," said Addison. "I know his family is fairly well-to-do back in Japan. So, how shall I answer him?"
"How about this red rose?" said Beth. "It means 'I think of you often.'"
"That's pretty harmless, yet it does tell the truth," said Addison. "I think of Remy pretty often." So, the florist got an order for a bunch of red roses.
Remy was very thankful he had the Hallmark calendar, for it told him the red roses meant "Love is all around." He was beginning to be excited about Addison and what she might feel for him. He decided to send her a single yellow lily, because the calendar said that meant "I'm walking on air."
Addison, Beth, and Sherrie were very puzzled about the yellow lily, because Beth translated the kanji under the picture of the yellow lily as "Cats are the best pets."
"Remy must really have a romantic nature," said Beth. "Even his flower messages are poetic and subtle."
"I think he must mean that you are like a precious little kitten, and he wants you to be his pet," said Sherrie.
"Well, it certainly seems to be an encouraging instead of a discouraging message," said Addison. "What shall I send him in return? I'm getting pretty serious about him - I'm beginning to think that I can't live without him."
"Well, the flower book says that water lilies mean 'I can't live without you'" said Beth.
"Are you sure you are translating that correctly?" asked Sherrie. "What if Remy gets the wrong message?"
"This one I'm sure about," said Beth.
"It might be hard to get water lilies at the florist," said Addison. "I know, let's get permission from the science department to cut one of their water lily plants - they're always saying they have too many in the pond." So off they went to the campus pond, to harvest a couple of blooms from the water lilies there. After arranging them in a basket they scrounged from the dorm kitchen, they delivered them to Remy's dorm.
Remy found that he was looking forward to the next message of flowers, and so he was quite encouraged to find the basket of water lilies on the dorm lobby desk. By this time, many of the fellows in the dorm knew about the "flowergrams" as they were calling them. A few of them were there to tease Remy about the water lilies, but he just smiled and took them in his room. The flower calendar told him that water lilies meant "My heart is pure."
Remy pondered this message a long time. He was beginning to be very serious about Addison, even thinking that she might be the girl for him to marry. He finally decided that she must be feeling the same way, for to him the pure heart message meant that Addison was beginning to give him all her heart. He searched the flower list for an appropriate response. He found it in tulips: "You are the perfect lover." He almost didn't follow through with this one, because he felt he might be moving a little fast. But, he reasoned, Addison would have to know that the message was a compliment, even if she wasn't as serious as he was.
Addison found the tulips on her dresser when she got back from class. She loved tulips, so much so that she almost didn't care what the message in them was. Just the fact that Remy sent them to her made her heart sing. Oh, she hoped the message was a good one!
Beth found the picture of tulips, and translated the kanji - "The upstairs apartment is best." Addison, Beth, and Sherrie burst into laughter; everyone knew that the dorm parents lived in the upstairs apartment, and that absolutely no foolishness could take place there. But then, thinking about it seriously, the girls decided that Remy was probably sort of asking Addison to marry him. After all, students usually had to live in an upstairs apartment while they were still in school. It was pretty sudden, they thought, but then the flower messages had hurried the situation along.
Addison waited a few days before sending her reply. First of all, she wanted to be certain about her own feelings. Then, she didn't want to appear too anxious. Finally, however, she decided to answer Remy in the affirmative – she was sure that she wanted to live with him for the rest of her life. So, with Beth's help, she found the message she wanted - stephanotis, meaning "yes, a thousand times yes!"
It seemed to Remy that perhaps Addison was not going to answer his flower message. She had never waited this long between messages before. Was she upset? Did she think he was being presumptuous? The more anxious he became, the more he realized that he was deeply in love with Addison. What would he do if she rejected him?
It was with relief that Remy saw the stephanotis bouquet. He knew it was for him before he saw the card - after all, no one else in the dorm got flowers. He buried his face in the lovely flowers - he could wait to see what they meant and just enjoy them for themselves for a few minutes. But soon his curiosity overcame him, and he searched the Hallmark flower list. Remy happened to know what these flowers were - his mother raised stephanotis back in Japan. Oh joy of joys - stephanotis meant "happiness in marriage." Addison shared his love - they would be happy forever after.
Remy could hardly wait to send his bouquet of lavender. He ordered a huge bouquet, because even though lavender meant "all my devotion," he wanted Addison to understand that it was really ALL his devotion he was sending her.
In the Japanese flower book, Beth and Addison discovered that lavender meant "let's make plans." Sherrie was so pleased when they told her - she immediately began making plans for a huge wedding "in the spring, right after finals." "I'll be the wedding coordinator for you, Addison. You know that I used to do that at our church at home."
Addison decided to deliver her next flowers by hand, actually giving them to Remy in person. She chose red chrysanthemums, which Beth assured her meant simply "I love you." With an armload of the lovely blooms, Addison walked up the drive toward Remy's dorm. In the meantime, Remy, too, had decided to deliver his next message by hand. He had found that a dark pink rose meant "Thank you, my darling," so he had chosen one perfect pink rose to give Addison.
Addison and Remy met halfway between the dorms. Each looked at the flowers carried by the other, and they both knew that whatever the flowers were supposed to mean, what they did mean was a long and happy life together.