The Rivalry (Discontinued)

Chapter 6: First Practice

“Good morning,” Mrs. Dew, our Botany teacher, sang cheerfully when she entered the botanical garden. She was probably in her late thirties because her shiny black hair was marred with a few strands of white. Her black half-an-inch sandals clicked on the cemented floor as she made her way towards a little wooden stage in the middle. All of us were wearing laboratory gowns and funny huge goggles. There were many plants I’m not familiar of placed on the long table in front of us students. She put her things on a small table and put her hands together, facing us. “So, before we start for today’s lesson, I want to know what you’ve learned in our last meeting.”

I adjusted my goggles and dug my hands on my pockets. I looked around, searching the crowd without any reason really. Ace wasn’t in my class, but then my eyes landed on Jasper, who still looked so cute even with those ugly goggles on. He caught my eyes, and gave me a smirk, making me obviously bite my lips―not seductively, though, but uneasily―causing him to chuckle and me to blush, look down and back to the teacher.

“Where is the origin of modern botany?” Mrs. Dew asked.

But no one answered. I scanned the room for hands raised up in the air but I saw none. Before I could turn away, I saw a glimpse of an arm being stretched out. I turned to look at the person, and it was a girl with dark green eyes and long, wavy dark auburn hair standing beside me.

“Back to Ancient Greece, specifically to Theophrastus, Aristotle’s student.” she said. She wasn’t just pretty, but also smart. Or maybe she just has a good memory.

“Thank you Ms. Mildred.” Mrs. Dew said, smiling.

And so the teacher asked a few more questions before we started our real discussion. After the lesson, she partnered us to one of the students to describe the plants in front of us. I was paired with the girl beside me, the one who answered most of the questions Mrs. Dew asked. Ashanti was partnered with an unfamiliar random guy and Amanda was with Keegan.

My partner grabbed a piece of paper, placed it on top of the desk in front of her, and then looked down on the paper and started writing something. “I’m Keisha.” she said, glancing at me with a warm smile on her face. Then she stopped scribbling, her black pen still touching the smooth paper. I noticed she just wrote her name. Keisha Mildred. “Your name is?” she asked, and I don’t know if she was asking me because she wanted to be friends with me, or if she just needed to know so that she could write it on the paper. It was probably the second reason.

“January Moon,” I said.

“Nice to meet you.” she said, beaming at me.

“Yeah, me too,” I said, and then she went back to what she was doing. “So,” I started again after she finished. “That’s, uh, a leaf of a dicotyledonous plant, right?”

She nodded and looked back down at the plant, brushing a leaf.

“It has two parts right?” I said, and then mumbled to myself, “What were those again?”

She heard me and found out about my stupidity so she giggled, “The blade and the petiole. The blade is expanded and fine and is supported by a nexus of veins while the petiole is―”

“Slender and connects the leaf to the stem.” I interrupted as nice as possible, if that was even a thing.

“Right,” Then, she started pointing at the parts of the leaf as she labeled them one by one, “This is the apex, the margin, the vein, and the base. All of them are part of the base. Then this is the petiole, the axial bud and the, uh, stipule.”

I nodded as she explained those things to me even though I already know them, for Mrs. Dew had taught it to us. Of course, I don’t want to be rude. “Um, maybe we should…”―I shrugged and pointed at the paper, bobbing my head towards it. “Write it down?”