Queen Of Science

After Fern and Emily get off the bus, they make a break towards the gardening store. While running, the girls squint through the snow on their eyelashes and look for the shiny gleam of ice.

Once they step into the store and the automatic door comes shut, Fern and Emily relax in the warm air. As they take in the appearance of the store, Fern turns to Emily and says, "Dar-r sho meiny pwants!"

With a confused expression, Emily pulls Fern's scarf down from her face, and says, "say that again?"

"Look at all the plants!"

"Yea- it seems kind of weird that all of these would be growing in the winter."

Walking over to the seed area of the store, Fern starts looking for a fast-growing, flowering plant. Uninterested, Emily walks around and practices pronouncing the weirdest plant names that she can find.

After a while Fern furrows her brows, "I think I have a problem."

"What do you mean."

"I don't see any flowering seeds that grow fast enough for me to finish the project on time."

"How fast do you need them to grow?"

Pulling up the calendar app on her phone, Fern says, "I need to grow two generations of plants, it'll take me a while to write the report, and the report is due by the end of classes, so..."

Looking over Fern's shoulder to see the calendar, Emily looks at Fern unbelievably and says, "If we plant the seeds today, they have to be fully grow in 7 days."

"7 days? Do plants even sprout in that time? There's no way we can find a plant that blooms in that time." Thinking desperately, Fern says, "What if I just tweak my proposal and study something other than flower colour? Basil grows pretty fast right? I'll buy some basil."

Remembering the basil that her dad grows in his garden, Emily says, "All basil looks the same. I don't think you can do basil."

"There must be something that works though. Jameson keeps talking about how plants are really diverse. Right?"

Realizing that this is going nowhere, Emily starts looking around and says, "Let's find someone who looks like they know what they're doing."

"But-"

Grabbing the elbow of Fern's jacket, Emily starts pulling Fern towards the customer service desk. Before she can get to the desk, Emily's eye catches onto a young man who is intently looking at a two different plant stands.

With his wavy brown hair is messily tucked into a black beanie and red buffalo checkered trench coat, his appearance radiates, 'Look at me. I'm fashionable, but I also like to go camping on the weekend.'

Without hesitation, Emily says, "Hi handsome, you look like you know a lot about gardening. I'm having a bit of an issue deciding what kind of plant I should get. Will you help me?"

With a grin, he steps close enough to Emily to smell her perfume and shamelessly says, "Hi gorgeous. You forgot to ask, but my name's Devyn. What's your name?"

Amused, Emily says, "I'll tell you after you've helped me."

Devyn fakes helplessness and says, "Seems like I have no choice, but to help you. What was the problem again?"

Taking a step back and standing next to Fern, Emily says, "my friend here needs a plant that will be fully grown in 7 days and comes in two different colours. "

Smiling at Fern, he looks back at Emily and says, "There's a company that makes fast growing plants for middle-school science projects. I think this store carries the seeds..." Walking over to the seed aisle with Fern and Emily in tow, Devyn pulls out two packets of seeds.

"These speedy little guys grow in 6 days and come in two different colours: green and dark purple, like lettuce."

Handing the packets over to Fern, Devyn smiles and says, "Hopefully, these will work for you." Turning back to Emily with a cheeky grin, he says, "Do I get my prize now?"

After reading the description on the seeds, Fern happily tells Emily that they're perfect before walking towards the registers. Satisfied, Emily hides her grin and confidently says, "Give me your phone."

Devyn happily unlocks his phone and places it into Emily's extended hand. Without saying a word, Emily types something, hands the phone back, and walks off to find Fern.

After they meet up and start walking towards the bus stop, Devyn yells from the store entrance, "Nice meeting you, Emily!"