Queen Of Science

Arriving back at their dorm, Fern and Emily swipe their building access keys and take in a breath of the stale smell of first-year university students that have forgotten good hygiene practices. Walking through the hallway covered in posters and advertis.e.m.e.nts for campus activities, they wave to the person that is staffing the front desk.

Smelling the delicious smell of food that is wafting from the dining hall, Emily starts drifting further away from Fern and closer to the kitchen's doors. As they walk past the doors, Emily is like a kitten who is seeing the bright red light laser beam for the first time. Entranced, she comes to a stop and stares intently at the kitchen staff as they make food for the students.

Meanwhile, Fern has tunnel vision and is focused on her mission to plant her seeds as soon as possible. It isn't until Fern is almost at the staircase that she realizes Emily's lack of presence. Confused, Fern looks to her right, left, and then spins around in a circle. Finally, she focuses on the almost drooling Emily, who is standing down the hall. Realizing that Emily is being s.u.c.k.e.d into the trap of endless food, Fern yells, "Oi!" just loud enough for Emily to hear.

Snapping out of her dream state, Emily longingly looks at the dining hall one last time before she quickly turns her head in Fern's direction and yells, "Sorry!" As she speed-walks to catch up with Fern, Emily says, "It smells so good. Let's just drop by our rooms quickly, yea?"

Feeling sorry for dragging around her friend all day, Fern mentally promises herself to make up for it. Going on her tippy toes and patting Emily on the head, Fern says, "Thanks for dealing with me all day. Race you to my room?"

Without bothering to give Fern a verbal response, Emily lets out a grin and immediately starts running up the staircase. Cradling her full shopping bag in her arms like a baby, Fern chases behind Emily as she regrets all of her latest decisions.

As Emily reaches Fern's room first, she triumphantly starts victory dancing while watching Fern unlock the door. Entering the room and waving her hand offhandedly, Fern says, "Yea yea, you had an unfair advantage. If that were a fair race, I would have won."

Plopping down on Fern's bed, Emily reaches towards the desk that doubles as Fern's nightstand and says, "Whatever makes you feel better." Connecting her phone to the speaker sitting on Fern's desk, Emily starts playing music throughout the tiny room.

After setting out all of the gardening supplies that Fern bought while Emily was flirting, Fern sits down on the hardwood floor. Using a spoon that she had lying around, Fern slowly starts filling the cheapest plastic pots that were available. Once all of the pots were almost full, Fern called Emily's name and patted the space next to her.

Feeling bored from the brief period of mindlessly staring at the ceiling and listening to songs that she has never heard of, Emily eagerly pops a squat on the floor.

Thinking that Emily would label the pots with either 'purple' or 'green,' Fern hands a sharpie to her friend and says, "Will you label the pots after I put a seed in?"

Taking the sharpie, the hidden gears in Emily's mind start whirring as she says, "yup."

Like an assembly line, Fern would plant a seed and Emily would label the plant with a name. Once the plant was labelled, Emily would put it on the shelf that is front of Fern's window. In the end, ten plants were lined up next to each other. One is named 'Alvin,' another is 'His Majesty the Emperor Wingman,' and another is called 'Fluffy,' etc.

Finally able to show off the great names that she came up with, Emily excitedly looks to Fern and says, "Aren't they great? All of our plants have their own special names."

Caught a little off guard by Emily's overachievement, Fern says, "Well, I am going to be spending a lot of time caring for them. I suppose they should have their own pet names."

Latching onto the idea of pet names, Emily says, "They probably deserve better than those cheap pots- it's pretty cold outside. I saw on the internet that you could make sweaters for your plants- "

Cutting Emily off before she gets too attached to the plants, Fern says, "Didn't you want to go eat? Let's go to the dining hall."