Lucas, campus heartthrob and young CEO, notices an unusual girl holding a mysterious plant. He's intrigued. But she's too busy with her secret life as a gardener to notice him back. So he sets a scheme in motion that might just lead to love. Will hi...
The next morning, Kai opened her eyes and groggily pulled the blanket off her head. Across the room, her roommate was already awake, staring her laptop. Morning sunlight fell across Lilly's keyboard. But something else glowed even brighter on her screen:
A picture of the tall, broad-shouldered student who'd stepped into line at the cafeteria.
Lilly looked up. "Kai, that guy Lukas, last night? He was a star player on the school soccer team!"
Tossing aside the covers, Kai got out of bed and went to check on Barry the Cactus. He was in bad shape. On their plane flight to college, an extra bumpy jolt of turbulence slammed Barry into the side of the cabin. Six of his spikes broke. Poor Barry!
(Since yesterday, Kai's search history was full of searches like "Does Breaking Spines On Cactus Kill The Cactus")
Lilly continued, "At the Ivy League finals, two years ago? Lukas scored the game-winning goal. As a freshman! And then... guess what happened?"
Kai scrunched her forehead. "Um, he went out with his teammates to celebrate?"
"No!" Lilly shouted, banging her hand on her desk. "He QUIT THE TEAM. No explanation! Went and formed a start-up. Some artificial-intelligence-biotech venture."
That actually sounded interesting. Kai wondered what they did.
Lilly's face got all dreamy.
"... And, last year, he walked into a poker tournament at the frat house DKE. Bluffed his way through the final round. At least five guys on campus supposedly owe him $100,000."
"Students were betting that much money?" Kai was incredulous.
"Yeah," said Lilly. "There were upset parents calling the school for days. They had to ban poker on campus."
Scrolling further, Lilly continued, "Everyone online says he's some kind of cool-headed mastermind under pressure. People call him The General."
"Sounds terrifying," said Kai. She pushed Barry into a bright splash of sunlight on the windowsill.
I can't just keep moving plants around, chasing sunshine, she was thinking.
They need a sheltered outdoor space...
"Terrifying?" Lilly yelled, interrupting Kai's thoughts. "HE'S! AN! I-DOL!" Lilly made a heart with her hands, and pounded it against her chest four times.
Kai had a more urgent question on her mind.
"Lilly," she said, feeling sheepish. "How would you feel if—"
Kai started describing her dream: to make their dorm-room into an overgrown garden. She had no idea if Lilly would sign on, but she came prepared. With photos.
"So plants purify the air, right?" Kai said. "And we'll have a totally unique dorm room, right? And it'd look amazing on social media, right? And, and, well—"
Kai listened to the excitement and desperation in her own voice.
Calm down! she told herself. You sound like—a super sketchy real-estate agent. Like you're trying to convince Lilly to buy a house where a local serial killer hid all his bodies.
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But Lilly grinned. "Let's do it!"
A warmth suffused Kai's cheeks. The liveliness in her eyes was like light swirling up from a campfire.
Lilly had a weird look on her face.
"What?" Kai asked, suddenly panicking. "Are you having second thoughts?"
"No, you're—like, really gorgeous."
Kai sighed. Two years ago, before the accident, guys at high school had started to say random stuff like that. For about five seconds, she'd stopped being the awkward girl. She'd become the cute girl.
And then you became the girl whose parents died in the US 101 car-wreck.
Lilly's voice cut through Kai's thoughts:
"Are you gonna stop talking to me, in a week?" Lilly said.
"Huh?"
Lilly was genuinely making no sense.
Then Kai's roommate explained: "In high school, all the hot girls all found each other first week of freshman year— then spent the rest of high school ignoring you..."
Lilly added,reflectively, "Then again, you seem kinda quiet. And you talk to your plants like a huge dork."
"OK, right, thanks," said Kai.
Lilly Zhao was really something.
"Maybe you won't start ignoring me until week 2." Lilly said breezily. Then she added: "We can do your garden, but on two conditions."
Kai wanted to jump forward and hug her roommate, but then noticed Lilly's devilish smile.
Sigh. "What do you want?" Kai asked.
"One: you take care of the plants. If I touch a plant, it dies in a week."
Fine. No problem. Kai wanted to spend hours and hours watering and fertilizing and pruning and trimming, anyway.
"I'll take care of everything," Kai nodded. "What's your other condition?"
"Take Intro Psychology with me," said Lilly. "It's required for psych majors. But it's a huge lecture class and I just don't want to show up alone."
Kai reflected.
Vines and tendrils and fronds—trailing over our beds and across the ceiling—
"They say the professor's interesting..." wheedled Lilly.
Palm leaves letting dappled light into their room—
