𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
"Wednesday's going to be pissed you lost our only lead," Iris reports empathetically to Thing who just finished telling Iris how he lost Rowan at the train station. "I'm not telling her!" She then exclaims, immediately looking around awkwardly as people start filling into the greenhouse and it looks weird of her to be talking to some plant pot Thing is behind.
"I see you finally made a friend," are the first words Bianca Barclay says to Iris as her and her little goons, Divina (who Iris can't really say anything bad about because there's something going on between her and Yoko) and Kent, also staring intimidatingly. "Even if it is a plant."
"Sorry, do I know you?" Of course, Iris does, but she isn't totally sure how Bianca knows her.
"Just stay in your lane, newbie," Bianca scoffs and turns back to her seat, Iris just staring kind of confused at her. What a bitch.
"You wanna see something cool?" Xavier asks obviously rhetorically as he nudges his notebook closer to Iris as she takes a seat next to him, pretending not to see Bianca's affronted face. And she thought Xavier was entitled.
"Are you gonna show me anyway?" She returns the tone knowing there was more to his theatrics than just a sketch of a little spider.
He hovers his hand over the drawing for a moment, then watches Iris's reaction as the spider comes out of the page in a 3D manner and crawls over to her.
"I doubt Iris is impressed by your tricks, Mr. Thorpe," Ms. Thornhill gets the groups attention as she settles at the front of the room.
"You're a little impressed," Xavier says quietly as Iris's eyes are still trained on the spider.
She draws a finger closer to the creature to touch it, but as soon as it reaches out one of its own legs to make contact with Iris, it disintegrates into pencil charcoal.
The class laughs as they all watched it fall apart, but Xavier is only looking at Iris's small smile drop a bit as spider disappeared.
"Iris," Ms. Thornhill comes around a big tree as she starts her lesson. "We are thrilled to have you join us on our journey into the world of carnivorous plants. I had your sister earlier today and she had all good things to say about your expertise."
Iris doubts that true, but she is something of a plant connoisseur, so she's glad she's been recognized.
"Maybe, you can tell us the name of this beauty?" Ms. Thornhill asks Iris as she gestures to a white plant in a jar not unlike the Beauty and the Beast one on her desk.
"Dendrophylax lindenii," Iris has to bite her lip slightly to keep her smile from getting too wide as she gets to talk about the one thing she's majorly in love with.
Bianca raises her hand, but begins to talk without being called on anyway, "otherwise known as the Ghost Orchid."
"First discovered on the Isle of Wight in 1854," Iris is practically buzzing with excitement in how she could go on for hours about all things floral.
"Very good, Iris. You might have some competition for first chair, Bianca," Ms. Thornhill applauds and Iris suddenly gets a bit self-conscious as she remembers there are other people in the room too. "Maybe you can tell some of the Ghost Orchid's most redeemable qualities, Iris."
"Resilience and adaptability," she says easily. Woah, relatable. "It's able to thrive in even the most hostile environments." Cough Bianca cough.
"But its mere presence can change the ecosystem, causing the established plants to reject it," miss mermaid herself counters.
"Usually it's because the native species is allowed to thrive unchecked," Iris says in rebuttal, but in her mind it was just another fact, but, then again, she didn't really feel bad for any offensive tone she may take on. "Nothing a Weedwacker couldn't fix."
"You can most certainly try."
"Are we still talking about flowers?" Xavier jokes to cut the tension, and Ms. Thornhill takes the hint to come in.
"Thank you, ladies, for those illuminating insights. Clearly the plants aren't the only carnivores in class today."
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
"The cover was darker. More like a day-old contusion. Keep looking," Wednesday directs Thing on one bookshelf in the library as Iris stands at the other side of the room looking through her own set of books.
"Wait, so then he took your hand to hide you behind the tree?" Iris forces Wednesday to recount what she discovered while Iris was in her atrocity of a plant class in the woods to find more clues on this Rowan mystery.
"No, he used his hand to cover my mouth," Wednesday couldn't sound more annoyed as her sister focuses on the least important parts of the story. "And, how are you not more stressed about this, don't you understand we could be capable of destroying this entire school?" Wednesday suddenly spins around to stare at Iris.
"C'mon, Wednesday, you don't seriously believe that ridiculous drawing, do you?" Iris is slightly taken aback by the sudden emotion her sister is showing. "That could be anyone with dark hair."
"You haven't seen the drawing properly," Wednesday pulls the paper out of her pocket and strides across to her sister, unfolding the paper on her way.
Iris grabs it and examines as Wednesday looks at her intently. "You think you're the only person in the history of this school to wear her hair in two braids?" Iris understands her sister's worry, but it's unlike Wednesday to act like this. Maybe this school is finally changing her.
Iris and Wednesday both do braids in their hair - they started when Pugsley started putting cockroaches in their beds while they slept - and while the habit stuck with Wednesday in the form of two signature braids on either side of her head, Iris's became more subtle with 2-3 smaller braids scattered throughout her hair. Maybe a bead or two in one when she was feeling fancy.
Anyway, Iris isn't really sure how to comfort Wednesday, especially when she's never needed comfort her before, but she's surprised when Wednesday just walks away briskly.
"I don't expect you to understand."
"What?"
"I don't mean this in a mean way," but Wednesday still won't make eye contact with her. "It's just. . . This drawing, it makes sense for me. It makes sense that I would let things get so out of hand that I could bring down the whole school."
"Why would I take that in a mean way?" Iris is confused. Her sister just told her she doesn't think she's evil- oh wait. That must be a horrible thing in Wednesday's mind. "Wednesday," Iris walks over to put a hand on her sister's shoulder in comfort. "If you are anything, you are smart and calculated. You know better than to bring harm to people by accident."
"Then, what if it's on purpose?" Wednesday allows herself to share all her terrors. "What if this school is just my final breaking point?"
"Then. . . I won't let you hurt anyone. Like, your reverse bodyguard."
". . . Thank you."
"Are you smiling right now?"
"I will smash your head against these books."
"What are you ladies up to?"
a/n:
guys don't hate on me for Wednesday being ok w Iris touching her like putting her hand on her shoulder like she lets her dad hug her and everything she just doesn't like people thinking they know her when she's far too complex for that but she knows that Iris knows that she's just a teenage girl yk 🙏
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favorite liar | xavier thorpe
FanfictionIn which Iris Addams is nothing like her family and Xavier Thorpe is too much like his own.
