Thorn • Scott Summers

four

It had been a week since Florence's first day, and she had began to settle into the routine. She had three morning classes and 4 in the afternoon, then trained with Hank between them every day during his lunch. She had improved in the days she had been there, but there was still a long way to go. Slowly, she was controlling her powers, not her anger.

Today, she walked from her literature class to the greenhouse, the path having been memorized by now.

She got there before Hank most of the time, because he usually caught up with Charles after teaching, but not today. She walked in, closing the door behind her.

"Hey, so you know how you asked me to look for something that calms me down?"

She turned around and Hank met her eyes. Someone else peeked out behind a tall plant. Scott.

"-Oh. I didn't know you were busy. I can come back later after-"

"No, it's fine Florence, Scott's just here to take a test. We can go on like normal."

Florence stood for a few seconds, her eyes wandering to Scott. He pursed his lips.

"Yeah, sure, that's fine," Florence complied, walking over to the large steel table Hank was at.

"So, what did you find?"

"Find? What do you mean?" Florence said confused, subconsciously distracted by the other boy.

"The thing I asked you to find, what calms you." Hank said amusingly.

"Oh! Oh, yeah, sorry," she said, pulling her backpack onto the table and digging through it. She pulled a small gray box out of it, laying it on the cold surface.

"A Walkman?"

"Yeah, Peter had an extra one. I remembered music usually helped me when I got pissed."

"Well, whatever works," Hank said, grabbing the music player. He opened it to see the cassette, smiling and raising his eyebrows.

"The Cure?"

Florence nodded, picking at her nails.

"You're into them?" Scott blurted out.

"Yeah," Florence looked up, "they're my favorite band. Why, you like them?"

Scott shrugged, looking down at the table. He didn't answer, and Florence furrowed her brows in confusion.

Scott leaned down on the table, resting his elbows on it, his face resting on his hand. "Hank, can I take the test now?"

Hank, seemingly distracted by the Walkman, hurriedly shoved the cassette back into the device. "Yeah, sorry. Just got a little distracted."

Florence snickered quietly, turning against the table, resting her back on it. The greenhouse was big and had a plenty amount of plants, but it had space for way more.

Scott's eyes wandered to her, watching what she was doing in curiosity. Of course, he would never admit it.
While Hank was shuffling through papers in his bag to find the right one, he noticed Scott staring at Florence. Hank had heard of and seen first hand their banter and glares, but he knew it was just the surface; a façade. There was much more underneath. He smirked to himself with a self-conscious and satisfied air. He moved his gaze towards what Florence was doing and his thoughts went back to her training.

Florence concentrated on a long vine on the ceiling. She lifted her hand up slightly, and the vine began to unravel itself from the tube it had been wrapped around. It moved towards a table below it, then to a stool that was under it. The vine was long enough to reach her, so she pushed the stool towards her. Once it was next to her, she sat on it, turning back to the table. She peeked over her shoulder, and the vine lifted itself up and wrapped itself around the rod on the ceiling once again.