With their interactions back to square one, Blythe didn’t want to deal with Magnus for lunch period on Wednesday.

  She sent off her pink galah cockatoo to convey a quick message to him—it was best they gave each other some space, so she was having lunch with just Jessica and Sophie.

  It didn’t take long for her favorability points to take a hit, but it didn't bother her.

  Blythe was willing to bet that those points would’ve gone down today, regardless of what she did. Either she’d lose them for daring to exist within his general vicinity, or she’d lose them for initiating space between them. Since she couldn’t win, why subject herself to being glared at for the next two hours?

  Lunch went well enough. Thanks to Magnus’ absence, her poor appetite improved ever-so-slightly. She still didn’t feel up to eating her usual amount but managed to force down most of the meal for the sake of physical fitness.

  “Do you have any plans for after school, Blythe?” Sophie asked, twirling the egg noodles of her beef stroganoff around her fork. “Would you like to go to the library together? I heard they just added a new batch of romance novels to the Reading Space’s collection.”

  “Oh, that sounds good. Let’s go. Jess?”

  Blythe was really happy to learn yesterday that Jessica and Sophie adored romance novels too; it was her first time having friends who liked reading in the same genres as her. The original Blythe apparently also loved reading them, which meant neither of her friends got suspicious on that front.

  “I have a club meeting today,” Jessica replied, pouting. “We’re making steamed buns with sweet fillings today. Don’t let me hold you back, though. I’d love to hear what new titles they’ve added. You could show me at dinner.”

  They promised to tell her about it at dinner. The positivity of the conversation chipped away at the heaviness in Blythe’s chest. She wished it could take her mind off things entirely.

  The rest of the school day went by without a hitch, even in Art, which was her last class of the day. Jessica fumed quietly to Blythe about how Daisy had the nerve to sit beside Magnus like it was where she belonged. Of course, she’d conveniently left out how it was Magnus who’d chosen the seat beside Daisy in the first place.

  Blythe repeated again to Jessica that he could sit wherever he liked, causing Jessica to quiet down.

  At some point, Blythe looked over from her canvas in time to catch Jessica trying to kill Daisy with the venom in her glare. Daisy was biting her lip and wearing the most uncomfortable frown on her face, her eyes occasionally wandering near Jessica’s direction before darting back to her own canvas.

  “Knock it off,” Blythe whispered. “Focus on your painting. We’re under a time limit.”

  Jessica pouted but did as she was told.

  When class was over, Blythe and Magnus both pretended the other didn’t exist. He brushed past her out of the classroom without a single glance in her direction. She took her own sweet time to put her things back into her bag, acting like she couldn’t feel Jessica’s worried gaze on her.

  As they walked down the hallway, Jessica whispered into her ear, “I don’t mean to intrude, but is everything alright between you and His Highness?”

  “We’re fine,” Blythe said, giving her a reassuring smile. “We’re giving each other space for now. ”

  Although Jessica looked skeptical, she dropped the subject. They descended the first two flights of stairs together and then parted ways there—Blythe was going to meet Sophie outside her classroom, and Jessica had her Culinary Arts club meeting to attend.

  Sophie’s professor had a tendency to end his lessons a little late, or so Sophie had said, so Blythe waited by the wall a few feet away from the closed classroom door. A couple of minutes later, the door flew open and students burst out into the hallway.

  “Blythe!” Sophie called out, squeezing past the crowd to stand in front of her. “Sorry for making you wait.”

  Everyone around them wore relieved expressions as though glad to have escaped from the classroom.

  “It’s not your fault,” Blythe said. “Let’s go.”

  Sophie hesitated. “Actually, is it okay if we drop by the greenhouse first? I want to check on my project. I’ll be quick!”

  “Sure, but you should take however long you need. I’m not in a hurry.”

  Sophie beamed.

  When they arrived at the greenhouse, Sophie seemed startled that Blythe intended to follow her in.

  “I’m curious about your project,” Blythe explained. Besides, she would be bored if she simply stood around outside waiting for Sophie to be done. “Can I take a look?”

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  Sophie’s thrilled smile said everything.

  “Of course!”

  Sophie led the way to one corner of the greenhouse, where several large potted plants, spaced out from each other, rested on a wooden rack. A large note with the words ‘Advanced Botany I’ scrawled on it was stuck to the side of the rack.

  Blythe couldn’t help checking out her surroundings. While her Botany lessons all took place in the greenhouse, the workbenches and seats were closer to the entrance than to the back. Generally, the potted plants used for each lesson were brought to them, or already set up nearby for students to easily access.

  She knew that the greenhouse was far bigger than the area she was allowed to explore during classes, but she hadn’t realized just how large it was until now. All kinds of plants, familiar and unfamiliar-looking ones alike, were on display around them.

  Sophie went straight for one of the potted plants, talking to it like it was a toddler. “I’m here, Dewy! Did you miss me? Let’s have a look at your growth today …”

  Pulling out a measuring tape from her bag, Sophie began measuring one of its leaves. Blythe squinted. A strange red glow emanated from inside its otherwise green stems, providing a visual effect of it flowing throughout the plant.

  “You named it?”

  Sophie’s cheeks tinged with pink. “I thought it was funny to name a flamestalk Dewy. I know it’s silly to talk to plants.”

  “It’s not silly,” Blythe said. “I was just surprised.”

  Sophie gaped at her.

  She was on a roll with Sophie’s points today. Now that she recalled the journal entries she’d read so far, the original Blythe wasn’t very wowed by Sophie’s career aspirations. Sophie was likely used to Blythe making unimpressed remarks about her botanical skills.

  While Sophie was busy with her flamestalk, Blythe looked at the other plants on the rack. The pots were all labeled with names written on masking tape. Callum’s one contained a plant with rich brown leaves that were glossy in texture.

  “I have to add some compost to the pot,” Sophie said, her tone apologetic. “I’ll be right back.”

  Blythe shook her head. “It’s no problem. I’ll walk around.”

  The tension went out of Sophie’s expression. “Thanks for understanding.”

  Thus, Blythe began exploring the rest of the greenhouse. She strolled to the next section, where plants with very colorful leaves but relatively normal flowers in comparison in pots greeted her. Their leaves were kind of iridescent, making her feeling a little disoriented after staring at them for a second too long.

  In the next area demarcated by a yellow banner, strange squeaking sounds drew her attention.

  Were there mice? More intrigued than anything else, Blythe inched forward in the direction of the squeaks. She didn’t need to have much experience with greenhouses to know that rodents didn’t belong in them. If they really were mice, she’d have to tell someone. Sophie would probably know what to do with the information.

  To her astonishment, the sounds grew louder as she neared the potted plants on the rack. She didn’t see any movement on the ground or the racks. The squeaks seemed to be coming from the plants, which were swaying slightly despite the absence of wind.

  Against her better judgement, Blythe put her ear closer to one of the plants to hear better. These were just plants, so it wasn’t like anything bad could happen.

  The squeaks really were coming from them.

  She was about to pull back when the noise stopped. Blythe jerked her head back just in time to witness the few ball-shaped green appendages protruding from the stems pull open into halves with pointy teeth-like edges and snap relentlessly in her direction.

  Heart in her throat, Blythe stared at the plant futilely attempting to take a bite out of her.

  She pulled up its profile.

  Was those squeaks supposed to lure in actual mice thinking another mouse was around?

  She wasn’t going to lean in that close again. The plants in this world were weird.

  After backing away, she continued to check out the rest of the greenhouse. The last section was separated by a glass wall with a door. Two poles flanked the door, with large red banners hanging from them.

  On the left stood a coat rack upon which several pieces of strange-looking bright blue full body gear hung. Blythe eyed it curiously as she gave the wood glass door an experimental push. It opened inwards easily.

  All kinds of interesting-looking plants resided here. A lot of them moved every now and then, kind of like the squeakertrap did.

  The one that caught her eye the most was a six-foot tall plant that was growing out of the soil. Unlike some of the other neighboring plants, there was no garden stake tied around its uber-thick green stalk to support its weight. She was amazed it was standing upright just like that, especially with an enormous pink flower nearly twice the size of a watermelon growing out from the top of it.

  Blythe walked up to it, gazing up at its numerous pastel pink and purple flowers crowding around the top half of its body. The stems connected to these small flowers moved a little here and there, creating a beckoning effect. Lush, green leaves grew out of the stems coming out from the middle section of its stalk. All these complemented the giant flower on top. With how thick its stalk was, Blythe thought it looked more like a flowering tree at this point.

  It was really quite pretty.

  Curious, she checked its name.

  Wait a second … What kind of name is that?

  She stared at the system window, racking her brain to figure out the weird name. She’d expected a cutesy name like ‘princess tree’ or something that was befitting of its appearance, but this wasn’t it.

  Chute?

  She looked back at the plant. Was it referring to the stem that was as thick as a tree trunk?

  Hasty footsteps came from the side, and someone yelled, “What are you doing?!“

  Just as she turned in the direction of the voice, she saw the stalk of the vorachute rear backwards out of the corner of her eye.

  Wait—

  Everything happened so quickly.

  A large force from the side barrelled into her, tackling her to the ground. She barely had time to yelp in surprise before her back slammed against the ground, knocking the air out of her lungs.

  “Are you stupid?!” Giovanni snarled, pulling back and scowling down at her. “You almost got eaten!”

  Blythe stared up at him, barely able to register his angry words over the thunderous rush of blood in her ears. Behind him, the vorachute’s giant flower was trying to get at him but failing—each attempt at striking his back caused it to rear back in a spasming jolt. Giovanni was trying to block her from the plant, spreading his arms to cover a larger area.

  She could now see the large hole in the center of the giant flower that acted as the source of its suctioning force, previously concealed because Blythe wasn’t tall enough to look down into its center.

  Suddenly, she thought she understood why it had ‘chute’ in its name. She noticed that Giovanni was wearing one of those blue body gear outfits she’d seen hanging on the coat rack earlier.

  “You need to crawl out of here,” he barked at her, his body hovering over hers as he braced his hands and feet against the ground. “I’ll cover you. Move.”