Greenhouse || Xavier Thorpe x Male Reader

scotch broom || chapter 31

 The next morning, the rain has turned into a mist, dampening the air but making it possible to go outside without getting drenched. All the thoughts of the exams and even of the potential to spend part of the summer with Xavier are beginning to fog over my brain, so I get a jacket and walk to the library to play the piano and clear my head a little bit. Once I arrive, I set my things down next to the piano bench and pull out some sheet music I had printed in Jericho a few days after my discovery of the baby grand.

The opening notes of Valerian by David Ross Lawn fill the small room. I'm not the best at the piece yet as it's pretty fast, but I like the way it sounds anyways. It's a very short piece, approximately two and a half minutes long, but those minutes stretch on forever as the music flows throughout the library. My head stops spinning as much, now focusing on hitting the right notes at the quick tempo.

When I finish playing the piece, I start again. My brain is still foggy, much more so than I would like, and so I concentrate back on the keys. It doesn't help as much as growing a plant would, but I can't grow another one while I'm clearing out the greenhouse. It would just be an extra hassle.

After a few more times playing the piece, I decide that I should just go to the quad and eat. The breakfast bell tolls as I make my way up the stairs and find my friends already at a table.

"Hey, you're the last one of us here today!" Ajax comments when I sit down.

"Yeah, yeah," I say with a laugh, rolling my eyes. "I know."

Xavier moves over on the bench to make room for me to sit. "I was kind of worried, honestly."

"I was just in the library," I tell him. He smiles. Lately, he's been doing that a lot more, but it still makes me just as happy to see it as it did when he barely smiled at all.

"Well, you're here now."

"Yeah."

We eat in silence, but the conversation doesn't hesitate to start up once everyone is finished.

"Hey, [Y/N], how long have you and Xavier been together?" Enid asks, always the one for celebrating anniversaries, even when you're just dating.

"God, it must have been... Almost five months or so at this point," I realize. "You and Wednesday for almost as long, then."

Ajax groans and shakes his head. "Why am I the only one of us here that's still single?"

The rest of us laugh and Xavier pats him on the back.

"Soon, dude, soon."

~=~

The five of us depart for our classes, all heading to Botany first. The class has gotten more strenuous, although it's nothing beyond my level yet. We've been getting into the handling of potentially deadly plants, although with my resistance to poison plants, it's been easy. Some may call it cheating, but I call it making up for the fact that I will undoubtedly fail Psychic-Branch Powers due to their lack of teaching content relevant to my abilities. It's hard to sit in a lecture hall when the professor is talking to almost everybody except you.

Miss Featherfell has assigned us random partners for our current project, growing a Scotch Broom bush. Especially difficult for the masses, given that a Scotch Broom is best grown in southern climates. Unfortunately, her random partners idea didn't work out too well, as my group consists of Bianca, Wednesday, and I. Also known as her best students.

We're about two months into the project and she has said it will likely take us until the end of the school year. She just wants to see whose bushes are taking root and growing, having a fully-grown bush isn't a requirement. To make it more difficult for my group, I'm not allowed to use any abilities except for my poison resistance. It's only a class B noxious weed, so it's not like we would die from touching it anyhow.

"Ugh, [Y/N], are you sure you can't just magic it a bit for us?" Bianca complains as we look at our bush. I shake my head.

"It's growing just fine without my abilities," I tell her. "Were it not, I might bend the rules a little bit, but it doesn't need my help."

Wednesday just scowls. Even with the amicable silence between Bianca and herself, she still remains more stone-faced than usual. I'm used to it, at this point, but it is somewhat annoying to be the only person in a group that either of the other members will talk to.

We spend the majority of the class period just watching the plant, not having anything to do with it after watering and trimming some dead branches. The bell rings far too soon for my taste, and I shoulder my bag before heading to the Beekeeping hut with Wednesday.

~=~

After a full day of classes, nothing sounds better to me than just going up to my dorm and reading, so that's what I do. I pull a book from my shelf and settle down in my bed, comfortable. I'm about three chapters in, fully engrossed in the story, when I notice that Xavier seems to have suddenly appeared by my side. He rests his head on my shoulder as I continue to read, occasionally glancing at the book and reading a page or two. Eventually, he falls asleep with his head still on my shoulder. I smile softly and set the book aside before clicking out the light and trying to fall asleep as well.