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Language:
English
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Published:
2024-04-12
Words:
900
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
17
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64
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5
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382

Flowers

Summary:

Janine asks Gregory a question: “If you were a flower, what would you be?”

Notes:

A conversation between Janine and Gregory. Takes place in no particular season, at no particular time.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

“If you were a flower, what would you be?” Janine asked, unprompted, as she entered, uninvited, through Gregory’s open classroom door.

“Huh?” Gregory managed, looking up from his desk. 

“If you were a flower, what would you be?” Janine repeated as she approached him. Gregory moved to open his mouth again, but Janine interrupted before he could speak. “I want to be clear, I’m not asking your favorite flower. Though I will ask that next, because I’m curious. I’m asking, what is the flower version of you?”

Gregory furrowed his brow, casting her a confused glance. Janine had thought that no context was the fastest way to get an answer, but she should have known better with Gregory. He needed all information available to him before responding.

“My second graders have been in this phase,” Janine explained. “‘What dog am I?’ ‘What candy bar am I?’ Stuff like that. They come up with some pretty creative answers, and some pretty funny reasonings. And it gets me thinking about people in my life too. Like come on, you know Jacob is a KitKat bar.”

“Do I?” Gregory questioned.

“But you’re a tough cookie sometimes. Not literally. I don’t know if you’d be any type of sweet, if we’re deciding what food you are,” Janine babbled. “I just mean, sometimes it’s hard to figure out what you would be in these scenarios. So I want to ask you yourself. And the category is flowers, as you are our horticulture expert.” Janine opened her arms in front of her, as if welcoming Gregory onto a stage. “Okay, go.”

“Hmm,” Gregory considered. “What flower do you think I am?”

“No,” Janine laughed. “That’s not the point. This is an exercise in self-reflection. Come on, dig deep.” She paused. “That’s not a garden pun, but it could have been.”

“Okay, alright,” Gregory conceded. He fell into quiet thought as he looked out towards the window. Janine wondered if he was ticking off flowers in his brain or just trying to get a glimpse of his own garden.

“I think I’d be a sunflower,” he said finally. He didn’t turn back to look at Janine until he’d finished his sentence.

“Ooh, pretty!” Janine fawned. “Tell me why.”

“Well, when it comes to sunflowers, the first thing you think of is their sturdy stems.” Stems? The first thing Janine thought of when it came to sunflowers was their bright yellow color. But she let Gregory continue on, fascinated. “And I think I’m pretty sturdy, I guess. I try to be.”

“Absolutely,” Janine piped up, encouraging him. “You’re a steadfast pillar for the kids in your class. And for your peers!”

“Sunflowers are also pretty functional,” Gregory listed, speaking carefully. “They produce sunflower seeds and sunflower oil, which can be used in all sorts of things. And I like to think I’m - you know - productive, I guess.” Janine nodded along encouragingly. She could tell this was a little outside his comfort zone, but she was loving this insight into how Gregory viewed himself.

“Also they mature fast,” Gregory continued, surprising Janine by continuing to add on to his list of reasons. “Did you know it only takes sunflowers 100 days to reach maturity? I can relate to that, maturing young. That’s the way my dad raised me. If you want to call it maturity.”

“Wow. I’m learning a lot about sunflowers and Gregory today,” Janine smiled. Gregory smiled back at her.

“And they’re attracted to the sun,” Gregory said as he looked straight into Janine’s eyes. For some reason, this simple statement - or maybe it was the way Gregory said it - made Janine’s stomach flutter. “I mean - ‘attracted to’ probably isn’t the phrase,” Gregory stumbled. “They’re - uh - drawn towards the sun as it moves. They like it.” He was really rambling now. “But almost all flowers like the sun of course, so you know what, never mind. It doesn’t matter.” 

Before Janine had a chance to ask Gregory why this sun attraction was a trait that he identified with, he moved on.

“Your turn,” he said. “What flower are you?” Janine needed far less time to contemplate this question than Gregory did, as she had already given it some thought.

“I’m a tulip,” she said proudly. “I don’t have a green thumb like you, so my reasons are far less informed. But tulips are bright! And colorful! Don’t they come in a bunch of different colors?” Gregory nodded in confirmation. “And they just make me think of warmth and spring, and that’s how I want to make the kids in my class feel.”

“I can see it. Definitely,” Gregory agreed with her assessment. 

“You know what I was thinking though?” Janine added on. She probably shouldn’t have brought it up, but Gregory had put her in a sharing mood. “Tulips are appreciated every now and then, but they’re never anyone’s favorite flower. And I think that makes sense too.” She took a breath in, looking away, already deciding how best to change the subject. 

“That’s not true,” Gregory spoke up before Janine could devise a reasonable transition into another subject matter. “You were going to ask me what my favorite flower is. Ask me now.”

“What’s your favorite flower?” Janine asked dutifully, a small smile playing on her lips.

“Tulip, hands down.” Gregory answered. Janine would have laughed, if it weren’t for the striking sincerity in his face.

Notes:

Quick fic! There was a "flower lore" TikTok about the Abbott characters and Janine's was "no matter what, tulips won't ever be anyone's favorite". And of course my first thought was, I bet they'd be Gregory's favorite 🤭 So I wrote this whole conversation just to get to that line.

Here is that TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLUQ7uAx/

Thanks for reading ♥️ You are my favorite flower 🌷