fandomhigh | The Magic of Plants, Wednesday, Per 3

It felt good to be back on the island again and in front of a class. Even though it seemed like she only came to the island these days when everything was exploding, Karla still missed Fandom and all of its whimsical madness. Though since she did have a class to teach, she should probably get on that, rather than reminiscing about the times she'd had class in this very room and the state of her old locker.

"Hello, class, and welcome to the Magic of Plants," she said, giving her class an easy smile. "Which, depending on where you're from, might have a disappointing ratio of magic to plants. This isn't some introduction to witchcraft--that's not how my Craft works--we are going to learn to unlock a lot of the uses of some common plants you might come across in your day to day life. You likely already know that plants are integral to our survival as a species; they feed us, clothe us, shelter us, provide us the bases for a great many medications and remedies. Also, tea, coffee, and chocolate all come from plants and without those necessities, we'd have to have serious conversations about how much of life is actually worth living."

Because coffee. Life-giving, precious coffee.

"But since you've all been on the island for at least a semester, then you know what the first week is for. So, introductions! Name, class, why you took this course, and then an old favorite ice breaker of mine--two truths and a lie. Tell the class two truths about yourself and one lie and we'll all guess which one is a lie. And then once that's done, we're going to use plants to make papyrus sheets like your Ancient...Sumerians did? No, that doesn't sound right, hold on." Karla looked at her phone to double check. "Ah! Ancient Egyptians! Right, like the Ancient Egyptians did."

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Once the last introduction was over, Karla spoke again. "I should probably do this too," she decided. "So, as I said, I'm Karla, I graduated Class of 2013, I'm teaching this course because plants are important to two of my castes and I feel like sharing some of the cool stuff they can do. And for my two truths and a lie, I'll go with...I'm twenty-seven years old, I'm from a planet called Naboo, and I have four children. Which one is the lie?"

". . . You do not have four children," Tip decided. Karla looked way to well put together and rested to be a mother of four, in her opinion.

"That just hurts my feelings," Karla teased, calling in a scrapbook out of thin air. "I do, too. Though I'll grant you, two of them are not mine biologically."

And now Tip (and Summer!) got to look at a few family pictured because you're welcome, that's why. "Cora and Nyles are my eldest," she said, pointing to two dark-haired teens that looked nothing like the blondes in the pictures, save for the broadness of their smiles. "These two, Kayla and Nommy--" blond little cherubs, complete with wings "--are mine by blood, but..."

This was Fandom. The day she had to explain to a Fandom kid about chosen family being just as valid was the day she stopped coming to teach.

Tip looked over the pictures and nodded. "Yeah, okay. The Naboo thing, then." A beat. "Cute kids."

"Thank you, Gratuity," Karla said, beaming. Look, she loved getting complimented on her kids. All of them. "And you're correct. My Territory is called Glacia, a whole different reality from where Naboo is."

She just vacationed there sometimes. With the grandson of the former Queen of the planet. As you do.

"But if there were any students from the reality where Naboo exists, I figured that might trip them up."

"I've never heard of Naboo and I was perfectly happy to believe you," Tip agreed. "This island really makes the two-truths-and-a-lie game extra weird, doesn't it."

"That's why it's one of my favorite games to play here," Karla said. "Nothing like alternate worlds and different to shake up your ideas of what's possible and what isn't."

"I think I'd be with Tip on this one," Summer added, "except that the math doesn't add up. If you were class of 2013, that was only four years ago, so unless you graduated at age 23, which I mean, is possible, but..."

Then there was a slight pause, like an idea coming to her, a realization of where she was and what might be possible, narrowed eyes to match it. "Unless it's some weird time jump thing that happened at one point, in which case..."

She scrutinized Karla a little closer. "Yeah, I'm with Tip. The four kids is a lie."

"Time in my world travels at twice the speed as Fandom's," Karla confirmed with a grin. "Four years for the island, eight for me--Mother Night has it really been that long?--and I was nineteen when I graduated."

And now she was going to have to go back and check her math to make sure her dates added up.

"Okay, right, math checks out," she said with a nod. "And, may I present you with proof that I do, in fact, have four children." A big scrapbook appeared out of nowhere and Karla flipped open to her current favorite family picture: in front of a palatial estate was her, standing next to a blond man with wings. Next to them were two dark-haired teens, each holding a small blond, winged child in their arms. "My Consort Warren, our eldest children by adoption, Nyles and Cora, and our younger children, Kayla and Nommy."

Well, technically Collin, but Summer could see the cheeks on that little boy, couldn't she?

"Four children," she said with a wink.

"Ohhhhhhhh." It all made sense now; she was rich. She bobbed her head, the pieces falling together. "Cute kids, though, nice job. I should have known Naboo was kind of a dumb name for a planet."

Said the girl from the planet whose name literally meant dirt.

She wasn't just rich, she was a Queen. That helped a great deal. Also having enough power that you needed to eat four thousand calories a day or you started losing weight really made the baby weight easy to ditch.

"Naboo is a planet that actually exists, though," Karla said with a laugh. "My friends have a summer home there."

The Magic of Plants, Wednesday, Per 3

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