Alias [Yuri Briar x Reader]

Mission 14: to earn a stella

When Monday rolled around, you were glad to go to school. Sitting in the house had become suffocating because of the unspoken tension between you and Yuri when he came over. You could tell Loid wanted to talk to you about it but you dodged the topic at any given opportunity, going as far as to jump out the two story bedroom window when he cornered you.

Sure. You would admit that you did have a slight attitude. But it was justified! Yuri came across as a dick and you didn't appreciate assholes. So if Loid was looking for you to apologize then he could forget it!

"Y/n, you alright?" Chelsea asked, taking her seat next to yours. "You've been zoning out all morning which isn't like you."

"I'm fine," you assure. "Just tired."

"Well you better perk up," Jasmine exclaimed. She appeared seemingly out of nowhere which startled you. The girl wrapped an arm around you shoulder in a near choke hole that prevented you from escaping. "I hear that we have an opportunity to earn a Stella star coming up."

"And who did you hear that from?" Hinako scoffed.

Jasmine shrugged. "Just rumors from the other classes. There's supposedly an opportunity with this upcoming science project. The best group performance will be get a Stella for each contributor."

Needless to say, your interest was piqued. Regardless of your ill feelings towards Yuri and the tension at home, you had a mission to complete. You had to stay focused.

"So, we're all going to be partners right?" Jasmine smiled.

You nod with a small smile. "Naturally."

.｡.:*☆___★___☆*:.｡.

After school, you all went to Chelsea's place to work on the science project. The parameters where quite flexible. The project had to pertain either to physics, biology, chemistry or forensics. It was pretty difficult to think of something that didn't fall under the cliche, but eventually, you all settled on biology.

To your group's surprise, Jasmine had suggested the idea. It was mostly a surprise because she always slept during class, so it was hard to believe she'd be so gung-ho about the assignment. But her reasonings were heartwarming.

"Back at home, most people are farmers, but in recent years, the soil hasn't been the best due to droughts," Jasmine explained. "Perhaps our project could focus on finding other means of production when soil quality is poor. That way famine rates won't be as high due to lack of produce."

You all stare at the girl in shock.

"What? Do you think it's dumb?" Jasmine nervously chuckled.

"No, I'm just surprised it's actually good," Hinako bluntly stated.

Jasmine shrugged. "Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment."

At Chelsea's, her mother had an extravagant garden with multiple foreign plants. You collected samples from indigenous Ostanian plants, one from Weatalis, and Jasmine had a silk flower from her home country back at her place that you would use a sample from.

After mapping out the experiment, your group had a pretty good resolution: hydroponics. Plants can survive without being planted in soil. The science of growing plants in nutrient-rich water is hydroponics. In hydroponics, the nutrients are available at the plant's roots. So, without any work, the plant gets its food and nutrition.

For the experiment you had three groups, the soil group, the arid group and the hydroponic group. With the soil group, each of the plants would be planted in normal, nutrient rich soil. The second group would be planted in dry soil, similar to the kind back in Jasmine's home country. The third group would be grown with the hydroponic method. The goal was to showcase how alternative planting methods may or may not prove to be more fruitful than regular soil and farming methods.