Chapter 7: One With The Herbs
Botany Class, Timber Creek School Of Fine Arts, Wakefield, U.S.A...
It hadn't taken Porter Fulton long to find the main building once more as he moved about the vast campus and toward the building lined from roof to yard by way of large winding vines both green and black in their collective appearance as they seemed to be wrapped around a massive greenhouse with numerous glass panels that made it quite easy for direct sunlight to enter the room and feed life into the hungry plants that dwelled within and outside of the classroom. Porter found the place to be better than he expected with all the greenery and sunlight to look forward to despite it being their classroom. He'd taken an active interest in plants when he'd been a kid wondering how something so small and frail could be so powerful in its own right if given the right amount of nurturing and room to grow.
He would have been lying if he had said that he had not considered how alike he and plants seemed to be in that regard despite being shunned and ostracized throughout his childhood in favor of his brothers because of his abnormal development. Porter had secretly wondered if his genetics had been due to him being a werewolf and where he had gotten them if the rest of his family had been human, or at least he had believed them to have been human.
Distracted by his thoughts as he moved toward his seat, among a row of plain dark brown hardwood desks that seemed to have been more out of place than the rather confused bunch of students that filed into their latest class, Porter Fulton had not noticed the unceremonious tapping against his shoulder by way of a small girl with striking blue streaks amid dark and wild curly locks that seemed to have something of a bounce to it. The girl seemed fond of the colors black and blue, oddly fitting for someone with gothic style tastes as she moved into the seat next to Porter her face a solemn mask of indifference as she swept beside him and placed her books onto the desk.
"Oooh Embrey's finally showed herself." said a group of girls dressed in brighter colors ranging from red, green, and pink. The one in red had been a blonde, the one in green a brunette, and the prettiest one in pink a redhead when Porter had taken the time to look over at them. They seemed to have been delighting in a bit of mischief as they took turns using what Porter recognized to have been magic to shift the color of the girl with blue streaks in her hair's attire to a color more pleasing to one of them.
The brooding girl known as "Embery" seemed to notice and with a swipe of her hand made a Venus fly trap appear and bite at the three outwardly pretty but wildly obvious girls' heels just as the teacher entered the classroom annoyed by the presence of anyone aside from her precious plants.
His name was Mr. Royce Arthur Holland, the resident botanist and greenhouse specialist with a degree in a good deal of fieldwork and occasionally he'd been something of a horticulturist, from the looks of him, he was more interested in his flora than that of anyone else that had been in his presence unless it had something to do with his most favorite subject.
Mr. Holland had pulled a wand from his pocket, ivory white in color as he swiped at the Venus Fly Trap causing it to float into the air and ease toward him via levitation much to the relief of the three obnoxious, yet decidedly pretty girls from before.
"That will be enough trifling with the flora Miss Trudow," said Mr. Holland with a grim expression as his large framed glasses sparked in the light of the sun that loomed above them. "In this class, you will learn to be one with the herbs not upset them with your lack of balance and insight into nature."
Porter turned his attention to the instructor.
Mr. Holland had been a thin man with bronze-colored skin and neatly combed dark hair that was given to male pattern baldness. It seemed he could get plants to grow with little to no effort but when it came to his hair he'd been S.O.L. He had looked the part of a human twig given his skinny frame and seemed content with his yellow dress shirt, olive green Corduroy trousers, and suit coat made from what one could only describe as being out-of-date tweed. His tie was a lined pattern of yellow and olive green in color right down to his highly polished dress shoes.
He didn't look like much, but he'd been magically inclined which had been saying something with how easily he levitated the Venus Flytrap toward him.
"I'm already one with the herb, Holland," grumbled Embrey annoyed.
Of course, she had not meant the kind of plants they were going on about in class. Something Porter's rather keen nose had picked up on the moment they walked into class together. He turned his attention to his textbook as had everyone else in class as Mr. Holland had geared up for his lecture on photosynthesis and the proper care of plant life.
Porter did his best not to yawn as he had known all too well about this since grade school and found it rather dull and time-consuming to have to endure it once again now that he'd been in college.
Embrey seemed to be of the same mind as she glared at her textbook and yawned real big when Holland turned his back to his rather oddly summoned blackboard. He had not even had the decency to conjure a whiteboard and use markers which annoyed Porter to no end due to his ears picking up the loud screeching of the thin white chalk stick, firmly grasped between Mr. Holland's thin pale fingers as it began moving along the board before them.
So far Mr. Holland's Botany class had been just like any other boring class back at home, despite being packed with magically inclined and supernatural beings, aside from the vampires for obvious reasons. Porter had gotten the sense that he'd been the only werewolf in attendance and given the screeching of the chalk, he had not been shocked as to why.
A typical hour-long lecture is what he wanted, after nearly losing his mind after gym class and finding out the truth about his new school and himself for that matter, and it seemed the school had been intent on delivering.