“I guess.” I put my chin in my hands and my elbows on my knees.

From far away it looked like Brooke was doing the interviewing, which was probably the truth of it. I’ve never seen someone look as bored as Riley in my entire life, it was like nothing mattered to her. We certainly didn’t. She didn’t look like the type that did field work like this. The way she planted her stance and was ready to defend herself at any moment made me think she was more of a front lines soldier. I wonder why she had to be here.

Conner climbed out of the pool, the vines and flowers had spread to the rim and were crawling along the cracks in the floor. I noticed he purposely avoided them, not in a disgusted way. He avoided them out of respect. Lunite or not this was a life and even if he didn’t openly show it, I knew. He didn’t even need to look at them as he walked around the edge. Each step placed where a flower wasn’t or had just been as it extended further.

“My turn.” Simon pushed herself off the bench using my knee.

I nodded, still entranced by the flowers growing towards me. They were all coming towards me now that I looked. I sat up straight, rigid even, and stood up to walk around.

“That girl is out of her mind, thinking one of us did this, please. If I had killed it everyone would know it was me.” Brooke huffed and leaned back against the wall behind the bench.

Brooke continued to mumble to herself as I inched away. I kept to the edge and made my way towards Luke, who didn’t look pleased. First, I almost give myself away during the dive test, and now I’m openly disobeying an order. Today has turned out to be a great day for my last one as a civilian.

I caught Simon out of the corner of my eye. Unlike Brooke she was quiet during her interview, barely saying anything. Riley asked her maybe three questions before she got bored with her. Simon returned to Brooke’s side on the bench and stared at me.

I tilted my head to the side, towards the flowers. Simon caught on right away and sat back like nothing was wrong. Luke on the other hand, didn’t get the hint.

“What are you doing?” Luke asked.

“The flowers are following me.” I leaned in and whispered.

“No, they’re not.” Luke shook his head in disbelief and looked behind me.

Luke snapped back to look up at me with wide eyes. I nodded and continued my walk around the edge. I reached halfway around and they ran out of energy to grow, but if anyone looked hard enough it was obvious they followed me. I briskly walked back to the bench while Conner and Riley spoke, avoiding every flower and vine. When I sat back down it didn’t look like they had followed me at all.

Conner approached us with Riley close behind. Unlike Conner, Riley deliberately stepped on every flower in her path, and some outside of it. My soul ached at the disrespect, but it didn’t seem to bother her at all. In fact, she had a smile while doing it. I didn’t want to be pulled towards someone like that.

“You’re all one hundred percent sure you didn’t see anything?” Conner looked at us.

“No.” Brooke looked away.

“No sir.” Simon kept eye contact.