Thorn • Scott Summers

eighteen

"Take, for example, our dear Thoreau in his transcendentalist journey. He left all unnecessary material things in life to enrich himself mentally and emotionally."

Florence jotted down Charles's words in her notebook, pencil scratching deeply in her rush to catch up, her lettering messy. Her eyes moved quickly from Charles to her paper, amusing the idle Warren next to her.

"Geez, calm down, Einstein," he whispered, and she snorted.

"That concludes today's lesson; your homework, though, is a one page writing about how you would change your ways to live a transcendentalist life."

Papers shuffled, and students stood up from the grass. Florence finished her writing and put everything away in her bag.

"Einstein was a theoretical physicist, not a literature nerd." She stood up, pulling the strap on her shoulder.

"A nerd nonetheless," Warren laughed.

They walked through the grass, approaching the school, going inside. They made their way to the lunch hall, discussing their poetry class's subject.

"What I'm trying to say is, you can still be transcendentalist if you hold the ideal in your mind, even if you don't fully live the life."

"But, don't you think it should be mind and body? Like... Holistic health, in the New Age movement." Florence rebutted as she sat down next to Scott, who seemed to be in an off mood.

"Yeah, but what about mind over matter?"

"That's what I'm saying! That's the whole point of the concept!" They laughed together, and Florence grabbed a chip from Scott. His arm lazily wrapped around her waist, and she raised an eyebrow at him, surprised. The pair were rarely ever affectionate in front of others, so it was new for her.

Jubilee asked for Warren's opinion on something she was arguing about with Peter, and his attention turned to them. Florence eyed Scott, who had a serious air about him.

"Why so quiet?"

"I'm always like this."

"Uh," Florence tilted her head at him, bemused. "you never shut up."

"I just don't have anything to say."

Florence stared at him. She decided against questioning him further, figuring it was best not to push it. They both had similar short temper, so she knew it wouldn't be good to push it. She also remembered that Jean had told her his training had gotten tougher recently, so she decided his testy mood was due to that.

"Fraulein, may I sit here?"

Florence turned her head at the voice, warming when she saw the blue boy. She grabbed her bag and put it on the ground, making space for Kurt. He sat next to her, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the usual calm and collected Warren looking down at his hands, seemingly nervous. Florence furrowed her brows in curiosity, but thought nothing of it. After a while, Florence spoke up.

"Warren, how's training going?"

He looked up quickly at the sound of her voice. She stabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork, waiting for a reply.

"Um, good, I guess. Hank is really helpful."

"Yeah, he honestly is. He has like, six different degrees, did you know?"

Peter, seemingly listening to their conversation, fake coughed. "Nerd," he said, covering it up with the noise. Florence rolled her eyes, amused.

"So, uh, how's your training? With Mr. Lensherr?"