The most disconcerting thing about humans was the way they consumed nutrients. Opening their gaping mouths and shoveling in food, sucking noisily at water, their throats constricting - it was quite appalling to witness.
Verdi knew she was in the minority about her opinion, given that she was one of only a handful non-humans in her high school, but she found lunch time disturbing and would rather spend it outside.
She liked to sit behind the school on the bleachers, head tipped back and leaves unfurled to capture as much sun as possible, and revel in the quiet. She also had a basin full of water into which to dip her feet, and she could relax, free of others' staring.
The one human whose company she could bear for extended periods of time was Asa. He was blind, dark-haired, and golden-eyed, like a flower himself.
Verdi reached up and ran her fingers through her leaves experimentally. With summer coming on she'd start getting petals in. She'd have to ask Asa for his advice as to colors. He knew the names of many colors.
"Hey, you're the alien chick, right?"
Verdi opened her eyes. A girl stood at the bottom of the bleachers where Asa usually sat. The girl was broad and stocky, dressed head-to-toe in black. Black was most efficient for absorbing sunlight. Verdi's leaves were black in winter.
"If by 'alien chick' you mean extra-terrestrial, yes. Otherwise, no."
"Your name is Verdi, right? Even though you're not green at all."
"Verdi wrote very pleasing music," Verdi said of her human namesake. "You are incapable of expressing my personal identifier."
"What kind of language do plants even speak?"
"You cannot pronounce or hear colors, I am told." Verdi shrugged. "What is your name, human chick?"
"Austin," she said. "My name is Austin."
"Hello, Austin."
"I see you sitting out here every day. Don't you get lonely?"
"I am obtaining nutrients, the same as the rest of you. And I am not always alone."
"I've never seen you eat." Austin shifted from foot to foot. "I thought you might need someone to talk to. About your problem."
"Problem?"
"With not eating."
Verdi sighed. "I find eating repulsive, if you must know. It does not mean I find all humans repulsive. But that one act is quite unpleasant to observe."
"But you need to have some food, right?"
"Why, when I have sunlight and water?" Verdi lifted one foot and wiggled her toes to demonstrate.
Bright red spread across Austin's face. "Oh! Um. I didn't realize -- I was really bad at biology. I'll leave you to your, um, absorbing."
"Thank you for speaking to me, Austin," Verdi said. "Perhaps we shall speak again." She watched Austin hurry back into the school building and, as an afterthought, turned one of her petals the same color as Austin's face had been. It was a pleasing shade. Humans were more like flowers than they knew.
