The urchin could have been plenty happy just to go back to her task. The professor didn't think she was stealing, and he didn't look like he was about to blast her off the fence. Of course, he may not have been a professor, Charley didn't recognize him from her classes, but he seemed like the professor sort. Plus, he was on the wrong side of the fence to be a random villager type.

"More alive?" Charley felt her face scrunch up tight, glaring down at the little professor through half-slits for eyes. Who was he to be judging her flowers? She wasn't a student and this wasn't some class assignment, anyway. "You telling me they look dead?"

She scoffed. The urchin wasn't about to take guff from anyone, not even a professor. He could have told her how nice it looked or whether it needed more blues.

No, it definitely needed more reds.

"You look deader than this lot," Charley told him, surveying her flowers. Fine, she could admit it, they could use a spray of water. Maybe the urchin could borrow Mrs. Mann's watering mister after the whole thing was done.

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