He was starting to get a little exasperated. Though he wasn’t angry yet; he couldn’t be angry with bushes that just loved him that much. Still, their attitude wasn’t helping with the situation. He was lost and the plants around him refused to give him directions.

Stay with us! they rustled, completely unhelpfully.

The plant manipulator tried to spread out his power and hear the location of all the shrubs around him. They clamored for attention, drowning out everything else in his mental ears.

“’Go to the hedge maze,’ they said. ‘It’s new,‘ they said. ‘You’ll have fun!’ they said, ‘It’s relaxing’ they said…” Kai muttered, rather loudly.

He was trying this new thing where he was more ‘zen’ and thought this labyrinth would be a good idea. What seemed more peaceful than walking in the sunny outside between walls that were made out of shrubs? They would love him and he would soak up their adoration. He just hadn’t counted on them not wanting him to leave or the fact that he was terrible at following the ‘map’ they’d given him. He fervently wished for a “You are Here!” sticker to give him a fighting chance.

Kai stopped for a moment to take a breather. He’d been walking around for over two hours and his feet were sore. The branches behind him twined around his arms to comfort him, but this plant also staunchly refused to aid his departure. In fact, he was in danger of nearly being absorbed by the over eager plant. “Can you at least show me where there’s a bench?!” he asked the air around him to no avail.

Henrietta had been bored for a good majority of her day. When she had looked out the window, she had discovered how beautiful it actually was. The girl decided it would be a good day to look at the new hedge maze that she had heard about. She figured it couldn’t be any worse than sitting around and waiting for something exciting to happen. After slipping on her shoes, she jogged out the front door into the wonderful, spring air.

The brunette had made her way into the maze and had been in it for the better part of a half hour. Henri glanced around, now getting frustrated. She had no idea where to go from her current location. Her hair twitched at the tips angrily. Okay, I’m not having fun anymore. I thought this would be pretty and easy, so much for that. The girl turned in a circle, trying to remember which way she had come from. She continued to spin for a few seconds until she got dizzy. “Okay. Woah! Not a good plan!” After she had stood still, Henri was able to see straight again.

Henrietta froze when she thought she heard someone talking. “Hello? Is anyone there? I’m so lost it’s not even remotely funny.” She sat down in the middle of the maze, waiting for a response or for someone to come across her.

From his place, nearly in the middle of the bush, Kai heard a voice calling out. A real one, not one in his head:

>>“Hello? Is anyone there? I’m so lost it’s not even remotely funny.”

The tendrils around his arms tightened protectively. They would hide him from threat! No, no. Kai ordered, It’s not a threat, I was just startled. Now let me go!

Maybe just in case… the oversized shrub commented softly.

“Uh…” He called out, “I’m over here. And I think I’m stuck in this plant.” He couldn’t see the girl, but from what she said, it had sounded like she was in the corridor behind him somewhere. Turning his head all the way, he could barely see through the leaves and branches. There! A small hole. But nothing on the other side that he could see except more leaves and bushes.

“Are you still there? Can you follow my voice and get me out?” This would either be a very fortunate meeting and they could help each other get out or he would feel very foolish if she easily navigated the maze. Especially since his powers should have made it a piece of cake for him.

Henrietta was about to give up hope completely when a voice responded to her pleas. It said it was stuck in a plant. The brunette rose off of the ground and glanced around. “How did you get ‘stuck in a plant’?” She turned 180 degrees and narrowed her eyes. Following the voice, she turned a corner and came across a boy. They seemed to be about the same age. She stopped and tilted her head slightly to one side. “Um, hello.”

The girl moved closer to him and inspected the plant that had a grip on him. “Is that plant hurting you or are you doing it?” She glanced up into his eyes and noticed the odd color of them. “I’m going to guess you’re a mutant too.” Henri smiled at him and the ends of her hair twitched, almost happily. “I’m Henrietta Braun. I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

She poked the plant. “So can you control them or do they just really like you?”

Yay! A rescuer! “That plant is not hurting me, just really happy that I’m here. And perfectly content to keep me here as long as possible. I think if you pry them off gently, they’ll let go.” He looked up from his green restraints to see his young brunette savior. His cute brunette savior, he saw.

“I’m Kai Johnson. I’m fairly new to the mansion, just moving in, actually. I’m a plant mutant so I should be able to control them. Sometimes they like to misbehave. I dunno. Wait, you said you were a mutant too? What do you do?”

He felt a lot better now that he wasn’t alone and the bush seemed to be more cooperative or perhaps just sulky now that he wasn’t paying attention to it. Kai also hoped that the rest of them would cooperate so he could figure out how to get them out of this blasted maze. Then he could return the favor and rescue her. It would work out nicely.

The boy, who later introduced himself as Kai Johnson, explained the plants peculiar behavior. Henrietta got closer to him and the plants before gently placing her hands on one. “Okay, Mr. Plant. Wait, are you a Mrs. Plant?” The girl stopped for a moment before realizing how stupid she must seem. She glanced at the boy, her face red. “Uh, sorry for my awkwardness.” Beginning to pry the plant up, she noticed how tight its grip was. Furrowing her brows together, she pulled until the plant released.

After she had gotten one to let go of Kai, she backed up a little. “Oh. I can do this.” As she said this, her hair floated up into the air and wriggled around. “I can lift things with it too.” She shrugged and gave him a smile. He seems pretty nice. Well, I guess he must be if the plants like him so much that they don’t want him to go. Henri wondered what plants thought about, but figured this wasn’t the time to ask that question.

Putting her hands on another plant, she began to pry again. She felt it loosen and watched as it retreated back to its normal ‘look-I’m-being-a-regular-plant’ position. “They seem to cooperate well after some coaxing. I wish I could have such a cool mutation. Well, maybe minus the being plant-napped thing. It’s very nice to meet you by the way. I always enjoy admiring others’ abilities. Never seen two that were quite the same, just like people.”

Prying and coaxing was working for Henrietta. He was glad that she was nice to them. Some of the mutants that he’d met in the past few months would have tried to cut him out and hurt the plant. Or him, with their carelessness.

He was just about to ask her what her powers were when her hair fanned out unnaturally in the air, despite the complete lack of breeze.

>>”I can lift things with it too.” She stated matter-of-factly. “They seem to cooperate well after some coaxing. I wish I could have such a cool mutation. Well, maybe minus the being plant-napped thing. It’s very nice to meet you by the way. I always enjoy admiring others’ abilities. Never seen two that were quite the same, just like people.”

“My mutation isn’t really anything special, my twin brother’s is really similar. Except more flashy. Which I guess kind of suits his personality. Sometimes it seems like they do that- either cater to who you are or you change to accommodate them. I might just be making that up, though.” He realized as he was talking that it was kind of hard to see how a personality could relate to hair… Then again, his was kind of an abstract connection, too, based on how he knew trees worked and felt. It wasn’t something an outsider would probably really understand.


Kai stepped free of the bush as she convinced the last tendril to let go of its prize. He stretched out a cramp in his arm. “Thanks for freeing me. And I think yours is a pretty cool mutation, something that I’ve never heard of. Not even anything like it, which makes it special.”

Kai mentioned that his twin brother had a similar mutation. Henrietta smiled excitedly. “You have a twin brother? That’s cool.” The girl paused, hoping she didn’t seem odd. “I don’t have any siblings, so you’ll have to excuse my enthusiasm. I used to want a big or little sister. Just some sort of sister, but that never really happened.” She gave a small laugh and listened to how his and his brother’s powers differed. “More flashy, huh? So do you mind if I ask what you mean when you say his is flashier?”

Henri blushed when he complimented her mutation. “Um, thanks a lot. It was hard for me to accept it at first, but here we are.” She gestured to herself and her hair in one single arm motion. The brunette shook her head, realizing he thanked her for freeing him. She smiled and shrugged. “It was no big deal. I’m just glad that they like you instead of hate you. I thought maybe they were trying to kill you at first or something. I have to admit, that did scare me. I’ve never seen plants attack people except in horror movies.”

The teen laughed as she remembered her predicament. She glanced around the maze of plants and then looked back to Kai. “I don’t suppose you know how to get out, do you?”

“More annoying than cool,” he admitted truthfully. “He’s the older one, the more crafty one. And his powers are more useful. He can increase the yields of crops and heal them from disease. Plants also flower when he walks by. They only rustle for me.” Yep, he sounded certifiably crazy now and whiney. “Though I can walk around without some of the strange looks, so maybe I got the better side of the deal.”

He smiled kind of sheepishly, he was genuinely enjoying the conversation they were having. Though the topic of their powers soon turned to whether or not he could use his to get them out of the blasted maze.

O Fated Question, why doth thou antagonize me so?

“Uhh… well, I tried to feel where the plants were placed earlier and they were talking too loud for me to really concentrate.” He considered their problem for a moment, regarding the map. “Hey, look! No matter where we are, there are only… like seven walls between us and the outside. You saving me kind of gives me an idea.”

Kai squinted at the shrub that had formally held him captive. It spread its branches out to make it several feet wide, but there was a common root system at the center, which, fortunately was five or so feet from the next plant. The bright lines of plant matter showed up in vertical veins in front of him. He chose his two plants and split the lines down the center, grouping together a cluster on the left and a cluster on the right.

When he opened his eyes, he nodded. The two plants had curled in on themselves and away from each other, leaving a gap several feet wide that they could pass through. “If we keep going in a straight line, we’ll get out of here in no time!”

Henrietta listened as Kai told her about his twin brother’s powers. He could make plants grow and flower? That was pretty cool, in Henri’s opinion, but at the same time it would draw a lot of attention. In the grand scheme of things, Kai had a better chance as passing as a normal human. Depending on if you wanted everyone to know about your ability, it may be better to have a more subtle power. The brunette smiled at Kai and shook her head. “I still think your power is very cool. It’s nice that his power and yours aren’t completely similar, you know?”

The girl found herself wondering where Kai’s brother was, but decided not to ask in case it was a touchy subject. So instead, Henri smiled at him. “So where are you from, Kai? I’m from Springfield, the capital of Illinois.” She laughed a little after she finished the end of her little introduction. “I felt like a vacation spokesperson for a minute. Weird. Did you come here because you wanted to?”

Kai was using the plants to help find an exit. She watched with interest as he moved them and made an opening. Henrietta grinned and looked at the boy. “Well, isn’t that handy?” She gestured toward the entrance. The teen was afraid to go through first. What if it closed up and she was lost by herself again or he couldn’t keep it open for some reason or…Okay, I need to stop worrying now. It’s a bit ridiculous.

His mouth fell open and he stared, completely halting all forward motion. “I’m from Illinois! Saybrook, about two hours northeast of Springfield. A couple of miles off 54!” Kai was nearly jumping up and down with excitement. “I’m sorry!” he said, still jumping, “but you’re the first person I’ve met here from even remotely close to back home. We initially came here to meet mutants. Not a whole ton of them in a town of under 800… How did you come to New York?”

He realized suddenly that he was still standing there and that Henrietta was still waiting for him to go through the bushes. The opening was wide enough for one to walk through comfortably, but two would have been a bit of a squeeze. And he didn’t want the branches to scratch them. “Oh, um, right this way…” he said, taking the lead.

He stepped through the hedge and found himself face to face with…. Another hedge. And here I thought I was close… Kai’s vision blurred and sharpened again as he made the next two bushes make way for them.

Then he turned back to continue his conversation with his fellow-state-r. “When did you move here? Were you by yourself?” he inquired eagerly.

Kai was jumping around excitedly and Henrietta giggled at his reaction. She nodded. “Yeah! I know where Saybrook is! That’s awesome! I’m best friends with a girl from Wisconsin, but that’s the closest I’ve found until I met you.” The girl put her hands on her hips happily and shook her head with a grin on her face. “That’s amazing. Only two hours away from each other back home and now we’re living in the same place. It’s weird how things work, huh?”

He asked how she got to New York and Henri looked away. “Uh, my mom thought it’d be a good idea to move me here. You see, it’s only her and I back home. No dad is in the picture and my mom’s pretty into appearances. When half of Springfield found out about my mutation, she decided to drive me here herself in November. Once and a while she’ll send me letters with money in them, but she doesn’t ever call and the letters never say all that much....” The brunette trailed off. It was obvious that her mom didn’t want anything to do with her, but she wouldn’t come out and say it to anyone. She was still hoping her mom would call or visit or something. Henrietta supposed it was kind of like denial.

She noticed that they still hadn't found freedom. The girl looked at Kai and smiled half-heartedly. "Now what?"

Fortunately , Henri was almost as excited to meet a fellow states-person as he was, so he didn’t feel like a complete dork. “Yeah, Midwest!” The mood of the moment changed when she started to share her story. He wanted to reach out and comfort her or tell her that she didn’t have to share if she didn’t want to, but she didn’t meet his eyes. He frowned slightly, it hadn’t occurred to him that things like that could happen. Most of the stories of mutants leaving their families that he’d heard weren’t too bad, just like going on an adventure. Her departure was because people didn’t want her there. It must have been very lonely. Kai suddenly felt like he’d had everything so easy.

She noticed that he’d stopped. “Now what?”

“Oh,” he made an attempt at eye contact again, trying to show his support but not too much sympathy. People hated sympathy. “I just thought this was going to be easy. Apparently we’re pretty well turned around in here.” He deftly parted the next hedge. “After you, mi’lady.”

But something was strange with what was beyond this hedge. There was a fountain and a large open space. Kai checked his map again. “Uh… okay, we’re in the center now. So maybe I miscalculated the whole seven hedges thing.” He smiled awkwardly in apology, “Sorry, it might take us a while yet to get out of here.”

Henrietta had the feeling she shouldn’t have mentioned her mother. It only made everything seem more depressing. She noticed Kai looking at her. The brunette smiled at him a little to let him know she was fine. Well, kind of fine. “I’m sorry. I could’ve kept that to myself.” She glanced away, embarrassed. “I guess it just bothers me so much that it makes me want to talk to someone about it, you know? It’s just frustrating. I know she loves me and all, but I wish she didn’t feel ashamed of my being a mutant. It doesn’t really effect her life all that much compared to how much it has effected mine.”

Kai let Henri go in front of him. She laughed when they ended up in the center. It just struck her as funny for some reason. The girl turned and looked at the plant boy. “So, I think we need a new plan. What do you think?” She glanced around at the hedges, trying to think of something else they could do to get out. Henrietta really wasn’t quite sure what that something else was, but she hoped they’d figure it out. She didn’t want to live in a plant maze her whole life. It wasn’t that she had anything against plants, she just wanted to see her friends again at some point.

The 17 year old walked over to one of the hedges and tried peeking through it. It was think and she could barely see anything. Backing up, she put her hands on her hips and let out a frustrated sigh. She turned back towards Kai and pointed at one of the hedges. “Do you think you could ask them to show us which way to go to get out? I know you’ve tried that, but convince them that you really have to get out of here or something. Tell them they’re hurting your feelings. That would make them feel kind of bad, wouldn’t it?” She was grasping at straws, well, hedges.

He had to admit that his spirits were kind of deflated after having gone completely the wrong way. He was also getting a little tired from using his powers and all the excitement of being trapped in the bush. The wall of hedges was punctuated by corridors, but they seemed to be evenly spaced and entirely indistinct.

>>“Do you think you could ask them to show us which way to go to get out? I know you’ve tried that, but convince them that you really have to get out of here or something.”

Even Henrietta’s suggestion made his head ache worse. They were so chatty and excited. But she went on.

>>“Tell them they’re hurting your feelings. That would make them feel kind of bad, wouldn’t it?”

“You know… that just might work!” He could have kissed her right then, he was so happy. But of course, the would have been terribly awkward given that they had just met. Kai closed his eyes and tried to sound as sad and upset as possible in his mental voice. Please help me find the way out. It makes me so sad when I’m stuck in here. Then he added a bit of bribery to thicken the pot. I promise I’ll come back and visit soon.

In his mental eye he saw the lines of the map again but it was different this time, much less confusing. The hedges knew where they were in relation to their neighbors and where the spaces were. Usually, people go this way, they told him. The mental picture lit up, almost like there were arrows pointing the way.

“That way!” he pointed, eyes still closed.