"What's everybody's favorite fruit?" I smiled out at the crowd of elementary school students. Cherry was meant to head educational events but she'd been called away for an emergency that sounded an awful lot like 'girl's night' when I overheard part of her phone conversation.
The kids screamed their answers. A chorus of mostly grapes and strawberries with a few apples and mangos. One kid said 'papaya'. Little shit wanted to be special.
"And do you know what it takes to grow that fruit?" The cheerful, leading tone I was using felt grating and unnatural. But the children responded positively enough.
They responded with a blend of 'water' 'sunlight' and 'dirt' a few precocious students even threw in 'photosynthesis'. I grinned at all of them and nodded.
"Wow! You all know so much about plants!" A few children nodded eagerly, others looked around the greenhouse, "But I don't think I heard any of you say pollinators."
