The story opens on River, a student who looks exhausted despite their lack of facial features. All three students in the classroom look similar with terrarium heads that have a little trees growing out. However, while the two surrounding students have strong thick trunks with many branches to spare, the main character has a single stick of bamboo growing out of their dome. Each student has a stack of worksheets in front of them, except the main character only stares at the blank paper in front of them.
The student beside them is an oak tree girl with a large amount of branches. She snaps a branch and uses it to start writing. The other student with an elm tree is getting help from a teacher. She pours knowledge from a watering can right into this student’s head who is focused on the stack of worksheets before him. The clock ticks on and while the two student on either side work fine, River suffers under the weight of their inaction and the ticking of the clock. More time has passed. The girl is still easily snapping branches and using them to write. The boy has so much information poured into them it’s starting to leak out, but even they are working. River is still unable to start. Feeling defeated they slam their head onto their desk, startling everyone else.
When the student looks up again the world around them has shifted. Thick trees with gnarled knots where branches have been hacked off loom around River. They are now in a thick dark forest with trees that don’t remotely resemble their little sprig of bamboo. They are still and intimidated by the sheer amount of people that capable unlike them. There is only the sound of River breathing, then a loud mechanical roar. River turns to see a terrifying tree cutting machine whirring to life. They only get the one look before the machine spurs ahead and River runs. It plows forward cutting through the trees and branches that fall around River. Eventually, one of those branches trip them and the fall to the ground hard. They cower on the ground expecting to be overwhelmed at any moment.
Instead, a small hand helps them up. It is a girl with a small bonsai tree for a head, though at a second glance her head is now the normal face of a helpful girl, one that does look very similar to the teacher. She shows off her own tree. It’s a sapling that reaches their torsos, small and skinny but it has plenty of branches. It doesn’t rival the size of the trees of the forest from before, but it looks healthier with more color. She takes a small clipping from the plant, not breaking off the branches but pruning them. She looks up at the main character and smiles before handing him the clippers too.
River takes a deep breath and when they look up they notice they have two little twigs growing now. They gently snip one, leaving a little bit at the base. They are still in the blank white clearing but now their desk is in front of them, wispy and dreamlike. The use the little twig they carefully snipped and begin to work.
Then the bell rings. Back in the class River startles and looks around before they glance down at the single completed worksheet. The page is filled in with colorful ink and math problems, but only the one page out of the whole stack. The other two students are lined up at teachers desk so River rushes to join them. The oak and elm students get their assignments stamped and the two go on their way, chatting and laughing, contrasting the nervous look River has. They step forward and sheepishly hand the teacher their single worksheet. She raises a brow at them and River sweats. Their mind races with thoughts of failure and unnamed fears, then they get their grade. It’s a C+ with ‘good work’ stamped next to it. The teacher smiles proud of River for still turning it what they were able to do. River relaxes despite the grade because even if it wasn’t an A, it was still their best and they have pride in that. River returns the relieved smile, a smile on their now normal human face without the metaphor of a tree anymore. River accepts their grade, then leaves for their next class a little more confidence in their step.
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