A bell rang, and Katya sighed. The previously quiet, diligently working class suddenly sprang into action; 18 girls immediately began to pack away their supplies, clean their paintbrushes, and stow their mediocre paintings away. The red-haired head girl merely watched them with her usual mild contempt. She had no patience for artists so eager to be away from their craft.

"Miss Ivanova..." Came the familiar voice of her painting instructor. The young woman was standing near the door, buttoning up her jacket, her purse sitting on the floor near her feet. "Assuming you'll be staying late as usual, please pack up when you're finished."

Without even waiting for her student's response the professor turned and swept out of the room with the last of the students, leaving Katya alone with her still life. She scowled at the door, practically radiating contempt. She was used to this though, it happened at the end of every class. Eager to make the most of her solitude the lovely Russian student turned her ice blue eyes back to the aesthetically pleasing arrangement of plants on the pedestal in the center of the now empty ring of easels and put brush back to canvas. Her painting was almost entirely green. From her angle the still life arrangement was all ferns and ivy, except for one particularly pretty pink bloom.

Katya liked plants. In fact, she liked them more than she liked most of her fellow students. Plants never babbled incessantly, they never asked stupid questions and they never started crying when you told them you weren't interested in an exclusive relationship. The skilled painter payed particular attention to her recreation of the exotically beautiful flower.

After perhaps an hour, she finally finished. Her tools were stowed away quickly and efficiently and she left her painting on the easel so it would dry overnight. She stood and crossed the short distance between the spot she'd been standing and the still life arrangement, tossing her deep red hair over her shoulder as she reached out to gently pick up the clay pot that held her little pink flower and carry it back to the room that held the art department's still life props.

Mace thought silently to himself. Hidden and known only to him, his microscopic eyes glanced about the room at the girls whom sat around him. He barely could contain himself. He had never been around so much prey at once.. he couldn't decide which he wanted to start with first.

But, he would have to wait till the right moment. Wait for the last one. He didn't want his cover to be blown, otherwise he would obviously be in deep trouble. Mace watched intently, but once he heard the bell ring, he stired.. but just slightly. Watching them all leave one by one, untill just one was left, he gazed at her intently. She was very beautiful, for prey anyway. He couldn't wait to see how she tasted.

Mace though still didn't attack when everyone was gone but her, He forced himself to wait, untill everyone in this wing of the school vacated the area.

Finally, he knew the time was coming as the girl seemed ready to leave. He watched as she approached, but just before she would pick him up, a cloud of pollen would puff up from his stem. This pollen was his knockout pollen. It obviously caused anyone in the area to fall asleep, and how long depended on how much was used.

He used just enough to keep her asleep for a few minutes, but she would feel the effects immidetly.

Blissfully unaware that she was sealing her fate, Katya breathed in deeply a she lifted the plant up. She hadn't even taken a full step when the alien plant's pollen began to overtake her. Clutching the pot to her chest with one hand she grasped the pedestal next to her with the other, feeling her legs quickly grow weak.

It made no sense. It was as if exhaustion had suddenly over whelmed her. Katya's mind raced, struggling to make some sort of logical sense of what was happening even as her lovely eyes began to close. She finally sunk to her knees, her hand knocking one of the larger potted plants to the concrete floor where it shattered, spreading shards of terra cotta and potting soil across the ground.

Katya barely heard the crash though. Her icy eyes finally closed as she fell backwards, the hand clutching Mace's pot going limp and letting the little plant roll out of her grasp.

A sense of Vertigo came over him as he, and the pot he was planted in rolled from her and onto the floor, hitting the leg of a desk and finally stopping. He regained himself, and noticed that she was out like a light.

"Perfect." He thought. With this done, he began to pull himself out of the dirt, uprooting himself. After a few moments, he was free. His roots kept him above the floor, and slowly he began to grow. The Art room was quite large, even with a high ceiling. It was more than enough to cater to his full height.

After a few moments, he stopped growing. He was now quite large, his bud not quite reaching the ceiling, but almost. Roots twisted along the floor, keeping him aloft, while multiple vines snaked through the air.

Now, Mace pondered, should he wait for her to wake.. or should he do it for her.

He decided to let her wake herself. It was time to feed, and time for fun.

After a few minutes of shallow, dreamless sleep, the pollen released it's hold on the red-haired young woman. She groaned, shifting slightly on the hard concrete floor as the world slowly swam back into focus. Groping blindly she grasped the wooden pedestal and sat up, her deep red hair falling to cover her lovely face and block her view of the towering plant.

She sat still for a few moments before slowly standing, her long, slender legs still slightly shaky. Her uniform was disheveled, the crisp white shirt now twisted around her torso, clinging alluringly to her curves. She breathed slowly and deeply, not quite trusting her body after the strange occurrence.

The normally confident, stoic girl looked enticingly vulnerable and confused. She murmured something to herself in Russian as she reached up to tuck her long auburn locks behind her ear.

Almost instantly, she saw the vast expanse of green in the corner of her vision. Her head whipped around to face the now massive plant and her blue eyes went wide with terror as she tilted her head back to stare up at the alien creature that towered over her nubile young form.