After a sickness struck the village she lives in, Maggie was forced to stay inside and read books with her mom. She couldn't stay inside another minute! So she went for a walk.

"I'm going for a walk outside. I will stay 6 feet away from strangers! I'll be back for supper!" Maggie said.

"It's so beautiful outside! I haven't smelled flowers in ages!" Maggie said as she took a big sniff of the flowers that had just bloomed in her front yard.

"Aaa-"

"AAAH-"

"AAAHCHOOOOOO!!" Maggie exclaimed.

An old man walking by heard her sneeze and ran away from her, thinking she had the virus. This made Maggie sad, so she began to cry.

"Please don't cry. I have something that might cheer you up!" a flower beneath her cried out.

"I haven't seen my friends in weeks, and Mom didn't say anything about staying away from flowers," Maggie thought.

"Okay...what is it?" Maggie said to the flower.

"I'm going to tell you about the energy around you!" the flower said cheerfully.

"You get energy from the food that you eat, but for us plants, we get it from the sun through something called photosynthesis," the flower explained.

"Photosynthesis??? What's that?" Maggie asked.

"Photosynthesis is where plants take in sun, water, and carbon dioxide from humans - just like the air from your sneeze - to make our food," the flower said to Maggie.

"Plants eat SNEEZES?! That's GROSS!!!" Maggie exclaimed.

"Not quite! The air that humans and animals breathe out is called carbon dioxide (even in sneezes!), but plants release oxygen, which is what animals and humans breathe in," the flower explained. "I guess you could say we need each other to survive."

"Oh I see...how do plants make food out of only air, water and sun?" Maggie asked.

"Well, when you eat food, it goes through a process of chemical reactions in your mouth and stomach, but plants go through chemical reactions in our chloroplasts," the flower said to Maggie.

"Imagine a green jelly bean! That's what a chloroplast looks like, except it is so small that you and I could only see it under a microscope," the flower explained as the sun started to set.

CHLOROPLAST

"It looks like it's about time for me to rest until the sun comes out so I can start making my food tomorrow. And it sounds like your stomach is about ready for you to go put some food in that belly!" the flower said to Maggie as her stomach growled.