Naya and Vince

8

CHEMISTRY

Visual arts.

That was the the lesson we were having now or rather I was having. We were to choose between visual arts and music. I didn't understand why science students would be doing the courses, we even did CRS and IRS. I decided to choose V. Art.

Art is my source of joy. I fell in love with art when I was in my JS1. Prior to that, I enjoyed colouring with crayons. I always found myself unconsciously colouring a mother and her daughter or a complete family. I won't deny that I really wanted to have a mother.

Well in my JSS 1, there were these people that usually came to my former school to organise art classes. Then, they would display art works which I found fascinating. I told myself that I must learn to make beautiful paintings and drawings. It was easy to get the hang of charcoal drawing and watercolour painting. I guess the talent was there all along waiting to be explored.

I preferred watercolour painting more though. My life was already shades of grey so watercolour painting I thought, would be the source of colour in my life.

Anyways, the students for visual arts were not much from my class. They were more from SS3 Silver which was for the art/humanities students and few more from SS3 Diamond which was for the commercial students. We settled in the art studio as we waited for the visual arts instructor. I heard he was a part time teacher.

The studio was fairly large. I realised it consisted of an outer room and an inner room. We were presently in the outer room where some artworks were displayed. I decided to study them as we waited. Chijioke came over and nudged me.

"Hello Naya".

I rolled my eyes biting back a groan. "Chijioke leave me na."

"I painted it," he said pointing to the painting in front of me. It was an oil painting of a woman holding a baby. I had been staring at it for a long time.

"It's beautiful," I said unconsciously touching the artwork.

"Thanks. Incase you are wondering, she's my mother and I'm the baby," he added proudly. I studied the picture like I haven't before. The woman was the same complexion with Chijioke. She had pointed nose unlike Chijioke. To cut the whole description short, the woman was an epitome of beauty.

"You two look good," I complimented. Noticing the way the woman stared at Chijioke with love and admiration made me jealous.

Chijioke hummed. "I miss her though."

"Hmm," was all I managed to respond. I wanted to say sorry for your loss but then I was not sure she was dead. And I didn't want to ask if she was.

"You don't care, do you?" He asked.

"I do. . .it's just that-"

"It's okay," he interrupted with a smile. I couldn't tell if it was just a smile or a sad smile.

"CJ stop flirting," a male voice said. We both turned. I guessed the boy was either an art or commercial student. Chijioke greeted the guy in pidgin before he turned to look at me.

"Hey pretty. I'm Damilare but you can call me Dami".

"Hi," I replied and turned to another artwork.

"She's Nairobi," Chijioke introduced for me.

"Nice to meet you Nairobi," I heard him say. I decided to turn and offer a smile. I didn't want to seem so rude. After a while the teacher arrived.

The man introduced himself as Mr. Akin to me. He also introduced the subject. I wanted to tell him I'm not dumb but I just shut my mouth and managed to smile at him. He did some introduction to the term's work and I couldn't just wait to begin.