A Chance Encounter

Chapter 2

Art. Virtual, sculpture, paintings, jewelry, photographing, you name it. It's reason why I waste two hours getting both to and from school everyday; and I gotta say, its worth it.

When I got to class I threw my bag down and went to the back to pick up my supplies. Since we're working in fairy-tale themed paintings this month I filled up a palette with paint, filled a cup with water, grabbed an assortment of brushes from my little cubby and walked back to my easel with my arms full. I sat there observing my painting to see where I'd start as I waited for class to start. 7 times out of 10 my teacher always gives a speech before starting class and since we just came back from break she'd defiantly have the whole class in a discussion for at least the first ten minutes of class. Its a good thing fine arts classes are double blocked or we'd never have time to get our projects done.

When the bell rang our teacher, Ms. Knox, shuffled her way to the front of the class and quickly got our attention. I had to stretch my neck around the easel to see her because she's a short, chubby woman at 5'1. But she doesn't let any of that stop her. She can easily command a room and when she wants to she can move fast! If its not obvious I have a lot of respect for this woman.

"Hello everyone, how was your break?" she asked us which was answered by a disjointed chorus of 'goods'. "That's great to hear but before we start shouting out our stories I'd like to introduce our new student, Casey. Casey, would you like to introduce yourself to the class."

I looked over at the door and noticed for the first time a tall boy, with long dark hair leaning half his body weight against the door. His eyes quickly darted across the room before saying 'no'.

"Alright then, why don't you take a seat in the back next to Miss Jefferson."

The new kid, Casey, nodded and started making his way towards the empty easel next to me. I quickly reached over and pulled my bag of the empty chair I usually keep it on. I guess I cant do that anymore. He plopped down next to me and set his messenger bag on the ground by his feet.

"Now I'm guessing I don't have to give all of you a speech on making sure Casey feels welcome, right? Ms. Knox asked, everyone quickly agreed. "Good, so what exactly did you starving artist do over your break."

And then the class dissolved into its usual flow. Sarah, Amanda, Robert and Alison (the talkative people of the class) had a mini war for attention as they rushed to be the first ones to spat out their stories; even though they weren't that interesting. Jacob on the other hand had the whole class laughing over how he nearly got banned from a museum. Through all of this the new kid was playing away on his phone, oblivious to the world. About halfway through he popped in his headphones and raised the volume so loud that I could hear it spilling out the the earbuds.

"Well that's all great to hear, hopefully you guys now have more inspiration for your paintings. Speaking of which, Miss Jefferson, can you please explain to Mr. Wallace what the project is for this month. New student or not I expect you to complete it."

Casey's response to this was non-existence due to the headphones in his ears.

"Do you understand?" Ms. Knox asked, more sternly.

I quickly scribbled, 'say yes' on a scrap of paper and elbowed him in the side. Casey looked up from his phone and glared at me. I just raised an eyebrow at him, showed him the paper, and pointed towards the front of the class. Understanding quickly flashed across his face as his pulled out one earbud, lifted his head, and finally answered the silence with a hurried "Yes."

"Good, and next time do not use your phone for anything whatsoever while I'm talking. All I ask for is a little time and the rest is for you to do whatever you want; as long as your doing your work of course." She gave him a warning smile before turning to disappear behind her desk. A few kids sniggered at that in the short silence that was quickly replaced by the sound of people getting in their daily fix of gossip.

"Hey thanks, I owe you," Casey said while I was contemplating of which color to use.

"No problem," I told him. I was about to ask him something but before I could open my mouth my friend Brooke came over and practically threw herself on me in her weird display of affection.

"Emma darling, talk to me. I must know everything's that's happened to you over the past nine days since apparently we've all forgotten how to use cell phones."

I laughed and pushed her off me and onto a nearby chair. "Well, everything started Sunday and then it was all uphill from there!" And from there I launched into the tale of my slightly eventful break. All thoughts of starting a conversation with Casey and getting to know him blew out of my head.

A/N : hey, sorry for any spelling/grammar errors and it this sounds all over the place. everything is a rough draft until I get the time and patience to actually edit everything but feel free to point out anything I could fix, I'd really appreciate it. Aside from that I hope you like it and I'll try to post a chapter every week which I should be able to do since I'm on summer break but that also means that I lose all sense of time. Bye for now.