-where art takes us-

atypical friendship

Like last time Robin welcomes me and I am seriously considering if she is a wizard or vampire that is either fast as shit or can teleport because there is just no way she can be first in class every damn time.

I place my stuff and get my sketches from my time on the tree and get my oil palette and fine brushes to paint the squirrel. Chrissy arrives ten minutes late and sits between me and Eddie like last time where she gets a hint of a smile from the devil.

In contrast to the last time, however, she arrived before the teacher, which seems to be a regularity here. After coloring most of the areas I pause and look around. After all that hunching over, my neck is starting to hurt quite a bit, so I twist and turn my neck to try and relax it. As I rotate, I notice how difficult Chrissy is in realizing her idea.

I don't have anything better to do anyway as oil takes an extremely long time to dry even remotely, so I lift my chair and pivot the backrest towards Chrissy, turning myself towards her and then leaning against the back of the chair. I point to the water container with my index finger.

She turns around, startled. Her eyes confused and without any understanding of what is happening. "You need to clean your brushes if you don't use them, also don't mix with this one. You should never go into the small color boxes with a used brush, this will only soil the colors and you will still have red or green streaks in your blue. Also, you should wait for the dry phase to be over otherwise it won't work with shading and multiple layers. You could start with your second idea if you got one in the meantime." I explain plain.

Her art just hurts my heart so I'll give her a little help. She even seems to appreciate it, she thanks me and implements exactly what I have conveyed to her.

"Do you have any other tips? Not to be noisy but I am really desperate for a good grade or else I will fail. I am actually not quite sure what I am supposed to do." she begs and smiles with a shy expression and her hands folded in her lap.

Nodding I return the smile. "I noticed that you are trying to draw a romantic date with your boyfriend. I know teach said romantic but that's not what they mean in the art industry. Here take a look at the examples. What do you notice? What do they have in common? " I shove Turner's painting under her nose and let her analyze it.

She turns to me and looks at me with so much childlike enthusiasm "Ehm...they're all landscapes and very detailed and fading at the same time.". I give her a reassuring smile and continue her approach "That's absolutely right, good job. They also have in common that almost everyone uses the light of the morning or evening. Sunsets and the moments before were popular, so you could start there. Draw something you really like, a place and, imagine it when the sun sets.".

The hours fly by, I always give Chrissy a helping hand and we have generally switched to an open conversation. Robin has also latched onto the conversation and there are a lot of laughter and gossip.

For example, I now know about the love drama of three cheerleaders and the rumor of a polyamorous relationship in the party group came from Robin. The dynamic between us is strange but somehow coherent. Even Eddie stares over at times and I'm sure he's secretly listening to us and just thinks we've gone completely insane.

Even though class is over, Chrissy and I are still together, babbling in the hallway on the way out of school. We stop in front of the large double doors and she looks towards the parking lot where Jason is waiting for her leaning against his car while he chats with his buddies.

She turns to me and says "Hey Bora, would you like to come to that house party a friend of mine is throwing on Saturday? I mean theoretically everyone is invited anyway, so your other friends could come too but it would be nice to see you there...don't worry about Jason he'll be too drunk to care about you anyway. I think you could also reconcile, you two are not that different... nice people who hide behind a mask so as not to be able to get hurt.".

"I will take that as an insult. Don't compare me to a lowlife like him. You should really consider breaking up. He is toxic as fuck and not even that good-looking." I tell her with a disgusted expression.

I am not sure how they even ended up together. Chrissy is such a nice and innocent girl and he... don't get me started.

"Fine I'll come but I won't come alone.". Her response to this is a sincere smile that stretches so far that her eyes are almost completely closed.

As a goodbye, she waves at me and rushes to her boyfriend.