Getting Her Back

Chapter 7

Bradley

I was getting through to her. Slowly but surely I was getting the feisty Hannah back.

I don't know why I cared so much, but it just felt wrong seeing Hannah so small. I wonder what happened to change her.

I got to school late today and missed homeroom and part of first. It wasn't my fault though, the power went out and my alarm clock changed. Mrs. Morris didn't take that as an excuse though.

I sighed and took my seat next to Hannah. She was drawing something with a notebook and when she scowled, I looked closer. It was a drawing of her.

"That's really good," I said.

Hannah slammed the book shut. "No it wasn't."

"Yeah, it was."

Hannah glared at me and turned back to the front of the room where Mrs. Morris was teaching.

There was that fire.

Even a glare was better than the first day I saw her again. I never want to see Hannah like that again. It was creepy.

I hummed lightly, suddenly in a very good mood, and twiddled my pencil around. I had no clue what was going on in the actual class, but I didn't care.

__________________________________

Hannah

Our art assignment was due soon and I still hadn't gotten anywhere on it. Nothing looked right. Every time I drew myself, I looked too normal. Too happy. Too put together. It wasn't me. It was just a stranger who looked like me.

I had decided to work on it during Mrs. Morris's class, but Bradley just had to go and ruin that. He could be so annoying at times.

So, I actually paid attention in class and waited until art class to work on my portrait.

The only problem was, class was over halfway done and I still didn't have a clue of what I was going to do. My sketchbook was filled with pages and pages of failures; not one would work.

I put my head in my hands and groaned in frustration.

"Still nothing?" I looked up to see Ms. Topaz.

"Nope," I said, popping the 'p'.

Ms. T took my sketchbook and started flipping through the pages. "These are all really good Hannah."

I sighed. "They're too perfect. That's not me."

Ms. T hummed and squinted her eyes like I'd seen her do when she was deep in thought.

"I have an idea," she announced. She ripped out all of the different portraits and started tearing them up. I looked at her in confusion as she sorted through the pieces. "Now, put them back together."

"What?"

"Use different pieces to make your self portrait. See if it's more of what you're looking for."

With that, Ms. T walked away to go check on the other students and I was left staring at the pieces of paper.

I guess it's worth a shot.

I picked up a piece, my nose, and put in the middle of my workspace. Then, I picked up my left eye and placed that where it was supposed to go.

I kept placing pieces and moving them around, playing with different ideas. I was so into it, I didn't even hear the bell ring and I worked straight through my break and some of lunch.

When I finally finished glueing down the pieces onto a new paper, I collapsed into my chair and looked at what I'd created.

It wasn't perfect. The shape of my face was off in some spots. Things didn't match.

It was messy.

It was perfect.

I smiled and handed the project in to Ms. T. She grinned at me and flipped the paper over, marking it with an A+ right there.

"Thanks Ms. T. You were right."

"I often am." We both laughed. "No, but seriously, I am very proud of how you stuck through this and though outside of the box to make something that really represented you."

I thanked Ms. T again as tears tried to fight their way into my eyes and left the class.

I did it.