Sophomore Status

Chapter 7: N. C. Wyeth

After school on Thursday, Alyss and I met at the library, like we had planned. We sat down at the same table we did on Monday, and began our work. Since the questions were hard to research, I had only gotten six done so far. We had to research them and write a paragraph for each question. It took about ten minutes for each question.

"How far have you gotten?" I asked Alyss as she pulled her notebook out of her brown leather bag.

"Only the first five." She replied to me. I let out a sigh of relief. I thought that she would've done more but luckily, I was ahead of her.

"Cool. Let's get started." I told her.

I pulled out my laptop and began to research. The painter that Alyss and I had been assigned was N.C. Wyeth. The next question was asking how my assigned painter died. I brought up a few websites and read some information on Wyeth. When I was ready, I began to write the paragraph.

In 1945, Wyeth and his grandson were killed when the automobile they were riding in was struck by a freight train at a railway crossing near his Chadds Ford home.

I did a little bit more research and made my paragraph longer.

After about 45 minutes, Alyss had caught up to me and we were on question ten. That was the question that we had agreed to stop on. I finished the question before Alyss so I waited until she completed it.

"Yay! We are officially half way done with our research." She said, loudly, when she finished the tenth question.

"Shhh!" A lady in an old floral dress with a pink cardigan heard what Alyss said, and wanted her to quiet down.

"Sorry." Whispered Alyss, in the direction of the girl that had shushed her before. She turned back towards me and began to chuckle. I smiled with her.

We both packed up our stuff and left the library. Dad gave me a ride home.
"How was your day sweetie?" He asked me.

"It was okay. I think my painting teacher likes me though." I told him with pride in my voice.

"Great!" Dad smiled at me and waited a few seconds but began talking again. "Now, have you actually started painting yet?"

"No, we're studying principles of design this week. Next week is our last study week and then we will start painting." I replied to him.

"Well, when you guys start painting, your teacher is in for a big surprise. That is, because your such an amazing painter." Dad said.

At this, I began to blush. I never thought about how good I was at painting. After all, I hadn't painted in a couple of months.

"Thanks Dad." I said back to him with a smile on my face.

We pulled into our old brick driveway and hopped out of the car. When I reached the door, I twisted the knob and it was locked. I was curious as to why the door was locked when Jason was supposed to be home already.

"Isn't Jason home?" I asked dad as he stepped up onto the porch behind me. I pulled out me key and began to unlock to door.

"He was when I left." Dad said.

When I finally unlocked the door and stepped inside, Dad called for Jason to see if he was in the house. We both got a little bit nervous that something had happened to him. Luckily, when I walked into the kitchen, I saw a pink post-it note on the counter with words written on it. It read- Went to the store, I'll be home soon. Dad and I looked at each other with relief that Jason was okay.

"Looks like it's just you and me, kid." Dad said. Usually when Jason was gone we would bundle up on the couch and watch a whole series of a random television show that was on Vidme, the smart tv app that gave us free movies and shows.

That's what we ended up doing. Dad and I watched a few episodes of CSI, which was his favorite show. We even continued watching it after Jason got home. We were almost done with season six.

We were in the middle of watching when Jason walked out into the living room and stopped next to the tv. He began to stare at us like we were weird or something.

"How long have you guys been watching this?" He asked.

It took us a while to process the question, but I finally responded. "Since we got home." I replied

Jason shook his head and let out a small laugh. He didn't understand the show at all so he thought it was crazy how much we watched it. I constantly told him that if he were to watch it, he would get addicted too. I had hoped that one day he would watch it with us.

Just then, Alyss texted me. The text message read- what's up Kat??. Alyss and I didn't text much so it was a bit of a surprise to me. I unlocked my phone and replied to her. I said- nm just watching tv how about u? When I was done, I looked up at the tv and realized that I missed one of the most important parts of the show.

"But She didn't do it!!" Dad yelled at the tv. I didn't exactly know what happened because I was texting Alyss.

"What happened?" I asked Dad.

"They arrested her, but she didn't even do it!" He exclaimed at me.

Dad got pretty upset when something bad happens during a tv show. I just go along with it and continue watching. That was one trait that I got from Mom. She would be silent if she was upset with something, rather than expressing it, like Dad does.

When we finished the episode I laid down on my bed and texted Alyss for a while. I found out that she, surprisingly, watched CSI also. I didn't know until then, but She and I had so much in common. Maybe that's why we got along so well.