Home and Holidays

chapter 18

A couple days later, at the community center, Noah, Ella, David, and Lisa were all working on large backdrops to help add to the scenery for the fundraiser. They were basically just huge, standing signs that had scriptures and biblical quotes on them. Valerie had specifically assigned Noah the task of painting them, telling him that he could use whatever color scheme that he chose, knowing that he'd do an amazing job.

"How's it going over here, Noah?" Valerie asked, coming over to where Noah was comfortably seated on the floor as he concentrated on painting, Ella sitting right next to him, watching him in awe.

"It's going good I think. Is this color ok?" Noah asked Valerie, looking up at her.

"Oh, yes, it's perfect! I completely trust you with whatever ideas you have. You have a real talent with art. Where did you learn to be such an exceptional artist?" Valerie inquired, making Noah let out a quiet, nervous chuckle as he felt a little awkward from the compliment.

"Oh, I, um, I don't really know. I just like experimenting with art and seeing what I can create. I've been painting and drawing since I was little, it was just a fun way to make the time go by, but it quickly became a way for me to express myself too." he explained with a shrug.

"Well, you're very gifted." Valerie replied with a smile as Noah mirrored her expression. "And so are you, Ella. How are those decorations coming along?" she added, directing her attention to Ella. She was in the middle of making Christmas themed decorations to attach to the signs, but she had gotten a bit distracted by staring at Noah.

"Oh, they're um.... coming along pretty nicely." Ella claimed, even though she clearly had only gotten very little done. "Sorry, I got a little distracted watching Noah paint." she shyly apologized.

"Mhmm." Valerie replied with a subtle smirk. It was clear to her that Ella wasn't exactly focusing on what Noah was painting, but rather focusing on staring at Noah instead. Valerie could tell the two teenagers had feelings for each other, but refrained from directly commenting on it.

Once Valerie finally walked off to go talk to David and Lisa, Noah turned to look at Ella.

"So, do you have any plans after this?" Noah asked her.

"Nope. I don't really have any plans yet today." she said.

"Well, I was wondering if you'd wanna go out with me later today?" Noah shyly replied.

"I'd love to. What did you have in mind?" Ella enthusiastically agreed.

"Well, there's an ice skating rink close by here, and I think they have it decorated for Christmas now. I was thinking we could go ice skating there?" Noah suggested. When they were at the cafe together, Ella had mentioned something about how she had been ice skating a couple times before and how she wanted to do it again sometime, which was Noah's reasoning for choosing this date location.

"That sounds like so much fun. I didn't know that you skate." Ella replied.

"Yeah, I'm not like super good at it or anything, but it's pretty fun. One time there was this field trip that we had in school right before winter break where we went to see this art museum, and there was an ice skating rink next to it outside so we all went ice skating there. It was really fun." Noah recalled, that being one of the rare, fun times that he had experienced at school before. "Some of the other kids from school went there over winter break too just for fun and I was able to go with them a couple times, so that's how I pretty much know how to ice skate, you know, well enough." he explained.

"That does sound like a lot of fun. Ok, so ice skating it is then?" Ella said with a smile.

"Ice skating it is." Noah echoed back, mirroring her expression.