Girl, New

Chapter 5 - Pottery

MABEL

My last class of the day was pottery. Art has remained a consistent part of my life, despite being ridiculed by Avalyn and others for my creations, I could never let it go. Art was a part of me and nothing could change that. It was hard to ignore the bullying, but I persevered.  I decided to continue pursuing art classes, discovering along the way I was a natural at wheel throwing. I felt at peace at when throwing, not to mention, I was better with my hands and clay rather than a pencil or brush. Seeing as I enjoyed art, the butterflies in my stomach settled down a bit. The only part was trying to remember the directions given to me by Mrs. Grenshal.

The hallways of Burmenton slowly fizzled to a few students here and there yet I still was wandering becoming more frantic as every second ticked by. Fortunately I managed to rush in just as the last bell rang.

The studio was large and unlike the small cramped one at my old school. Here, there were rows of wheels and a plethora of tools along the window sills. A door on one side of the wall told me that's where the fired pieces lived. I took a seat a one of the tables ready to get throwing.

"Hello all, I hope your day has been going smoothly." A willowy woman stood from her desk, almost gliding in front to address the students. Her flowing wave of red hair only added to her happy disposition.

"My name is Miss. Amherst and welcome, to Pottery I." Smiles seemed to beam up at her, it looked like she had a good reputation between the student body. Art was always a girly class during my time at Redwood, but here it seem boys were not beat up and criticized for having an interest in art. "I'm sure all of you are anxious to get on the wheel and create something beautiful but in order to do so, instruction is necessary. If you could all put on a smock I'll start the demo. We will discuss the syllabus later, I'm sure all of you are tired of listening to your teachers drone on" Miss. Amherst laughed a little as her went to retrieve clay from a plastic bag. I noticed many of the students I was with were much young than I was and I grew worried they saw me as a freak, I was already tall for my age and fit awkwardly in the crowd. Many were quite rowdy in getting their smocks. I tried to quickly slip in and steal a smock but it dint' work out too well. I turned and almost knocked a girl over.

"Woah! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to crash into you, are you okay? I'm sorry" God Mabel, your so clumsy... Couldn't your feet work with your brain just this one time?

"No, no you're fine. I'm good haha" The girl was considerably shorter and younger than me, definitely freshman.

"Over here class!" called Miss. Amherst, she was already seated at a wheel near the front row of wheels. "Okay, class. We're going to start by introducing you to the basic equipment you'll need..." She got up retrieving some tools from the windowsill boxes. "Now, has anyone ever taken a class or worked on the wheel before?" No one raised their hand, which made it difficult for my to find a confident source within my body to do so. Timidly I forced my hand up. "Oh that's great! What's your name, dear?" All the eyes in the classroom turned straight to me.

"It's uh, M-Mabel..." And awkward pause took place be fore I blurted out "Walshburn." I heard a few snickers from around me, one of the mini skirt girls was with another mini shirt girl, both were analyzing my entire body, making me want to shrink inside my shoes. At least you aren't wearing blush... Your cheeks and ears are probably cherry red... I probably look like an loser.

"Oh wonderful! How much experience have you had?"

Oh god...I didn't prepare to talk this much...Deep breath. "Since I was 12." Perfect! Short and sweet.

"Good, so add your input and advice as I go through this demo, I'm sure you don't need a refresher though." Miss. Amherst gave me a warm closed lip smile as she set her bat in place. It's good you know how to throw by heart... She expected you to know everything. A quick flashback to the words "...you don't need a refresher" shot through my mind. What if you didn't know... That would be so awful she would've been so upset... I would've looked like a fool...