Collapsed Wings

Alphabet

Rather than draw out some designs we were supposed to be doing for our next art project, I grabbed a blank sheet of sketch paper and wrote out the alphabet.

Jai looked confused by my actions, the long list of 26 letters I portrayed to him was beyond intriguing to him. Once I finished writing the final letter, I slid the paper in front of him.

"Why did you give me this?" He asked.

"It's kind of like a key. You put certain letters together, and you can create words. It's pretty cool actually. Do you see any you recognize? Any you've seen together before?" I questioned as I pointed to some random letters. He looked over the list of letters, nodded his head slowly, and then he pointed at three specific letters. A, I, and J.

"Okay great! Is this the order they go in? Or do you think you can unscramble them?" I questioned.

"When Beau writes these letters on my papers, he puts this one first." He said as he pointed to the letter J. It clicked in my mind that perhaps he recognized the letters in his name.

"This one is next." He added as he pointed to the letter A.

"And then this one goes last." He concluded as he pointed to the letter I.

"Do you know what that spells?" I asked him, but he shook his head no.

"That spells Jai, which is your name obviously." I smiled at him, and he smiled as well.

"I can spell my name now! Look Beverly!" He excitedly exclaimed as he pulled the paper with the alphabet closer to him.

"If you trace these letters often, it'll give you some practice and you'll be able to write as well." I explained, showing him an example by tracing a random letter.

"Why are you doing this?" He suddenly asked, causing me to stop what I was doing.

"If this makes you uncomfortable we can stop. I'm sorry if I-"

"No no no, I don't mind. It's nice actually. I just don't understand why you'd waste your class time on someone like me." Jai explained, looking down at the floor clearly embarrassed.

"I'm not wasting my time if I enjoy what I'm doing. I like your smile, so I'll do what I can to see it more often." I said, causing him to flash his sweet smile.

"Thank you." He blushed.

"You are very welcome." I replied.

It was then that the a bell rang, signaling for our dismissal to the next class. I grabbed my belongings, Jai doing the same, and then we left we left our art class.

"What class do you have next?" I asked him as we walked through the halls.

"Math, Luke has it with me." He responded.

"Your twin?" I questioned.

"Yeah, he's older by two minutes but he makes it seem like years." He said with an eye roll.

"Overprotective brother?" I laughed.

"You have no idea! Though he's not as extreme as Beau. Beau goes crazy when it comes to our safety. Especially this one time when our-" Jai stopped mid sentence and  became wide eyed.

"Never mind." He mumbled, avoiding any sort of eye contact with me. He simply looked straight ahead, biting his lip to prevent any words from slipping out.

"Well um, I'm going to English class, but afterwards I am pretty sure we have lunch together. I'll see you then?" I asked, changing the subject.

He only nodded his head, before walking faster than me and straight into his math class that was right around the corner.

I frowned, but I didn't chase after him. Obviously he was upset or uncomfortable with something that had been brought up, so I didn't interrogate him or anything. I simply let it be, because he'll come around.

Well, at least I hope he will.

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