Exposed || Camren

Chapter Four: Grown

The next day, Lauren was a bit nervous as she stood at her locker. It was six in the morning, before any of the buses would arrive to the school. Lauren knew that Camila drove to school, as she overhead Pauly talking about it. He had forced Camila to give him a ride, even though it sounded like she needed to go home urgently. Lauren hadn't said anything, but she wish she had. Especially now that she was waiting for Camila, ready to interview the girl for the first time. A first time that would lead to a series of other meetings over the next month. Lauren couldn't believe this girl, who she disliked for so long, was going to be the very person she was going to spend the rest of her senior year with.

When the clock above Lauren's head buzzed the numbers 6:07, the green-eyed girl decided she needed to do something more with her time. She got to school this early every single day. At first, it was a struggle, as she was used to waking up at 6:50 every day so she could get to school before the first bell at 7:30.

But, soon, Lauren learned to make her brain think of waking up so early as a task worth being rewarded. Every morning, Lauren was able to go into the art room, with the key the art teacher had given her at the beginning of the school year. Soon enough, Lauren didn't have to set her alarms in the morning. She woke up when she needed and got to school early enough to work on her artwork for an hour before school started.

Today, though, Lauren woke up as per usual and waited in front of her locker for Camila. But, that deemed to be just too boring for her. Lauren had thought she would wait in front of her locker and wouldn't do any artwork just so she wouldn't miss the girl. But Lauren was positive that Camila wasn't coming until 7:00, when all of the other popular kids arrived.

So, Lauren turned around and opened up her locker, grabbing her art supplies and a master key to the art room. Her high heels clacked as she walked down the hallway, clicking rather loudly. It was so empty and peaceful in the school with no one else there. Lauren wished school could always be like this. No one talking bad about everyone else. No cliques to make Lauren feel left out. No cliques to make anyone left out. No people to make anyone feel bad about themselves and want to lock themselves away and never show her face in front of people again.

Lauren sighed as she curved down D wing hallway, towards the art room. The area usually smelt strongly of paints and fuel and printer ink from the different classrooms. But, with no one around, all Lauren could smell was the lemon cleaner the janitor had used to clean the floors. She couldn't wait to smell nothing but her pencil shavings and canvas paper wet with paint. She loved art, and everything that came with it.

Lauren sighed happily as she opened up the art room. It was dark inside, but from the little bit of moonlight streaming through the window, Lauren could see the colorful paintings and drawings and sculptures students had done. She knew that somewhere amongst them, on the left wall, there was a charcoal drawing she had done during her freshman year.

Lauren turned on the light, which flickered on, flooding the room with color and brightness. Instantly, a smile spread across Lauren's dark, red lips. She entered the room, going towards the closet. She unlocked it, opening it slowly. A rack of paintings were on the wire shelves, one of which were Lauren's. She found it rather quickly, as it was the only painting in the bunch with a mix of vibrant colors. Recently, Lauren had been working on abstract works, just to make sure her portfolio was diverse in more ways than one.

Lauren went to the back room, where it was the most put together and comfortable. She sat down on a spinning computer chair with padding, then pulled it up to the high counter than went up to Lauren's chest when sitting. She already had paints and water and brushes laid out from the day before, so Lauren started on the watercolor painting immediately. She was only a few strokes in before she deemed the room just way too quiet. Lauren pulled out her phone, scrolling through her music before settling on One Direction's new album, Made in the A.M. As she painted a shape onto her canvas, Lauren sang along to Drag Me Down, smiling to herself.