Grace

Chapter 40

"Please be nice to him," Chi all but begged.

I had a little too much in my mouth to be able to answer. Chi wasn't eating enough to shut up.

"And please don't threaten him –"

"Who's threatening who now?" Tarq asked and sat next to me.

Ben clattered into the place opposite him and next to Chi. Clara was on her other side and opposite her, on the other side of me was Simeon.

"Grace is insisting on talking to Kit in class today," Chi said. "He's already scared of her."

Ben choked on his sandwich. Tarq decided not to have some of his drink just yet. He looked at Chi with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"Why?" he asked. "Grace is..."

"Grace is?" Ben asked.

"Well... you know... Grace. She isn't dangerous. Or scary."

"Why is he intimidated by me?" I asked Chi.

She shrugged. "He's too embarrassed to tell me. Just... please be nice to him."

"Of course I will be!" I laughed. "Ever known me to be horrible to anyone?" I looked at the clock. I got up. "Master Woodward likes us to be early when there's a new project." I leaned across the table, kissed Ben quickly and then hurried out into the pouring rain.

Umbrella up, I dashed all the way to art splashing though puddles and lingering Christmas slush. I was the last one there but I was still a couple of minutes early. Master Woodward had set out chairs for us all in a semi circle around the whiteboard. As I sat down she quickly filled in she register and then turned to us.

"Portraits of other people," she said. "Just heads and shoulders this time and the background has to be something imagined. We're doing pen art this time – ball point pens only, but you can use whatever shade you like within one colour group. I'd like for you to work with people in the group so I've paired you off already, I'll run though the list in a minute. Today you need to compose your shot – you'll be working from a photograph – and design your background. I've got a list of artists to research as well. We'll be doing this for two weeks. Any questions?"

No one had any so she ran through the list of pairs. I grinned when she got to my name. She'd put me with Christopher. He was a bespectacled guy with an unruly mop of ginger curls. I suggested we sit in a corner, but I sat in it and he sat opposite me.

"I heard about you and Chi in the church," I smiled.

He blushed bright red but didn't say anything.

"I also heard how you're childhood sweethearts. It's sweet."

He let out a sigh of relief. "You think so?"

I smiled. "Did you really think I was going to eat you?"

"Errr... I..."

"You should come to our house sometime. You any good at video games?"

"Um. Yeah. Sort of. I mean, I do alright." He shrugged trying to look calm and cool, but he'd already failed at that. "You?"

"Not really, but Tarq needs to loose a time or two."

He smiled. "Dad says that about me."

"Then we'll have a real competition on our hands. Um, Monday isn't such a great time, Master Clarke makes us all do work before the show is on. We watch it as a whole house. But the rest of the time he doesn't mind who visits so long as you're home for dinner and prayers."

He nodded. "I'll have to see when I've got a spare afternoon. You know how rare those are and, ah, I don't think Chi will want to spend all afternoon watching us play video games."

I laughed a little. "Good point."

We got to work then, both of us doing five minute sketches of each other in different coloured pens. I decided he looked best in trusty Bic Blue and did a more detailed sketch as my homework. On the way out the doors I said to Christopher:

"So, you'll talk to Tarq about gaming?"

"Sure," he smiled. "See you round, Grace."

"See ya."