Former Glory An Ex-Spy Story

Chapter Eight

I turn away from her trying hard to keep my composure. I beg with Jackson with my eyes, but he doesn't back down. He sets his jaw into a line and stares at me. Jackson's eyes seem to say, "I dare you."

I ignore my mother looking stunned and scared and run all the way back to the room.

The first thing I do is change my hair. Hey, if it makes me happy I'm gonna do it! The fishtail turned out wonderful! Then I change out of my uniform. I want to paint something and I don't want to get it on my uniform. I put on sweats and an old t-shirt.

I pull out my portfolio and decide to paint a bird in a tree. I'd always been a OK artist, but I had never told anyone, not even my best friends.

I started on the tree making it wispy and beautiful. I traced it in black paint. I decided to paint everything black like a shadow, but the sky. I would do everything in oil painting and make the sky in watercolor once it dried.

I painted the tree and the bird in oil paint. The I sat down and waited for it to dry. I used a fast drying paint so it would dry before regular oil paint does. I wait for twenty minutes and then set to work on the water colors. I put a mixture of white, yellow, dark blue, and light blue. I put in the yellow, white, and dark blue lightly, letting the light blue dominate most of the sky.

Ten minutes later as I'm adding the finishing touches to the sky there is a knock on the door. I don't open the door and then realize that I left the door unlocked. "Hey Princess -" Jackson says through the door.

I cut him off. "Shut up."

He let's himself in. "I didn't know you could paint."

"Jackson!" I exclaim startled. My fishtail braid goes bouncing across my chest.

"You have paint all over that." He uses a weird face and gestures to my face.

I walk over to the mirror and laugh, glad that I wasn't wearing my uniform anymore. I had blue paint smeared all over my cheek. The was black and blue paint all over my hands and arms. There were also white smears on my hands and wrists. My shirt was covered in black, white, and blue paint. My sweats were covered in black and blue paint. I continue laughing. "Yeah. I'm covered in paint!" I laugh.

"Uh yer." Jackson says using a funny voice on yeah so it turns out like "yer".

I laugh some more. "You shouldn't be here."

"I should." He says.

"No." I giggle.

"Yes." Jackson giggles.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

Soon we're rolling on the floor laughing. Then he gets up and says, "Your friends and I were looking for you, but they got caught up. They have to give the new student" He pauses to roll his eyes. "a tour."

I get up too. "What new student?"