The Fountain Girl

Chapter 6

Dear Mister Swathesburg was the only British teacher in the entire school and he was quite the interesting character. He spoke with, of course, an unmistakable British accent that some pupils struggled with. He was a kind gentleman with a figure like my father and hair somewhat resembling a monk, with no hair on the top and hair ringing around his otherwise bald head.

To my utmost surprise, he invited me to sit at my seat as he had just begun his lesson. Guess I wasn't the only latecomer after all. He began his confusing lesson on Bernoulli's Principle which I had made a mental note to Wikipedia it briefly back home.

When he started ranting on about vorticles and other aerodynamic nonsense I had decided that my time would be better spent drawing.

Unconsciously, the sketch pencil in my hand drafted small hairs on my sketching notebook, eventually sketching longer hair and longer hairs. Then tip of my pencil slid downwards and drifted back up to the longer hairs again, making a slender U-shaped-like line.

My fingers against swiveled around to sketch details and details of the subject of my drawing. Then smaller details. And even smaller details. When I held my book a bit higher than the top of my table to see properly, I saw Anna's smiling face, the cute rosy cheeks and the soft smile playing on her thin lips.

I almost had a heart attack when Bryan snatched my notebook away from me. Of course he wouldn't return it to me when I asked for him to do so. "Who's this? Your girlfriend?" He snickered. "Looks a bit too young for you, doesn't she?"

He raised the notebook high into the air, calling out, "Mr Swathesburg! Ryan hasn't been paying attention!" He said aloud like a small kid trying to rat on another kid. Mr Swathesburg looked me in the eye, stalked up to Bryan's table and shoved the notebook in his backpocket, placing it on his own desk. I growled at Bryan in anger.

"I've let you off once, young man, but the second is too much." Mr Swathesburg sniffed and his mustache shook with force, and he continued his lesson.

During lunch, Katie and I sat at our usual table against the wall, away from the crowd and hustle. She made a tower from her fries. "Who's the girl?" She asked me as her tower collapsed and she shoved a fry into her mouth.

"Sorry?" I asked. She pulled my notebook out from her bag and flipped it to the page where I had drawn Anna. She returned it to me. I turned the book over in my hands to see if any damage had been done to it. None.

"There's something I need to tell you, Katie..." I explained the recent happenings that regarded Anna and Katie listened. She was a good listener.

"-And I need to buy daily necessities for her... It's so much work..." I finished, shoving the remains of my fries into my mouth and grabbing my backpack. Katie did so as well, and followed me to the locker hall.

"Can you come to my house after school?" She asked me, throwing her bag in her locker and pulling a few books out.

"Sure, why?" I asked her curiously.

"You'll see..."