Shatter

Chapter 5: Légèrement

Légèrement. Lightly.

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"Oi, shut up, Sienna." Katy whispers to me as we hurry into our Art class together, a few seconds away from being late.

I had signed up to the Design elective, but the Art electives were all unpopular this year, so they had to combine them all into one class: General Art.

I spot that Jay guy whom Elle forced into staying with me during my asthma attack also in the class (because I never really noticed him before), before I sat down in the spot next to Katy and dump my bag on the floor next to me. The teacher gives us a light scolding and tells us to arrive earlier next time, and we nod, barely listening.

"Alright, so we are starting a project this lesson. In fact, this is a new project we've never included in previous years, so it's kind of an experiment this year." Miss Stenet smiles at us nicely, ignoring all of the small groans from the less enthusiastic members of the class. "Hopefully it works and we'll be able to use this project in the following years as well."

She hands out a stack of papers to the girl directly in front of her. "Stacy, can you please hand these out for me?"

While Stacy went around dropping a small booklet on everyone's desk, Miss Stenet kept talking. "So, I'll explain the basics of the project today, and we'll get started right away."

"Thanks." I nod to Stacy as she gives me a paper, and she smiles as a response before walking on.

"You will be paired up with another person in this class for the project, which will last the whole school year - and no, you will not be allowed to choose your partners." She quickly adds the last part upon hearing excited murmurs from everyone, and they all sigh in protest. "For the activity to work, you must be quite unfamiliar with each other at first, and gradually get to know each other throughout this project. Now, the whole objective of the project is to explore how much your understanding of the subject of your art will affect the overall looks of it."

"What does that mean, Miss?" A cocky voice calls out from the back of the room, and I turn to see Daniel Kingston, known in our school for being... what do they call it again? A 'gentlemanly playboy'. Whatever that's supposed to mean. He is in a few of my classes, and I personally find him extremely arrogant and irritatingly conceited. But it doesn't concern me much so I don't really care.

Miss Stenet sighs. "It means you will be trying to find out if getting to know the person you paint or not getting to know the person you paint will make any difference."

"Ah. I still don't really get it." He mutters again, and a few of the 'less enthusiastic' of the class giggle. Miss Stenet sends them all a glare and the laughs are instantly muffled. She may appear to be quite nice, but when triggered, she can also be more scary.

"You'll find out along the way, Daniel."

I'm currently wondering why the hell he is even in my art class. I would've thought that he would take the opportunity to get free periods instead of more electives... Or maybe this was his second elective?

You see, at our school, we have to take the compulsory subjects like social sciences, English/languages, maths, science and health, and everyone has to have at least two electives - they can range from another one of the compulsory subjects or a fun elective like Art or Drama. The students who got into the school by a talent, however, must have at least one elective that is related to their 'talent'. For example, I have AP Music Theory as a compulsory elective, Elle has Choreography and Tessa has Drama.