four

222 24 3
                                    

There was ten minutes before school officially started, but Dan had already been up in his classroom for almost an hour.

He had spent the time decorating the bare room. He took down the cheesy motivational posters, and hung up Christmas lights and a tapestry in their place. Dan knew that most teachers didn't have tapestries hanging and Christmas lights twinkling in their rooms, but he didn't want to be like the other teachers.

"WOAH." His peace was interrupted by a deep voice from the doorway.

"You're the new teacher right?" The man asked, walking over to where Dan was hammering in the tack into the wall.

"Yep. As of yesterday." He grinned, turning to face the man. The man was taller than he was, which was surprisingly pleasant.

"I'm Kyle. I teach ceramics next door." He grinned pointing in the direction of his room.

"I'm dan." He said, the two shaking hands.

It took Dan a second to fully register the man standing in front of him. He had extraordinary eyes. They were a deep coffee brown. But they weren't just brown. When the lights hit them at a certain angle, the rings were illuminated a golden Carmel color.

"You excited?" Kyle asked, looking around the room. Dan felt a bit insecure watching as he walked around.

"This is amazing." Kyle grinned in amazement. He had never seen the room decorated with anything besides Aperture charts and 'hang in there' posters.

"Could you help me hang up this canvas?" He asked, picking up one of his paintings. Kyle then climbed up on the ladder. He handed him a tack and a hammer, carefully handing him the canvas.

"Damn, mate where'd you score this one?" Kyle asked him, hammering in the tack.

"I uh, painted it." He answered nervously, scratching the back of his neck. It wasn't anything special, but he did have a strange love for the one painting.

It was the piece that got him into art school. It was a self portrait of his Highschool self looking in the mirror. But the reflection showed a black figure staring back, big white glowing eyes looking back. It was dark and sort of demented but then again so was Dan.

"You my friend are freaky good." He grinned, backing off the ladder.

"Thanks." He blushed, at a loss for words.

The silence between them was interrupted by the timing of the bell, students beginning to walk into the newly decorated classroom.

"Talk later?" Kyle asked from the doorway.

"Yeah." Dan grinned, and began setting up for class where they would learn about exposure.

---
I hope this story isn't too much like everything else.

But I just love photography and dan is based off of my amazing teacher.

The picture up at the top was my final project for photography last year.

compare scarsWhere stories live. Discover now