Innocent People

Chapter 6 - Mia

While she was making her way to the chemistry lab, Mia's mind started wandering back to what had happened in first period. She had of course attempted to give her usual response and pretended like it didn't matter and that it was probably not true at all anyway. But frankly, she felt completely different and wasn't very good at hiding it. There was always some useless chatter going on in art class in the corner that was mainly occupied by girls. Usually it was about something like which boy had possibly taken an interest in someone or who had bought the cutest dress at the store and this lesson was no different. 
Well, apart from the fact that Mia was friends with the people of the main conversation piece.

Not much art went on in art classes at Cliffden and that perticular day Mia would rather have actually been paying attention to her new chalk drawing than hearing what she had heard. But it's hard to do something no one had done in such a long time.

About three years ago the head of the art department at Cliffden High, Miss Taylor was diagnosed as ill and highly contaigeous to those around her with a disease that no one could or even tried to pronounce. It wasn't a critical illness but it was bad enough for Miss Taylor to stay at home but not before she had left a little something behind for her fellow art teachers. Miss Taylor was known in the faculty lounge for her delicious lemon drizzle cake that she brought in for her fellow teachers more often than not. So it didn't take long until the entire department was out of school sick for three months. Obviously someone had to fill in for all the missing staff and then explain to the students why, for the time being, they know more about the subject they have than their teacher does. That's when random teachers from all the departments started taking over the art lessons whenever they were free and basically giving all students A s on whatever they handed in being as they really didn't know what they were doing and the students weren't half bad and seemed pretty confident. It worked out pretty well for everyone.

Since then art lessons at Cliffden very rarely involved any kind of actual talent, consideration or even attempt at art. Whether it was chalk, pencil, paints or ceramics, non of the students really cared but nor did the teachers. The school always made sure that they did whatever was on the project list for that year so that the school didn't get caught out and it had worked for over two years without the school having to pay for new staff and it was intended to keep it this way. Now the students drew, painted or molded their work in about an hour, handed it in, got an A, and then went back to the latest gossip or sports news. 

Usually Mia was all for gossip and trash talk and even pretended like she had even the slightest idea of what the cute guys were talking about when it came to sports but that day she could have lived without it. She wasn't actually the conversation's topic yet it still had an impact on her. Sharon and Penelope, Mia's "very close friends" in the cool-and-popular-girls clique, had just started their attempt at a chalk drawing of an elephant (that no observer could have known if it weren't for the picture in front of them being as their drawings looked like stilts and micky mouse) and so, the gossip commenced.

"You're not going to believe what I heard Adrian tell Kean on Saturday!" Sharon started in the usual gossip-girl-I-have-info tone. 
"Is this before or after we'd all met up to organize the party?" Penelope asked trying to find her way into the conversation and jog her memory.
"Just after", Sharon answered. "Almost everyone had left but I was waiting for a chance to talk to Kean because you know all that stuff was going on..." Sharon began to trail off into a different story but caught herself before she went too far. "Anyway, I was about to give up and leave when, as I was on my way out, I passed the kitchen and saw that Kean was talking to Adrian and, being as I'm me", Sharon stated smiling and shrugging her shoulders, "I could tell immediately that something was going on."

In the time that Sharon had started talking and when she paused for a bit of effect, the ears of about six other girls around her had grown to three times their normal size, Penelope had realized the value of this gossip and was paying attention to every detail with eyes as big as saucers and the drawing had almost completely ceased on their side of the room. 
Mia had of course also started listening as soon as she had heard Adrian's name mentioned and her chair was now so close to Sharon's that if she were to move, Sharon would be the first to know.