Aces [#NANOWRIMO2017]

Seraphine Learns How to Deal with the Paparazzi

Sᴀᴛᴜʀᴅᴀʏ, Fᴇʙʀᴜᴀʀʏ 3

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A blue jay, I decided. Blue jays were relatively common in Windy Point Park, so I'd have plenty of unwitting models for my sketching. Plus, I was tired of always doing a squirrel or a leaf; I wanted to jazz things up a bit. I got out my sharpened pencils and inspected the blue jay hopping along just a couple feet in front of me. I already knew a bit about bird anatomy from my robin-drawing phase, about a year ago, and blue jays' bodies were pretty similar. A couple touch-ups here or there and I'd be well on my way. The tricky part would be the crest...

When I sketch, it's like I enter my own little world. I stop seeing everything but my subject and my sketchpad. I go into a sort of a trance. Lynne found it a little weird at first, but she's used to it now. It probably helps that she's discovered a passion of her own, designing outfits, but she told me once that she wished she could get as absorbed in her work as I did in mine. To which I responded, "No, you don't." She was puzzled until she remembered how I reacted the first time she'd interrupted my sketching... I'd screamed out loud, dropped my sketchpad and pencil case, and fell off my chair, scratching my leg on a tree branch on the way down. I still had the scar on my knee to show it.

But today, I kept feeling distracted. My mind was wandering all over the place, and I just couldn't focus on my blue jay. I chalked it up to the fact that it was Saturday, and my dad would be visiting soon. As always, I wore the interlinked silver bracelets that my father had given to me as a gift, just before he'd left. When I was around nine years old, my father and mother fought a lot. Our house was always filled with screaming and anger, and while they always made up with each other, it seemed like they were drifting apart. One day, they got together and decided that while they definitely didn't hate each other as much as some divorced couples did, they were not a good match for each other either, romantically speaking. Wanting to stay friends, they made the decision to split up. I stayed with my mother, but my father visited me every other Saturday. He'd be coming to town on my birthday at the end of the month as well.

I'd just made the decision to close my sketchbook and try again another day when I saw him.

Ace Renshaw. At Windy Point Park.

No. Frigging. Way.

What a total creep! I'd told him "no" yesterday, hadn't I? I walked away from him, and then when he tried to pass a note to me, I'd ripped it up. Didn't that communicate "no" well enough? And now he'd followed me to the park. I huffed and got to my feet.

That was when I noticed that he wasn't actually looking at me.

He was walking along the forest trail just nearby, sure, but his attention was directed elsewhere. What if he hadn't seen me?

I immediately shut down the thought. There was no way that Mr. Bad Boy himself actually liked long romantic walks through the park. Maybe he was just trying to get closer to where I'd been sitting without me noticing him.

Well, that plan had backfired. Now he had to keep walking like he didn't know I was there, and I could just go the other way, pretend I hadn't seen him, and he'd be left on his own again. Serves him right.

I got home just in time to take a quick shower and freshen up before my dad came. When the doorbell rang, I flew downstairs to open the door for him. "Honey bear!" my dad said happily, squeezing me in a tight hug.

"Hey, dad," I replied with a smile.

My father turned to my mother. "So great to see you again, Aliyah," he grinned.

"You too, Jamal," replied my mother. The two of them awkwardly embraced. Pulling away, my mother said, "I'm sorry to leave so early, but I told Jazmine and Carly that I'd meet up with them at the coffee shop in about half an hour, so I've got to go. Take good care of Sera while I'm gone, hmm?"