Liberating Changes [Joavin]

Photo

Joaquin POV

I walk to Kevin's house to get him for school. I've never done this so it'll be a sort of surprise. I open the gate and walk to the door, knocking and waiting with a smile.
He opens the door, tiredly, still in his pajamas.

"Get dressed, you've only got 10 minutes" I say with a smile as he starts to panic. He pulls me into the house and runs upstairs.
I chuckle and start to look around. I see photos of a young Kevin surrounded by either friends or family.
I pick one up. It has four people in it, Kevin, a little girl and two adults. Im guessing the adults are his mum and dad and I have no idea who the girl could be. The older woman looks like she is hurting the young boy and the Sheriff seems to not care while the girl is on his shoulders, smiling.
I frown slightly at the photo.

My hand and photo is lowered by Kevin who is now fully ready. I grab his bag off of a chair and sling it on my left shoulder. I pull the boy outside and we start walking to school after he locks the door.
We walk in a comfortable silence. He links his fingers with mine and smiles softly at me.
"Why were you looking at that photo?" He asks
"Your mum looked like she was hurting you and I was wandering who the young girl was" I say honestly, earning a slight flinch from Kevin.
He unlinks our fingers and looks away from me.
"It...it was nothing Quin and she's no one."

I nodded slightly and the silence turns uncomfortable. We get into school and Cheryl walks up to us. She looks from Kevin to me, back to Kevin and back to me, with a questioning look.
I mouth 'I'll explain later' to her and she nods. She stands in-between us and takes our hands.

We walk into art and are set a task to draw something we love. I look to Kevin and Cheryl who are next to me and smile.
I pull out my phone and click on the picture I had taken of them at Pops the previous day.
I start to sketch the photo but add my other best friend, Toni into it and smile. It turned out quite nice and realistic.
I actually really like art and have been doing it since I was around four.
I felt someone look over my shoulder and his mouth drops open.

"Oh my god Joaquin, that's amazing" Kevin whispers loud enough for Cheryl to here.
She looks over as well and gasps slightly.
"That's more than amazing. It looks just like the photo. Well, the photo without colour and a random girl, but still."
I look at them and smile
"Thanks guys."

Cheryl goes to her bag and fishes out some expensive looking water colour paints.
" I can't do art to save my, or any of yours, lifes. It will go to more use if you have it"
"Thanks." I say, looking at it. It is completely unused. I smile and hug my red haired best friend.

I start to paint the picture which makes it look nicer and more realistic. Kevin watched the whole time and Cheryl just continues with her drawing.
At the end, we had to present our drawings to the class which makes me tense up.
Cheryl goes up and shows that she simply drew two roses which were coloured in Sharpie. The black and dark green one had a silver 'J' on it and the blue and purple one had a gold 'K' on it.
She explained that it represents me and Kev. We smile at her.
Next, it's Kevin's turn. He had a black canvas with an overlapping emerald green 'J' and a ruby red 'C'.
He also explained how it represents me and Cheryl. We both smile at him.

I went up and someone sighed.
"Let me guess, yours represents Keller and Cheryl." I turn to Chuck and pull a sarcastic smile.
"Actually yeah, as well as my friend Toni. Do you have a problem with that? Just like you have a problem with people being gay?"
He gave me a murderous look and I walk to the front.
I show my picture and people just stare at it. The teacher takes it from me and examines it with a smile.
"This is really something DeSantos. Well done"

Cheryl POV

We survived school and head to Kevin's house. We decide to watch iCarly and it's quite funny to watch Joaquin sing the theme tune, loudly and badly.
Kevin says he's going to go to the bathroom and I turn to Joaquin.
"So, tell me, why did Kevin look so down earlier?"

Joaquin walks to the other side of the room and picks up a photo. He sits back down and holds it out it in front of me.
" I was looking at this. His mum looks like she was hurting him"
I look at the photo of a young Kevin, the Sheriff, Kevin's mum and Kevin's sister.
"Who's that girl?" Joaquin asks
"My sister." Says Kevin, walking into the room and sitting in between us

"She left with my mum when I came out..." Kevin tells Joaquin.
My best friends then hug.
"Im sorry Kev, I know how hard it can be to have your family leave you"
Kevin nodded as they broke off and we decide to stay over for the night.

Kevin POV

I wake in the middle of the night to the door banging and two laughs come from down stairs. Joaquin, who was on the floor next to me, also wakes up along with Cheryl who was in the bed.
We go downstairs to find my dad and the mayor, drunk and kissing.
I here a camera click and see Cheryl took a photo. I raise an eyebrow and her and she replied by whispering 'Josie'.
Joaquin takes my hand and guides us all back to my room.
"You look annoyed and sad Kev and it honestly kinda hurt." Joaquin says with a slight smile and we soon all go back to sleep, Joaquin hugging me.