The Twins

Chapter 8: In the Eye of the Beholder

Part 1: Silver

     The sun shone brilliantly through the glass dome above the city. The night before the sprinklers had been turned on so the grass was covered in a few and some water droplets still hung in the air, causing a rainbow to form just lutise Matthew's window.

    Slowly the teen rose out of bed and shuffled over to the kitchen. He grabbed a plain piece of bread and ate it leaning against the counter. A moment later his dad came in the room and makes a pretend screech,"there's a zombie in the kitchen!!"
"Rawr." Matthew answeres unamused.

     This earned Matthew a teasing grin and his father doing a weird dance that Matthew could only assume was an impression of a zombie. It sucked.

    His father began rooting around the fridge,"So I have a class today. A bunch of elementary school kids. Want to come help out? We're doing painting today."

Matthew chewed his pathetic breakfast in thought. He didn't have anything better to do, and believe it or not, he kind of liked hanging out with kids. They're less complicated than teenagers or adults.

"Yeah sure." He answeres with a shrug to which his dad replied with a fist bump.

     The next few hours Matthew helped set up the supplies for the class in the small tutorial room in the art shop. Washing paintbrushes, getting the subject, a bouquet if plastic flowers, set up, and making sure there were enough canvases. Soon the table was filled with art supplies, organized neatly.

     Art wasn't always Matthew's thing, since he wasn't the most coordinated person he found to difficult to keep his hand steady enough to make the art look good, but it was a nice way to pass the time. Matthew's father was able to make incredible pieces of artwork though. There was a bird sculpture he had made for Matthew in on his dresser that was so realistic Matthew still took a double take each time he saw it. Which was impressive since Matthew's father made it when Matthew was 6.

     The father son duo took a break to look over their work and to wait for the students to arrive. It wasn't long until they had arrived and sat down at their seats. Soon the previous neatness of the space vanished with paintbrushes being flung across the room and some kids even trying to open the paint already. Mathew started getting a headache.

     Mr. Bolin, Matthew's father, calmed down the chaotic children and brought about order quickly. He had done this many times before and knew all the tricks of the trade. Within minutes the kids were practicing sketching the flowers while listening to the tips and instructions that the adult was telling them. Matthew watched in awe then started going around the table to check if the kids were understanding everything.

     There it was. The calm and peace that Matthew kind of enjoyed about doing art. The kids had become very focused on their work making the room almost silent. Matthew was put in charge of handing out and refilling paint which kept him pretty busy. The kids had decided that it was a lot more fun to put HUGE GLOBS OF PAINT all over thier canvases. They would probably have to buy a lot more paint after this.

    One girl, a little 7 year old with dirty blond hair done up in two braids was painting  very calmly though, using what was in Matthew's opinion, the right amount of paint. Matthew went over to check if she needed any help and was surprised when he saw her painting.

    It was completely different than the plastic sunflowers that had been set up. They were much bigger and were painted in a field instead of in the vase. She had painted a little girl standing beside them, being dwarfed by the huge size of the flowers. Looking closer Matthew could see that the girl was her.

   "That's what they actually look like." The girl says simply, noticing Matthew's fascination with the painting. Matthew was confused. Sure she could have looked up on the internet what sunflowers looked like in real life but nobody on Edis had even seen real ones. And the close detail in the petals and leaves was almost impossible for a child her age to achieve.

    "How do you know that?"
"Shit. That's a stupid thing to say. She probably won't understand what you mean maybe she'll think you're dissing her painting and have a fit. Kids aren't fun when they're screaming." Matthew chastised himself silently in his head the moment the words left his mouth.

    To his surprise the girl didn't have a fit. She just smiled,"I just do." She explained simply.

   "Alright everyone are you all finished? It's almost time to let the paint dry." Matthew's father said sweetly, in the kind of voice everyone uses with kids without really knowing why. It's the same voice that kind of pissed Matthew off when he was younger, since it just proved that nobody would've taken him seriously then, just like nobody ever takes any child seriously.

    The kids lined up in front of a blue machine to put their canvases in it. The machine dried the paint extremely quickly and actually made it stronger so weather couldn't wreak it. This was another newer invention, along with the paint that was supposed to be used with it. Neo-acrylic it was called. Matthew didn't know a lot about it but he did know it worked in a completely different way than previous inventions of that type.

    Soon the kids were filing out of the shop thanking Mr. Bolin before they left. Matthew noticed the one girl before she left and she smiled at him like they shared a secret. As she was waking out Matthew noticed her eyes were silver, just like a Saru Tokai.

________________________________________________

Matthew: hey Amani what's up?

Matthew: heloooooooo you there?

Matthew: are you ignoring meeeeee?

Matthew: Rude.

Matthew: I'm just kidding please come back.

Matthew: Amani?