Sheraton Academy

Art Club

Rated: G. Warnings: None

Gabriel had been pestering Kong Yok to come visit the art club some Thursday for ages. Months, if not even a whole year by now. No, he would always say, he wasn't good around people and people didn't like him.

"I like you," Gabriel would always say.

"Well, you're different," Kong Yok would always respond.

And Gabriel would always hum thoughtfully and twist his mouth a little and drop it until the next time.

Kong Yok didn't tell anyone at first. But then it started to get so frustrating, he ended up cracking one afternoon with JD and shouting, "And he won't take no for an answer!"

"I think he's right," was all JD said said.

"You're all against me," Kong Yok muttered.

As it happened, Jin Li was against him, too, his own brother, in cahoots with his friends to try to make him socialize with people he didn't know and didn't want to. Why did he need more friends? JD and Gabriel and his siblings were plenty for him. Kong Yok didn't want surface, shallow acquaintances. He didn't have the patience or energy for it. He just wanted a few very close friends and for everyone else to leave him alone.

But if even his friends wouldn't leave him alone, how the hell was he supposed to just keep to himself?

Finally, one Thursday near the end of the term just before summer holidays, Kong Yok gave in. "I'll go," he said, "but only if you stop bringing it upafterward."

Gabriel stood up straight with a mock salute. "Done!"

Kong Yok rolled his eyes and Gabriel grinned.

"I'll see you after classes then, okay? Art Room 12!"

He waved brightly as he walked away toward his first class of the morning, and Kong Yok halfheartedly waved back before turning around and trudging toward his own.

Gabriel had said that the art club was small, but Kong Yok had assumed that 'small' meant different things to him and the French boy. 'Small' was probably, like, twenty people or so, right?

But it wasn't. There were only three other students there. A Japanese boy about his age sitting on a desk with his feet propped on a chair and a sketchbook propped in his lap; a blond ...young man, really, probably in Uni, tapping a pencil against his mouth as he squinted at a paper on the desk in front of him; and Gabriel.

Gabriel glanced up from his notebook when the door clicked closed, and when his eyes caught Kong Yok, he grinned brightly and gestured him over. Kong Yok's eyes darted between the two other students as he slowly, hesitantly stepped up beside his friend.

"Guys, guys," Gabriel said, and at this point the other two finally looked up from their work. "This is my friend, Kong Yok."

The Japanese boy waved curtly and said, "Akira," before going back to his drawings.

"I'm Cal," the blond said, a little more courteous, with a smile and the offer of a handshake. Kong Yok shrank back and Cal withdrew his hand, taking a step back to give him space. "Welcome in," he said. "I'm ...I'm kind of the head of the club, I guess, since I'm in Uni and I've been here the longest. But it's nae really official. It's mostly for paperwork reasons. Do you draw or paint or ...?"

Kong Yok hesitantly looked up at Gabriel. The taller boy smiled encouragingly and gently gestured toward Cal, as if to say, "Go ahead."

"No," Kong Yok said quietly. "I do origami and other papercraft."

Cal's grey eyes widened, and so did his smile. "Really?"

Kong Yok nodded.

"That's really neat. Can ya show me?"

Kong Yok hesitated, but Gabriel didn't wait for an answer before he said, "I'll go get some paper."

Akira kept to himself and his drawing while Cal, Gabriel, and Kong Yok dragged three desks into a circle so they could both easily see the younger boy while he worked.

"I ..." he started. He swallowed hard and tried again. "I'm not very good at explaining," he said. "So ...so I'll try but you have to pay attention."

He started with a frog, the same one he'd taught JD the day they first met. Cal picked it up quickly, only missing one fold, but Gabriel ended up with three crumpled balls of paper before he had a frog of his own.

"Ya ken," Cal said, "we're trying tae figure out a theme for the autumn art show. We've never done a section on sculpture before, but I'm starting to think we should."

Kong Yok looked up from his second paper, on its way to becoming a fox head finger puppet.

"That could definitely include papercraft," Cal finished.

"Well, it is sculpture," Gabriel said.

"Do ya do other things, too, or just little origami ones like this?"

Kong Yok glanced nervously over at Gabriel, as if asking permission, but he wasn't, really. He wanted to be sure it was safe.

"Go ahead, show him," Gabriel said.

So Kong Yok slid his phone out of his pocket and opened his photo file, scrolling through pictures of Jin Li and cool buildings and interesting rocks and flowers until he got to some of his paper art. He carefully slid the phone to the edge of his desk closest to Cal, withdrawing his hand before the older boy could accidentally touch it. Even so, Cal's hand hovered over the phone as he asked, "May I?" and waited until Kong Yok nodded an affirmative.

As he went through the pictures, Kong Yok slowly sank deeper and deeper into his chair. Cal's eyebrows were raised high in interest and he was leaning in close to the screen. They weren't all his best; some were just okay or were more for reference for things to do differently when he tried again. There was an old textbook cut into a diorama of dinosaurs, a few pages with images cut out but not detached, a shadowbox, some decorations he'd made for a party for JD last year, some lanterns, a dragon kite.

"These are amazing," Cal finally said. "Especially this one made from a book. An old textbook, yeah?"

He looked up and Kong Yok nodded.

"That's phenomenal," Cal said. "I'd have never thought tae do something like that. These lanterns, too, they're beautiful."

He looked up again and asked, "Would you be interested in being on the committee for the winter dance this December? The decorations last year were really lacking and they've been bothering us since to see if we know somebody. I think you'd be perfect."

"No," Kong Yok said quickly. "No, I ...no."

"That's too bad," Cal said, but he didn't push. Kong Yok frowned, because everyone always pushed. But it'll be fun, they'd say, but you'd be so good at it,they'd say, but Cal just ...let it go. Cal slid the phone back, mimicking Kong Yok's movement, leaving it at the edge of his desk for the younger boy to grab once he let go. Carefully, slowly, Kong Yok picked up his phone, locked it, and slipped it back in his pocket again.

When he looked back over at Gabriel, the French boy grinned and gave him a thumbs-up, and Kong Yok couldn't help himself. A small, half-smile pulled up at the corner of his mouth.

He quickly turned his head down so Gabriel couldn't see, and he muttered, "Thanks, Gabriel."

"Welcome," Gabriel whispered.

It was taking a long time to get Kong Yok to come out of his shell, but Gabriel would make it happen, even if it was only one person at a time.