Helpless

9. Helping Hand

Sure, camp sucked sometimes. Okay, most of the time. But the scenery was absolutely great for sketching. It really does something to you, being surrounded by the ambience of the woods. From the chirping birds to the tallest treetops, everything about the forest was just so inspiring. You'd be surprised at how beautiful the trees looked in the sunlight. I mean, all trees were amazing in their own way. Most people just never took the time to stop and notice it. But Lukas did.

He just finished a drawing of an open field that was framed with trees, and was about to write down today's date. What was it? End of May, early June? Lukas wasn't quite sure, so he just wrote down 'Today is today', and looked at his sketch again. He liked how it turned out, but it was literal crap in comparison to his girlfriend's artwork. Jess was one of the best artists in the entire school, although she herself didn't agree with that. Lukas let himself relax for a bit as he stared off into the distance, when he noticed a girl walking up to him. Speak of the devil.

"Hi Lukas!" Jess cheerfully greeted, sitting down next to her boyfriend. Lukas was about to close his notebook so Jess wouldn't see his terrible drawing, but he was to late because she already noticed it. "Whatcha drawing?" Jess asked on her usual curious tone. Lukas quickly covered the sketch with one hand. "Oh, it's nothing." he softly answered. But that only made his girlfriend more curious. "It doesn't look like nothing. Come on, let me see! Please?" Jess begged.

"Jess it's nothing important and it's not even that good so I'm not letting you see it." Lukas said it so fast that it came out as more of a waterfall of words than a sentence. "Bad art doesn't exist, Lukas." Jess stated. "Some artwork might be better than other ones, but they're all equally beautiful in their own way." Lukas supposed what Jess was saying was true, although it sounded kind of cliche. But he appreciated her trying to help.

"Sooo.. can I see it? Pretty please?" Jess begged, making her adorable puppy dog eyes that no one could say no to. "..Fine." Lukas sighed, excepting his fate. He handed over the notebook to Jess for her to look through it. Jessica gasped and marveled at her boyfriends sketches. "Woah, Lukas these are amazing!" But Lukas only shrugged and softly chuckled. "Thanks, but I know you're just saying that to be nice." Jess shook her head and continued to look at the drawings. "No, I mean it! Seriously, these drawings are really good!" Lukas smiled at the genuine compliment of his girlfriend. "You know, we could really use this kind of talent in the art club.."

"Thanks, but no thanks." Lukas said when he saw where Jess was going with her statement. "I already have enough going with the student council and the gaming club your brother made me join."

"Aw, that's too bad. Hey, you wanna get some lunch? I'm starving." Jess exaggerated. Lukas knew that Jess could get moody when she was hungry, so getting some lunch was really his only logical option. "Yeah, sure." he said with a nod. They stood up and made their way to the mess hall. Inside they saw Jesse, Axel and Olivia sitting at a table together and decided to sit there. Jess joined in on the conversation Olivia and Axel were having, meanwhile Lukas and Jesse sat in silence.

"So.. what's up?" Lukas asked, only getting a shrug from Jesse. "Eh, nothing much. Oh, actually, I wrote Petra a letter telling her how I feel!" Jesse proudly mentioned. A smile formed on Lukas' face. "Awesome! That's progress!" he commented. "Yeah, I tore it up and flushed it!" Jesse exclaimed, getting a sigh from Lukas. He looked up at his best friend, who stared back confused. "What? It's still progress." Jesse mumbled softly. He wasn't wrong or anything. Any improvement was a good improvement, after all. It was just that, if he continued at this rate the only thing he'd ever date is his MacBook Pro hard drive. "You're hopeless, dude." Lukas remarked.

"Are you ever going to ask her out, or are you just gonna keep sitting around waiting for an answer to just magically appear?" Jess tuned in, making her brother groan in denial, blood rushing to his cheeks. "Look, I said this once and I'll say it again: let me help you. You know gosh darn well that you're not going to accomplish anything without my help."

"Okay first of all, rude." Jesse began, glaring at his annoying and sometimes overbearing little sister. "Second, why do you even want to help me in the first place?" Wiping a stray strand of her raven black hair from her face, Jess smirked. "I'm glad you asked brother."

"Oh no.."

"You see, where I'm from there's.." Jess waved her hand around as she decided on the word she was looking for. "There's this thing called "perseverance", something you're clearly lacking."

"We live in the same house."

"If you want to get together with Petra, it is imperative that you let me help you. Besides, Petra and I are like, besties. If you somehow manage to screw up like I know you will, I'll be able to lighten the blow."

"Okay, now you're just insulting me." Jesse commented. "But, let's say I were to let you help me. How would you do that?"

Jess smirked mischievously. "Again, I'm glad you asked. Listen here..."

—

Jess gave her brother a thumbs up as she hid behind a tree to watch. Taking a deep breath, Jesse made sure he looked perfect for the eleventh time in a row and concentrated on Petra who was to busy cleaning her golden sword to notice anything around her. "Believe in yourself. You can do this. How hard can it be?" he muttered to himself, trying to get his legs to walk.

"So we're not going to question why she had a sword with her?" Lukas asked from behind Jess, wondering why he even put up with his girlfriend's shenanigans at this point. "Shush! He's going to do it!" Jess hushed. Nothing seemed to be happening for the longest time before a shrill voice broke the silence.

"DO IT FOR THE OTP!" Jesse practically had a heart attack right there. He turned towards the voice and saw Jess clasping both hands over her mouth. He didn't know what an otp was, nor did he want to know. "I mean... You can do it!" she giggled nervously. Jesse rolled his eyes, running his hand through his hair. What could possibly go wrong, right? He slowly made his way over to Petra, taking one final deep breath. "Are you a banana? Because I find you quite a peeling."

Lukas' face palm could be heard all the way from across the field. It took Jesse a moment to process what he just said and his eyes widened. Yep. Things could go wrong. Jess was signaling for him to get out of there before things could get worse but his legs once again would not move. Jess and Lukas were running towards the mortifying sence, and once they reached the two, Jess grabbed her brothers arm and continued running with Lukas following them. Petra was left alone, trying to comprehend what just happened.