Fighting for Freedom

| TWENTY TWO

Clay ends up coming to art class with me after arguing about it for the last ten minutes of chemistry. "Hey Miss Wilson!" I smile skipping into the room with a grumpy Clay in tow. "Yo." She says not looking up from her sketch. "I brought a model in today for my clay project." I tell her pulling things out that I'm going to need. "Sweet, Erica is bringing someone in today too." She answers looking up.

I burst out laughing at her face. It's a mix of shock, fear and amusement. "This is Clay. I'm making his face out of clay." I smirk. "Only you." She laughs shaking her head. "Hey Clay." She smiles, he just nods back. "What class do you have now?" She asks. "Math." He mumbles.

"With Garrison?"

"Yeah." He mumbles. "I'll let him know you're here." She smiles waltzing out of the class room. "She's totally banging Garrison." George says entering the room with Erica and a freshmen cheerleader. "They are not you idiot." Erica sasses. "They so are! I seen them at the movies last week!" I tune out their bickering and order Clay to sit on a seat and move his face around for the perfect angle.

"Perfect. Now don't move."

I spend the first twenty minutes of class making the general face shape before moving onto the nose. I feel someone standing behind me but I'm too focused on trying to get the little freckle right. I jump when I hear Georges loud laughter coming from behind me. "What the fuck George?" I ask narrowing my eyes at him.

"You're making Clay out of clay." He laughs wiping tears from his eyes. "Damn I wish Ben had a better name now." He keeps laughing. "What are you doing with Ben?" I ask scanning Clays face who's looking between George and I. "I was going to do an erotic painting of him but Miss Wilson said no." He pouts. "I thought she loved nude paintings?" I question.

"Oh I wasn't going to do him just nude." He winks before walking over to Erica. "I don't want to hear it! My sister is a freshmen and does not need to hear about your sex life." She demands holding a hand up in his face. "No one ever wants to hear about your sex life George." I add giving Clay a small smile.

"Miss Wilson the girls are bullying me again." George whines. "Turn to the left." I tell Clay turning to get a better view of the freckle. "When did you become so bossy?" He mumbles before doing as he's told. "I've always been bossy." I smirk.

"Not this bossy."

When the bell rings Clay jumps up and is more than ready to leave. "Ten more minutes?" I pout giving him my best puppy dog eyes. "I can't sit down any longer." He groans throwing his head back. "Don't torture the poor boy." Miss Wilson laughs.

"I've got to go train today." Clay says as he waits for me to swap my stuff over in my locker. "Okay." I answer. "Do you want to come with me? Or I can drop you off somewhere?" He asks playing with my hair. "I'll come." I smile. "You sure?" He asks nervously. "Yup. If I get bored I'll do some more of my project." I state as we begin to head out to the car.

"I told mom you were staying for the next few nights." Clay mumbles as we get into his car. "Oh. What'd she say?" I ask nervously. I really hope she doesn't have a problem with it. "She was ridiculously excited." He says rolling his eyes. "Well I am pretty awesome." I tease.

At the gym Clay ends up training with Connor and I sit cross legged on the bench seat I sat at last time sketching the fighter, Cobra, as he punches a bag. I draw him with his back to me mid punch. Just as I'm adding the final details to the tattoo on his back Clay and Connor come up to me.

"What are you drawing?" Connor asks sitting next to me. "Whoa. This is actually really good." He says taking my sketch book out of my hands. "Ooh Clay she's drawing pictures of other guys." He teases waggling his eyebrows handing the sketch book to Clay. "She just spent an hour carving my face out of clay. I think I'm good." He says rolling his eyes looking on the sketch.