I stare out the window, time slowing down as the teacher continues to ramble at the front. I let the slow pitter patter of raindrops drown out the words of everyone around me as I get lost in my thoughts. I look at the time. 3:20. Ten more minutes and I can finally go to art catch up. This day has been dragging for so long, as if it were clinging to my ankles, pulling me further into this hell hole called school.
I plan out my work in my head as I continue staring out of the window, the clocks ticking synchronized with the background chatter of the equally bored students. Only five minutes left now. My mind shifts to Megan. I wonder what she's doing in this moment. I picture her short fluffy hair swishing around as she chats to her friends. I imagine her toothy smile and cheerful bright blue eyes as she laughs with the conversations around her.
Suddenly realizing what I was thinking, I shudder and shake my head. What the hell? I can't believe I was thinking about that annoying brat. I once again look at the time, soon realizing that the lesson is over.
"Hey, let's go" Hinal smiles at me as she says that. I scramble as I shove my work into my bag, basically running out the door as I rush to art catch up. Hinal runs up behind me, attempting to catch up as I stomp through the rain, swiveling in and out of the crowd of students all on their way home.
We finally reach the art room and I quickly shuffle through the all of the pieces of art around he room, desperately looking for mine.
I find it next to a beautiful portrait of a young child entirely made of dots. The child has a mischievous grin and it's icy blue eyes stare directly at me reminding me of the ocean waves of colour found in Megan's eyes.
I turn to find Hinal sitting with her friends, Lottie Sabrina and Megha. She gives me an apologetic look but soon continues chatting to them merrily. In the corner of my eye, I see a figure standing in the doorway.She ruffles her hair as she walks in, leaving muddy footprints in her path. She absentmindedly looks around the classroom,strolls towards the drying rack and picks up the artwork i was admiring minutes before. Thank goodness she didn't catch me admiring her art work, that would have been embarrassing. Then she sits beside me, not acknowledging my existence.
Hinal yelps as she drops dirty paint water on her.The rest of her friends follow her out of the room as she mumbles about getting tissues,but as Hinal closes the door, she throws a wink in my direction. I look at her with a puzzled look, only to realize that she left Megan and I alone.
Megan, still oblivious to the situation, carries on with her work peacefully. When she finally looks up she realizes that the room is deserted. Turning to me, she gives a surprised and confused look. She curls in lip in disgust as she sees me. "What are you doing here?"she sneers.
"I'm doing art,what else does it look like? And anyway, where are your friends?"Natalia retorted.
"Lara had to go home and the rest are busy. Well, Hinal left you." she jeered.
"She spilt water on herself so she had to clean up." I told her, thinking about how she winked at me before. Megan gave me a disbelieving look before getting up to fill her cup with water.
The palate of paint tipped onto my blazer unexpectantly, leaving a assortment of paint splats on my sleeve. I jumps up at the unpleasant cold and dampness of the paint, swearing at Megan."What the hell, you got paint all on me! This doesn't come off if it dries up!" I cry, Megan had never seen me act genuinely angry before. I take off my blazer angrily to wash the paint off. Megan pauses for a long moment, in shock of my anger. She comes over to me, taking my blazer into her hands and scrubbing the paint off it. I look at her in surprise for helping. I don't notice I was staring until she looked up at me, making unwanted eye contact only to break it immediately.
I snatch my blazer and places it on the radiator, looking out at the view from below to avoid looking at her again. It was getting dark, the sky turning to a blanket of sapphire with hues of pink. The path below was glistening from the rain. The lights from the lamp post making the rain appear as if small diamonds were falling from the sky. Small figures of students and teachers alike walk towards the gate.
I look back to see Megan eyeing my work. In a panick I ran towards her, snatching it out of her hands. "Never look at my work." I yelled at her. Megan tilts her head.
"Why do you always stop people from looking at your work?You're really good at ar-"she freezes. We both look at each other awkwardly. "Ummm.. actually, you need to add more tone to this area. And you need to add more blue here." she continues listing mistakes rudely, making me feel self conscious.
She sees my obvious discomfort but carries on anyway, the guilt eating at her as she rambles on about how my work is not good enough.
I'm sorry Natalia, you'll find me weird if I start acting nice.
