Grayscale

Chapter One

        I was walking down the hall, on the way to my normal ten o'clock drawing class, when all of a sudden, I could feel hot breath in my ear. My best friend, Robin, whispered, "You know those colors together make you look like a clown, right?" Instantly, I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks.

        "Actually, no, I didn't, thanks," I hissed. While I loved Robin and her snarky sense of humor, some days she really pissed me off. She was thirteen when we were out at the mall together one day, and she met "the one." Since then, she's taken it upon herself to be my fashion guru and alert me any time my clothes don't exactly match. You think they'd have clothes specifically for the colorblind, to avoid this problem, but as a teenager, they just kind of assumed everyone could see the colors by that point.

        At sixteen, I still hadn't met him - or her - or it. I was an anomaly. And I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to find my forever. While I didn't want to always be glued to someone's side, I didn't know a single person who hadn't yet found his or her soulmate. They all had someone to blow kisses at in the hallway. They all had a best friend they never had to worry about losing - other than to death, of course. What if I never had that? Was it possible to be alone forever? Were they people who never saw the colors?

        Noticing the far-away expression I often got when I got caught up in my forever-alone thoughts, Robin laughed, "That's why you've got me. Don't even worry about it." If anyone had heard her first remark, they'd think she was still talking about clothes, but Robin understood me in a way I wasn't sure even my soulmate might. She knew what I was thinking.

        "Yeah," I sighed. "I guess."

        We parted ways when I got the door of my drawing class, and she blew me a kiss as she walked away. "Try not to get caught up in sketching those nudes, dear. Might be best to pay attention today!" She snickered as she ducked behind a group of people and out of earshot of any nasty reply I might have thrown her way. I'd never in my life sketched a nude, but we had this running joke that that was the only thing you did in a drawing class - like every day we reenacted the scene in the Titanic where Rose told Jack to draw her like one of his French girls. We'd never announced it so publicly though.        

        "Wanna see the nudes?" I snapped to all the kids staring at me. They all quickly averted their eyes, pretending they hadn't heard Robin's comments or my question. "That's what I thought, assholes."

        I walked in the room and plopped down at my assigned seat, where for the duration of the class, I lost myself to the sound of pencil scratching against paper. Art was my release. Nothing else in the world mattered when I sat down and put a pencil to paper or brush to easel or took my camera and started scouting the best area to get a shot of the rising sun. When I was letting the creative juices flow, I didn't have to think about all the homework I had, the latest fight with my parents, the fact that my job was still trying to cut back spending, and I could be where they made that cut, or that I might spend the rest of my life as a crazy cat lady. None of that mattered. All that I cared about was that I got the shading done correctly on the depiction of a forest in spring I was sketching. And the way art silenced my busy brain was beautiful.

        Suddenly, it was almost eleven o'clock. My teacher went to the front of the room, cleared her voice and clapped her hands, snapping us all out of our creative stupor. "I realize that most teachers don't assign homework on a Friday, but we're supposed to get a lot of snow this weekend, and we've been working on sketching outdoors scenes. I think this would be a perfect opportunity for you guys to practice a winter scene. So after the snow hits, sit at a window and sketch what you see. This will be due not this coming Monday, but the following Monday. Since I'm giving you so much time, I want this to be detailed. Show me what you've learned." The bell rang, signaling the end of the hour. "Have a great weekend, everybody!"