Floating Stars

Chapter 1: Inspiration

One line, two lines, three; the dance that Astrid's paintbrush performed always demanded her full attention. The colours she used would sing to her. She painted her deepest thoughts from her subconscious and the story, her sleeping brain told her, revealed itself as she covered the canvas from edge to edge.

Every time Astrid put her paintbrush to a blank surface she would become unreachable to anybody around her; it was as if she'd entered another world. Within these trances she produced masterpieces that inspired the dreams of those who felt drawn to buy her work. They said that they displayed a certain element of wonder that couldn't be found anywhere else - as if she had a supernatural power of some kind.

Astrid blinked herself out of her reverie and took a step back to take in what her brushstrokes produced so far. There stood a vibrant painting of a forest. The use of different shades of greens and browns made it look busy with life. A stream of faint whites and yellows illustrated a ray of light, highlighting one spot of the woodland where a small basket with a soft, delicate blanket was painted with great care. Small shining dots rose from the inside of the woven, wicker cradle. As Astrid's eyes landed on those little floating stars, a tear came to her eye. She wiped the tear away, not understanding why the dream she decided to paint that morning caused her so much pain.

The time she saw, when she glanced at her watch, made her dream drain from the forefront of her mind. It shook her into action. She cleaned the remaining residue off her brush in a hurry, put it in its place next to her easel, and rushed out of her makeshift guest room studio.

Inspiring dreams wasn't enough to make ends meet, so accepting the job offer of becoming the local High School's newest art teacher seemed to be the right decision.

She made herself look as presentable as she could for her first day. She twisted her long, straight, black hair and clipped it to the back of her head. Pulled on a respectable, off-white, peach blouse and sensible, black trousers in a hurry. All whilst hushing the echo of her old college classmates' voices in her head repeating over and over - if you can't do, teach!

Astrid dreaded that first day. She did not know how to handle a class of minors.

How was she going to connect to all of those different personalities?

What was it they were into these days?

Astrid couldn't remember what it was like to be a teenager. She thought about it at great length after she already accepted the job; the need of money made her jump at the opportunity. She didn't ask for time to think about it before she took it, which she was starting to regret now.

It worried Astrid how unprepared she felt. Her anxieties made her think about how little she remembered about herself. Her childhood seemed to be lost behind a cloud of thick smoke and any image of her teen years would seemed to drift further and further away the more she thought about it. It was like trying to remember a dream.

She remembered her dreams much clearer than her life before she was twenty one, eight years ago, when she found herself waking up on a forest floor.

Astrid remembered, so distinctly, a crushing feeling in her chest. As if her heart was breaking. Her first instinct was to search for someone, but who? She knew that she was with somebody, somebody close to her heart. But there was nobody around. She was alone, wandering around, not knowing what direction to go in.

Astrid shook her head, trying to stop her thoughts from going there. She needed to get her head in the game!