Lost Angel

Chapter 3

David

Art class was always strange, but typically boring because they were all assigned the same project with the directions to make the art their own. The week before had been a bowl of fruit. David had made the simplest one with a black pen. Austin had grabbed the chalk before anyone else could think of it first. None of the recreations ended up being good. 

This week, they were assigned to portray emotion. They had to pick one thing and use color to portray what they felt about it. David had worked the day before on outlining. Austin had once again grabbed for the chalk, but this time it was only dark charcoal. He didn't even sit next to David. It was so strange. The last two weeks had been harsh on Austin. His dreams made him quiet. He was daydreaming more often. He had only been eating a meal a day. David had to force him to do his homework. Something happened that day, but Austin wouldn't open up about it. 

David watched as Austin took a long sheet of thick paper and began dragging the charcoal across it. Having his own space, he didn't need to worry about bumping someone. He moved so confidently. The teacher whispered something over Austin's shoulder after twenty minutes. It didn't seem to change him. He was focused. 

David finished outlining his project quickly, not caring if it would be passing or not. He wanted to see what his friend was up to. Five charcoal sticks were spent easily. Austin was using his fingers to rub something onto the paper. 

They had one week to complete it, and it was only day two. He stepped lightly around the others. He peeked over Austin's torso at the darkest tree. There was the trunk and branches, a blank space between them and their outline. It was like the outer bark of the tree was spaced out from the rest of the wood. There were no leaves. Just a small hole towards the bottom where there was no color. 

"Grab me the color." Austin grumbled over his shoulder. It was a tone that lacked emotion. David was quick to open the filing cabinet and retrieve what he needed. When he returned, Austin worked faster. The colors filled in the space between the outline and the tree itself. The colors were made to blur into one another. Outside of the outline, Austin dragged different colors, creating some kind of colorful ripples. He struck the middle of those long ripples with the black chalk and smudged it until it blurred from grey to the color it was supposed to be. 

"Slow down, you have all week." 

"Go work on your own project." He snapped. David did as he was told. Austin almost never took that tone, so whatever was happening was serious. David only pretended to be working on his. He watched his friend's face contort in confusion. Austin began scratching the colored chalk across the paper wildly. The teacher tried to get him to stop, but Austin assured her he wasn't wasting their supplies. He refused her suggestion to use another medium to smudge the color. He had to do it with his own fingers. The whole class stared at him as he wiped his face and hair. He hardly realized he was transferring color onto his skin. 

Five minutes before the bell, she stopped them all. It was time to return all supplies and put away the art where it would remain undisturbed. David watched while Austin kept slapping color together and smearing it. 

"Finished." Austin threw down his chalk and let out a long, steadying breath. David could see the release of whatever had come over him. Austin grabbed thumb tacks off of the teacher's desk and stuck his project to the cork board. There was rainbow everything. The whole color spectrum was there, screaming at them. In the middle, the tree stood tall and proud, with roots seeming to grow past the bottom of the paper. 

Silence fell over everyone. Austin stood and admired his work. The entire class was admiring it, too. There was much to say about the giant tree, and much said about the strange boy who made it.