Spooky Stories

The Artist

Angela was terrified. She had only thirty seconds left before she had to give a presentation on her artwork for class. "Hey Ange, you okay?" Angela turned to see her friend, and classmate, Samantha Easty, giving her a sympathetic look. "I'm fine Sam, just scared for my presentation is all." "Don't worry about it you'll do great" she said encouragingly. "Thank you, Alex, for that fine drawing of stick people, again." Mr. Mathews, the art teacher, was rubbing his temples, clearly exasperated. "Thanks Mr. M", said Alex who took his drawing and sat back down. "Stoner" said Sam under her breath. Angela couldn't help but chuckle at this. "Next up we have Ms. Angela Ricci." All eyes turned towards her. The time had come.

With shaky legs Angela got up and took her painting to the front of the class. The entire class watched her, their eyes like hawks. When she finally got up to the front her words froze in her chest. "You have five minutes to explain what your art is, how you came up with it, and what it means to you. Please begin." Taking a deep breath Angela pulled back the sheet covering the canvas. "Umm...hi....e-everyone", she stuttered. She looked over at Samantha who gave her a thumbs up. Clearing her throat and standing a little straighter Angela gave her presentation.

"My name is Angela Ricci and my art is a painting I like to call: The Undiscovered Country." The painting was of a coffin in the earth, beneath it was roaring flames and clawed hands pulling it deeper. Above it were soft looking clouds with golden hands outstretched, as if trying to pull the coffin up. "I came up with this painting to represent that age-old question; what happens when we die? The clouds above are meant to represent heaven and the flames below, hell. The earth surrounding the coffin is..." The sounds of two of her classmates making out in the background caused Angela to trail off. It was her school crush, Billy Danforth and his girlfriend, the captain of the cheer squad, Stefanie Carpenter. Seeing the two together made her blood boil in anger. How dare they make out during her presentation! How disrespectful and humiliating that was. The sounds of Stefanie's moaning caused the whole class to turn and stare. "Mr. Danforth, Ms. Carpenter!", yelled Mr. Matthews. The two broke apart and looked around at the class smugly. The girls giggled while the guys whistled their approval. Sam just gave them one of her signature death glares. "Since the two of you obviously can't be bothered to pay attention in class, report yourselves to the principal's office." "Fine Mr. M, I was getting bored of this creepy lecture anyway", said Stefanie with a bored yawn. "Let's go Billy, we can find more...interesting ways to spend our time."

As she got up and pulled Billy by the hand Angela felt even more enraged and jealous. As they passed her Stefanie not so casually bumped into the podium holding the canvas and stepped on it. Turning to Angela, she said with a grin, "Oops, sorry Angela, maybe you should paint something cheerier next time." It was then that Sam got up from her desk and yelled, "You bitch!" "Samantha Easty, calm yourself unless you want to see yourself in detention! And as for you young lady!", he said rounding on Stefanie. "Consider whatever plans you had after school canceled. I want you to spend two hours after school writing lines expressing your apologies to Ms. Ricci!" Stefanie put on a pouty face and twirled a finger through her golden hair. "Yes, Mr. Mathews," she said biting her lip. With that she was gone, and Angela's presentation was over.

After that Mr. Mathews gave Angela an A plus, on account of Stefanie defacing her work. Mr. Mathews asked to speak to Angela in private. "I'll see you at lunch", said Sam giving her a comforting pat on the shoulder. "Yes sir?", asked Angela. "First I want to start off by saying that you truly earned that A in class today." "Thank you, Mr. Mathews." "You are my best student and I truly wish to see you succeed. You put so much heart and soul into your art. Have you considered where you want to go to college? Graduation is in seven months you know?" "I actually haven't decided what to do yet. Drawing and painting is my passion, it's just...I don't know", she sighed. "Unless I get a scholarship it looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of time at Goodwill." "There are plenty of scholarships out there my dear." He reached out and grabbed a flyer from his desk. "Tufts University always has scholarships for aspiring artists." Angela's eyes beamed as she accepted the flyer. "Thank you, Mr. Mathews", she said gathering her things to go. "Hey Angela, I've never asked this, but I have to know. What is the inspiration for your art?" Angela's face turned a little somber as she answered, "Nightmares, sir."