Art Project
Leaf never used to like leaves but after a present presented to her by a certain someone, will she changed her mind? ORS oneshot.
Leaf walked down the pathway that led her out of school and into the woody part of town. Most of the other students left via the main entrance but not Leaf. She was one of the few people who lived in the woody, secluded side of Pallet Town.
Her hands were full carrying her textbooks and she could feel her shoulder bag slowly sliding down her shoulder.
Don't fall. Don't fall. Don't fall. Leaf kept repeating in her head. She tried to pick up her pace. The books were killing her arms and her iPod was playing a horrific song not to mention at too loud a volume.
The sky was white, concealing the sun, making the forest dim but as long as it didn't rain Leaf was fine. The wind picked up slightly, blowing Leaf's untamed hair all over her face. She stopped walking and tried to flick her hair out of her face but to no avail. Instead, she looked more like a head-banger in the middle of nowhere…
"What are you doing?" Asked Gary who came up behind her. He pulled out one of her ear plugs as he approached the girl.
"This stupid wind is blowing my hair into my face and I can't see where I'm going!" Leaf complained.
"That's what I thought." Gary said. "I was watching you and you looked like you were head banging or doing something crazy like that."
Leaf glared at Gary. "You were watching me and you didn't offer to help me carry my books? It's for our project, you know!"
Leaf and Gary had recently teamed up on yet another school project in biology in what seemed like a mutualistic relationship. Leaf was more brainy than Gary, making their poster project more intellectual looking while Gary was more creative and could make the poster more appealing. Their team effort stemmed back to when they were younger.
Ever since their first poster assignment, when they were assigned partners, who just so happened to be each other, they'd always chosen to work with each other whenever suchassignments cropped up. The teamwork that they did over the years had helped them build a relationship, though it wasn't necessarily one of friendship. They were never friends when they were younger but over the years of working with each other, they built up a tolerable relationship of each other. One that was in between friends and acquaintances
"I might offer to help if you ask me nicely." Gary said with a smirk playing at his lips.
Leaf glared at him. There was no way she was going to lower her pride to this guy. She'd rather have her arms fall off. "Remember that one time you were really thirsty after P.E. and I had water-"
"Which you wouldn't even share, might I add." Gary interrupted.
"It's at time like these that I'm glad I didn't." Leaf said as she struggled to hold her books up.
"And it's at times like these that I choose not to help you." Gary shot back nonchalantly.
Leaf tried to pick up her pace again, removing the brunet from her line of vision. She could hear Gary picking up his pace too, trying to keep up with her. She could see the light of the opening at the end of the tree-lined path. Leaf tried to walk even faster, breaking into a half sprint. She didn't like walking down the path. It was dark, eerie, and would form the perfect scene for a crime or horror movie. Leaf could feel the book at the top of the pile shift from side to side with every step she took. She knew she should've slowed down to avoid embarrassing herself in front of Gary but she just wanted to get out of the woods too desperately.
Her books slid off the pile one by one until only the bottom three were left. Leaf groaned in irritation and knelt down, slowly gathering her books back.
Gary stopped where he was and dug around in his bag for his camera. He seized the opportunity.
Leaf saw the flash of the camera that came from behind her. She whipped her head round to look at Gary. "Why?" She asked. Gary had been doing that to her a lot lately; she noticed that he took a lot of pictures of her, more specifically pictures of her back.
As if randomly whipping out a camera when she'd fallen and not helping wasn't inappropriate enough...
"Never know when that'll come in handy." Gary said and sent her a wink then walked on ahead.
"Aren't you going to help me?" Leaf shouted.
"Remember that time we were in P.E. and I was thirsty and you had water?" Gary stopped and imitated her.
And that was one of the many reasons why Leaf and Gary hadn't formed a proper friendship in the twelve years of knowing each other.
Her pen moved across the page at such a pace, forming beautifully neat words on the crisp white paper whilst her eyes scanned the yellowing page of a biology textbook she borrowed from the shelf behind her.
His sheet on the other hand was full of drawings overlapping, words placed randomly and, most of all what hers lacked, colour.
At no point did Gary or Leaf look up from their task to check up on each other. After years of working together on projects, and gaining close to perfect marks, they'd learnt to have faith in each other's work and not to question any research or designs.
Gary's phone buzzed, breaking his momentum. He silenced the device then caught the attention of Leaf.
"Leaf, I need to leave now." Gary announced as he started to pack away his pencils, pens and notes.
Leaf looked at her watch. It was only five. They'd only been working away in the library for about an hour and a half. That was nothing compared to the six hours after school they'd once spent together trying to finish their project.
"Any reason?" Leaf questioned. Her hand was still holding her pen above the last spot that she had written on.
"I need to finish the last of my art display before the exhibit next week. Assembling it all isn't going to an easy task." Gary said as he swung his bag up an over his shoulder.
Leaf was mildly irritated at Gary's lack of organization and warning about his early departure. Leaf had prepared a flask of coffee, expecting them to be working for at least the standard three hours.
"Half my grade depends on this." Gary said.
"It's fine," Leaf said, masking her irritation. "We can work on this tomorrow, that is, unless you have to leave early again."
Gary avoided answering with a sigh. "I'll see you later." With that Gary left the library and headed along to the art department.
Leaf continued to work and didn't leave until she had done the majority of her half of her research done.
Her pen had jotted down some more information on the half-filled page. It was her third page since she had started her research for today an hour ago.
Gary had done a lot of drawing and written some words down again in no apparent order or arrangement. It was his inspiration to the poster design.
Another half hour went by and Gary interrupted Leaf from her work.
"Let me guess, you're leaving again?" Leaf asked.
"Art project." Gary said back to her.
She nodded. She had seen it coming. "See you later." Was all she said and her eyes darted back to her book.
Gary bid his goodbye then left her alone in the library.
The next few days of work followed the same routine, Leaf and Gary working in the library, Gary leaving after an hour and a half and Leaf doing the bulk of the work.
It was Thursday, the day before the poster presentation. The poster was coming together nicely. It was detailed, eye-catchy and contained a fair amount of text that raved on about evolution.
Leaf had did most of the research and assembled the poster by herself, while Gary had worked out the layout, and supplied some information.
Leaf was happy with the way the poster had turned out once they were done, just in time for Gary to excuse himself to go work on his "art project" which frankly Leaf wasn't sure if that's what he had really been doing.
"We're all done." Leaf said with a stretch and a yawn. She had sacrificed hours of sleep to do work on the project, even over the weekend.
"Finally!" Gary said, leaning back on his seat to relax.
"If you need to go..." Leaf said but she was surprised.
"No need, I finished it last night." Gary replied. "Now we need to prepare ourselves for the Q and A section of our presentation."
"Got that covered." Leaf said as she pulled out a few stapled sheets of paper and handed it to him. "I've thought of the most likely questions we'd be asked and came up with detailed answers. I've memorised them all but you should read over them too, you know, for reinforcement."
Gary flicked through the pages and nodded. "Will do."
"In which case I guess we're done here." Leaf said as she started to pack up, starting by rolling their poster and tying it with some string.
"Hey Leaf," Gary started, "What are you doing tomorrow night at seven?" He asked casually as he started to clear up some of his stationary.
Leaf stopped packing to look at him. It's true that they'd always go out for a celebratory meal somewhere once the project was over and considered a success but wasn't it too soon to ask? After all, they did usually wait until they were told their grades before making any plans for the Sunday afterwards. (Gary was too stingy to spare a Saturday.)
"Probably catching up on lost sleep from doing this." Leaf replied indicating towards the poster.
"Well change your plans. Come to the art exhibit tomorrow evening at school, dress smartly." Gary ordered.
Leaf looked at him oddly. "Why?"
"Just do it." Gary said.
"But I don't like you."
"We just did this project together."
"Remember that time you were choking on gum and I had water-"
"And you didn't share it with me!" Gary interrupted.
"That's proof that I don't like you." Leaf said bluntly.
"Just shut up and show up at seven. Sharp."
Xxx
The poster presentation went well, at least Leaf thought so. Not once did she hesitate to answer a question and Gary knew his parts well too. Overall, they were fluent and concise.
Leaf didn't feel nervous before the speech, but standing in front of her mirror now, she could feel little butterflies fluttering in her tummy, like when Gary said to meet him outside the school building tonight.
Leaf had dolled herself up slightly but not so much that it made her look like she had put too much effort into tonight. She wore a simple, clean-cut white dress and a pair of brown flat strappy sandals. Her eyes were all made up with a little brown shadow and black liner and finished with some light pink lip gloss.
Leaf checked her hair in the mirror. She always did like the loose waves that formed naturally. She shot herself a smile then left, picking up black her clutch on the way out.
She made it to school on time and looked around for the presence of the brunet who'd insisted that she came at seven. Sharp. Yet he was nowhere to be seen, the first set back to the night that she may have found herself thinking about whilst she got dressed. Why she thought about the night in so much detail, she had no clue.
Leaf looked around to see if there were any signs of Gary, or of other people. No one was around, though the extra parked cars did offer he some comfort that she wasn't set up in some sort of prank.
"Hey, you made it."
Leaf turned round and looked at Gary who had his hair spiked up as per usual and a nice black shirt, slightly open at the top and a pair of smart trousers. He looked both smart and laid back. Leaf could feel the butterflies in her tummy growing more and more restless.
"Yeah." Leaf said. "Not really sure why though."
Gary looked at Leaf. "You're always so sceptical." He said then added, "Come on." As he offered her his arm like a gentleman.
Leaf thought for a moment then linked her arm through his and walked with him into the building.
"You look nice tonight." He said to her.
Leaf mentally cheered that he noticed the effort she put into getting ready. "Thanks, you too."
"A compliment from you on my appearance. Never thought I'd see the day." Gary teased.
Leaf tried not to react. "Why exactly am I here?" She asked.
"To spend the evening enjoying art with me. I thought I made that very clear."
"You said to 'just do it' and 'just shut up and show up at seven. Sharp' when I asked you why yesterday." Leaf said.
"Well you asked me in the library. I was trying to keep talking to a minimum. You know how I like to conform to the rules." Gary said, sending Leaf a cheeky wink.
Leaf made no effort to hide her snort of laughter. "You? Conform to school rules? Since when?"
"It hurts that you doubt me."
"And it hurts to hear you lie to me."
The pair let the conversation fade and walked along the empty corridor. The sounds of chatter could be heard in the distance, getting increasingly louder as they approached the double doors that were opened wide, inviting anyone that approached it.
Gary led Leaf over to an exhibit, the closest one to them.
Leaf cast her eyes over the botanical themed display. The display was shrouded with orangey, withering leaves on the edges, creating a fine border that framed a bracelet design and other inspirational, creative images. Her eyes focused in on one in particular: the outline of a girl leaning down to pick up books in a tree-lined path, though, the image of the girl was darkened in comparison to the autumny reddish backdrop, shrouding her identity.
But the idetity was no mystery to Leaf and Gary knew that.
"This display…That photo." Leaf pointed at it. "That's from the other day."
"Nothing gets past you."
"I don't agree with the way you got that photo. I believe I have my rights to complain about this." Leaf declared.
Gary fumbled about in his pocket then pulled out a small black bracelet. "Or I can sway you not to with this." He suggested then picked up Leaf's wrist and clasped the bracelet on.
Leaf brought her wrist back to her own body once Gary had let go and inspected the jewellery. It was a bracelet square-knotted with small leaf charms dangling at regular intervals. Simple but stunning.
"Do you like it?" Gary asked.
Leaf wasn't usually a fan of leaf as a pattern or décor but… This was different! She could tell that it was handmade and a lot of effort was put into it. She was both touched and flattered by the gift.
"It's alright." Leaf said with a small grin tugging at the corner of her lips.
"Only alright?" Gary asked, slightly pained by her response. "I spent ages learning to do that knot and making the charms."
"Just kidding." Leaf laughed. "I love it."
"Perfect." Gary said. "The external marker is making his way over and I need you to model it for me." He finished then greeted the said man as he approached.
Manipulation was the second of many reasons as to why Leaf and Gary never became friends.
This is something random I started like last year (or maybe even before then)... I hope you liked it :) and I hope to hear your thoughts on it!
*silver-hedgehog