I fidget with my purse straps as I nervously make my way to Mr. Mikaelson's class, not Elijah's, but Klaus's. They happened to be brothers who both taught Art at the University of Virginia, but Elijah taught the history of it, while Klaus's class focused on creating paintings, sketches, and so on.
My sandals slapped against the concrete as I sprinted across the campus, trying not be late to his class again. My binder with all my sketches and art notes had flew all over the street by a huge gush of wind and I had spent the last ten minutes gathering everything and shoving it back in, feeling worried wondering if one of them may have gotten left behind.
As I go to reach for the door handle to the class, the bell echoes loudly throughout the empty halls, startling me. I re-adjust my skirt quickly and pat down my hair quickly incase the wind and running had messed it up before walking in, as every pair of eyes went to me.
I try to take my seat as quickly as possible to avoid a lecture but Mr. Mikaelson's voice stops me dead in my tracks.
He let out a groan before speaking in his strict voice. "Miss Forbes, this is the 5th time you've been late to my class in the past 2 weeks."
"I know, Mr. Mikaelson, but on the way here-" I began pleading before he cut me off.
"Do you even give a damn about this class at all?" He said, his voice laced with anger. I gulped trying not to let it get to me but the way he spoke to me made me feel like an idiot.
"Yes." I let out in a tiny voice, focusing my gaze on the floor to avoid eye contact with him.
He let out a sigh and gestured his hand towards the tables. "Just take a seat."
I nodded and walked quickly towards my seat, not bothering to say another word because defending myself was obviously pointless.
I tapped my pencil nervously on my binder as Mr. Mikaelson started explaining the assignment, trying to take in every detail so I could do this right. I couldn't disappoint him anymore.
"You will be required to sketch this out before you attempt a final draft and paint it. It must contain one center object that stands out from the background. The assignment will be 100 points. If you have any other questions come see me, and bring me your sketches to my desk when you are finished for me to approve." He said dusting the chalk off his hands after writing down the assignment requirements on the board and sat back down, focusing on grading papers.
Elena turns to me and begins talking just above a whisper. "Do you know what you're going to do?"
I shaked my head while looking down at the blank paper. "Elena, it has to be perfect. I can't screw up anymore."
Elena sensed my insecurity and placed her hand on my shoulder. "Care, it's going to be amazing. Just put your heart into it." She said with a smile and turned back to focus her attention on her own drawing.
I let out a sigh as I tried thinking of what I could make the center object, more importantly what would stand out to Mr. Mikaelson. I should ask Elijah, the other Mr. Mikaelson, next period and see if he could help me out. He was much more kind to me than his brother was. I glanced around and everyone was sketching away and here I was, still staring at nothing but a blank sheet. If I waited 'til the class was over to talk to Elijah, Klaus would probably scold me for accomplishing nothing.
I took my pencil and began sketching softly, knowing I'd probably be doing a lot of erasing and began to draw out a field with little tulips and roses here and there. I was still having an inner debate with myself over what the center object should be. I was leaning towards a little cottage, but it wasn't exactly the most impressive idea.
I had to impress him.
I decide to take my chances and grab my paper and pencil and go up to his desk, hoping he could give me some guidance. What's the worst he could do? He'd already embarrassed me to the maximum for today, or so I hoped.
I opened and closed my mouth a few times, searching for the right words.
"Mr. Mikaelson?" I asked in a soft voice.
"Yes, Caroline?" He said not even making eye contact with me.
"I was wondering if you could give me some feedback on what I have so far... and maybe some ideas.." I began and he grabbed the paper out of my hands so I decided to just stop talking. His eyes scanned from left to right before he sighed and turned to finally look at me.
"Caroline, are you even aware of how much skill you lack?" He said in a serious tone.
"Well.. I know I'm not the best, but.." I began caught off-guard by his honesty.
"You obviously aren't cut out for this class. You might as well just switch out now before the semester ends and save yourself the disappointment and failure you're bringing upon yourself." He said handing me my paper back and focused his eyes back onto his paperwork. Part of me was telling myself to just go sit back down and leave him alone, but another part of me was screaming to stand up for myself.
"I don't think you realize how much I'm trying to do well in this class. Not all of us are born a natural." I said trying to surpress the anger in my voice.
"Caroline, darling, painting in here and painting your nails are two separate things. Do you get that? You have to have something called passion, dedication.. do those words ring a bell to you?" He said and I could tell he was starting to get annoyed.
I blinked a few times trying to stop the tears from flooding from my eyes and just gave up and decided to go back to my seat as soon as possible, ripping my paper in half and tossing it in the trash on the way. I didn't want to switch out but if he hated me that bad than I guess I had no other option.
I plopped down on my seat and decided to stare at the clock until the class was over.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
I grabbed my things and was the first to get the hell out of the classroom and went straight to Elijah's so I could talk to him in private before his class started. I felt bad for not walking with Elena but I seriously couldn't deal with her Salvatore brother drama right now that always seemed to be the most discussed out of all our problems, I had to focus on myself.
I swung the door open to Elijah's class and looked at the clock, noticing we had a good 15 minutes before class began.
"I need your help." I said desperately, taking a seat across from his desk.
"What seems to be troubling you, Caroline?" Elijah said folding his hand giving me his full attention, unlike his brother. How were they even related?
"It's Klaus." I said with annoyance.
"Ah, yes. My brother seems to be very skilled at causing issues with people. What did he do?" He asked curiously.
"Well, on the way to his class this morning my binder with all my notes from this class and all my art for his flew out all over the street! So I spent 10 minutes running around trying to gather it all up, which caused me to be late to his class, and of course he doesn't even let me explain myself. He was going on about how I didn't care about the class but I just sat down and tried to not think about it. Then later I tried to ask him for some help on the project he had just assigned, and he basically told me I'm a failure and to switch out of his class." I sighed burying my hands into my face.
"Hmm.. why would he be so rude to you? Does he act like that towards other students?"
"No, that's what I don't get! He's just normal with them when they ask for help and so on, but when it comes to me he treats me like the plague or something." I said and could feel my insecurity creeping up on me.
"I'm sorry Caroline." Elijah said with sympathy, "My brother can be quite careless towards others feelings."
"You don't have to apologize on his behalf, but thank you." I said with a small smile.
Before he could reply, the bell let out it's loud annoying shrill and students filed into the classroom and took their seats. I absorbed all the information I could throughout the lesson, and had about 5 pages of notes by the time there was a few minutes of class left. I decided to just go back to my dorm and sleep off this disaster of a day before making a decision wether or not to switch out of Mr. Mikaelson's class.
A/N: Hi guys! How do you like this story? Please let me know how you felt and leave a review! I couldn't of done this without the help of kodoku-no-maria, she gave me the wonderful idea of this story so please go follow her on tumblr!