I don't own anything!!

Okay so I wrote this for English class cause we were working on short stories and I just had this stuck in my head. So, with a little changes to it Wala. Here it is.

Tell Me what you think!!

Read and Reveiw!!!

Loves

~~~The Art of Love~~~

Standing in an empty art room located in East High School, my dark brown eyes staring at the paper my art teacher handed to me only moments ago. ART SHOW was written in bold letters across the top of the paper.

I never thought of showing my art in an art show. Hell, I've never thought about showing my art to anyone. Should I do it…yea, I will, it might be worth it in the long run. Now just to make a painting showing who I am. That should be easy I'll start when I get home.

The late bell awoke me from my thoughts. Shoot! I'm late for baseball practice. I start running down the hallway full speed with my long, strait jet black hair blowing behind me. I was going pretty fast for my height; being the shortest in my family at 5'8" I was pretty fast and athletic. Many people look at me and think I'm one of the anorexic girls in my school because of my petite frame, but when I tell them that I play baseball, soccer, hockey, swim, do track, and gymnastics and they shut up right then. Yes, I'm a tomboy, but what do you expect from a girl that is practically raised by her three brothers? My parents go away on business trips a lot so my two older brothers live with me and Johnny, my twin, to make sure we don't light the house on fire. Good idea, seeing as it almost happened before, but it was really an honest mistake. How would I know you're not supposed put plastic in microwave?

"Montez!" screams coach. Oh yea, I'm in trouble. "You're 15 minutes late! What kind of example is that for a captain supposed to set for her team?"

"Sorry coach, I kinda lost track of time. It won't happen again." I promised trying to save my ass. Who am I kidding; of course it will happen again.

"Make sure it doesn't happen again!"

After a long, brutal practice we were told to hit the showers. Finally! Lunchtime. I walk over to my regular table and sat down next to Johnny. My closest girlfriend, Sharpay, was sitting to my right. Next to her sits my best friend since forever, Soda. Yes, his real name is Soda, and no his parents aren't on drugs. They had this weird obsession with the movie, The Outsiders, when his mother was pregnant with him, thus leading to Soda. Lost, happens all the time. Soda looks like another Montez but with grey eyes and short brown hair.

"Hey, did you hear about the art show?" gulp "Funny how these losers think that people will pay to come see their little 'mater pieces'. How funny is that?" chuckles my friend Quarter while flipping his shaggy brown hair out of his brown eyes that popped with his pale skin. Quarter's not his real name. His real name is… come to think of it I don't think any of us know what his real name is.

"Yea, it that time of the year again, where the freaks start walking around." states Soda.

"I thought that freaks only come out on Halloween? Oh, wait, it is Halloween for them." crakes Sharpay. Every one at the table starts laughing, even Johnny, who knows that I can draw.

"What's wrong G? You haven't said any thing since we started talking about the freak show. Oops, I mean art show." jokes Chad. Chad is tall, about 5'9" with green eyes and pale skin, with short blond hair that sticks up. He is an observant person but does stupid things most of the time. Surprises people that he is in all honors classes and does half the things he does.

"Yea, well, there is some amazing artist out there. But what would you know? All you do is make fun." I snapped. Getting up and throwing my lunch away before storming out of the lunchroom, with them just staring after me, but one person I didn't notice was a certain blue eyed boy watching me go.

Later that day, I was sitting in my art room, well closet, thinking about what to paint when it hit me. Who am I? I mean I know who I am. Gabriella Isabelle Montez, 16 years old, with an oh so boring life to live. I need to clear my head. I walked out of my room on the second floor and down the stairs yelling to my brothers that I was going for a walk and had my cell phone if they needed me. Walking down the street, I remembered that no one would be around seeing as a big basketball game was happening tonight.

East High School has many sports teams, making Albuquerque New Mexico a sports oriented town. The simple, peaceful town fills with wild cheers and school colors whenever a big game comes along. Walk down the streets of Albuquerque on a game night and you'll think your walking through a deserted town. You expect a hay ball to be blown across the street in front of you. Albuquerque is a sports oriented town, no matter what sport. The smell of apple cider fills the air around the winter time. You cam smell it for hours and still get a homey feeling in your darkest hour. But that's Albuquerque, simple, sweet, and a little crazed.

I walked around for a good two hours when the breeze picked up and goose bumps were covering my arms and decided to walk back. Great part about Albuquerque every thing is in walking distance, yet people still insist on driving.

The next day during chemistry, Johnny walks up to me and sits down on my right. The light seeps through the shades adding more light to hid Hispanic face, but also adds a mysterious look to his serious face. We haven't talked since I blew up on him and our friends yesterday, which is a long time for us to go.

"So, you want to tell me what was up with you yesterday or do I have to guess 'cause either way I will find out." He starts off.

I sigh a small sigh and start explaining, "I just get tired of you guys always putting people down that you don't even know. For all you know they could be the next Monet." After a long silence I asked the question that had been bothering me since last night, "Who am I to you?"

Johnny chuckles at my question. "You're my unbelievable strong sister that can with stand anything and still keep going. You speak your mind and go for what you want and don't let anyone get in the way. Why?"

"I don't know I was just wondering what you think. I can barely tell who I am any more." I was looking down the whole time.

I feel Johnny's hand start rubbing my back in a brotherly way that can only help but give me comfort. "You should never question who you are. And if you do just remember this, you'll always be my lil' twin. Understand, G."

"Yea, I understand, Johnnycake." I state using the nickname I gave him when I was younger.

Once I got home, yet again I went back into my art room and started on my painting. I have question my friends all day about who they think I am and they have all given me the same answer. Strong, fearless, and outspoken. I have thought long and hard about this and I finally figured it out. Now, just to make it into a picture.

Finally the art show, my nerves have been in haywire all week. "Relax Ella Bella; your painting is phenomenal. They will love it." Sean reassures me. Sean is my 24 year-old brother. He's tall with short brown nearly black hair and brown eyes. He is a lawyer and is probably the craziest lawyer ever seeing as he can't stay serious for longer then 10 seconds.

That helped a little but not much. My oldest brother Chris, who looks exactly like Sean but taller, comes walking up to me and looks from Johnny, to me, then to Sean and back again and says in a hush tone, "I've scouted the place out all these amateurs have nothing on your beautiful painting." I roll my eyes and slap him around the head, knocking that serious and spy look off his face. His face now has a look like he just found out that he got socks for Christmas. "What was that for?!?"

"For bein' an idiot!" I exclaim rather loudly causing the people around us to turn and look at us.

He was about to rebut when I suddenly turned him around and hid behind him. "Um, Lala, what are you doing?" He asked in a voice like I was the crazy one. Lala was a nickname he came up with when I was just a kid. I was obsessed with the teletubbies as a kid, Lala in particular to the rest, leading to him to start calling me Lala all the time.

"What are they doing here?!" I whispered to myself.

"Who?" Sean asks.

"Them!" I exclaim as I point across the room to my friends.

Johnny, being the genius that he is, decides to call them over. "Hey, Gusmphhh" Johnny starts before I quickly shoved my hand over his mouth shushing him. Lucky for me they didn't hear him and started walking in the other direction.

"Why didn't you want them over here Lala?" Chris inquires.

"Well, I haven't really gotten around to telling them about my art talent yet." I snapped to them. There really should be a light bulb going off over their heads right now. "Huh, just go look around." I state in a bored tone, while they just walk away.

Some people walked up every now and then wanting me to explain my painting. While in the middle of explaining my piece I hear someone call my name in a shocked tone. I turn to my left and see my friends standing there with dropped jaws. "Ha… ha, hey… guys." though I said that it came out more like a question then a statement.

"Gabs, what are you doing here and why does the picture have your name one it?" Sharpay ask me. Sharpay is your typical blonde with blue eyes and perfect body. She's the most wanted girl for the guys and most hated by the girls.

"Um… well… you see… the thing is…I got nothin'" I said in an exasperated voice.

"Are you in this art show? Is that why you asked us what we thought of you? That's why you snapped at up about making fun of this show? Because your art is in it. Why didn't you just tell us?" Soda asked in a some what mad tone.

"How was I supposed to tell you when all you guys do is make fun of this stuff? I wanted to tell you, but you kind of made it hard for me to tell you when you were just going to make fun of me like you do to everyone else here." I say in a hurt voice.

"Bella if you think that we would judge you for this, we would never do that. This is who you are and we are sorry that you would ever think that." Chad states caringly.

"Yea Gabs, you are who you are and if we can't accept that then we're not your friends. We love you for who you are because that is who you are and that will never change, no matter what." Quarter states. I couldn't help but go over and hug them all. While hugging Sharpay, Chris walks over and tells us that they are giving the awards out now.

After some long boring speeches from people in the art business we finally got to the first place winner. By now every person who entered a piece was sitting on the edge of their seats, even me. "…and the winner of this art show competition is Gabriella Montez!" I was shell shocked as my art teacher announced the winner. My brothers literally had to push my out of my seat to get me up there. When I got up there I received my award and stood next to my painting for a photo for the Rockford newspaper. My picture really did show who I am. It is a beautiful bright reddish pink rose surrounded by sharp dark thorns. This shows that I am because after living with my mom I finally realized that even the beautiful lives has something dark to them, just like a rose.

After everyone offered their congratulations to my win, my brothers decided to head out for ice cream. As I watched everyone walk away I remembered I forgot my ribbon. I rushed back to get it and thankfully it was still there.

When I turned around my breath caught in my throat. There Troy was, leaning against the wall with his leg casually crossed over the other. When he say me looking at him, he pushed off the wall and took a few quick strides toward me. He was standing so close that I just couldn't help but blush and look down. I felt to fingers pull my chin up so I was staring straight into his eyes. God they are so blue.

"I didn't get a chance to congratulate you on your win," He speaks flawlessly. "With everyone around it kind of made it hard. So, congratulations."

I couldn't remember how to speak, but I seemed to manage a small nod, never taking my eyes of his. We were caught up in each others eyes I didn't seem to notice that he started to lean in to kiss me till I felt his lips cover mine. It was a gentle kiss, didn't last very long but long enough. When he let go he took a few steps back and just stared at me till I opened my eyes.

A small smile started to cross my face causing his face to break out into a grin. Putting his hand out he took mine and lead me out the door to the car. Who knew that one Art Show could change so many things in one night? I guess you could kind of call it the Art of Love.