In the corner of the art room, there is a girl painting on a canvas.
It's a beautiful painting of a garden under the hazy blue sky. It has an enchanting air to it, and I find myself staring at it as if it were sucking me inside.
It's perfect. Completely perfect. Maybe even too perfect.
In fact, it was way too perfect. But I guess that's how artists work. And that somehow really really impresses me!
I wonder what it's like, being able to paint such fantastic masterpieces like that. Such a great artist would be able to paint anything.
Being able to paint anything!? Like magic? It must be great fun, I think to myself.
I walk up to the girl. Wow... she's really tall and pretty! Just as pretty as her painting, possibly! She turns around to me, and her blue eyes are almost like magical orbs. I say they're like magic orbs because she reminds me of a fairy who does nature magic and all that. It's as if she's painting the seasons on the trees and across the land.
"Hello um, artist girl, are you having fun?" I ask, absorbed in her work.
She looks at me with a stern expression that paralyzes me, and a few seconds later, she turns back to her canvas.
"Huh? I only asked if it was fun..." I cast my eyes down.
The girl turns back to me shortly.
"Being an artist... it isn't as easy as it looks. It gets less and less fun whenever people assume I can do everything just because I paint." she says coldly. "And to be frank, this isn't fun. It's serious work."
My heart sinks. She seemed like such an interesting person, but she says something like that? Plus, she discouraged me from ever becoming an artist. It was my dream and it seemed really cool! But if it's just going to be serious work, then...
"Okay..." I sigh. I feel myself slump a bit as I walk away.
And that was what happened at school this afternoon.
I'm Teto Kasane, age sixteen, high school second-year. I don't feel sixteen at all though. In fact, I forget I'm not twelve sometimes.
My day isn't going that well. And usually I'm cheerful and super-genki, and art class always cheers me up! But that's not the case right now, because a lot of things are happening to me.
First of all, my dad just moved. Well, he didn't move away from me! He's just working overseas and leaving me... he has a very very very important job as a medical professor. My dad's name is Ted, but I call him Teddy.
Teddy loves me very very much, but he has a job to do. He's going to cure people's diseases with new medicines! I think that's the nicest thing ever!
And today, I'm going to meet my babysitter who my dad hired to take care of me while he's away. She's going to care for me for two straight years. I'm so sad and scared... I hate babysitters! Every single one I've had before had been so mean to me!
They always scolded me for trying to make them happy. Like the time I played music with bottles and sang to surprise my old babysitter, she punished me for making all the noise. The second babysitter I had always wore a plain white shirt, and I thought she'd appreciate it if I added a little color to it! So I drew a picture of her surrounded by pretty flowers on it! I used red, blue, purple, and lots and lots of pink! But then she got mad at me too! She told me she never wanted to see me again!
And now I'm going to be stuck with a mean babysitter for two years. I might just cry!
When I get home and open the door, the house is empty...
Wait... I hear clattering of something right in my working room. Thumps and pings and... a splash of water? Huh? Is it someone PAINTING?
I enter my little work room. In the corner, I see...
Aah!? Pink hair like a rosebud? Someone's in my house! I scream and she turns around. I suddenly recognize those little icy blue eyes...
"It's... It's YOU!" I shout. It's that un-fun girl from earlier who was painting that pretty picture!
"Hey you, what the BREAD do you think you're doing in my house?" I scream as my eyes pop out. I use aggressive language to sound intimidating. Also, dad always told me that my scream was so loud, it could scare away a bad guy! If this girl were robbing my house, my screams would certainly frighten her away!
Only, she doesn't seem to be frightened by my screams. She urges me to stop yelling and then quietly talks to me in a soft emotionless voice that sounded like the weird lady voice on those operating machines.
"Hello, Teto Kasane. I'm your new babysitter and I am also an assistant teacher at your school. You might have seen me before. My name is Luka Megurine, I'm nineteen years old, so I'm not that old or anything. Call me 'Luka' if you want."
My mouth falls open. That un-fun girl was going to be my permanent two-year babysitter!?
Well, on the bright side, maybe she can teach me to paint beautifully like her! But... I could imagine our lessons not going that well... and what if she doesn't allow me to even HAVE FUN!?
But isn't this embarrassing too? She's only three years older than me and she's going to take care of me? She works at my school? How much weirder can this even get?
Wait, I know what could make it weirder! If she were an ALIEN! From the planet of boredom! Ack!
This Luka Megu-whatever gets off of her seat and walks towards me calmly. I shiver.
But wait... is she being nice to me?
"I'm from Belgium," she tells me placidly, "I moved last year, and though I know how to speak Japanese, I might not understand a thing or two."
Huh. Belgium. That's really far away, and she's on her own so young...! But I could tell she looked like a foreigner. Hey... I wonder if she eats those fancy waffles a lot.
"If I can do anything for you, ask me."
Hm, I stand and think for a second. I'm now even more interested in her, but I don't want to ask her too many questions to annoy her...
"Hm..." I start. It's just a harmless question. And maybe I'll actually learn and be able to have tons of FUN!
"Okay, Luka. I want you to teach me to paint like that!" I smile.
Luka sighs heavily and shakes her head. My smile droops, and the room feels like it becomes a few shades dimmer.
"I can't teach anybody just like that." she closes her eyes and states. "You'd have to be willing to do it for many years. It's a lot of work and one has to take it seriously. Besides, I'm not so great, so please quit admiring me."
My heart started getting that same hurty feeling form earlier but I fight it back.
"But..." I say, reluctant to agree with her. "You are great! And you always look like you have fun when you paint, so why do you say it isn't?"
"Because it isn't as great as everyone thinks it is." she says.
"Well..." I say. "I think it would be the funnest thing ever to be able to paint just about anything. Because for example, I could paint a picture of myself! Then paint a crown on myself! And put myself in space, and make myself look super cool and make the stars all different colors and add cute polka-dotted space cats and... I could make anything happen! Wow wow wow! I want to learn! So I could do things like that!"
I jump up and down because what I described sounded like the best thing ever, and I wanted to get it through to her!
Luka responds coldly once again.
"It's really hard for me to draw things. It might look easy, but it's because... I work so hard on them that it really becomes tedious."
"But," I speak up.
"Then why do you do it? Why are you a painter if it isn't fun for you? It will be fun for me and I know it! So you should let me be one! I'll find a way to make it fun, I promise!"
"I do it because..." Luka starts saying. She pauses as if there's a weird flavor in her mouth and her expression soon changes. As if the ice in her eyes starts to melts a bit.
"Because... I guess it's because I once thought the way you did... Teto."
Luka cracks a single wistful smile as she starts to pour everything out.
Huh? This is shocking news... I continue to listen to her.
"I thought before, if I became an artist, I could create a whole world with my hands... I could embrace the beauty of the world and do just about anything with it. But in reality, it's very, very tough. Yet part of me still wants to be there, at that level where I CAN embrace the world. So that's why I work so hard at it. It's torture. Yet I still do it, and I'm required to take every ounce of it completely seriously."
I become quiet, lost in everything she told me right then. The way she spoke made me feel a little bit sad for her. I try to at least give her an idea to keep her going.
"Well, do you ever consider ways where it wouldn't be torture? Where it could be actual fun? Because I..."
I pause. I feel something huge coming to my lips, a huge truth. I struggle to put them in the right words as I speak.
"I think you already can embrace the world Luka. But I think the reason you feel like you can't, is because... because you aren't enjoying your gift! You refuse to believe that you actually can do these things!"
I become surprised when Luka's eyes become big with realization. I would've thought that she would be sick of hearing words like this, but this time, it seems like...
It seems like the words I said were the exact thing that she needed.
After a few seconds, she breaks the silence.
"Teto..." she says, in a very delicate voice, lowering her head for a few seconds.
"You're right."
She gives me a smile, a glowing smile. I've ever seen such a glowing smile before. The ice in her eyes is all gone and they shine bright like aquamarines.
"You're right, Teto." she continues. "You're right and I've never realized it... Now that I remember the reason I started painting, everything suddenly is in color again... those feelings that I completely forgot about."
Luka walks towards me, and to my surprise, she hugs me! I wrap my arms back around her. I smell her cologne, which is like roses.
"It's because of you, that I just now remembered those wonderful feelings. And therefore..."
Luka seperates her arms from my back and grins at me. I grin back, feeling warm and comfortable in her gentle embrace.
"I am going to give you lessons. But always remember one rule... to have fun, Teto."
The next morning when I wake up, I see Luka's painting hung up in the dining room. She finally finished it!
But wooow! I'm shocked because...
Because of what she added to it! It's so different now!
It WAS a realistic picture of a beautiful fantasy garden, but now the tulips she painted had stripes on them! She painted polka dots on the stone road? The bugs she were painting on the leaves now came in all sorts of different colors, and they looked gorgeous! There's a beautiful subtle shine all across the landscape, illuminating and so bright. Everything glowed so magically.
And the part that stood out the most... was the person she added in the back.
It was a girl with transparent crystalline wings and a light pink dress made of petals. She's holding a long, colorful paintbrush, painting the stripes on the flowers with it. I look closer and see that the girl has curly red hair and a warm, bright smile... a smile that looks just like mine.
I gasp. It's ME as a fairy! Luka added me in her painting! And I'm the one who's painting the flowers, making all them stripey and fun!
I look at it more, and finally realize what the painting is supposed to mean... and the reason I was in the picture, painting the extra stuff in it...
As I continue to gaze at it, Luka enters the room.
"So I guess you saw it." she says.
"Of course!" I say. "I love love love how it turned out! Seriously, I really do! It's so fun and creative, and even more fantasy now. Such a happy work of art! And I think it's even more beautiful than when I first saw it yesterday!"
Luka's smile is overflowing. She gently and puts her hand on my shoulderand leans close to me.
"It's my favorite thing I've painted in a while. Because it was fun to do. It made me feel such joy. It was a wonderful feeling."
Fondly, she smiles and pats me a bit, and gazes at the girl she painted on the canvas.
"I call this piece 'The One Who Colored my World'."