A Horrible Picture and an Awful Day (A Forever Rose Fanfic)
For the first time in her life
Rose's picture
Was
Not
Working.
And everything she did to fix it only made it worse. But how was she supposed to know that the beautiful, brand-new, sealed-up jars of paint that she had found shoved behind the heap of old jackets in the closet changed color as they dried?
Now Tom's guitar, which had started out as a lovely sunrise orange, was a horrible mucky brown. And Tom himself had gone from having black hair and blue eyes to having purple hair and angry red eyes. He looked more like that strange cartoon character Rose had seen on the telly than her friend Tom in New York.
The paint oozed in directions they were not supposed to. She had not been able to save Tom's shirt from mingling with the neck of his guitar and then both of those joining the sky behind him.
Perhaps she wouldn't have minded all this so much if she hadn't had such a HORRIBLE AWFUL DAY.
She had yet again received the lowest marks on their math test in school that day, which Mr. Spencer had been more than happy to point out.
Then the cafeteria had served her very least favorite food for lunch, something that the lunch ladies referred to as "Buried Treasure" but she knew better as "Overcooked Fish Lumps".
The very worst part of her day had occurred when Kiran and Molly had been studying her latest artwork, which was a highly realistic drawing she had done of Mr. Spencer when he was giving his morning history lesson. She had gotten every part of him right, from the way his mustache was slightly crooked on the left side of his face to the small mole he had beside his nose.
Molly laughed so hard at the picture that it caught Mr. Spencer's attention. "Would you like to explain to the class what you find so funny, Molly?" he asked. "Is it, perhaps, something to do with that paper you're holding?"
He whipped it from her grasp.
Suddenly Rose was very sorry that she had neatly signed it "Permanent Rose Casson" at the bottom. She lowered her gaze shamefully as she watched his face turn a bright shade of red.
She didn't like to think about what happened next.
But that picture of Mr. Spencer is no longer in one piece.
And there are 382
Shades of brown
In the wooden stool at the corner of the classroom.
Rose counted while she sat there
All afternoon.
That horrible day was the reason why Rose had started the painting of Tom when she got home from school. Painting always made her feel better, and she had saved those paint jars from the closet for a day like this. But now, of course, her picture had to go against her too.
Indigo, who was downstairs putting together one of his strange dinner concoctions, heard her scream of frustration and came up to investigate.
"Cheer up, Rosy Pose," he said after looking over the picture that had been angrily chucked at him. "It still looks like Tom. And the rainbow colors all mixed together make it look very mystical. Like one of those fairy books you're always reading."
Rose didn't respond when he repeated that it looked absolutely fine, and also not to let Mr. Spencer get to her because he was mean and horrible and obviously had no appreciation for Art.
After a steaming cup of hot chocolate piled high with marshmallows and a nice warm fire made by Indigo, Rose did in fact feel much better.
Then Eve came in for a quick break from painting in the shed (Well, it's Not Exactly Art, she said as usual) and gave her a humungous hug to cheer her up.
Soon Sarah and Saffy appeared through the front door as well, at first in a hurry to complete their Extra Spanish, but then delayed when they smelled smoke coming from the living room. (Sarah reminded everyone that An Open Flame is an Enormous Safety Risk Even Within a Fireplace and They Should Consider Themselves Extremely Lucky that Their House has not yet Burned Down.)
She was more understanding when Indigo told them about Rose's Horrible Awful Day.
Saffy and Sarah assured her again that Mr. Spencer was horrendous, atrocious, and lots of other big words she didn't understand. Then they hugged her tightly and Sarah promised she would bring her over as many fairy books as she could find in her house.
After dinner (Indigo microwaved her a can of spaghetti so she wouldn't have to pick through the vegetable soup he had made) Caddy and Michael dropped by with Buttercup for a visit.
Caddy wasn't quite as sympathetic about Rose's day as everyone else ("That's life, Rose Darling," she said) but she let her play with Buttercup for an extra long amount of time anyway.
Michael winked at her and told her to just wait; he'd be even harder on her when she started her driving lessons.
The last surprise of the night arrived home with Daddy from his New Art Studio, and was a beautiful set of real, non-color changing paints!
Rose decided then that she loved her family very, very much.