Author's Note: I feel I should acknowledge that this idea has been addressed at least twice before by other authors, as well as the famous scene from Titanic, which served as my direct inspiration for this particular spin on it.
Step Two: Still Life
After 'Sky'
Clyde found Rani at the beginning of the lunch break. She looked up at him over a copy of A Tale of Two Cities, waiting to see what was important enough for him to come into the library to look for her.
"I need help with some homework," he said.
"Surprise, surprise. What is it this time? I've got my own homework to do, you know."
"Art," Clyde answered.
"Since when do you need help with art?"
"We got given this art homework last week to prepare for our coursework. We have to do a picture of someone important to us and write five hundred words about why we're drawing them."
"So what do you want my help with?" Rani asked, then her eyes widened. "Oh! Me? You want to draw me? Not your mum or Sarah Jane or Luke?"
"I can't hand in a picture of my mum," Clyde responded. "There'd be no end to the grief I'd get. Sarah Jane's busy and you can't draw someone over a webcam."
Rani nodded. "Okay, so when's this due in?"
"Tomorrow," Clyde told her. "So d'you want to come over tonight after school? My mum's going out with some friends."
"Sure," Rani said.
She arrived exactly on time at seven, still wearing her school uniform. He hung her coat up for her and she accepted the offered glass of coke.
"So hang on," she said, finishing the drink. "If this is due in tomorrow, why'd you only ask me today? Did you think I'd say no?"
"I've been busy, haven't I?" Clyde responded. "Helping Sarah Jane with Sparky. Adopted aliens don't teach themselves how to be normal teenagers. Trust me, you should have seen Luke before I showed him how to be cool."
Rani shook her head. "One day I'd like to hear the other side of that story. Okay, so where do you want me?"
"Upstairs," Clyde replied. "I couldn't get my drawing board through the door without taking one of the legs off so it's still in my bedroom…"
He tailed off. There was a long moment before Rani sighed.
"Okay, whatever. But you'd better have cleaned it or opened the windows or something."
He led her up the stairs and into his room. "You'll have to sit there," he said, pointing to the bed and the pile of cushions in the corner he'd borrowed for her to lean against. "There's not much room."
Her eyes flickered over the drawings pinned to the walls. "Well, it's cleaner than I expected," she remarked. "Here?"
She settled herself on the bed, shuffled backwards to rest her back against the cushions, and adjusted them to stop herself from slipping sideways. Then she stretched her legs out and dropped her hands to her sides.
"Do you want me to… do anything?"
Clyde looked up from arranging the paper on the board. "Just whatever's comfortable. I only have to draw you from the waist up."
"Right..."
She gave him a quick, nervous grin and shifted awkwardly. A few more minutes of adjustments passed in silence before she let out a slow breath and started to relax. Clyde gave her another moment to make sure she was at ease and then reached for his pencil.
He started with gentle, faint strokes of the pencil across the paper to mark her silhouette: her oval face, her slender neck, the loose lines of her arms from her shoulders down to where they met in her lap, the slight arch of her back against the cushions. Then he started filling in the details: her delicate ears, her open collar, the disorganised creases of her starched white blouse and the track of her tie as it trailed down from her throat to her stomach. Her hands were elegant and soft, resting in her lap, and she'd intertwined her fingers to keep them still. Her coffee-coloured hair was parted on the right; her fringe swept sideways over her forehead while the rest of it was held in a thick ponytail that tumbled down over her left shoulder.
He left her face till last, staring at her for a long, silent moment over the board, determined that it should be perfect. He followed the sloping path of her nose. Her wide, almond-shaped eyes seemed almost black, but they were bold and bright as he traced first their outlines and then used his fingertips across the pencil strokes to replicate the patterns inside them. They never left his face, watching him as he watched her. Gentle touches added her long lashes and bolder strokes marked out her brows. Her pink lips were full, glossy, and curved upwards in the faintest of smiles. There were soft hints of laughter lines around her mouth and dimples on her cheeks. He ran his thumb delicately over the paper, softening the line of her jaw.
He piled stroke upon stroke, detail upon detail, never speaking and never entirely looking away from her as he shaped the mass of lines into something that captured everything that was unique about her and held it on the paper, right down to the last caresses to mark out the patterns of shadow and shade on her cinnamon skin. Finally, when he was sure it was perfect, he picked a spot just above her right shoulder and carefully wrote the only word he could think of that summed her up: Rani.
"There," he said quietly.
"Are you finished?" she asked. "Can I see?"
"Of course."
She scrambled up off the bed and leant over his shoulder to look. Her hair trickled over his cheek and he could feel her breath on his neck. For a long moment, she didn't speak.
"Is it alright?"
"Clyde," she breathed, "it's gorgeous. That's amazing." She turned her head slightly. "Before you hand it in, could you photocopy it or something? I'd really like one."
"Sure." Clyde nodded.
"I promise not to tell my dad where I was when you drew it."
"Yeah," Clyde said. "Don't think he'd take that one too well."
"He'd hit the roof." She patted him on the shoulder and straightened up. "It's getting late. I'd better get home before he does that anyway. You going to be alright with the writing bit?"
"I'll think of something," he replied. "Do you… want me to walk you home?"
Rani smiled softly. "I'll be fine. Thanks, though. I'll see you in school. Say hi to your mum when she gets home."
He listened to her skip down the stairs and then the faint sound of the front door opening and closing. Then he dug out his laptop and flopped onto the bed where she had been sitting. He sat there, watching the blinking cursor of an empty text document for five minutes and then wrote Rani Chandra is one of my best friends.
"Nah. Sounds like I'm eight."
Rani Chandra is special.
"Come on Clyde, you can do better than that."
He looked at the inadequate words for another few moments and then picked up the portrait. He let his eyes trace over the lines, and then sighed and sat back. He put the picture down next to him and finally started to write in earnest. This time, he started with the truth.
Rani Chandra is beautiful…
