Chapter Two: Pick Up That Paint Brush.
The school bell rang as the halls of Sukai High filled with students. Tye slowly made his way to the east end of the school to where his locker was. Opening the locker up and placing his book inside, he slammed the locker door and headed up the staircase. Continuing up the stairs until he reached the fourth floor, he tugged on his tie loosening it a bit. He then headed down the narrow, empty hallway and passed by the lifeless science lab before coming across a door covered in colorful handprints. Letting out a long sigh, he knocked on the door.
"Come in!" Came an excited voice as the blonde pushed open the door. He looked over the room from head to toe. It was an average sized room, possibly longer than most. In the center of the room was a long table with various chairs set up around it. To the front of the room was the teacher's desk along with sketches of happy faces on the chalkboard. Paint stands filled the back of the room, some already having artwork painted on them. Tye studied the purple painting of a butterfly before rolling his eyes.
"Hey, Tatsuo-Sensei! Are you in here?" He called out, slightly aggravated. A loud noise of metal hitting the floor was heard from a back room in the classroom.
"Ah, yes! So sorry! I have my hands full at the moment!" The art professor explained. Tye followed the sound into the back room and found a small office. The office was not exactly neat, having papers stacked all over the desk and chair. It was a small office with a large bulletin board which consisted of various paintings pinned to it. Tatsuo pushed open a black door to the back of the room and closed it behind him.
"Fuwa! It's good to see you could make it!" He smiled with relief and set down seven paint cans on his desk.
"It's Tye. And I had no choice." The teen mumbled.
"Right, well let's get to work for now shall we?" Tatsuo reached under his messy desk and pulled out a bucket of water along with a wash cloth. Tye carefully took the tools while Tatsuo led him to the front of the room. The man pointed to the long table.
"Your first job is to scrub this table clean!"
"It looks pretty clean to me." Tye retorted, gazing over the well polished table.
"Nonscense!" The white haired man yanked a long, white cloth from the table, revieling a paint covered table. Tye glared at the man.
"With a tough hand, you can get this done in no time!" Tye looked towards his tiny hand,
"More like in two weeks." The blonde began scrubbing the paint off the table while Tatsuo took a seat in his chair. The teacher rested his feet up onto the desk and slid his arms behind his head, relaxing.
"So tell me a little about yourself Fuwa. Do you enjoy art class?" The boy continued scrubbing.
"No."
"Have you ever even picked up a paint brush before?" Questioned the older man. Tye ignored the question and dumped the cloth back into the bucket before draining it of water. The professor kindly smiled.
"Painting and drawing is an easy way to express how you are feeling. There can be all sorts of artwork sad, happy, angry, excited and more! Why wouldn't someone want to pick up a pencil and begin drawing how they feel or what they see in their mind? Sure seems fun to me!"
"I don't like drawing." Tye declared.
"Well.. What about painting? Here! I have another task for you." The man leapt from his chair and marched to the back of the room. He reached into a cabinet and pulled out three paint containers of yellow, red, blue, white and black. Setting them down on the painting stand, he grabbed a clean paintbrush and handed it to the boy.
"I want you to express how you feel right now! Take this brush and draw anything that comes to mind!" Tye blinked and set down the cloth onto the still messy table.
"Don't think I'm going to be taking your class anytime soon."
"That has nothing to do with this!" The man smiled and placed the paint brush into Tye's hand. He gently pushed the boy towards the art stand.
"Just try it. It might help me get to know you better." Still unsure about the whole situation, Tye took a seat on the tiny stool and stared at the blank paper infront of him.
"I'll give you some time to think!" Tatsuo skipped happily out of the room as the boy waited there in silence. He looked down at the five colors of paint. After thinking things over for a moment or two, he dipped his paint brush into the yellow and white paint, mixing it to create a cream color. Raising his brush to the paper, he began drawing. It's not like he was unexperienced in drawing. He knew one or two things about art from his younger school grades. Luckily he remembered the basics of drawing people. He started with the head followed by ears, nose and neck. The hair was to be drawn next. He washed off the old paint color on his brush and dipped it back into the black paint this time. Focusing on getting it right, he drew hair quite similar to his own only in black. The bang he drew in the opposite direction. Next was to draw the eyes. He tried his hardest on drawing the shape right then mixed some more colors together. While coloring in the eyes a greyish-blue, he drew a small frown on the person. He then stopped for a moment to look at his new artwork. It was not the best, but he was somewhat glad he at least tried. The person resembled himself yet appeared to be angry and almost sad. Leaning back in his chair, he studied the picture over before sighing.
"That's a nice drawing." Came a female voice as the boy quickly turned around. The young girl he had seen earlier defending off the school boys stood before him. Her purple eyes were studying his drawing.
"Thanks.." Tye, who was still a bit surprised, managed to say.
"Are you knew to this class?" The girl questioned, setting down her brown suitcase onto an empty chair. Tye shook his head. The girl raised her eyebrow before smiling.
"Don't speak much I see." She joked as she took a seat in another chair.
"Sorry. I wasn't expecting company.." Tye explained.
"That's alright. It's nice to meet you. You can call me Kai."
"Kai?" Tye asked, slightly confused of the name.
"Yes. Everyone calls me that." The girl lifted her suitcase onto the table and opened it. Inside were papers of various drawings and pencils.
"So what do you call that masterpiece?"
"Masterpiece?"
"Your painting." Tye rubbed the back of his head and took a look at his painting.
"I don't have a name for it yet.." He explained, a little embarassed.
"Well that's alright. Maybe you can think of one later." Tye noticed the clock read 6:00 pm, which meant it was time for his slave work to stop. He stood up and pushed in his stool.
"It's time for me to go now.. It was nice seeing you uh, Kai."
"Wait, I never got your name." The girl insisted on knowing.
"Okra Tye." He replied before slipping outside the door and into the hall. Brushing off some paint on his hands, he looked up to see Tatsuo coming down the hall.
"Ah, Fuwa! How did the painting go?" The cheerful teacher wondered.
"It was alright." Tye explained.
"Just alright! Well, I hope to see you again tomorrow!" The blonde nodded as he slugged his way past the teacher.
"Oh and you know, if you ever need a place to just stop and think for awhile my classroom is always opened. I'm sure it's better than the school's rooftop." Tatsuo smiled and continued down the hall to his class. Tye watched as the art teacher vanished through the hand-printed door before walking off.
While arriving home, Tye tossed his back pack onto the floor and began to make his way up the short staircase.
"Tye?.." Came a man's voice as the boy stopped in his tracks. Pausing to think for a moment, the boy headed back down the stairs and into the kitchen to find a man sitting at the table passed out. Tye noticed an empty bottle of vodka to the man's left. He stepped over towards the unshaved man and swung his arm over his shoulder. After helping him up from the table, he managed to make it into the living room where he carefully layed the man on the sofa. He then placed a blanket over the man and removed his glasses from his face. While setting the glasses onto a small night stand, Tye turned off the light and headed back up stairs and into his room.