Serenity was humming happily in her art class the next day. Today they were working on painting. It was more freestyle this activity. The teacher wanted them to paint whatever it was they felt that day.
Serenity loved being in a happy mood in art class. It made it so much easier to do whatever she felt like without worrying or really thinking of the end result. Just seeing what happens naturally.
She chose a few neutral colors for her painting: black, blue, and grey. Serenity did think it was a little strange she did not choose warmer colors for her bright mood, but she went with her gut feeling.
First she painted on the grey all over as the back ground and gave it a moment to dry before she began with the black. She did not want a lot of smudging.
Serenity felt like drawing a sort of person, but not give them a real face. So she stroked onto the canvas a dark silhouette of a head. Serenity decided he needed a little chin, but no mouth, nose or hair. He did need a pair of eyes though. She gently moved the brush to form the outline of the eyes, no lashes. Then she placed a little black dot down in each eye; without thinking about it Serenity picked up the blue and gave the eyes their missing iris.
They face was dark all over with the strokes of the black paint. Expect for the eyes, the eyes held the bright color the face lacked.
"That's interesting Serenity."
Serenity looked over to her right and saw Misa looking at her picture from her stool.
"Thanks." Serenity said to be polite. She and Misa were not really friends, they only had one class together and this was it.
Misa smiled at her.
Maybe she wants to be friends? Serenity thought it would be nice to make a new friend. Especially since Misa was so popular here at school. She was the second richest student here and one of the most beautiful. Her hair was almost as long as Serenity's, but Misa's was a shiny smooth black. Her face was very clear and perfect, an olive complexion. She was also taller than Serenity, and curvier than her too. Serenity envied her confidence.
"I love the eyes!" Misa went on saying. "Is it done?"
"No, I think the background needs something, especially around the head." Serenity scrutinized it then capped her paint bottles and carried them back over to the paint bench to trade them with something else.
A much darker grey was needed the light one she used for the background. A bright white yellow was needed for what Serenity was thinking of.
When she got back to her easel she immediately began using the dark grey to draw a nasty looking storm cloud around his forehead. The black was dry enough that she could paint yellow lightning bolts across his face; never ever crossing over his eyes, only in between them. Serenity added more bolts bouncing off to the side of his head, but kept only one huge one across his face.
The teacher was walking around to see each students work, and he decided to stop between Serenity and Misa.
"It's good Serenity!" Mr. Ray extolled her "I am curious of who your thinking of when you draw this. The eyes, so calm, even in the storm." Mr. Ray looked at Misa's and said she had done a fine job with hers.
"I only wish you tried other things Misa. Explore more and be creative. It's always the same thing."
"I like this thing though." Misa said calmly without shame. "I'll never be able to get it out of my head." Misa stared dreamily at her canvas.
Mr. Ray walked away his eyes rolling as he did. "Class!" He called. "I'd like to announce our next project! We will continue working with canvas's, but I'd like to mix it up a little and have you guys include something 3-d in the picture. It can be anything like beads, stones, or even twigs. Just create some sort of image with it, and don't worry you can use paint or anything else to give it color, but whatever picture you make it has to be of some sort of identifiable object, not a pattern." The bell rang then. "Class dismissed, I'll see you again tomorrow, and this project will be due on Friday." He informed them.
Serenity loved having art as her last class for the day. It ended it so perfectly and this project sounded cool, but now she knew she would have difficulty deciding on a 3-d object to include. It was Tuesday though and she had until the night before Friday to think about it.
Serenity cleaned up her area then dampened a paper towel and washed the droplets of paint off her face, and finally pulled her hair out of its bun.
When she walked she did not expect to be tugged over by her elbow and bump into someone's chest.
"Listen, I need your help again." A deep familiar voice told her.
Hers eyes met the blue ones from her painting.
What? She took a step back and saw that it was Seto Kaiba.
"What kind of help do you mean?" She asked him.
"What do you think I want your help with homework?" He asked sarcastically. "I need help getting to work on time again."
Serenity sighed. "That was fun yesterday, but I don't feel like upsetting Joey more again today." Her brother was steaming when she got back to him, crying that his little sister betrayed her own brother. "Just find a back way out." She suggested.
"There all blocked!" He cried in exasperation.
"Well then find another girl to carry around. It's not like I'm the only one available for this."
"You're better than them though; you're his little sister that he would never ever hurt." He brought up yesterday to make her feel guilty. "Your little hint about today made me work late last night so I could be a little late, but I still have a lot of stuff that needs to be done on time! I was tired and almost fell asleep in class and it's your fault!" He blamed.
"I'm sorry Seto, but…" Serenity could not think of a better excuse. She stared at the floor as she thought desperately for something.
"You know I could get your brother into huge trouble here if the teachers found out; especially since I tend to have many witnesses when it comes to the girls." He warned Serenity.
She looked at him worried. "You wouldn't-." He placed a finger over her lips to shush her.
"You can prevent that though." He reminded her.
Serenity pushed his hand away and said fine.
As soon as the word fine left her mouth he scooped her up again without giving her a chance to change her mind. Then dashed out the school saying he had to get out before he would be late.
WWWWWWW
Serenity was at home with her brother. She was lying in her bed daydreaming while Joey plotted his next move in the living room since it failed again because of her.
Her mind kept wandering back to Seto. How handsome and strong he was; and his gorgeous eyes that made her heart melt.
Serenity put her pillow over her head trying to block him out. I am not crushing on Seto kaiba! I am not crushing on Seto Kaiba!
On the way to his work he asked her about what she liked to paint.
That surprised her a lot. She did not expect him to remember her passion. Serenity answered saying she liked doing unusual things. That she did not like painting something like a landscape or a person because people can look around them instead of staring at a painting.
He agreed with her on that saying he hated looking at pictures of normal settings. Seto said he disliked something boring, but was sometimes confused by bizarre pieces of art. He liked ones that showed what a person was thinking or showed the truth behind something, or even hidden messages. He hated ones that were just to look pretty and had no thought at all.
When they reached his company he told her before parting that he would not need her services tomorrow since he was not going to be at school. When she heard that she felt disheartened. Yesterday and today had not been what she expected. At first she thought he was going to ignore her like usual, but whenever he looked at her she thought she saw a fond expression on his face. One usually showed only to Mokuba.
Serenity threw the pillow off and sat up saying "I need to work on my art project." Luckily that was all she had to work on this week. Her other classes she just needed to study since each class had a test on Friday. At the moment she just wanted to know what sort of 3-d thing she would use. Beads were horrible with hot glue since they tended to melt, and she did not want some dead twig or leaf in the picture.
Then she had instant inspiration from the picture of her and Joey at the beach.
"Seashells! I'll crush seashells and make a mosaic sort of picture." It would not jump out of the picture easily, but she could think of something to have the 3-d element.
Serenity went to the closet to find her bucket of shells. When she saw the amount Serenity was surprised by how it quickly it diminished.
I'll have to get more at the beach tomorrow. I can leave early from school and catch the bus. Mr. Ray won't mind if I'm not there.
Serenity still required Joey's permission to go.
"Hey Joey!" Serenity opened her door and called to him on the couch as he thought of plans for tomorrow.
"Yeah Serenity?" His voice was muffled since his arm covered his face as he laid there.
"Would you mind if I left school early tomorrow? I need to get some seashells at the beach for a project."
Joey removed his arms and sat up rejuvenated. "Yeah! Go to the beach! Get everything you need there! Don't even be back for the final bell!"
She knew he only agreed since he thought he would have a shot at Kaiba. Serenity felt mentioning he would not be there might change Joey's mind so she just smiled and said thank you.
WWWWWWWW
Serenity managed a quick dash home to change out of her uniform and grab the bucket and her art bag before catching the bus to the beach. She was wearing her short yellow sundress with her swimsuit on underneath and a pair of simple black flip flops. She might need to get wet to find the shells she wanted.
When she arrived it looked completely vacant. It usually was not busy on Wednesday's. This would make it easier to find shells since there were no other people trying to collect them too. She wanted to find mainly white ones in case she needed to paint colors it would be easier with white.
For a whole hour she spent it picking up shells, mostly white ones, but she found a few mussel shells that could be used for something in the picture.
When her bucket was filled she decided it was break time. She pulled out her sketchpad from her bag and a few pencils so she could sketch her project before actually making it. This was the most difficult part so far, deciding on what her picture would be. Before she could even begin brainstorming she heard someone yelling her name.
"Hey Serenity is that you?"
Serenity looked over reflexively and saw Mokuba running towards her. He was wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of navy blue trunks.
"Hi Serenity!" He said cheerfully when he reached her.
"Hey Mokuba, what are you doing here?"
"Seto promised to take me to the beach after school today." He answered looking back at his brother and gesturing for him to come over.
Serenity looked past Mokuba and saw Seto coming down the concrete stairs. His appearance was different than when she usually saw him. Not in his school uniform or one of his suits for work, and not even his favorite trench coat outfit. Today he was wearing a pair of brown khakis and a plaid white and green shirt. She blushed when she saw that the top buttons were undone on his shirt; she could see his chest more than she was used to.
When he reached them at his leisurely pace he immediately noticed her overflowing bucket of shells. "What are all those for?"
"I need seashells for an art project." Serenity explained.
"That sounds cool Serenity!" Mokuba exclaimed. "What are you going to do with them? Do you need more?"
Serenity giggled a little at his enthusiasm. "I'm sure I have enough, but thank you Mokuba."
"Come on Mokuba," Seto urged him "how about we walk around? You can collect your own shells while we do."
Mokuba smiled and nodded at his brother and then looked at Serenity. "Do you want come too Serenity?"
"Ummmmm" Was all she could think of at the moment. She did not think Seto really wanted her to be there since it was just him and his little brother. Mokuba looked eager for more company so she looked back at Seto to see his reaction.
He just nodded to her. To say that it was okay with him for her to come.
She smiled at Mokuba and said alright. Serenity got up still holding her sketchpad and a pencil. Inspiration might come as she walked with them.
At first it was the three of them walking in a row with Mokuba in the middle. However he was soon running up ahead looking at interesting things he saw and going after anything that looked like a seashell. So, on the walk it was mostly just her and Seto walking side by side.
"What does he want the shells for?" Serenity asked Seto.
Seto smirked. "He has a habit for collecting random things he sets his mind on. He's done a rock collection, feather collection, and a bottle cap collection."
"The bottle cap one sounds cool. Where does he keep them?"
"In display boxes hanging in his room, I swear he's going to cover all the walls with them one day. I hope this is just a phase of his."
"You don't want him to run out of room, and have to move them to other places in your house." She guessed.
"Correct, Wheel-Serenity."
Serenity did notice how he almost called her Wheeler. Like what he usually called her brother. Serenity wondered why he did not treat her in the same way as he did with her brother. They were family and should probably be on the same level she thought. "Why are you trying to be nice to me right now?" Serenity boldly asked him.
He was silent a moment before he answered. He looked at her sheepishly holding her eyes. "I suppose I feel inclined to be polite to a lady." It was just an answer to avoid talking about it.
Serenity sighed. She did not like asking too many questions about something someone did not wish to discuss. Instead she continued with their previous topic. "Do you collect anything?"
"Duel monster cards." He responded immediately.
"Do you have them with you?" She asked since he probably did.
Seto looked at her like she was crazy. "Of course I do. You shouldn't even have to ask that question."
"Do you mind if I look at them?" She inquired hopefully.
Seto glanced at her to make sure he could trust her with them. When he saw nothing to suggest otherwise Seto pulled them out of his pocket and handed them to her.
Serenity handed him her sketchbook and asked him to hold it while she looked at the cards.
"Would you mind if I flip through it?" Seto asked as he stared at the little black book covered in ridiculous stickers.
"Not at all." She responded while she looked at his cards. Serenity loved Pegasus's art work on the cards. He was very good, but she considered his actually portraits better than the drawings on his cards. Duel monsters were interesting, but she never had enough free time to learn the game. Watching it she considered more engrossing, but she had not played the game enough to understand the feeling duelists got when playing.
"You're pretty good." Seto murmured
"What?" Serenity asked.
"I said you are good. You draw with a steady hand. You can tell by the lack of eraser marks in the sketches."
"Thank you." Serenity felt flattered when he said that. She handed back the cards and he gave her back her sketchpad that she clutched to her chest. They chased after Mokuba who had gone too far ahead of them.
WWWWWWWW
Serenity left them soon, saying she had to catch her bus before she missed it.
She had a good time with the two brothers and had everything she needed for her project except an idea. They, mostly Mokuba, kept her busy until four o'clock playing games. Serenity played suds with him running away from the encroaching waves like their lives depended on it while Seto watched. Seto and Serenity helped him find some shells for his new collection. The brothers were also smart to have brought a picnic basket with them. They were kind enough to offer her some chips and a sandwich which she accepted thanking them.
Now she was sitting at the bus stop waiting for the late bus to come since she missed the one she was supposed to catch. Serenity wanted to be at home so she could take a nap. All the walking and goofing off wore her out quickly. She wanted to just lean back and rest, but was afraid to fall asleep at a bus stop where any kind of person could show up. Unfortunately her head did begin to tilt and soon sleep engulfed her without her knowing.
"Wake up Serenity."
Her eyes snapped open when she realized she had been sleeping. She looked up and saw Seto staring at her.
"Did I miss the bus?"
"You don't need to worry about that. You're home now."
Now she realized she was no longer at the bus stop. Serenity looked around and saw that she was in Seto Kaiba's limo. Mokuba was sleeping on the other row of seats peacefully. Then she realized she was not just in his limo, but she was in his arms again. He must have held her during the ride against his chest while her legs stretched out onto the other seats by him.
"Why is it I always end up in your arms?" She asked laughing.
He smirked and explained that he figured she would wake up because of the jostling of the limo.
"I've slept in a car before." She regretted saying that because it was part of her past when her Mother took her away from her Father and Joey and they did not have a place to go the first night they left. "Why am I here?" She asked so would not inquire about her first answer.
"Did you expect Mokuba to let me abandon you at a bus stop?"
Serenity believed it was just an excuse for taking her in. If he did not care why would he be holding her right now afraid that she might be awoken? Thinking of that reminded her she should get out of this awkward position she was in.
"Would you mind letting me go Seto?" She asked weakly embarrassed of this.
He immediately loosened his arms and she slid out onto the seats by them.
"By home do you mean at my place?" She asked Seto.
"Yes I do. You better get in before your brother notices the limo."
Serenity rolled her eyes and muttered "Oh Joey." Then made her way to the door that opened up for her; Kaiba's driver was waiting for her to come out. She said thank you to him who nodded at her smiling. Before she left she also said a sincere thank you to Kaiba for not leaving her at the bus stop.
"It was Mokuba's idea." He repeated.
"Well thank you for listening to it then." Then she stepped out and entered her building skipping up the stairs happily. Serenity felt the beginning formation of a crush, for Seto Kaiba.