OK, this chapter is for Jodie. She forced me to get my ass in gear and write it! Thankyou Beth for the idea. I'm going to bed now, It's past two in the morning!


When the bell went, the class were lined up outside their art room.

It was school policy, for good reason, that students were not allowed in the classroom without a teacher present.

"Good morning class!" their teacher greeted, "Today we will be studying ze most romantic part of ze art world. Zat is… if you approach ze activity wiz ze correct person…"

Their teacher continued to ramble for a few more moments, her slight French accent obvious. The class got restless quickly and whispering soon started.

"Hey!"

Alexx felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked behind her and saw Megan Donner, one of her best friends.

"Heya sugar. How-"

Megan cut her off.

"Congratulations on your date!"

Alexx nodded her thanks and Megan continued.

"Have you any idea what Miss Midget is on about?"

Their art teacher, whose real name was Mme Henke, had been "affectionately" named "Midget" when Eric had first seen her. He had seen her heading towards them from the team room and muttered it under his breath and the name stuck.

"You know what honey?" said Alexx, answering Megan's question. "I never have any idea what she's on about!"

At that moment, the teacher said, "…and so I expect ze highest level of effort from zis class in zis lesson. Any questions?"

The class looked at each other.

"Er…Mme? You haven't actually told us what we are doing this lesson."

"I haven't? Today, we are going to learn ze beautiful art of… Painting ze portraits!"

On the last three words, she threw her arms in the air in a flourish.

She paused and everyone was silent for a moment.

She had obviously been expecting more enthusiasm, but continued explaining the lesson.

"You will pair up with someone and zen you will paint zem while zey paint you."

More murmuring, but this time it was more positive. The class was looking forward to a good lesson.

"Everyone! Stand wiz ze person you wish to paint."

The class lined up in pairs.

"Once you are inside, sit in zese pairs and start ze activity. When we are doing well on ze activity, we can move on to actually painting ze portraits."

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The warm-up activity was a fairly simple one. Draw a face in proportion.

Instructions were on the blackboard, so the class, once inside, started to sketch out a head in their workbooks.

The teacher made her way though the class, identifying who had talent and who hadn't.

There were only a few who had any amount of skill in art, so she didn't expect anything more than enthusiasm from the class.

"Horatio, zat is fabulous work, but having ze sunglasses in ze picture is unnecessary, don't you zink? Megan, you could try making ze eyes a little smaller, zen ze face would be more in proportion, Jill, we are not drawing anime today, zankyou."

She reached the table where Calleigh and Eric were sitting, and Calleigh was having real trouble getting the face shape right.

"Miss," she whined, "Miss, it's not working! I can't do it!"

The teacher knelt down and looked at Calleigh's drawing.

She knew that Calleigh was useless at art, and her latest attempt just proved her point.

There was no way that her picture could be saved.

"Calleigh, I zink you should start again, but zis time, start wiz ze features razer zan ze shape of ze face."

She walked off and Calleigh was muttering.

"Well, that was helpful. I'm no starting again. I'll just finish this one and call it modern art!"

Eric grinned at Calleigh's stubbornness.

"Why don't I help you?" He offered.

Calleigh looked, almost longingly, at his work, which was miles better than her own.

"Eric Delko, I might just take you up on that offer."

He grinned.

She was still gripping her pencil tightly, so he reached around her shoulder and closed his hand over hers.

She had been trying to draw the right eye of her subject, and failing.

The iris was too big and the pupil too small.

When Eric closed his hand over hers, she shuddered.

He was practically hugging her.

He was trying to explain… something about what he was helping her to draw, but she wasn't listening.

Having Eric's arm around her back was too much of a distraction.

When he finished drawing for her, he released her hand and asked "Does that help?"

"Yes," she answered, almost breathlessly. "Much better."

She looked down at her paper and saw hardly an improvement, but what did it matter? She had just been hugged by one of the hottest guys in her year, so why did her artwork matter?

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Not long after that, they were set the task of painting pictures of each other.

They rearranged the tables so they could see their partners better.

They collected paints and brushes and sat down at opposite ends of their tables.

Mme Henke instructed them to draw a rough outline in pencil before they started, so that took them another five minutes.

Then, finally, it was time to paint portraits.

Horatio was working hard on his masterpiece.

He was trying very hard to capture every feature of his partner, Yelina. He had given her face an overall colour and was just starting to add details.

He dipped his brush in the red paint, to paint her lips. He carefully added different layer, in slightly different shades, so that he could come out of the lesson with a perfect picture of his perfect girl.

Once he finished her lips, her got some dark brown colour on is brush, so he could define her nose.

He was just about to put the brush to the paper when he felt someone jog his arm as they passed where he was sitting.

He looked at his work, horrified to see that there was a brown smudge across Yelina's cheek.

His picture was ruined!

The creation he had taken so much care over had been destroyed.

He stared at his work in dismay.

Yelina looked up from her own work.

"Horatio?"

When he didn't answer, she said, "What's wrong?"

This got an answer.

"My picture is ruined."

He was as calm and collected as usual during a crisis.

"Let's have a look."

"No!"

But Yelina was already looking over his shoulder.

"Horatio?" she said, pointing to the smudge on her cheek. "I don't look like that!"

Horatio, who still had a little brown paint on his brush, suddenly had an idea.

"You do now!" he said, as her drew the brush across her cheek. "You look exactly like my picture!"


There's more of the art lesson in the next chapter. Reviews welcome.