Finally, my last class of the day: Painting. I enjoyed painting very much, and it would be nice to be able to spend time at school doing what I loved.

The desks in the room were arranged in a rough circle facing inwards. There were a few places open; I picked one close to the door. Setting my stuff down, I glanced at my neighbor. He was taller than me by at least five or six inches, with slicked-back blond hair and bright blue eyes. I felt slightly intimidated until he glanced over and offered me a smile.

"Ah, hallo," he greeted.

"Ciao!" I said cheerfully. "What's your name? Mine's Feliciano!"

He looked a bit startled, but relaxed a moment later. "My name's…" Hesitate. "My name is Ludwig. It's nice to meet you, Feliciano." He held out his hand. I was confused before I realized that he intended to shake my hand. I grabbed it with both hands and shook it hard.

"Nice to meet you, Ludwig!" I said happily. Come to think of it, he was in my previous class, Geometry, as well; but we were seated too far apart to chat. The bell rang and we turned towards the front, where the teacher was starting to talk. His name was Mr. Baker, and he said that we would start out the first month of the class by painting whatever we wanted. Naturally, I was very happy about this. I looked around for inspiration before turning to Ludwig and saying "Can I paint you?"

He looked at me. "Excuse me?"

"Is it okay if I paint a picture of you?"

His cheeks turned pink. "Um, well, I suppose so, but you know, I'm going to be moving my head a bit… I mean, I'm going to be painting as well."

"Why don't you paint me?" I suggested. "We can take turns! I'll look at you, and when I look back at the canvas, you can look at me, and then when you turn away, I'll look at you again!"

Ludwig thought about it. "That doesn't sound too bad… but I must warn you, my painting skills are less than average."

"Oh, that's okay!"

We began painting each other through the method I'd suggested, which worked out quite well. Although Ludwig was a little bit shy around strangers (or, that was the impression I got), he seemed to be quite confident when it came to other matters – for example, it looked like he would do very well in a gym class, or science. For this reason, I chose bright reds and oranges for the background, partially to complement his blond hair, and instead of his school uniform, I painted him in a dark green military outfit, with… a dark green military outfit with…

I turned to him, covering up my unfinished painting. He looked at me for reference and saw me waiting.

"Do you have something that you like to wear?" I asked. "Like, um… do you have some kind of access—accesso—"

"Accessory?" he prompted.

"Yeah, accessory! Do you have something like that?"

He thought for a moment. "Well… I do have this." Reaching into the collar of his uniform, he pulled out a necklace. At the end of the chain was a black cross, outlined with white and slightly curved on the insides. "This is a family emblem… sort of. My Bruder has one as well, and my Vater."

I hesitated. "Are… are you German?"

"Ja."

I shook my head in amazement. That was just like… no, it couldn't be. I thanked him and turned back to the painting, adding in the black-and-white cross at the collar of the outfit.

The teacher warned us that there were five minutes to the bell, and if we didn't want to get out late, then we'd better start cleaning up. I put the finishing touch on my painting (my signature) and showed it to Ludwig. He stared at it in silence for at least ten seconds.

"It's no good, isn't it?" I said sadly.

He shook his head quickly. "No, no! It's amazing!" Gingerly taking the still-drying piece from me, he examined the portrait of himself, with the dark green outfit, blond hair, red-and-orange background, and bright blue eyes. "This is… fantastic!"

I giggled. "Aw, thanks! May I see yours?"

He looked ashamed.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just that… mine is trash compared to your masterpiece."

I waved off the praise. "Oh, that's no masterpiece! Please, let me see yours!"

He reluctantly turned his painting around. You could definitely tell that the painting was supposed to be of me, but there was something about the eyes that just… didn't look quite right. My strange hair, the one that curled to the left side of my head, was painted a little bit crooked. The background was a light blue color, which looked good with my hair.

"It's good!" I exclaimed. He looked relieved. I opened my mouth to say more, but the bell rang, and he quickly asked if he could take the painting home.

"Only if you let me take home yours!"

He shrugged. "Sure, I don't see why not."

And that was how I became friends with Ludwig.

Translations

Hallo = Hello

Ciao = Hi

Ja = Yes