Chapter 4 – Beginnings
I walked out to the field where there were various tables scattered around. Many of them were full of close friends chatting. It was right near the oval, so occasionally a ball came flying into the conversation, literally.
I looked around for my friend Ryan, who said that he would meet me out here. I hated standing here without anyone, feeling like everyone was looking at me and gossiping about me.
Luckily, I heard a yell of my name. I looked over to the source of the noise and saw Ryan waving energetically. I smiled, glad to have at least one friend here to help me out. Speaking of friends, I hadn't seen Abigail since form. Hopefully she was doing alright.
Before I could think much more about her, Ryan launched into conversation, eager to let me know about his day so far and how everything worked.
"Atti! I just had Wood Technology and you wouldn't believe what happened! One of the boys was trying to file a difficult type of wood and it turned out to be someone else's Sudowoodo! I mean, they say that Sudowoodo are masters of disguise but surely you'd notice that your project was moving!" Ryan exuberantly described.
"Hah, that sounds like an adventure and a half. What ended up happening?" I asked. Sure, Ryan might be talking so fast that I could barely understand him, but the story was certainly interesting. I had had a bit of experience with a troublesome Sudowoodo blocking the path to Ecruteak City when my family was in Johto.
"Well, not much really… the girl was pretty good about it, said that the Sudowoodo was a gift from her dad and liked to get out of the Poké Ball a bit. I don't think the Pokémon itself got any wounds so I guess it ended up fine," Ryan explained, with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
I laughed to myself, that of course Ryan would want a bit of excitement to spice up his lesson.
Ryan realized that he had been the only one talking so far, and he quickly tried to rectify his mistake. "Well that's enough about me, how was your morning?" he asked.
I thought back to earlier today. "Yeah, it was alright I guess. I don't really know anyone in my classes so hopefully I can make some friends. Science and Humanities were alright, and my teachers aren't too boring. We get to look at how Pokémon have shaped history, so it's certainly not a topic I'm not interested in," I explained, trying to summarise everything.
Ryan nodded. "That sounds great! I'm glad you're enjoying your time here. Unfortunately I'm not the most popular kid, so I can't really meet you up with anyone, but you could ask Abigail!" he suggested.
"Yeah, probably. I might wait until I get sorted in the school first before I worry about being popular or anything," I replied. I knew that I had Art last, which I'm fairly sure I had with Abigail, so I might even bring it up with her. Unfortunately, I had Maths and Health in between. I'll make sure to make friends in THOSE classes, I made a mental note to myself.
The ringing of the session bell interrupted my thoughts. I stood up with Ryan and high-fived him.
"See ya at lunch," I said, with him echoing the sentiment as we walked off to our respective classes.
I walked into my Art Drawing class, the last class of that day. I hadn't seen Abigail throughout the day so far, but I knew I had this class with her.
I scanned the room for her, and found her fairly quickly. She wasn't really paying much attention to anything, just drawing simple shapes in her textbook, waiting for everyone to get to the class. She didn't seem to have anyone else around her, which was a bit of a surprise, as she was apparently the "most popular girl in the school".
Ignoring the few stares I got, mainly just from the new activity catching the interest of the already-bored students, I sat down opposite to her.
Before I could say anything, our teacher, a tall, lanky, bespectacled man, spoke up.
"Hello class. My name is Mr. Watson, and no, Mr. is not my first name. As I'm sure you're all aware by now, you're in Art Drawing, a subject where the faint of heart are not welcome. We will be undergoing many trials and tribulations, such as how to hold a pencil correctly and probably not getting anything productive done," Watson introduced himself and the class.
While I was busy sorting out what was a joke and what wasn't from his speech, I didn't notice until a few moments later that he was looking straight at me. I shook myself out of my thoughts, figuratively of course.
"Sorry, what was that, Mr. Watson?" I asked. Great start to the class.
"I was just calling the roll, Mr. Stone. Judging by your presence, I'm going to assume that you're here," Watson drawled. I smiled a little bit, knowing there wasn't any malice in the jab.
"Well, I hope so. But judging by my mental state, maybe I'm not completely present," I replied, keen to keep the banter going a bit.
Mr. Watson raised an eyebrow and smiled a little bit as well, possibly amused at a student engaging in his debauchery. "Good to have you here, Mr. Stone" he said, turning his head back to the roll.
As he was finishing the roll, I tapped on Abigail's book to try to get her attention. This was going to end either one of two ways. One, she would not want to have anything to do with me and she was just being polite, or two, she would engage me in a conversation, a conversation only we could make.
She looked up abruptly, seemingly alarmed that someone was actually interacting with her.
"Uh… how long have you been there for?" was the first thing out of her mouth. Alright, I thought to myself, that wasn't exactly what I expected.
"About two minutes. Are you alright? You seem kinda spaced out," I asked, hoping the sentiment came across nice instead of invading.
Abigail smiled a little bit. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit bored and tired. The first couple of days take a bit out of you, you know?" she replied. I nodded my head, to signify that yes, I did indeed "know".
Once Mr. Watson finished the introduction, basically just talking about class norms and the various expectations of us in the class, he handed out a form detailing what exactly we were actually going to be doing this year in Art Drawing
(AN: for clarification, I specify Drawing as there is Digital, Painting, Sculpting and more, maybe. who knows? not me)
"This year, you will be expected to create a folio based on a certain kind or type of Pokémon. For example, one student may choose to draw and create Fighting types, whereas another may choose just Machop. The possibilities are endless, and by being in my class I will instantly assume that you have some creative drive," he explained. I heard a few sighs, and noted that next time we had this class there would probably be quite a few less students, who were expecting this class to be a bit of a bludge.
As we read through the details as a class, my mind started to wander through possibilities. Would I choose Water types, or Gallade, or Fossil Pokémon, or Pokémon with blade themes... I looked over at Abigail, who was clearly having those thoughts of her own. I could tell by the way she was writing down the possibilities. I guess I can add Captain Obvious to my resume as well, I thought.
"Well, class," Mr. Watson announced, "You now have the rest of the class to decide what exactly you're going to make your folio about. Good luck."
The noise level in the room increased dramatically. Various groups of people were discussing with their friends about what they wanted to do. I heard a couple of people wanting to do matching topics. I already knew Watson wouldn't approve of that.
I looked over to Abigail's page. The amount of ideas she had was slightly alarming, so I scooted over to her side of the table and offered my assistance.
"Ugh, I've just got too many ideas, you know?" Abigail groaned, her eyebrows furrowed in decision making. I looked down on her paper. She had written down almost every Pokémon type, and every subset you could think of.
"Alright then, what about we start to narrow down the ideas? What are you most passionate about? You know, what are your favourite types?" I offered.
She tapped her pencil on the paper. "Well… that's a tough question…" she murmured. She put her head down to think.
I waited. And waited. And waited.
About five minutes later, she looked back up, steely resolve in her eyes.
"Psychic. Psychic types are my favourite," she stated firmly, making direct eye contact with me. Slightly afraid of her sudden determination, I nodded slowly. Clearly, she had been thinking very intently
"Great… then maybe you could just do it on Psychic types?" I suggested.
"I could… but there's so many Psychic types, I feel like I wouldn't do them justice! But I don't want to do just one Pokémon, because I wouldn't be able to choose just one!" she exclaimed, banging her head down on the table. "I just don't know!" she said angrily, muffled by the table.
I sat there for a second, doing a bit of a deep thinking myself. Suddenly, a thought struck me.
"Abigail! What if you do just local Psychic types! There's a bunch, like Woobat, Abra, Munna, and Meditite, and you could sketch them in their natural habitat!" I excitedly offered.
A few moments passed before I could tell that Abigail even heard me. She turned her head to the side to look at me, and stared at me for a second.
"You know… that's actually a pretty good idea," she slowly agreed, appearing as if she was weighing the pros and cons in her mind. A thought was niggling at me, but I wasn't sure what…
Suddenly, her entire upper body shot upright, a grin on her face.
"Yes! That's a great idea! Thank you so much Atti!" she exclaimed.
'Well, I'm just glad that you thought of something to do," I replied, sincerely. Then, the niggling thought hit me.
I didn't know what I was going to draw.
Before I could get anywhere with my thought process, Mr. Watson knocked on his high desk, laden with various drawing implements.
"Alright class, hopefully you've all come up with something. There's five minutes left, so we'll go around the class and we can all share our thoughts. Remember, you can't change your mind later, so when you start, that's what you're stuck with," he explained.
We ended up going in a clockwise pattern, so thankfully I was last, giving me more time to think, which I dearly needed. I tried to pool all of my ideas, with old Pokémon, rare Pokémon, favourite Pokémon…
Suddenly, I knew what to do.
Now comfortable, I could focus on the rest of the class. A few people did the pretty ordinary thing, like Pikachu, or normal types, not that it was bad, just nothing really from the norm. Hopefully they would be able to put their own spin on it.
It eventually came to me and Abigail. Abigail went first.
"Well, I decided that I'm going to do my folio on local Psychic types! That was, I'll be able to get some variety and scenery!" she cheerfully explained.
Mr. Watson nodded. "Excellent choice, Abigail, you should be able to do some great pieces with that. May I suggest the nearby Ruins? It's fabled that there are some rare Psychic Pokémon there, like Unown and Baltoy," he suggested.
Abigail flashed me a quick smile of gratitude. I smiled back, but was a little interested about the Ruins. Coming from a family of ruins enthusiasts, I wondered why I didn't know about this. I guess this is why Dad decided to move here, we wouldn't know anyone or anything.
I realized it was my turn to speak. "I'm going to do my folio on Legendary Pokémon," I stated.
Watson raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure, Atticus? Those types of Pokémon are incredibly rare, and not many people have even seen them, let along recorded what they looked like," he warned.
I nodded. "Exactly. That way, it'll give me a bunch of creative liberties, and I can look at old texts and drawings to see what people through the ages have said. Like drawing meets history," I explained.
Watson shrugged. "As long as you're comfortable with it. Let me know how that goes, it should be very interesting," he replied.
The bell rang, and the textbook flurry of movement followed it. "Alright everyone, no homework for today. Just think about your topic," he shouted over the ruckus of excited teenagers.
I waited for Abigail to pack up her things, and we exited the class together. If every Art class could be something like that, then I would be pretty happy, I thought to myself.