disclaimer: Me owning GG? HAH!
More Than Meets The Eye
Dedicated to Tangy, she's one the best storytellers I know and she has the best stories to tell! :D
Chapter Six
I'm an artist—a pavement artist. But hiding in the shadows is completely different from drawing shapes and lines and knowing the difference between turquoise and teal. Sure, I know how to draw, that doesn't mean I'm any good at it. I was looking forward to learning how to improve my skills in this semester's art class.
When I got to class, I spotted Sophie sitting by herself at a table near the front of the room. All the other students were chatting away like everyone else that day, but she was silent.
"Hey," I said, sitting beside her.
She smiled almost gratefully. "Hi."
The teacher, Ms. Higgins, was the polar opposite of Ms. Adams: her blonde hair was loose and flowing down her back like a waterfall and she wore a smock over her shirt and jeans.
"Helloo, fourth period art!" She smiled warmly, her manner open and amiable.
She started to stroll around the classroom like she was sizing all of us up. "This semester, you will learn about some of the greatest artists of all time—Van Gogh, Da Vinci—you will draw squares and circles and triangles, you will know the colors of the rainbow plus more.
"There is not one person in this room who doesn't have potential"—I'm pretty sure she was looking at Sophie—"and all of you will extend your horizons this semester. If you think you're not up to challenge…" It seemed like she was looking all of us dead in the eye. "Too bad!" She grinned, and walked back to the front of the room.
"We'll start with drawing some of our favorite things," Ms. Higgins instructed, passing out pieces of blank paper and cups of colored pencils, crayons, markers, and colored pens. I noticed an eraser wasn't included with the supplies.
"What are you going to draw?" I asked Sophie.
"Um, I don't know yet…" she replied, looking blankly at the paper. "What about you?"
It took me a split second to respond. I grabbed a green pencil and started to sketch out a chameleon.
After fifty-three minutes and nine seconds, my paper was covered with different colored chameleons in what was supposed to be the suite I shared with Bex, Liz, and Macey, but it turned out more like a four picnic tables.
Sophie, on the other hand, had almost nothing on her paper, except for a few miniature-sized pencils.
"Wow," I said to her, trying to think of a better thing to say. "That one's cool." I pointed to one that had a swirly design on it.
She kinda smiled, but she didn't say anything.
Ms. Higgins told us to put the cups of utensils on a counter below the windows. We put our names on our assignments and turned them in.
The bell rang as Sophie closed her notebook. I waited for her patiently to zip up her backpack.
"Don't you have to go some where?" Sophie asked me quizzically as we started for the door. We were the last ones out of the classroom.
"It's lunch. I'm not late for anything," I replied.
We walked down the hallway in silence when I head Danielle call me.
"Hey, Cammie!" she greeted, pulling up next to me.
"Hi, Danielle," I said smiling.
"You'll never guess wha…" she started to say, but she trailed off. Her eyes darted around the hall, where everyone was standing against the walls and talking under their breaths.
They were all practically saying the same things: "It's Danielle," "What a loser," and "How could she do that?"
Danielle bowed her head down, her straight brown hair blocking her face. Girls used that maneuver to hide themselves often.
"What's their problem?" I asked in a rough whisper, though I knew exactly what they were talking about.
"They're just…" She struggled for the right word, "…upset about last week."
We entered the cafeteria, walking towards the table we sat at earlier that morning. As we sat down, Carter banged a tray of food on the plastic table.
"What's with the nerd?" he said rudely, sitting down closer to me than I would have liked.
Sophie had followed Danielle and me up to this point. Her face flushed. "I—uhm. See you tomorrow, Cammie," she rushed her words out and rushed out of the room.
I pushed Carter away from me. "What was that for?"
"What was what for?"
Danielle rolled her eyes. "You're impossible."
Carter glared. "No one asked you."
She sighed.
"It's not like it was your fault," I offered, hoping to raise her spirits.
"Yeah, it was," Carter whispered unkindly.
I would have elbowed him in the gut, but Maddie beat me to it. She walked behind Carter and hit the back of his head. He grumbled something under his breath while she settled beside Danielle.
"Hey, Maddie," Danielle greeted in a wearisome voice.
"How are you on this fine and wonderful day?" Maddie smiled brightly and plopped her backpack on the floor.
Danielle shrugged glumly.
Maddie leaned back and stared angrily at Carter. He only rolled his eyes and began to eat his lunch.
"You know it wasn't your fault," Maddie comforted, "And that's what's important."
The troubled junior shook her head.
"How'd it happen, anyways?" Zach inquired, setting a tray of cafeteria food on the table. It looked like a disgusting pile of leftovers compared to the delectable meals from the Gallagher Academy kitchen.
I looked at Danielle curiously. She sighed discontentedly. Maddie bit her lip. Carter turned his back on us. Zach waited for her to talk.
"We were in the gym," Danielle finally said, "I was telling them about how to tryout for sports, getting physicals, how much the uniforms usually cost, and who some of the coaches were. Luis started to brag about how he was the star on the JV football team." She cracked a small smile. "Andrew tried to top him by telling a story about a basketball game he scored so many points in. Laura said she remember that game, since her friend was hit in the head with the ball.
"Then the intercom buzzed and I was called to the main office—all the way across the school. I told them not to go wandering off and that I'd be right back. And I left…" Danielle looked down at the table.
I urged her to finish telling her story.
She inhaled and exhaled deeply and continued, "I got to the office, and the secretary told me that my brother was being taken to the hospital because he fell off the balcony. But that didn't make any sense since I didn't even have a brother—or a balcony. I told the secretary it must have been a mistake and I went back to the gym and…"—her voice lowered considerably—"…they weren't there.
"I thought they were just joking around. I checked behind the bleachers, the locker rooms, the bathrooms, the closet, the ticket booth, the snack stand—everywhere.
"They called the police," she continued. "They searched too… They asked me questions afterwards. They didn't find them. And that's it." Danielle pursed her lips.
Her end of the incident didn't give me much to work with. She just added simple details that we could make do without.
"Hey," Maddie broke the short silence, "are you going to eat those fries?"
Zach looked down at his lunch. "You can have them," he said, passing the cup of French fries across the table.
The lighthearted freshmen munched on a fry. "The fries are really really good, everything else here is really really bad." She pushed a few more sliced potatoes into her mouth.
I pushed myself up. "I'm going to get some fries of my own. Be right back."
"I'll go with you." Zach pushed his tray towards the other three and followed me to the lunch lines.
"Interesting story," he said as we pulled up behind some students.
"Very," I agreed sarcastically—I've heard more riveting tales. I can imagine years from now, telling my grandkids how I fell in love with a boy that could never know who I really was, how I might be falling for a guy who's too smug for his own good, and how I would put a kidnapper behind bars by going undercover at a seemingly conventional high school.
How's that for interesting?
A/n: Well this took longer than it should have. Heh. Sorry for the wait, guys. I'm a lazy goose—a lazy goose who likes reviews. :D
