He finished his drawing a bit before the bell. He snapped a photo of his drawing with his phone, it wasn't bad by any means for pencil on notebook paper. Rather than heading out, he decided to check out the work of the more hardcore artists.
He took a good look at a big drawing made of all shades and thicknesses of one orange-brown color. It was a portrait of Dan, there was no denying it, and she had a photo next to the easel she was copying from.
"That's really good, did you learn to do that in this class?"
The girl was startled a bit, not noticing anyone had come up. "OH! Oh hey, no, I went to an arts school before I came here, learned it all there. Thanks, though."
"Why'd you come here if you were already at another private school."
"Cost. Bullworth is a lot cheaper, so once I got my skills down my parents didn't see any need to keep shelling out the extra when I could get a more rounded education here. It's really not bad, I've been here a few years. It's not the same but there are worse places I could've gone. I'm April by the way." She stuck out a very dirty hand, covered in the material she'd been drawing with, giggled when she noticed, and extended her cleaner hand.
"Brandon. I'm new here. Friend of mine mentioned a group called the Starbound. You hang out with them I take it?"
She laughed a bit, "I guess I kind of lead them. As soon as I mentioned art school it's like everyone saw me as their Messiah. So they just hand me featured spots in our art shows, solos with our singing group, and leads in our shows. Kind of stressful really, I just want to enjoy myself, not be the star all the time. I'm really not even the best at this school at anything."
"Well you're definitely not bad, at least at drawing, way better than what I did."
"Ok, now I kind of want to see it. It's either really bad or really good and you're being modest."
"Yeah, sure, just let me grab it out of the pile." Brandon turned to go grab it but was surprised to see his teacher holding it at her desk.
"Excuse me, Ma'am. Can I have that back a minute. I want to show it to that girl over there."
"What? Oh sure. Hey, why did you draw this?" She handed it back to him.
"I had my book for English with me, seemed like something easy enough to draw. Is there a problem?"
"No, just a coincidence." She picked up the leather she'd been tattooing. It had the same picture, and she had a copy of their book on her desk next to her.
"That's kind of weird, why are you tattooing it onto that?"
"Your teacher, Russell, is an old friend of mine, we go way back. I started learning to tattoo and he said he wanted me to do this cover art for him, I guess it's his favorite book or something. So I want to be sure I can do it good before I put it on him."
"That's pretty cool. Any chance we'll get to learn to do that in class?" That would definitely make this the coolest class.
Zoey laughed, "There is no way the parents would ever let the kids touch a tattoo gun. Even if they did, it would be wicked expensive, way outside of budget."
"That sucks, that would be so cool to learn."
"Know what? I know some people. I'll make some calls and try to get Petey on board. I know some of his weak spots. You're right, it would be really great to see everyone learn this. Thanks for the idea. Now if you don't mind, I want to get this done before-"
The bell ending class rang.
"Before that. Oh well, I got places to be. Thanks again, kid."
"Brandon."
"Whatever. If you're lucky I might remember you by the time you graduate."
She packed up her equipment and left the room, April had walked over to see the drawing.
"What was that about?"
"I think there's a chance we'll be learning to tattoo this year."
"Huh, that's...new. Maybe there will be something new to learn from this school after all. Hey that drawing isn't bad. Kind of simple, just lines really, but once you learn how to shade and use negative space I think you might be pretty good."
"Thanks, um, gotta ask. Why that Casey kid? Are you two dating?"
"Not really. We went out once last year but he didn't call or message or anything this summer so I don't think so. But maybe this will bring him around."
"Whatever does it for you, April." He started to walk away but paused. "Know what? I might regret this, but what about me? Date this weekend? You've been here a while so how about you show me around town."
"Show you around town, sure. Date, we'll see. Nothing against you, I just don't want Dan to think I'm off the market."
"Sure thing. I guess I'll see you when we have class again in a few days." Brandon waved as he headed out of class and April went to clean up her supplies.
"Yeah, see you around." She waved back with her dirty drawing hand.
