Title: Picture Perfect
Author:Sabrinasmom3
Rating:PG
Disclaimer:I don't own Joan of Arcadia or the actors, blah, blah blah.
Summary:Luke and Grace do normal, everyday things together that end up meaning much more and that someone else sees as picture perfect.
Luke squeezed Grace's hand, then let it go before they walked into the Art-cadia Gallery together. They wandered through the crowd looking at the paintings, listening to random people's compliments and criticisms. There was quite a large turnout for his mother's first exhibit and he was glad. His mom was so excited. As Grace suspected (and feared), there were a lot of kids from school here to see their art teacher's creations. Beside each painting was a little yellow tag with the name of the painting and how much it would cost to buy. It looked like Mrs. G put as much thought into the titles as she did the paintings themselves. Grace was impressed with the titles chosen, though not so much with the blatant commercialism evident in the suggested prices.
They noticed that a group of young people had seemed to gather in one particular corner of the room. They recognized most of them from school, which made Luke somewhat eager and Grace fairly reluctant to join them. Grace took a deep breath, then needing some extra strength, she uncharacteristically grabbed Luke's hand.
As they approached, the crowd became aware of them and moved aside, growing quiet. Some of the group wandered off respectfully and mingled with the crowd, while the rest rushed off in fear of Grace's reaction. By the time they reached the paintings that were causing such a stir, the area had all but cleared out.
The two of them stood there, silently admiring the paintings. The one on the left was set in the Girardi living room and showed two teenagers. The boy in the painting had glasses and sandy blonde hair and sat staring straight ahead at something out of view. He had his left arm draped over the girl sitting next to him. The girl's eyes were closed and her head was laid back on the boys shoulder. Everything about the painting was life-like and realistic. It was simpleā¦and beautiful. Neither Luke nor Grace had ever thought to ask what the paintings were named, so Grace leaned over to read the little yellow tag. The painting's title was "Trust" and the tag said that it was not for sale. Grace was relieved. The thought of a painting of her hanging in someone else's living room was more than a little disturbing.
She turned to the second painting, also set in the Girardi living room. Grace thought that this painting had a more artistic feel to it than the other. This painting showed a single subject, a teenage girl with short blonde hair, lying asleep. She seemed to radiate a soft warm glow, as if there were a fireplace flickering in front of her, instead of a television. Grace was sure that this had more to do with artistic license than with anything that could have truly been seen. The subject's face was relaxed and there were no worry lines or creases or frowns or scowls. In fact, she looked as though she were on the verge of breaking into a smile. She was lying on her side with her right arm folded under her head and her left hand tucked under her chin. There was one small section of hair that fell across her left eye and rested on her smooth, flushed cheek. Grace had to admit, to herself at least, that in the painting she looked closer to happy than she had ever seen herself. Grace found the yellow tag, curious to see what it said. The tag read:
"Peace"
Property of Grace Polk
