Chapter 11
The next day at school, we were bombarded with questions.
"Max, that was so cool how you fought those… those wolf things! What were they anyway?"
"Why did you guys leave the party early? You missed the cake!"
"Are you alright?"
I put my hands up in a 'stop' gesture. "Okay, okay. Enough questions. Now, um…" I was wondering just how to answer their questions when the bell rang, and I sat down in relief.
Well, at least they hadn't seen our wings.
"Why are we back here, anyway?" Fang whispered.
"Huh?" I asked, frowning.
"The Erasers know where we are now," he continued quietly. "Shouldn't we leave?"
I bit my lip, thinking about it. I hadn't told Jeb about what had happened at the party because I hadn't wanted to leave. I was just starting to like this place.
There was one thing I wouldn't miss, though – Jaz.
When it was time for art class, she skipped over to us. "Hi, Fnick!" she said, beaming. "That party sure was fun, yesterday, wasn't it?"
I rolled my eyes. Fang responded with, "I guess."
Jaz smiled. "I know, right? And then at the end, when we-"
I slammed my hand over her mouth. "Shut up!"
Jaz winced, and I removed my hand. "Oops," she said.
I frowned, as Jaz reached for Fang's hand. I was about to say something when our art teacher told everyone to sit down.
"Today, we will begin painting pictures of lighthouses," she said, and began handing out photos for people to use.
I never was that good at art, so I wasn't really sure what to do. I glanced around, but I didn't see anyone doing anything….except for Iggy, who was sitting next to me.
"What are you doing?" I asked, laughing. He was smearing paint all over the place – not only on his canvas, but all over the table and himself.
He grinned. "I'm painting a lighthouse."
I laughed. "Wow. Looks so amazing," I said sarcastically. "Maybe you can say that it's abstract art!"
Iggy started laughing too. "Yeah, good idea!"
Everyone in our class started staring at us, which made me start laughing even harder. Daisy narrowed her eyes at us, frowning. Jaz just gave us a blank look.
Our art teacher ran up to us. "Jeff! What are you doing?"
"I'm painting a lighthouse," he explained again, and I started laughing again.
The teacher rolled her eyes, as if to say, Why did I let the blind kid use the paint?
"Alright, Jeff," she said, sighing. "I think you're done with painting."
Iggy leaned over and whispered to me, "So much for my abstract art."
As the teacher cleaned up, I stared at my canvas. "What am I supposed to do?"
Iggy, who was yanking off his paint-covered smock, grinned. "Want me to help?"
With a smile, I handed him a paintbrush. "Go ahead."
It wasn't long before everything around us was covered in paint – again. Iggy and I were laughing really hard when the teacher ran up to us.
"What are you doing? Didn't I tell you not to get paint everywhere?"
"Oops," Iggy said as he continued to paint. I smeared some paint on his face.
"Stop right now," she warned. Everyone was staring at us again. I realized I had paint in my hair and all over my face. Iggy did too.
Iggy dabbed some more paint on the table. I rolled my eyes. Idiot.
The teacher's face looked really red now. She was obviously ticked off at us.
"That's it," she said. "Just go talk to the principal while I clean this mess up."
I groaned. Not the principal again.
The principal was busy when we got there, so we had to sit down on a bench outside his office. I frowned, trying not to get paint all over the bench, then decided it didn't really matter.
"Well, here we are again," I sighed.
"What are you talking about?" Iggy asked, shrugging. "This is my first time here!"
I laughed, hitting him. "You know what I'm talking about! Besides, if you stick with me I'm sure you'll end up here a lot more often."
He laughed, and then we were quiet. Finally, Iggy said, "Did you mean what you said at the party yesterday?"
"Huh?" I looked up. "What do you mean?"
"You said that we were like….siblings," he said quietly, a slight frown on his face.
I nodded. "Yeah, of course! I mean, you are like a brother to me."
"Right," Iggy replied in almost a whisper, his head angled downward towards his lap.
I narrowed my eyes at him. What was wrong with him?
"Mr. Robin will see you now," the secretary said.
I sighed as we stood up. "Oh. Okay. Come on, Jeff." I pushed him forward.
Mr. Robin just laughed when he saw us. "Looks like you two got in a bit of trouble in art class," he said, motioning for us to sit down.
I crossed my arms over my chest. "So? We were trying to have some fun. People at this school hate fun."
He shook his head. "What am I going to do with you, Max? This is your third time here, and you've just begun school here."
"This is only Jeff's first time," I said, pointing at Iggy.
"Yes," Mr. Robin said. "I am well aware of that."
I frowned and slumped lower in my seat.
"You make a mess in art class, you disrespect your teacher, and you can never pay attention," Mr. Robin went on.
"Hey!" I yelled, sitting up. "What's with the insults?"
"These are true facts," Mr. Robin replied, looking through my file. I scowled at him.
He continued giving me a really long lecture, while I zoned out, basically trying to ignore him.
Then he looked at Iggy. "And Jeff?"
Iggy looked up. "Huh?"
"You both need to apologize to your teacher and help clean up." He stood up. "You may go."
I looked at him. "What about candy?"
Mr. Robin shook his head. "There will be no candy for children with bad behavior."
"But-" I started, and he cut me off.
"That is enough, Maxine. Now, the two of you may go back to your classroom."
As we walked back to art class, I frowned. "What's his problem?"
"What do you mean?" Iggy asked.
"Normally he's all nice but today he seemed really mad. Just like all the other teachers at this school."
Iggy shrugged. "Maybe he's having a bad day."
I sighed. "I dunno. It's just….weird."
When we walked back into class, everyone got really quiet. I rolled my eyes. We were still covered in paint, and I was pretty sure it wasn't coming off anytime soon.
I looked at Iggy, and we started laughing all over again.