Chapter 2
"How does one even begin to paint?" Gale says looking at a blank piece of canvas. I look over and just smile. "You just let it happen." I say. It's the best advice I can give him. I've always been good at anything artistic. I paint or draw nearly every weekend and I've won a bunch of awards in all of the towns I've lived in. I look back over at Gale and notice he has painted a circle. "Nice circle." I say, he keeps his gaze on the paper and smiles.
Art was nice so far. It's a rather large room but there are a lot of students. Each table fits two people so Gale and I are sitting side by side. Our teacher is playing some Nirvana and sipping tea while watching what appears to be Netflix. He seems to be pretty chill, Mr. Ramsey.
Gale finally drops his paintbrush. "What's wrong?" I ask. I think he's getting frustrated.
"It's just hard. I'm not really an artistic or creative person." He explains. I nod.
"Why'd you take art then?" I ask a little confused.
"I didn't I'm actually skipping." He says with a slight grin. Skipping? I thought he said he had this class with me? Why would he be skipping on the first day? He should be in class.
"What? Why? You should be in class. It's the first day. I thought you had this class with me." I say, he just kind of chuckles. I hate to skip class, I always get caught and I have to make up work. I haven't skipped since my sophomore year, and I really would hate to do it again.
"Well. I didn't want to go to math and you seemed cooler than math." He says.
"I wouldn't say that, I'm pretty boring. But you really shouldn't skip because of me. Your education is important!" I say trying to convince him to go back to class.
"Maybe so, but I don't think you're boring, I think a better word to describe you is 'simple'." He says. He doesn't even know me, why would he say I'm simple.
"Well either or, you need to leave before Ramsey catches you." I say sounding a little bit stronger.
"Ramsey knows I'm here, he doesn't care. A teacher that watches Netflix and plays Nirvana while he's at work doesn't give a shit about kids skipping." He says. That's probably true. I really feel bad that Gale is skipping because of me. He should be learning something.
"You should be learning something." I say out loud. Then it hits me… "In fact, here, take this." I say handing him his paintbrush and scooting closer to him.
"What are you doing?" He asks curiously.
"You're going to learn something. I can't watch you just waist a period." I say leaning in. I then begin to teach him some stroke patterns with the brush. I tell him about colors and how to shade with the brush.
"It's kind of magical…." I say while painting. He is watching me closely then looks at my face.
"What's magical?" He asks. "This. The Paint. The way the brush dances on top of the paper and the way two things can work in tranquility and harmony. It's something not a lot of people notice, but it's kind of amazing in my opinion." I answer. I can't believe I just said that. I just went off about some paint and paper and he's going to think I'm weird. But who cares? I can't get too attached to him; I don't have a chance with him. He probably has like four girlfriends.
"You know what I think is even more amazing?" He asks. I look up surprised. "The way in which you can look at something so simple and something that's been done for centuries and make it seem completely foreign and new." He says. I'm surprised once again. He then picks up his brush and begins to go at the piece of paper. We still have about twenty minutes left in the period and my paper is filled with a landscape of a mountain. I'm pretty happy with it.
"Well. It looks like the new kid is pretty good." I hear a voice say behind me. I turn around to see Ramsey looking over my shoulder at my painting. My cheeks are probably red because I don't like to be publicly called out. "Do you mind?" Ramsey says while taking my painting in his hand. I kind of mutter out some strange sound but he has already taken my piece of artwork up to the front of the room and is holding it out for the rest of the class to see.
"This is what I want. Something new, something exciting." He explains. I get really embarrassed because all of the kids are going to hate me now.
"This boy knows what he's doing. What's your name, kid?" Ramsey asks me. I kind of stutter and I hear gale quietly laughing next to me while still keeping focus on his piece.
"Peeta." I say strongly.
"Everybody welcome Peeta. He knows what's up." He says in a pretty laid back tone. Everybody says "Hi" or "Hello" at the same time, so it just sounding like 45 kids moaning the same word. I look around to see a few kids not really caring about what's going on, but I see a few looking at my painting in awe. Ramsey then brings my piece back and sets it down. "You're pretty rad kid. Keep flicking paint. You could do something big one day." He says.
"Thanks I say." I'm still a little heated up because of my public acknowledgement but then I hear Gale placing his canvas in front of me. "Look." He says. He has managed to paint a black Jeep Cherokee. He definitely got a lot better than he was twenty minutes ago. Then I realize it's my car.
"Wow. Looks familiar." I say laughing. "Yeah, I decided to paint the first thing that's given me fear in life. The first thing that's ever attacked me." He says acting all hurt.
"Oh shut it. It was a car door, and I didn't even hit you that hard." I say playfully shoving him. We both laugh.
"But it is definitely better than your little circle." I say. He nods in agreement. We then catch each other's glances. His eyes are so beautiful; the grey undertone they give off is almost not human. Finally I realize I'm probably weirding him out by staring at him. I then break the silence. "So is your next class really History? Or are you skipping second period to hang out with mister simplicity over here?" He chuckles once again and replies," Yes. I do really have history, but don't really want to go to it. Want to go get some second breakfast?" He asks. My first instinct is to say no. I really hate to skip; it's just not me, but something inside is telling me to go.
"I don't really like to skip…." I start.
"Oh come on. You seem like you're smart enough to catch up in classes if you fall behind, and most teachers don't hand out a lot of work first few day of school." He adds. I frown and look down.
"You don't have to come if yo-"He starts but the bell cuts him off and he starts to stand up.
"I'm down." I say. He smiles and leads me out of the art room. I know this isn't a good thing to think, but I'm kind of glad he stayed in art…