Chapter Four
"Altaïr, what in God's name are you drawing?" Malik raised an eyebrow, trying to conceal his smile.
"It is an apple – what else could it be?" Altaïr snapped, almost breaking the pencil as he drew with frustration into the parchment he had been provided.
"Well, with the shape you have given the fruit – it looks more like a pear," Malik looked closer at it, and then drew back to his own portrait. He had been working on one of Altaïr, who seemed oblivious of his works.
"Who died and made you king of the apples...?" Altaïr mumbled, crawling back into his comfortable anti social shell. Malik sighed when Desmond sat at their art table, joined by Ezio after a moment.
"Hey, what's up?" Ezio raised an eyebrow when Desmond immediately pulled out his portfolio from their large table and quickly set to work with his sketches. None of the usual chit chat – he needed to distract himself for a few moments. Leonardo walked in with a gleeful expression, eager to jump down and begin his work. He pulled up a stool next to Altaïr, much to Ezio's annoyance and began to chat with him about the class.
"Say, have you started on your sculpture yet?" He smiled and reached under the table, pulling out his own portfolio with the plans of his statuette.
"Not yet, but I was going to start soon enough. What have you begun, Leonardo?" Altaïr peeked over to look at his complex plans, some of the writing done backwards. It made it unreadable to anyone other than Leonardo, which led Altaïr to believe that his friend was more than just an average genius. Altaïr watched as Leonardo picked up a pencil and began to sketch his plans more thoroughly, adding small details across the side view of the statuette.
"It's Juno, goddess of marriage and motherhood. I've always wanted to do a statue of these Gods but I've never gotten around to doing it..." Leonardo smiled and Altaïr couldn't keep back his grin as he motioned forward slightly. Ezio narrowed his eyes as Leonardo nudged over closer, bringing his work with him. Out of the corner of his eye, Ezio looked at Malik, who seemingly felt the same way.
"Interesting, I was thinking of doing such a thing myself. I could perhaps make Jupiter? That is, if you give me permission for your unique concept," Malik's jaw nearly dropped to the floor when Altaïr smiled at the young, teenaged artist. He managed to keep his mouth shut as he watched Ezio's teeth grind together. They all knew Juno and Jupiter were the king and queen of the Gods, entwined in an eternal bond that carried them through Roman mythology and into their history textbooks.
"That is a brilliant idea!" Leonardo exclaimed, clasping his hands together in absolute delight. They quickly began to chat amongst their selves, leaving Desmond, Malik and Ezio to their own projects; out of the dumb artistic loop.
"So, Desmond, what seems to be shoved up your ass?" Ezio grinned as he sat himself next to Desmond, who was working at shading one of his drawings. Desmond merely shot him a glance which intended for him to cringe and walk away like any normal person would under his glare, but Ezio merely continued to grin and even dared patting his shoulder. "Come on, you can tell me! I will not tell anybody."
"That's bullshit. I remember when someone told you a secret, that you blabbed it to the whole school the next day. Something about Lucy's... underwear," Desmond frowned, trying to pick out the specific memory, but his mind failed him and he returned back to his awful shading.
"Shit, Desmond, that was a minor thing! Everybody forgot about it the next year," Ezio scowled and picked up a coloured pencil and began to draw obscene doodles at the end of Desmond's paper.
"Well, I seem to remember a bit-"
"A bit, yes, but not the whole thing! It was stupid anyways, not even worth mentioning anyways. But stop trying to throw me off track. What has got you all hot and bothered exactly?" Ezio raised an eyebrow as he reached under the table to grab some clay he had taken from last class. Their teacher, Mrs. Rosie as they liked to call her, walked around their table, her eyes scanning the table and the amount of work that was being done. Noticing her, Desmond quickly covered the corner of his sheet with another piece of paper, much to Ezio's irritation. She didn't even notice as she scanned across their artwork, examining every detail she could without getting too close and personal with their artists.
"It's looking outstanding, Leonardo and Altaïr. A group project? I didn't exactly say you could do one but... it looks fantastic!" She beamed at the two, who merely nodded her off, too engrossed in their work to soak in her praise. Malik gritted his teeth as he pressed his pencil harder against his grey outline of his friend, breaking the lead in frustration from a plethora of pressure. Ezio frowned as he observed Malik for a moment, who reached back out to grab another freshly sharpened pencil. Mrs. Rosie walked away, a bright smile on her face as she went to regard her other, not as creative students, to perhaps tell them of Altaïr and Leonardo's master piece at work.
"Now come on, take that tampon out of your vagina and tell me what the hell is wrong," Ezio muttered under his breath as he began to work the peach coloured clay into a slender cylinder.
"Ezio, fuck off. I really don't want to talk about it," Desmond snapped back, trying to push the memories out of his mind as far away as he could. He wanted to feel Mr. Hastings' lips against his own, feel his rough hands against his exposed skin, their heated bodies pressing against each other. Never before had Desmond wanted to be so close to someone.
"Fine. Hey, Altaïr," Ezio smirked as he looked over at closely huddled teenagers, where Altaïr raised his head as did Leonardo in perfect sync. "This," he pointed to the shaped clay, "is Malik's dick." He laughed as he began a jerk off motion. Malik looked over and turned bright red before he buried himself back in his work, trying to take his eyes off Ezio's quick fingers.
"Ezio, your mild attempts at teasing are pathetic and I suggest you try harder," Altaïr replied to him nonchalantly, his face unreadable as he glanced at Malik. He was completely surprised when Ezio grinned, put down the clay on the table and shuffled over to be closer to Malik, their sides just touching. Desmond looked up from his sketch to see Leonardo snap back to his plans, working on them with twice the amount of eagerness he had started with, most likely out of embarrassment.
Desmond watched Ezio put an arm around the slightly smaller teenager and reach around to grab his writing hand. "Here, let me help you," Ezio whispered as he looked at the drawing. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and looked Malik, whose cheeks were tinted a soft pink. "It looks fantastico!"He pulled his hand back to let Malik work on the drawing himself, but kept his hand on his shoulder, squeezing slightly. Desmond glanced at Altaïr, where he could see a slight tension in his jaw as his eyes subtly look at the two.
"Say, how about a back massage Malik? They're my specialty," Ezio whispered into his ear, putting both hands on each of his shoulders. Beginning to rub, Malik felt himself began to relax but when he saw Mrs. Rosie come over, he pulled away from the soothing hands.
"Here, I want you guys to glue your plans onto a piece of black paper, just to make it look a lot better, okay?" She smiled sweetly and handed out glue sticks to five members at the table, then set a collection of black paper in the centre of their table. Then she walked back away, her purple and blue floral skirt swishing behind her.
"Think she puts her make up on in the dark?" Ezio grinned as he pulled off the cap to his glue stick.
"Ezio, do not be mean," Leonardo frowned as he looked up at his friend with a disapproving expression. Ezio merely shrugged and flicked the cap over at Desmond, who rolled his eyes and went back to writing a certain someone's initials on the inside of his notebook. He felt foolish doing so, but it was like his right hand had a mind of its own. "She obviously is in quite the rush in the morning."
"Yeah, yeah, either that or she's still stuck in fifth grade," Ezio laughed. "Hey, watch this. She'll come walk back right in that spot over there," he pointed to the pencil sharper just a step away from himself. Before anyone could stop him, he tossed up the glue stick and it immediately stuck to the ceiling with a loud thunk.
Instantly, Desmond burst out laughing, followed by a small chuckle from Malik, a frown from Leonardo and a stale glare from Altaïr.
"Ezio... what if she walks under it and it falls?" Leonardo sighed as he set down his pencil and looked at the boy from across the table. The teenager merely grinned and he instantly had to hide his fit of manly giggles as Mrs. Rosie walked over to the pencil sharpener, with a blunt coloured pencil in hand. Everyone at the table was tense as they watched, almost in a weird slow motion, as Mrs. Rosie walked over to the pencil sharpener and stuck her light blue pencil in and began to turn the handle to grind down the tip to a sharp point. Just as she pulled back, the glue stick let out and fell to her head, the sticky end landing right in the middle of her mousey, gray hair. It took a moment for it to dawn on her, but the moment she pulled the glue stick out of her hair and tossed it on the floor, she rushed out the door with tears in her eyes.
"Ezio! That was so mean!" Leonardo hissed and kicked Ezio's foot under the table.
"Oh come on, that was hilarious!" Ezio laughed and grinned over at Desmond, who finally quieted himself but kept a massive grin as he looked up at the door. Suddenly, his smile disappeared as Mr. Hastings walked in with a stern expression. Ezio followed his gaze to their teacher and he instantly scoffed, ready to torment his frustrated teacher. Mr. Hastings walked over to the pencil sharpener, picked up the glue stick and looked for its cap.
"So, who did this?" Mr. Hastings asked the silenced room, his eyes scanning for all the unopened glue sticks. Instead, his eyes fell on the cap sitting in front of Ezio, who looked at him with a large grin. "Ah, Ezio Auditore. I should have guessed." He slammed the glue stick down on the table beside the teenager, who didn't even flinch the slightest.
"Well, aren't you just a genius, Sherlock?" Ezio looked up at him, mocking him with a large smirk.
"Ezio, get up and go to the office. I'm sure your parents won't appreciate this stunt as much as your friends did," he glared down the table and when his eyes met Desmond's, he instantly turned away. Desmond scowled as Ezio got up and pranced his way out, being sure to knock over a bucket of coloured pencils on his way out.
"Auditore! You get back here and-" Before he could finish his sentence, Ezio slammed the door behind him and Desmond could see Shaun clench his right hand into a tightened fist. Leonardo sighed and pulled back from his work and Altaïr rolled his eyes, smiling slightly as he went back to work. Desmond watched as Leo walked over and sat beside him, smiling weakly as he leaned against his elbows.
"I thought you had a class this period," Desmond looked back up at Mr. Hastings, whose lips twitched when he heard his student's voice.
"They're in the computer lab and Mrs. Rosengarden asked me to take her class while she went home. I thought you kids were more mature than that," Mr. Hastings snorted as he glanced back at Desmond, who could feel the anger bubbling up inside of him. "And I was going to leave, because I had another teacher taking care of my class, until she turned up. So, thank you very much, Desmond."
"It wasn't my fault, so don't blame me," he snapped back, looking over to Leonardo who had folded his arms across the table and buried his face into them. Mr. Hastings shot him a look before he adjusted his glasses, and walked over to a different table.
"... Desmond?" Leonardo began, turning his face to look at his friend.
"Yeah?" Desmond could feel his face turn red as he looked over at the small artist.
"Can we walk home together? Ezio is probably staying after school and I do not want to walk home... alone..." Leonardo blushed slightly before he sat up, rubbing his tired eyes. Desmond looked at him, surprised he had proposed the idea. They always walked home together, plus Ezio and sometimes Lucy and Rebecca. But he can see how uneasy Ezio's stunt had made him and of course, Desmond couldn't refuse. They had been, after all, friends for six years.
"Of course. What makes you think I would ditch you?" Desmond grinned and slapped his friend on the shoulder.
"I was just asking..." Leonardo mumbled. Just as Shaun was about to open his mouth, the bell rung and everyone sprang out of their seats, eager to put away their half assed projects and run out the doors. But just as some were heading to the door, Mr. Hastings stepped in front of them all and opened his mouth.
"I hope you all know what you did was terrible and such acts will not be tolerated at this school. The person who created this mess will get in trouble with the principal and me, and most of you know I don't let students get off so easily, as others teachers do." Desmond scowled as Mr. Hastings' eyes focused on him, narrowing as he stepped aside to let impatient students run out. "No running in the bloody hallways!" Shaun shouted after them. Desmond helped Leonardo, Altair and Malik put their stuff away as they cleaned off their table and gathered their books, making haste towards the door. On his way out, Desmond bumped into Shaun roughly as the rest walked out in front of him. Just as he was going to make a break for it, Shaun grabbed his arm.
"Hey, let go of me!"
"You'd better watch that bloody attitude of yours, or else you'll end up in the same place as Ezio, as most immature children do. You don't want your parents coming down, do you?" Shaun snapped, tightening his hold as Desmond stared at him, anger rising inside of him. Quickly, Desmond jerked away from his hold.
"Why can't we talk about that happened earlier?" Desmond muttered, trying to keep eye contact with his teacher. Shaun looked away, lips in a firm frown.
"Go on now. No students loitering around after school."
"You can't just keep avoiding this!" Desmond shouted, feeling his face flush a bright red.
"Avoiding what, Desmond? Now, get going. Or else you'll have a set of detentions when you get back from your splendid Spring Break." Shaun turned around and shut the door, then began down the hall towards the teacher's lounge. Fuming, Desmond went to his locker, only to be met by Leonardo.
"Can we go see Ezio at the office before we leave? Maybe he is out already," Leonardo sighed heavily, leaning against the locker as he held his bright red hat in his hand. He never put it on until they got outside, obeying the school rules as much as he could.
"Yeah, sure," Desmond grunted as he shoved his art book into his locker, trying to jam it into his massive clutter of a locker. Just as the whole thing was about to come crashing down on him, he slammed the door closed, pressed up against it and clamped shut his lock to keep it all in place. Slowly, he pried himself from it and smiled when it didn't explode.
"Say, I heard you and Mr. Hastings arguing. Is he being rude or inconsiderate?" Leonardo asked as he watched Desmond's locker cautiously as they stepped away from it. Desmond shrugged and slung his backpack over his right, and now slightly sore, shoulder.
"Nah, he's just being a teacher. Strict bastard..." Desmond mumbled as they walked towards the office with Leonardo, both in low spirits for the kick off to start their Spring Break.
A/N: Wooo! Another chapter; jeez, it's been way too long, huh? Well, googleit6 was really bugging me to finish this chapter then I got a PM from Sono la Notte, who "implored" me to finish this chapter (haha!) and so, I had to. I'm sorry to keep you all waiting this long, but it's just starting to get good now. Plenty of goodies in mind for the next chapter, so drop a review or send me a PM for more ideas, because you all have been great!
Like I've been saying, more support and reviews always make me write faster.
PS: Don't forget to vote in the poll on my main page! Results may select which story gets updated next ~ :)