Chapter Three: A Peek of Snow

"Hina-chan! Hey girl! How you doing?" Matsumoto asked in a sing-song type of voice. She was looking up something on her tablet, though Momo could not see what it was.

"I'm okay. What are you looking up?" Momo asked as she sat down beside the busty girl. She saw an image of a small red fox and smiled at her friend. "Are you drawing this?"

"Yep! We all have to draw zoo animals! I choose a fox, Renji a polar bear, Ichigo a lion, Rukia a bunny, and Toshiro choose a snow leopard! I'm so excited!" Rangiku squealed as she searched for a cute pose for her to draw.

"They all sound like very good choices, though the animals with white hair will be the hardest to do." Momo smiled as she ran her hands together before she giggled. "A snow leopard, huh? A perfect choice for you, Toshiro...I think."

Hitsugaya snorted before he glared at her. "Why?! Because I have white hair?"

"No...because you both have such strong eyes..." Hinamori smiled softly when she spoke, her thought and amazement heard clearly in her voice. "Well, I came out to help everyone today since I'm close with being done and all. So, did everyone find their reference material?"

Toshiro was still playing her voice over and over in his head. He...felt something stir in him when she said that, an emotion he knew quite well - curiosity. Why did she sound like that? Amazed and captivated, like she knew something he didn't. He ended up shaking the useless sound out of his mind and just snort at her. "Isn't that cheating? Looking at something else?"

"Yeah, like tracing it or whatever." Renji further explained as he just pointed to the screen. "I mean, it wouldn't really be ours if we took it from somewhere else, right?"

"I'm wondering the same thing. How do you tell if it's original or not?" Ichigo asked as Rukia nodded excitedly.

Momo just chuckled and walked over to her bag, pulling out a small sketch book and sitting back down. "Alright class, listen up." She giggled again as everyone, even Toshiro, scooted closer to her. "The differences in tracing and free handing something are simple. When one traces something, they take an image and copy it exactly as they see it. That's because they laid a see-through piece of tracing paper over the image and followed the lines. When someone free hands something, they draw what they see or take what they see and make it their own with their own lines even if they look at an image to do so."

"I don't get it." Renji sighed as he scratched his head.

"Do you know exactly what a polar bear looks like? I bet you don't, even if you think you do." Momo pointed out with a smile. "You see, that's why people use a reference piece! It's for them to really see the subject and gain a natural pose instead of just drawing what they think the subject looks like."

"I get it!" Rukia yelled as she held up a scribble of a bunny. "My bunny doesn't look real because I really don't know what it looks like!"

"Right. Even I use references, though I must admit, I used to think it was cheating too. I can honestly say that since I've been using references, my work and eyes are now much sharper." She opened her sketch book and took a shaking breath. "I...I'm going to show you all an example. A before and after...so...here."

The first image was of the image was a mountain lion running through the snow. It was a good picture even if the lines were messy, but the pose just seemed...off. The legs were a little funny looking and the lion just seemed to be missing something from it. Momo took another breath and then flipped deeper into the book before she stopped and showed them the new image. It was the same thing, but so much more. It earned gasps from everyone, not only because it was so real and life-like, but because of the drastic turn around from the previously shown.

The eyes sparkled with determination, the face stern though one could tell it was happy; running through the fluffy snow like a small child, the strong legs stretched and limber and in such a natural stance that it looked as though it could leap out of the page at any minute if the book was not closed by that time anyway. "So there...that's it..."

"That was amazing! I had no clue you could draw like that!" Matsumoto quickly hugged the blushing and very nervous artist against her chest tightly. "I'm so happy you showed us! You have to do that more often, get your name out there and get known!"

"I...I really...don't want that..." Hinamori whispered, unaware that only a teal-eyed youth heard her pleas.

"Alright, so let's get started already! I'm gonna rock this!" Ichigo snickered as he twirled his pencil between his fingers.

-o-

Toshiro sighed as he watched everyone else draw their creatures with a great deal of enthusiasm, but he just stared at his with confusion. How was he to copy this with out tracing it? This was a stupid project in a stupid class. If that stupid girl was here, he could ask her where to start, but she left a few minutes ago to fetch everyone a snack. He squeezed the pencil between his hand and was about to just push the image away when a juicy, red and green watermelon was placed beside him. He looked up to see the smiling face of Hinamori looking back down at him, then she floated over to everyone else.

"I hope you guys don't mind the snack. I bought it yesterday and realized I had no one to share it with so I brought it here." She giggled as she saw everyone dig into the fruit. Toshiro was about to ask what she had meant by that, but the flinch and saddened eyes of Ruika signaled that it was a sad tale; one not to be brought up so publicly.

After finishing the snack, he washed his hands and pointed to his blank page. "How do you start a project as big as this?" He asked, not knowing that with that question, he had let her in.

Her hand was placed on top of his as she guided his marks. It was gentle and flowing and he could make out the faint sound of her humming; if she knew she was doing such a thing he didn't know. She would speak to him with soft wisps of air, telling him that he had to break the image down to basic shapes first so the problem wasn't so big and then try to give it a more determined shape.

Toshiro wasn't a blusher, but this girl...her actions and hands-on approach just made his cheeks hot for some reason. He was about to push her away, tell her he could do it himself when she released her gentle grip and ran a single finger through his hair.

"That's all there is to it, Shiro-chan."

"Wha-?! Don't call me that! What makes you think you can just give people nicknames as dumb as that one, huh?!" He barked, earning snickers from his friends.

"Mou...I think it's cute! And I wasn't aware I needed permission to give a friend a nickname." She reasoned back.

"Well if you're gonna call me that, then I'm going to call you...Bed-wetter Momo!" A shot back, a smirk on his face.

"Wha-?! But my nickname was cute! Yours is just mean!"

~ Math Class~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Momo Hinamori let out a shaky breath as shr received the graded test paper back from her teacher, his tongue clicking; she was sure could be heard by the whole class. She didn't even bother to look at the score, knowing full and well that it was an 'F'. If only she didn't need this class...if only she was smarter. The thought stung, but because if the truth it held or the fact that she thought that about herself she didn't know. Her hands went to her beloved sketch book and from there she entered her own world.

-o-

Hitsugaya watched as she drew in her sketch book, to him it seemed like she was placing an aura around herself when she did that, though someone as out going as her would do no such thing. That train of thought lingered though as he noticed how sad her eyes looked and how no one went to talk to the bubbly girl, though she did seem a little flat right now.

"Hey! Did you guys see that piece in the hallway? I don't see why they put those things up anyway. It's just wasted space that could be used for fliers and posters for the upcoming election."

"I dunno...I thought it was pretty."

"And what is that person gonna do when they get into the real world, huh? Draw pretty pictures for a living?!"

"Athletes get paid millions to play a game, so...yeah. I see your point however...art just isn't as important as it used to be anymore."

"A useless skill for useless people."

Toshiro stopped listening to the three friends, sneaking a peek at the girl in the corner of the room. Was it true? Was art so useless? He used to think so but after seeing her talk about it...he wasn't so sure. He didn't really care for it, but it didn't really hurt anyone so why was that asshole so against it? Did she even know? Did she know the harsh words that lingered around her? Was she that strong, or that good at acting?

~ Hinamori's Room~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The small bedroom was filled with the sound of deep sobs, the kind that only a person lets out when they were left with out any Hope. The sobbing girl, hugging her pillow as if it were her only anchor, truly had none at this point. She was going to fail math and be held back and kept from graduating on time. This wouldn't be such a terrible thing but Byakuya, Rukia's older brother, said he would only fund her if she did well in school and keep an eye out for his sister.

It was a horrible place to be in and not only was she there, she was all alone. Momo had thought of asking for help from the generous man but that would only be more money he would have to sink into a nuisance like her. She could pay the rent and bills easily enough with her selling her art on her account but she was saving that money for college and more art supplies.

Momo sniffled as she released her pillow and rubbed her eyes. Crying wouldn't do her any good, even if it did make her feel a little better. She opened the laptop and went to her account. She smiled as she saw the number of favs and buyers. They always made her feel better in a sense. She wanted to show everyone at school her work too, like she can here, but seeing their faces and listening to the hateful remarks already ... Well...there was just no way she would do that, not even her friends had really seen what she can do. If everyone knew she was Tobiume, they would make school an even bigger hell then it already was and that wasn't going to happen if she could help it.

A small sound was heard as a mail came to her inbox. She blinked as she saw it was from Hyorinmaru. Hinamori thought about just logging off and ignoring it but something told her to at least read it, it wasn't like he was staring at her and saying anything to her face so what was the harm anyway?

/If you're reading this, then I'm very relived. I am sorry if I came off rude yesterday and I did not mean that, or at least not like that. It's just...I'm new to this stuff and don't get why it's so important to people yet./ Hyorinmaru.

Momo smiled as she read the message; it reminded her of a certain someone new to her art class...

/I thank you for the apology and I understand that you may be lost. Some people just look at the lines of pictures or paintings but not what lies beneath it all. Those who find it important feel 'connected' to the piece or can relate to it. Some may feel inspired or enlightened in a way. If I may ask, what is your favorite animal and why?/ Tobiume.

Hinamori smirked as she waited her his reply. If this 'Hyorinmaru' was indeed Toshiro, then that would mean he is trying to find further aid and she was more then willing to give that to him. He enthralled her for some reason, maybe his eyes or his aura, but she was thinking about him like no other boy she had before. A thing she really liked about him were those eyes of his, they sparkled when she taught him something new and she loved that...that fire reflected in such icy orbs.

/Snow leopard. Why?/ Hyorinmaru.

"...I got you now...Shiro-chan."