Secret Crush

Chapter 10 - [It's a Date]

“Naomi,” Gale started as we walked towards the glass building, “how do you drop your contact lenses and let it go down the drain.”

I looked at him and rolled my eyes, making sure he saw that. And then I pushed my glasses up. “Shut up.”

He laughed as he opened the door for me.

When we walked into the building, I gasped. It was as beautiful as I had imagined.

The ceiling was high up and on it hung hundreds of science-y sort of things. Like microscopes and diagrams of cells and the atom and so on.

When I turned to Gale to tell him how amazing I thought this place was, I had noticed that he was already at the desk where we give in our tickets. He then waved over.

As I walked over to him, I looked around and noticed how empty it was. “You’d think more people would be here on a Friday night.” I said to Gale when I reached him.

The older lady behind the desk laughed. “Aw, the sweetheart here must be a true nerd.”

“You got that right.” Gale said.

I looked at her with a smile. She was tall and pretty, with brown hair tied back in a bun but lots of visible white hairs as well.

“Kids have much more important things to be doing on a Friday night then coming to a Science Center.”

I chuckled. I guess she had a good point.

Both Gale and I handed her our tickets. And after scanning us in, she looked at Gale. “Mr. Dallas, can I see your arm?”

Gale lifted his right hand and held it out. She wrapped a neon green wristband around it.

She then looked at me and did the same to my wrist. “This is to get you access into the telescope room.”

I nodded, my heart jumping in excitement.

“Have a great tour.” She said with a smile. “And remember, on Friday nights all meals are half off.”

“Thanks!” Gale and I said together.

When we had walked off, I looked at Gale. “She knows you?”

Gale shrugged. “I used my name to buy the tickets. I guess that’s how.”

“Oh.” Made sense.

I then skipped over to the map of the building, leaving Gale behind.

When I looked at it, my excitement grew and it had finally sunk in that I was here.

This Science Center was massive. “We should save the best for last!” I said to Gale when he reached me. “So the Astronomy section is last.”

“Sure.” Gale said. “Can we skip all the Chemistry stuff?”

I chuckled. It was then that I remembered how much Gale hated Chemistry. “Okay!” I said. “But we’ve definitely gotta go see the biology section.” I then pointed at the two floors for biology. “Oh… I get how this works… they’ve got two floors for each section.”

Gale nodded. “Yeah… and the physics section is right on top of the biology section… maybe we can go there too.”

“Okay!” I said, turning around. “Let’s go.”

We spent the rest of the evening roaming around the Science Center and I have to say… it was more fun then I had imagined it to be.

We spent a lot of time on the Biology floors. Though Gale wasn’t a biology freak, he was awfully interested in the preserved specimens. Especially the elephant’s heart.

And then came the Physics floors. Gale was a lot more interested in the stuff on these floors. Especially the things that had to do with cars. And I guess it was a pretty fun floor… there were a lot of things we could interact with here. Like a piano which displays the frequencies of each note.

Not that I knew what that meant.

I had little interest in taking physics at school.

“Apparently playing the Piano is all math.” Gale said as he walked over to me and pressed a key on the piano.

“No way.” I said. “Then the kids that play it must be geniuses.”

Gale chuckled.

“Does your sister still play?” I asked him.

“Nope.” He said. “Well… she does but she doesn’t go to lessons anymore. She’s done all the exams and stuff so she just plays whenever she feels like it.”

I nodded. “That’s nice!”

“Ready to go to the Astronomy floor?”

I pushed my glasses up, trying to hide my excitement. “Yeah! Sure! Let’s go!”

He chuckled as we rushed over to the massive elevators.

When we got to the Astronomy floor I took a deep breath. “This is… absolutely amazing.” I said as I looked up.

On the ceiling, which was as high up as all the other floors, were beautiful stars painted on a black background. “They look so real!”

“They just don’t twinkle.” Gale said, looking up too.

I smiled. “Let’s go!” I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him forward and towards the models.

After spending time on the first floor of the Astronomy section, we made our way to the second. And when we got there, we noticed the large wall the separated us from the telescope. “It’s huge… isn’t it?” I asked as I ran over to it.

Gale laughed. “Looks like it.”

“Have you really never been here?” I asked.

“Nope.” He smiled. “First time I’m seeing this too.”

I looked up and noticed that the stars that I could see on this ceiling were real stars, since the ceiling was made of glass. I sighed. “This place is amazing.”

“Wow, time passed really fast.” Gale said as he looked at his cellphone for the time. “It’s eight.”

“When does this place close?”

“Nine.”

“Ohmigosh… we only get one hour to look from the telescope?”

Gale chuckled. “I think that’s more then enough time.”

I pouted my lips but nodded. I guess he had a good point.

Suddenly the door to the telescope room opened. A woman who looked to be in her fifties walked out and looked around.

When she spotted us, she smiled. “Mr. Gale Dallas?” She called.

“How come everyone knows you?” I whispered as we walked over to her.

Gale shrugged. “The ticket, I’m guessing.”

When we reached her, she held out her hand. “You’ve got unlimited access to the telescope, right?”

Gale smiled and shook her hand. “Yup. That’s what we paid for.”

She nodded. “My name is Annie and I’ll be helping you out.”

I smiled at her and noticed her professional look; her black dress pants and white collared shirt and even a white blazer on top. I wondered if she was an astronomer.

“And what’s your name, sweetie?” She asked, looking at me.

“Naomi.” I smiled.

“Nice to meet you both.” She said with her kind smile. “Are you two on a date?”

We both laughed awkwardly. “No, no. We’re just friends.” I said.

She gave us a funny look, but we both just smiled back.

“Alright, come in you two.” She said, walking into the room.

I felt my heart start to race as we followed her into the slightly lighted room.

“This type of telescope is modeled after a telescope that is called the TMT… or, the Thirty Meter Telescope.” She said. “You see it in movies all the time.”

I looked around and realized we were in a dome shaped part of the building.

“It’s a very expensive telescope and as sad as it is, this version of it isn’t as perfected as the ones you would see actual astronomer use.” She said. “And this is for obvious reasons including the fact that this telescope was built primarily for the use of the Science Center, for tours and what not. It isn’t as if people are using this to study the stars.”

She walked us over to a door and opened it up, and inside was a room that was pitch black… at least until she turned on the large, flat screen which covered most of a wall.

And I gasped.

On the screen were beautiful images of the sky.

“On a real TMT would have even clearer, larger and more vivid images.” She said. She then pressed some buttons and it started to move.

“This looks so unreal.” I whispered.

I felt Gale’s arm on my back. “Ask her if you can touch it.” He whispered.

“No!” I said. “You ask.”

“C’mon, Mimi.”

The lady chuckled. “I can hear you two.” She said. “And yes, you can touch it.”

I squealed as I ran over to her and listened carefully as she taught me how to use the controls.

It seemed simple enough.

I moved the telescope around and I swear I would have started drooling if people weren’t around.

“Can we see Neptune from this?”

“Yeah!” She said. “Of course, it wont be as large as Jupiter would be.” She then took the controls from me and moved it in some quick, sharp movements, pressing some buttons too. She seemed to know exactly where to go. “There it is.”

I placed my hands over my mouth as I stared at the small, but vivid blue orb.

“Is Neptune your favourite planet?”

I chuckled. “Yeah. It’s my dads favourite too.”

She smiled. “My daughter loves Neptune as well.”

I looked at her. “We’ve all got good taste.”

She laughed.

And then we spent the rest of the hour looking at planets in a way I’ve never done before.

Wait till my dad hears about this.

Gale and I couldn’t talk about anything other then the telescope as we drove home that evening.

But I had a really good time and soon I realized that I didn’t properly thank him for it.

“Gale.” I called when we had gotten silent after talking about the amazing telescope.

“Yup?”

I looked at him. “Thank you.” I said. “I really had lots of fun today.”

He smiled. “That’s what I’m here for. Making sure you have fun.”

“Well I’m glad you are.”

Gale chuckled. “So… it’s nine-thirty.”

“Yeah?”

He looked at me for a moment before looking back at the road. “It’s nine-thirty, Friday night, and you really want to go home?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “What else do you want to do?”

I then noticed that we were already driving to his house.

“You can help me paint my submission for an Art Competition that Ms. Sheppard signed me up for.” He looked at me… and for some reason it almost looked like he really wanted me to come.

That made me happy. So I smiled. “Sure.” I said. “But I don’t think I’ll be able to do much of a great job at helping you with art.”

He laughed.

Soon, we pulled into his driveway and like always, he parked the way his sister told him not to.

We got out and walked into his house, and Blitz came running to us.

“Hey boy.” Gale said, bending down and giving his dog a kiss.

Blitz then ran over to me. I laughed and scratched his head.

“Is Gina home?” Gale asked Blitz.

And Blitz barked and jumped around a couple times, before he started to spin around and then, like he did before, he scampered over to the door and scratched it.

“She’s always gone.” Gale said. He looked back at Blitz. “What about mom?”

This time, Blitz started barking like crazy and jumping around as if he was the happiest dog in the world.

I laughed and looked at Gale. “He looks happy!”

“That’s a sign that my mother isn’t home.”

I laughed harder. Wow, even the dog didn’t like her very much.

I wonder what happened to her.

Gale then took me back to his studio where he took of his coat and threw it on the sofa.

He was wearing a hoodie underneath and he took that off too, leaving on his short sleeved T-shirt.

He pointed at my Superman hoodie. “You should take that off. It gets really hot in here.”

I let out a small laugh. “No way.” I said. “I’m wearing a tank top underneath.”

Gale chuckled. “You can borrow one of my shirts if you want.”

I gave him a look as I sat down on the sofa. “It’s fine.” I said as I untied my hair. It was normal for my head to start to ache when my hair was in a tight ponytail for a long time.

I rubbed the back of my head but soon noticed Gale looking at me for a moment before he shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He said before turning his back towards me.

He then pulled out a stretched canvas and placed it on a stand in front of him. He then opened one of the drawers and pulled out an old looking baseball cap and put it on backwards. He then jumped up onto a stool and leaned forward, thinking.

I laughed. “You’re transforming into an artist?”

He smiled as he looked at me. “It’s my thinking cap.”

“Why do you need a thinking cap?”

“To be inspired.” He pulled out a paintbrush and tapped his lip with the back of it. “That’s why you’re here.” He said. “Inspire me.”

“You’re kidding.” I said. “Gale, I’m going to be no help at all.”

He turned completely on the stool. “Sure you can.”

I rolled my eyes. “How do you normally get inspired?”

He shrugged. “It just comes to me.”

“How?”

He smiled as he stood up. “Come here.”

I hesitated.

“C’mon.”

I got up and walked over to him.

“Pull up your sleeves and tie up your hair again.”

I did as he said, though I was a little confused, pulling my sleeves up to my elbows and tying my hair up with the hair tie I had put around my wrist.

He then surprised me by pulling out another stretched canvas, but this time, he placed it onto a stand in front of me.

He then handed me an oval wooden palette.

When I looked at him, he stepped back and leaned against the table, taking off his hat and crossing his arms.

“You expect me to paint.” I asked, giving him a ‘what the flip’ look.

He pointed at all the paint. “Go for it.”

I looked at the new, white canvas. “I’m going to waste the board, Gale.”

“Naomi, I could buy a brand new car right now if I wanted too.” He said. “Buying the canvas is nothing.”

I gave him an annoyed look but knew that he was right.

“Just paint something, the first thing that comes to mind. Maybe that’ll inspire me.”

I hesitated and then looked at the new palette. “I’ll paint a flower.” I said, stupidly.

Gale chuckled, but didn’t say anything.

I squirted some pink paint onto the palette, followed by some green, red, blue and yellow.

I looked for orange, but couldn’t find it, so mixed some of the yellow and red together.

And for the next couple of minutes, I painted myself an ugly flower. It had a red center and five pink petals. I painted some grass and a sky with fluffy white clouds and tried to paint in a sun too.

When I was done, I stepped back and looked at it.

My eyes then flickered to one of Gale’s paintings that were sitting a short distance away from mine.

I sighed. Mine pales in comparison to his.

Gale laughed.

When I looked at him, I frowned, seeing that he was actually laughing pretty hard.

“Kay, I’m not an artist. Jeez.”

He pushed himself off the table and walked over to me.

I turned to look at my flower with a frown. What a waste of a canvas.

“It’s not as hard as you think it is.” Gale said from behind me.

I gasped when I felt him right behind me, his chest right against my back.

He took his left hand and held my wrist. His other hand went around my right hand, grasping it like he was going to teach me.

I slowly moved my eyes to the right, feeling his cheekbone against my forehead.

I didn’t really realize how tall he was till just now.

He moved the palette so that it was closer to his other hand, and so that his arms were around me.

After dipping the paintbrush into the red, he mixed it with some of the other colors and started adding little details to my painting, like shading. And suddenly, it looked beautiful.

It didn’t take him longer then fifteen minutes.

But to be honest, I wasn’t focused much on his painting at all.

After all, I could barely breathe.

“See.” Gale said. “All you really need to do is add some details. Figure out where the light is shining from and paint it accordingly.”

I let go of a breath I was holding. “It’s like your hands are made to create beautiful things.”

I was trying to be dramatic, but for some reason it sounded stupid.

Gale laughed stepping away from me. “Your first art lesson.” He said.

He then winked at me, making my heart jump. “You tell me if you want more.”

I smiled.

“You’re sweating.” Gale said.

I looked at him, feeling my cheeks start to burn. “It’s hot.”

He chuckled. “I told you didn’t I?” He said as he walked over to the door. “I’ll get you something to wear.

I sat down on his sofa as he left the room, feeling my heart race.

For some reason… I couldn’t help but think that this was starting to feel more and more like it was an actual date.