Growing Up With My Mate

5. Project

It’s been two weeks since the training weekend.  Thankfully, I only sprained my ankle and only had to limp for two days.  Even as a pup, us wolves can heal faster than humans.  I don’t know how they handle the pain because it sucked. 

I was falling into a good routine- classes were going good and I’ve been so happy with the small group of friends I have made. I have learned to never take Dustin seriously.  He may be in on the latest gossip, but he can be such a drama king.  Anna is apparently the grade flirt, but she never takes it too far with a guy.  Sally and Jessie are like sisters I’ve never had. Chase wants to begin warrior training, and Jessie is his little cheerleader. They have been dating for over 4 years!  Brian is really shy and sweet.  Anytime Anna jokingly flirts with him, his ears get all red.  He likes art too which is an easy subject for us to talk about.  I only see Harris in art class.  He hasn’t bothered me about my food choices anymore, which I am grateful for.  He even bought me a honey bun every day for a week until I told him to stop. 

           As the class was packing up their supplies from drawing the still life, Harris stuns me by showing me his project due at the end of the week.  I’m stunned because, one, he really does suck at art, and two, it looks like he drew it in 20 mins. 

“Really going for that A+ aren’t ya?" I giggled.  He snickers too but ignores my comment.

“Now I just have to figure out how my trees convey meaning to life in the present.”  Those were trees?

“Well, you could just say that as future alpha, the horizon of the forest is your outlook of your pack- that it will continue to grow, using the past examples to further strengthen the trunks... yada yada yada… you know, metaphors.“

“Wow…. that was.... actually amazing.  I’m stealing it.” 

“Glad I could help,” I muster a giant smile.

“What about your project?”

“Ah, well that’s a secret,” I say cheekily.  He gives me side glance but I won’t tell. 

“Oh come on.... tell me.”  

As I’m shaking my head he’s looking through my class portfolio. “You wont find it in there sir.”  He smirks then reaches for my sketchbook.  When that finally registers what he’s doing, I lunge for him while he pulls it out of my reach. 

“What are you doing!! It’s not in there Harrison!”

“Then why are you freaking out Brigh?” he mocks in a girly tone, pulling it away from each of my advances. 

At this point, I’m grasping on his long sleeve shirt. “Because,” jump/pull  “it's like,” jump/pull  “a diary!”  Hes’ laughing harder and I begin to join in, but he does hand it to me. 

“Will I ever get to see your super mystery art diary?”   I give him a cheeky grin and just to mock his words from a couple weeks ago “Only if you’re good.”

I needed to refill my water bottle and decided to walk him to the cafeteria.  As we are approaching the lunch room doors, Clara pops out.  She has her fake smile plastered on her face when she sees Harris, then she looks at me and you can actually feel the disdain she has for me.  “Harris baby what took you so long!” Baby, really?

“I was talking to Brighton about our art projects, no big deal,” he says as he shrugs.  

He looks to me “I’ll catch you later Brighton.”

“Bye,” I say with a small wave. 

As they turn around, Clara rings her are around his lower back and glares at me.  But I don’t have time for her drama.  As I’m walking back, I catch myself thinking of the interactions between Harrison and Clara.  Were they boyfriend and girlfriend? If so, like, why? He’s kind and thoughtful and she’s just horrid.  Why do I care? I mean we’re friends right? That should give me the right to care, I guess.  When I get back to the classroom, Mr. Chapman is working in his sketchbook, eating his lunch.  Since school started, he’s let me stay in his classroom during my lunch period and let me work on my art.  We don’t say much to each other, but every now and then he’ll swap sketchbooks with me.  He critiques my work and gives me advice to get better.  His sketchbook is far more advanced than mine so there’s nothing to critique.  When I sit down I notice a package next to me.

“Mr. Chapman, I think someone left this.”

“No someone came in while you were out and put it there- does it have a note?”

I check the package and sure enough, my name is written on top of the card.  “It’s for me” I said quietly.  Inside the card it read ‘please accept’.  I look around but there’s only Mr. Chapman and another student with headphones in across the room whom I have no idea.  I open up the box cautiously.  And inside was a new pair of gray and black Nike trainers.  My breath is stolen from me because only a few people saw my shoe condition at training.  I was honestly terrified because we do not have the money this month for new shoes.  I took a look at the shoes again.  There are brand new, but not the most expensive, which I was grateful for.  How could I wear fancy shoes when my clothing was lacking?  It makes me self-conscious.  But they were even my shoe size.  How could someone know my shoe size?  When I got home that night, mom and dad questioned me on who got me the shoes, but I was still clueless.

“I don’t want any charity though, it’s not right.”

“Don’t think of it as charity honey.  It was probably from one of your new friends who knew how you feel about these things.  I know we can’t provide you the best things in life honey..,” my mom trailed off.  I stopped her from talking and gave her the biggest hug I could.

“You and dad give me everything I need. Don’t worry about me okay?”  I put the shoes in my closet.  I decide to keep them and only use them during training.  That way they can serve their purpose and I can have them for a long time. Decision made.

End of the month: Art project due date.  I’m always nervous about presenting my art to the class.  One person seeing it is fine, but in a large group, I feel like my art just isn’t good enough.  I want art to be part of my career path.  It’s something that I enjoy and the only thing that I can strive to be better at.  Listening to the presentations, I feel a little more at ease.  This is Art 101 and not everyone is looking to be an artist for life.  Case and point: Harris.  Its humorous to see him walk up to the classroom with all the confidence in the world and pin up his ‘masterpiece’.  He has no shame in it.  There are a couple of snickers from the group and Mr. Chapman’s brows are furrowed.  “Mr. Blackwell, please explain your artwork and how it deals with your life in the present.” 

His smile kills me.  “Gladly.  If you can’t tell, this is a picture of the Elder trees at the edge of our forest.  As you all know, I will be future alpha of the pack.  What I wanted to convey in this picture is the alphas who led before me, their lessons and wisdom will guide me to be a great alpha, and to strengthen our pack… like a tree.  It starts out fragile as a seed, but over time with sun and water, it grows, thickens, and becomes strong.  Just like our pack.” 

I swear some of the girls swoon as some of the guys puff out their chests for the pride of their pack.  I’m shaking my head, internally laughing and Harris gives me a wink.  Mr. Chapman gave Harris high marks on his presentation, but told him to definitely work harder on the projects to come.  Harris comes to sit down and I get up for my turn.  I take my painting out of the portfolio I brought in this morning.  As I’m pinning it up, I hear some small gasps and my face reddens.  I worked long hours on this and was proud of my work. And compared to the other presentations so far, it seemed like I was the only one who cared about the project.  I turned around to face my peers, and was about to begin, but one of the girls shouted “Isn’t that the Glade?!?”

 “Wow it looks just like it,” said one person.  At the same time another said “I was just there yesterday!”  “What’s with the wolf in the picture?” chimed in another.  

After a second of silence I finally announced, “Well if you all would take a minute to listen to my presentation, I could probably enlighten you on my project,” I mused, half irritated, half embarrassed.  Several people are smiling, including Harris.  Mr. Chapman is chuckling “By all means Brighton, begin your presentation.”  And I took a breath.

“If you didn’t know, I moved here over the summer with my parents.  The pack we came from, we lived there my entire life, yet I was not connected to them as I felt I should be.  When my parents said we were moving, I was so excited.  My first week here, I met some really great people who automatically considered me a friend, despite not knowing who I was, where I came from, or if I had the latest Iphone.  That weekend, we had our first training.  It was hard, way harder than my other pack had trained us.  I felt like I was dying for the most part.“  Several people laughed and nodded their heads. “Anyways, for the run, me and my friends ran to the Glade.  One of my friends said it was one of the prettiest spots on the territory, and he was right.  Sitting on the ground surrounded by people I had met that week, I soaked in the sun and breathed in.  At that moment, I felt a peace that I’ve never experienced before.  I was happy and content and not worried about anything.  I wanted to paint this spot to remind me that I belonged to a great pack, even if our future alpha can’t draw to save his life.”

Everyone, including Mr. Chapman began to laugh.  Time to wrap it up.  “Anyways, the wolf is on there because I feel like when I do shift, I’ll probably run there a lot.  It will remind me of the feeling I had that day: peace.  That’s how I feel like my life is in the present.  Thank you.”

Most of the classroom began clapping and I was beaming.  I was still flushed red but I felt proud of my work and I stood by my words.  I sat down and put my work back in my portfolio.  Harris leaned toward me and stated “That was great Brigh.  You even made one of the girls cry.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t you Harris?”  He feigned hurt by grabbing his chest where his heart was.  But then he looked serious for a second. “I mean it Brigh, it was great.  I’m glad you feel at home with our pack. I hope you never lose that feeling.  Your art is amazing too.  I hope you keep up with that as well.”  Hearing a friend say that too me filled me with pride.  One day, I hope I can fulfill my dreams and make everyone proud.