Starting over

Chapter 7: Art class

Chapter 7

Nova

I wake up feeling my hair being stroked back. I yawn and open my eyes. Paisley is sitting beside me on the edge of my bed, stroking my hair back, looking worried. I feel something beside me. I look back and there Katie is sitting with a worried expression.

"How are you feeling?" Paisley asks.

I shrug my shoulders. I barely even remember what happened. I remember crying. A lot. Yeah there was definitely a lot of crying.

"You really scared us", Katie says with a slightly shaken voice. "We've been sitting her with you the whole night, you've been having panic, you got us worried, you even threw up a bit”.

"I don't remember that", I say. Oh gosh, did I really throw up?

"We were really worried", Paisley says.

"Yeah but then I googled, and it isn't uncommon to become sick because of panic attacks and because of holding stuff inside of you", Katie says.

"I'm sorry you guys", I say feeling ashamed. "I'm really sorry".

"What? No, it's not your fault", Paisley says. "It's just hard to see you hurting, that's all".

"Who of you whispered in my ear?" I ask. That I actually do remember.

Katie giggles. "Guilty", she beeps. "I thought it could give you some peace while sleeping".

"I'm going to tell you when I'm ready I promise", I say. "I just have to have a little more time, more for me than you, it’s so hard to talk about".

"We understand that", Paisley says.

I smile thankfully at my friends. My best friends. What will they think of me when I tell them? "What time is it?" I ask.

I know it's Thursday, so today is the first day I have art and writing classes, I have that on Thursdays and Fridays.

"6:30 am", Katie says. "Almost time to get ready, but are you sure that you are feeling well enough?"

I nod. It's not really true, but I have to. I've been looking forward to art and writing class. Not that I'm a good artist, but I love the peace art brings me, I may be painting like a three-year-old, but it doesn't matter to me. As for writing, people have told me that I'm good at it and I do enjoy it very, very much.

"I've got art and writing class", I say.

"Oh yeah", Paisley says. "I have writing and art too".

"Me too", Katie says.

"I'm starting to think we have all our classes together", I say slyly.

"Well that depends", Paisley says. "Because on Fridays I have double swim practice".

"I have soccer", I say.

"Ballet", Katie informs.

We start to get ready for class. I take a hot shower. I shiver as the warm water washes over my cold body. The first seconds in the shower is the best once. The way the warm water warms up your cold body. I'm not showering too long but not too short either, just perfect. I wash my hair with coconut shampoo and hair butter. When I step out of the shower, I wrap a towel around my body before walking out to the dorm. I blow my hair dry with the hairdryer and then brush through my hair. I stand in front of the mirror and do my makeup. Not too much and not too little, just enough to make my disgusting face look better. I walk up to my drawer to bring out some clothes. I decide for net-stockings and a pair of green short shorts and pull a white crop top over my head. On my feet I put on a pair of high heeled high boots, that reaches to the end of my calves. I let my hair fall down over my shoulders and put a pair of sunglasses on top of my head.

Just as I finish, I see that Paisley and Katie are done as well. I put my bag over my shoulder and take my phone.

"All done?" Paisley asks.

"Yep", I say and walk up to them. "Let's go".

Katie opens the door and we make our way to our first class, which is art class.

Even though I've been looking forward to art, I feel kind of nervous about it as well. I mean almost everyone who's in art should be good at painting. I'm really not. Hm... Maybe they'll laugh at my paintings. I would laugh with them because I know that I'm really bad at it. Why do I even take art class? I mean I figured that art would harmonize with my writing, and if I learnt how to draw, I could write children’s books and draw the pictures. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

We walk down the corridors to find our classroom. When we find it the door is open, so we just walk in and sits down by one easel each and wait for the teacher to start up the class. After a few minutes he closes the door and walk up to the front.

"Hello class, I'm Mr. Luna and I'll be your art teacher this year, I hope we'll have a lot of fun painting together", he says with a big smile.

Mr. Luna is a skinny man, probably in his fifties but still with a lot of thick black hair on his head. He has thick glasses on his nose and a big warm smile on his lips. He looks like a Latina.

"Today I want you to paint something that you love", he continues and claps his hands together. Something tells me that this man is a happy one. That’s fun.

"A person or an object?" Someone asks.

"It doesn't matter", Mr. Luna says. "Let your fantasies out and paint something, a person or an object, it could even be ice cream, just something you love!"

I pick up a brush. I dip it in some beige color. I put the tip onto the canvas and make an egg. It should be a face. I pain the hair with yellow paint, trying to make braids. Then I go for the eyes. They become a little ticker then I wanted. Oh crap.

"It would be much better if you used this one", a voice beside me says and the person is holding up a brush with a very small tip in front of me.

I look to the side to see a blond boy stand there, smiling at me. He has the bluest eyes I've ever seen before in my entire life and the most beautiful smile. I see that one of his hands is bandaged and he has a mark on his temple. Oh god. This is the boy that I've abused these past days with my clumsiness. He's in art? Oh god. This is not good.

"And it's better to start with the face first and then the head", he says sweetly.

"Oh um... Thanks", I say looking down at my ugly painting. It looks like a freaking clown. And the braids look like sticks sticking out of the ugly head. Oh god. If my Izzie saw this, she'd be angry. Okay no maybe not, she'd laugh at it.

"You know what's funny? We've run into each other a couple of times now, but I don't know your name", he says.

Running into each other? That’s a nice way of putting it.

I feel my cheeks heat up. "Nova", I mumble.

"Nice to meet you Nova", he says. "I'm Charlie".

I look up at him. He has the gentlest face I've ever seen. But his arms and shoulders look rough and big. And he's chest looks big. God this boy has muscles. Anyone can see that even though he has a t-shirt.

"I'm sorry, for your hand, and your head", I say shyly. "And for your shirt, and for ... Tackling you".

Charlie chuckles sweetly and wrinkle his nose cutely. "It's okay", he says. "But you ran off every time. My buddy Grey told me he met you, but he wouldn't tell me anything else".

"What class does he have now?" Katie asks standing beside Charlie.

"He's sitting right there", Charlie smiles pointing towards the window where two boys are sitting, one of the chairs by the easels is empty. I guess that's where Charlie was sitting before he came here.

Grey looks up and sees that Charlie is pointing at him and that Katie is looking at him. He brings up is hand and wave towards Katie to come over. She giggles and leaves us to walk up to Grey. Paisley joins her. I see how that boy with bronze hair is looking at Paisley with glimmering eyes.

"Is your hand badly hurt?" I ask.

"Nah, a small sprain in my pinky finger", he says and holds up his hand, and I can see that bandage is wrapped around his pinky finger and the rest of the hand as support.

"I'm really, really sorry", I say, feeling really awful about the fact that I gave Charlie a sprain in his pinky finger. "I should be arrested because of my clumsiness".

"No really, it's okay", Charlie chuckles. "Do you and your girls want to eat lunch with me and my boys?"

I think about it for a second. I'm not usually the one to talk to a stranger. I mean I did talk to Paisley and Katie and all of that, but they are my roommates, I kind of had to and now they're my best friends, only in matter of a few days. Maybe we could eat lunch with them. Maybe we could. I look at Paisley and Katie who's talking to the boys. I can hear their giggle. College is about growing up and meeting new people, making new connections, right? I have to at least try to stop being so afraid of everything. If I continue being so afraid, I will limit myself too much to actually live my life.

"Well by the looks of it", I say, pointing in their direction. "I don't think I can drag them away from your boys right now, so I'll guess my answer is, yes".