Second Chance Mates Festival

Chapter 8: A painting of a baby

Emery’s POV

I spotted Rodney as soon as I entered the hall. 

I was alone since Lacy and Cameron had different activities than I did although I would have liked to have them around. I guess I would keep hoping that our activities lined up.

I didn’t notice it yesterday, but he really stood out in a crowd. He had golden-brown hair and maybe it was because we had met at night but his eyes were a lighter shade of brown than they were yesterday.

I noticed that only a few people were wearing the armbands. They must have thought there were unnecessary like I did.

The Beta Female was standing next to him smiling before they both spotted me. I shot him a smile as soon as he faced me and then waved at him. 

Although I would admit that yesterday I wasn’t very excited about our encounter, today was my first real date so I couldn’t help but be excited, and the fact that we were doing an activity I liked was the cherry on top of the cake.

I noticed that as I was moving towards them, Rodney’s eyes never strayed from my form. Had I been the Emery from 2 years ago I would have probably tripped over my feet from having someone that handsome staring at me, but the Emery now remained composed all the way until I sat in the chair next to his.

The hall was packed with people and since Rodney had picked seats that were at the end of the hall, by the time I got to him the Beta Female was already gone. There was an easel with some painting supplies in front of the seat. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them.

“Hi, Rodney,” I said turning to face him.

“Hi, Emery.” He smiled at me which I returned.

“How’d you sleep?” I asked him.

“Well. You?”

“Really good,” I said. 

Last night had been some of the best sleep I had had in years. That's not to say that sleep was difficult while I was on pack lands but I had noticed that it was easier to breathe while here, maybe it was was because I didn't have everyone watching me waiting for my breakdown.

I was about to ask him about what we were expected to paint before I heard what sounded like a microphone being tapped.

“Good morning everyone.” It was the Beta Female on the stage smiling. “Thank you all for attending. For today’s activity, you’ll be given a word and from that, you’ll have to paint the first thing that comes to mind. There is no time limit but remember lunch will be served at 2 in the dining hall. You’ll find the word to paint on the yellow paper on the easel. If you need any help please don’t hesitate to ask any of our volunteers, they have neon green armbands.” She finished up and left the hall.

I looked around and there were barely any volunteers near us as if they had been told to stay away from this area. That was suspicious. I looked at the easel and there was a piece of folded yellow paper on it which I took and proceeded to unfold.

“Do you like to paint?” Rodney asked me softly from my side.

I was a bit startled since I was too focused on trying to unfold the paper that had the word to paint on it. The person who folded this must have been into origami.

“Yeah. I love it.” I answered honestly.

“Then I guess you’ll have to help me out here then.”

“No.” I stopped trying to unfold the paper and looked at him.

“No?” He asked incredulously.

“Yes, no.” I looked at him smiling. “There is a prize for whoever comes up with the best picture. I’m gonna win it.”

“If you wanna get the prize so badly, I can just hand it to you.”

I looked at him oddly. Was his cover slipping? “You speak as if you are the Alpha of the pack or something,” I said half-jokingly.

His face blanked before he said. “I’m not the Alpha.”

I didn’t believe him. The feeling I had when he told me his name was Rodney appeared again when he denied being the Alpha. I had a pretty good idea of who he really was now but I wasn’t willing to dig any further and cut my fun short.

“Okay, I believe you, Rodney,” I said pressing down hard on his name. “Can you open this for me?” I handed him the folded up paper.

He unfolded it pretty quickly but I was certain that my fiddling with it beforehand had helped him. I took a look at the word on the paper and it was ‘Mate’

“Friend mate or relationship mate?” I asked myself out loud.

“Second chance mate,” Rodney replied he said raising his eyebrows.

“Then I guess I should draw you,” I said in reply.

 Rodney was not expecting me to play along so he was so surprised that his face started to turn red. I was surprised that he could even blush because of how tan he was. “Or maybe not.” I let out a small laugh.

“I wasn’t expecting that.” He said as he calmed down a bit.

“I’m not gonna paint you. I want to win that prize so I’m gonna paint something that gonna blow everyone’s minds.” I said excitedly. 

Although he had a pretty face, I already had a good idea of what I wanted to paint. It was the first thing that popped into my mind when I read the word mate.

“Good luck, I’ll try not to paint too good so that you have a better chance at winning.”

“I guess chivalry isn’t dead after all,” I said as I picked up the pencil

***

Rodney had left about 20 minutes after I had started painting, I had thought that he had gone to the bathroom but he hadn’t returned yet even though there were 30 minutes left until lunchtime. I was a little disappointed that my first date was cut short and I didn’t even know the reason as to why he left, but I guess it was for the better since I could put more effort into my painting without being distracted.

It had turned out better than I thought, and I had managed to get the shading done pretty well even though the supplies weren’t the best.

“Wow, how pretty.” I looked up and the Beta Female was looking at my painting. “I don’t remember adding baby as one of the words to paint.”

“I got the word mate,” I said to her. 

Up close she was really pretty and you could really feel the joy radiating off from her.

“Ah, but why did you paint a baby?” she asked me.

I didn’t want to give too much away especially since I didn’t know exactly what her relationship with Rodney was as yet, so I made the motion of zipping my lips.

“Right let’s see what your partner drew.” She said moving over to Rodney’s easel. “And there is nothing on the page.”

I couldn’t believe her but when I looked over at his easel there really was nothing on the page. “He left in a rush earlier. I guess he didn’t have enough time to start on his drawing.”

“He could get in trouble over this, but if you tell me the secret behind your painting I won’t punish him too harshly.” She said to me winking.

She was being cheeky and there was something about her that made me want to trust her. I also figured that she was on the judging panel for the prize, it wouldn’t hurt to try and score some extra points.

“The word I got was mate,” I said to her before continuing. “So I drew what made me give up mine.”