Lyrical Love Letter

The moment Juliette entered the room she wanted nothing more than to turn on her heels and take her chances with Alex out in the hallway. She could hold her own against one cocky boy, but an entire class staring at her with questioning and judgmental glances? Not so much.

“You must be Juliette Barkalow,” A short plump mousy woman with thin wired glasses and frizzing auburn hair appeared admits the group of students that towered over her. She had a clipboard in hand and a pencil tucked behind her ear. She had sparkling kind green eyes and a warm smile.

“Dawson,” Juliette corrected with a smile, “Juliette Dawson.” Collin had made it clear that neither Declan nor Juliette was any kin to him.

“Right,” The woman murmured as she grabbed the pencil from behind her ear and scribbled something on her clipboard. “Well,” She sighed, her eyes flashing up to Juliette. “My name is Mrs. Robertson and I’ll spare you the embarrassment of talking about yourself.” Juliette smiled, silently relieved to be spared the humility. “As much as everyone hates it, we are in alphabetical order and since I had you under Barkalow you’re seat is placed as such so you will be sitting behind Jack.” Juliette gazed around the room for the faceless boy, Jack, but her eyes only met curious gazes or heads of hair as some students took full advantage of the momentary break from class as they slept silently atop their desks. Mrs. Robertson gazed out at the class, “Jack,” She called and when she received no response Juliette guessed it was one of the many slumbering bodies. “Jack!” She called louder and when she received no response, she pulled her Ticonderoga pencil from behind her ear and chucked it at a boy on the left hand side of the room. It collided silently with the boy’s mess of hair and his head shot up in response, bleary brown eyes gazed around the room before landing on the teacher who had her arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

“Child abuse,” The boy, Jack, mumbled tiredly. “I should tell the principle.”

“I should tell your mother you are hung-over.” Mrs. Robertson countered as a chorus of ‘oohhs!’ and laughter filled the room. It was obvious that this teacher was respected less for her teaching capabilities and more for her connections with the students within her class. A small smile crept up on Juliette’s face and she knew this was one class she would have no qualms about.

“You have no proof for such an outrageous accusation.” Jack replied indignantly as sleep fell away and a grin appeared on his lips.

“Just as you have no proof I threw a pencil at you.” Mrs. Robertson shot back with a smile before turning toward Juliette. “You can take a seat behind Sleeping Beauty over there.” Mrs. Robertson told her as she began to check off attendance on her clipboard.

“You think I’m beautiful?” Jack questioned as he placed a hand over his chest and his voice took on a feminine tone. “Why thank you, Mrs. Robertson.” The teacher just shook her head, a small smile evident on her face as she continued to check names. Juliette moved between the two rows of desks until she reached the empty desk behind ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Juliette collapsed into the plastic seat and let her backpack slip from her shoulder and onto the floor.

“I’m Jack,” The boy informed as he twisted around in his seat to face her, and stuck out his hand expectantly.

“Juliette.” She smiled and shook his hand. He had light brown hair and kind brown eyes and a contagious smile while he wore a New Found Glory T-shirt with board shorts.

“You’re Rian’s new roomie right?”

“Excuse me?”

“Rian Dawson. You just moved into his house, right?” He questioned and Juliette became uneasy. Had Rian failed to mention something to her? She still wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not to be immediately informed that, yes, she was Rian’s cousin and yes, she was living with him. Juliette was sure she would like Jack but the moment the sentence left his lips she found herself unsure.

“You’re the second person today to inform me of who I am related to. Why is that?” She questioned curiously.

“Hmm, I dunno know. I guess it would depend on who else said it.”

“Skinny Jeans out in the hallway,”

“Who?” Jack questioned completely lost.

“I don’t know some cocky kid named Alex.” A look of realization crossed Jack’s face and a large excited grin broke out across his face.

“You know Alex!” He said enthusiastically. “Alex is my BFFL, my brother from another mother, my buddy, the Robin to my Batman if you will, my-“

“I get it,” Juliette interrupted putting a hand up to stop him, “you know him, fantastic.” She grumbled. Juliette was having a hard time imagining Skinny Jeans out in the hallway as being a sidekick to this boy’s superhero. “So let me guess; that means you are both BFFL, brother/buddy/batman-y whatever with Rian, right?” Jack shrugged in response,

“Rian is more of an acceptance to society, we felt bad for him really.” He replied straight faced. Juliette bit her lip to keep from smirking.

“I’ll be sure to tell him how loyal his friends are.” Jack’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak but Mrs. Roberston’s voice filled the room.

“Okay class we are going to get right to work. Jack, I believe you have a self portrait you need to be working on.” Jack opened his mouth to speak to Juliette but again Mrs. Robertson intervened. “Now, Jack.” She called to him in a sing song voice and Jack groaned, giving up and rising from his seat to move to the back of the room where a variety of easels were scatted. “Juliette I’ll let Logan catch you up on what we are doing at the moment since he is done with his project.” As if by magic a boy appeared before her desk and smiled down at her.
He towered over her at 6’2 and he had sandy brown hair cropped short. He wore a football jersey and it was obvious through his every movement that he wore it with pride.

“I’m Logan.”He grinned and Juliette found his smile oddly familiar-a fact she found strange considering she had never been to ‘Looserville’ in her life.

“Juliette.” She nodded in response as she rose to her feet and followed the boy to the back of the large classroom where the other students had congregated.

“So, Juliette, how do you like Lutherville so far?” Logan questioned curiously. So far she had met a cocky jackass, a male sleeping beauty, and a varsity jock; to be honest she wasn’t sure how she felt just now.

“I don’t know yet.” Juliette confessed hesitantly. The students here were unlike her friends from home and Juliette found herself out of her element.

“Where are you from?” Logan wondered as he drifted toward the book shelf in the back corner of the room.

“Manhattan.” Juliette informed with a nod as she grabbed a book from the shelf and leafed through it absentmindedly. Portraits of people and paintings of landscapes jumped off the page at her in colorful hues.

“Why would you move from Manhattan to Maryland? I assume it doesn’t get much better than Manhattan.”

“Believe me, it doesn’t it.” Juliette told him, “I wasn’t my choice to move here.”

“Ahh I see.” Logan nodded as he placed the book back on the shelf and turned to her. “Alright, so our assignment is currently one of two things at the moment. Option one - Draw a self portrait or option two – draw something that would best describe you.” Logan gestured to the easel nearest them. “See how Emily draws a picture of a beach and uses bright colors? It would express happiness.” He glanced to the easel beside Emily’s, “Jack’s is an example of-“ Jack turned to the two with a grin, his paintbrush hovering several inches from the paper while Logan stared at the extremely colorful piece in confusion. “Jack what exactly is that?”

“Tis me,” Jack explained in a poor French accent. “tis abstract. It tis a masterpiece!”

“Sure is.” Juliette laughed and cocked her head to the side. “It has a sort of Andy Warhol element about it.” Logan shook his head, a grin playing across his face as the two moved toward the line of cabinets that ran along the side wall.

“The art supplies that we are allowed to use for any given project are set out on the counter at the beginning of the period. The cabinets are labeled accordingly to their designated supplies.” Logan informed her as he pointed to the cluttered counter covered in an assortment of supplies. Juliette nodded as she surveyed the room around her. At first glance everything seemed to be a disorganized mess but a closer look revealed that this was not so. The easels in the back of the room were not placed in a neat row but were situated at odd angles to better accommodate the students and to allow for more elbow room. The art supplies were not organized by type but by usage. Old gluey scissors lay beside half empty boxes of broken colored pencils while clean paint brushes rested atop an unopened box of crayons. Juliette had never been artistically inclined and so found the class slightly intimidating. She knew her projects would come out no better than Jack’s but she couldn’t make herself care. This was art class, an elective, a waste of time; it wasn’t like she was actually going to try.
“You can probably just start out tomorrow.” Logan told her. “You came late today and the class is almost over now.” Juliette nodded slightly in response.

“Alright.”

“So where do you go next?” Logan questioned curiously and Juliette glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Juliette did not know how to react to this boy. She had become slightly leery of friendly boys; nine out of ten times they just wanted in her pants. After everything her mother had gone through it just fueled Juliette’s theory that nobody falls in love at seventeen, so what was the point of dating?

“Gym.” She stated with a nod as she moved her way back to her desk as students around her slowly began to clean up their easels and put away their projects.

“I know where that is, I can show you if you like.” Logan offered a hopeful look in his eye.

“I saw it on my way here, I know where it is.” Logan nodded as disappointment flashed acrossed his face for an instant and then was gone. “Thanks anyway.” Jack ambled over to his desk and took the spot in front of Juliette.

“Hi sleeping beauty,” She smiled as he grinned over at her. There was just something about Jack that made Juliette a happier person.

“Hiyeah JuJu.”

“JuJu?” She questioned skeptically with a raised eye brow and Jack simply shrugged in response.

“Where do you go next?” He questioned curiously as he rested his head against his propped up palm.

“Gym.” Juliette stated with a grimace. Juliette had not taken P.E since freshman year. In her old school after freshman year you could alternatively participate in a sport as apposed to Gym; Juliette had chosen volleyball. Jack stared at her with a somber expression before he could hold it no longer and broke out in laughter.

“You have gym with your best friend,” Jack chortled clearly amused by the current situation while Juliette’s eyes went wide with comprehension as she stared at the boy in disbelief.

“You’re kidding me right? You can’t seriously mean to tell me that I have second period Gym with Skinny Jeans?”

“Oh that is exactly what I mean.” Jack replied his eyes sparkling with entertainment.