They're Playing Our Song

When I finally got to room 233, I was a little nervous. I had absolutely no fucking idea what Gavin meant by “weird” and I was hoping against hope that Mr. Way wasn’t some creep who prayed on defenseless teen girls. I walked through the open door way, and I was somewhat relieved that it was a seemingly normal art room. Supply cabinets, round tables, a teacher’s desk, a chalkboard, etc. etc. Some of the tables were already filled, so like in all my classes, I chose to sit at an empty room towards the left corner of the room. The students were chatting excitedly and I drummed my fingers on the desk in anticipation. A man walked into the room and closed the door just as the bell rang. Wait...there is no way he’s the teacher, I thought. He was too young looking.

He had straight, tousled black hair that hung just on his shoulders, with small pieces hanging loosely over either side of his eyes. He had a round face with pale skin, and really light pink lips. He was wearing a crisp white dress shirt loosely, a couple buttons at the bottom undone, and his black dress pants were way to tight on him. He had a skinny, bright red tie hanging loosely around his neck. Clipped at the hem of his shirt was one of those white I.D cards teachers have to wear all the time. From far away, I couldn’t really see his eyes, but to me, it looked like he was wearing just a bit of eyeliner. He was wearing thick motorcycle boots, and the metal clasps on them would jingle when he walked. He looked to be somewhere in his early twenties. It was incredibly sexy. One of the girls in the front started to giggle, and it was as plain as the grin on Mr. Way’s face that she had the hots for him. Her boyfriend was seated next to her, and immediately gave her an extremely angry look. That shut her up real quick. I grinned.

“Hey everybody.” he said, striding over to his desk and digging under a few piles of papers on his desk until he found a piece of chalk. He had a nice voice. It was clear as crystal, and made you want to smile. “So today, I thought we could just finish what we were working on last class, because we need to get those done.” he said, walking over to the chalkboard and writing his name in an interesting design. It looked awesome.

“We need to get them done,” said one blonde girl boldly, “Or you fell asleep early again last night and forgot to make new lesson plans.” she grinned smugly. He turned to look at her, narrowing his eyes playfully, and putting a finger to his lips.

“Maybe.” he smirked. He winked at her and she blushed a deep red, opening her sketch book quickly and hiding behind it, under the pretense of erasing something. He turned his back to her and I could see him roll his eyes and shake his head. I smiled. I suddenly remembered that I was the new kid, and stood hesitantly to give him my slip. I walked over to the chalkboard where he was busy writing “Way” in all different types of lettering all over the board. I cleared my throat and he looked over at me. I handed him the slip and smiled a little.

“Oh, okay.” he said taking the slip and nodding as he read over it, more bits of hair falling across his face. “Thats cool. You weren't here when we started working on the project they're working on now, but it wont be long before we get those done, so for now you can just draw or doodle or scribble or whatever it is that you do best.” he smiled. I smiled back and nodded. I turned to walk away when he said my name.

“Hey Louise,” he said. Immediately hushed snickers broke out across the room at the sound of my name. I sighed and turned back to Mr. Way.

“Please,” I said exasperatedly, tired of explaining this to every teacher I've had so far. “Call me Louie.”

“Louie, okay,” he nodded. “Nice. Well, Louie, I like you hair.” he said, fluffing out my bleach blonde bangs a little. It tickled, and I grinned.

“Thank you.” I said proudly. He grinned back and walked over to his desk. He opened a drawer and dug out a medium sized sketch book, and handed it to me.

“Thats yours to keep, 'Kay?” he said. I nodded.

“Cool thanks.” I said gratefully. He nodded and went back to the chalk board. I smiled and went back to my seat, opening the book of thick white paper carefully, and staring at the blank page. I had no idea what to draw. I looked around the room. All the kids were chattering quietly while carefully coloring in what looked like self portraits. No inspiration there. My eyes continued to roam around the room, taking in every beam of artificial light coming from the ceiling. Then I realized, there weren't any windows in the room. No sunlight came in at all. Not that I cared, but it was just something I noticed.

My eyes kept going, looking at kids passing past the door, only seeing fragments of them through the small, standard glass window in the door. I finally cast a glance at Mr. Way, and by now he had filled the entire board with amazing chalk renditions of his name. I smiled and looked down at my own, blank page.

I carefully picked up my pencil and slowly drew a small cursive L in the corner of my paper. Next to it I drew a cursive O, then U, then I, then E. Louie. It looked alright, for cursive. The I picked a random spot on the paper, and drew two small intersecting roses. They made an L. Then I drew two roses curving, making an O, then a U and so on. Soon my whole paper was filled with different versions of Louie, of different sizes, with one great big Louie in the middle. It looked perfect. I set my pencil down and smiled. When I looked up, I almost jumped out of my skin I was so startled. Mr. Way was sitting on the other side of my table, staring down at my paper intently. I hadn't heard him pull up a chair.

“How long have you been watching me?” I asked incredulously, smiling wide.

“Not long.” he smirked. “This is really cool you know.”

“Well, I had some inspiration...” I said, nodding towards the board. He turned around and laughed.

“Oh yeah! Well, your looks really cool too.” he said genuinely. I smiled, but I could feel the burning sensation of someone watching me on the side of my face, and I glanced to the table beside mine, only to see a jealous glare from that girl. Mr. Way followed my gaze and scoffed. The girl didn't take her hateful eyes on me. I looked back at him and he rolled his eyes. I could finally see them clear now, they were a beautiful shade of hazel, with thick lashes, and rimmed with, I was right, just a little bit of eyeliner. I know some girls think it's just weird on a guy, but honestly, I don't mind. I just sat there, looking at the orbs of light, hoping maybe if I stared long enough, I could see just what he was thinking. And then the bell rang.

It startled the both of us, and he jumped up and stood by his desk.

“Alright you guys.” he said. “I'll see you later.” the room emptied quickly, the sounds of scraping chairs, shuffling feet, and the occasional muttered, “Bye Mr. Way.” from shy, crushing girls. Luckily, I wasn't a desperate dork falling for a teacher. Or...was I?

I took out my cell phone and checked the time. It really was time to leave, and I sighed, setting my phone on the table. I shoved my sketch book and pencil into my bag, and got out of my chair. Mary walked in the doorway, smiling.

“Hey.” she greeted me warmly. “Ready to go? I thought we could walk together 'cause I think we live on the same road now.”

“Oh,” I said. “Cherry-broke road?” I asked.

“Yup, thats the one.”

“Cool.” I said. I turned towards my new art teacher, about to bid him goodbye. And then I recognized him. The shirt. The hair. The voice. He was the one who kept me from continuing my beat down on Jerk-face. I could feel the realization wash over me, and my hands started to sweat a little.

“Wait...hold on a minute Mary.” my I said, not bothering to look at her. “That was you! Today! When I was this close to beating the shit out of Jerk-face!” I yelled at Mr. Way incredulously, holding up my thumb and forefinger close together to simulate how freaking close I was!

“If your talking about me keeping you from breaking more than Todd Shore's nose, than yes. That was me.” he said, trying not to smile. It was a pitiful attempt, and he knew it too.

“You did what?” I heard Mary yell. I turned to her. Shock was clear on her face, her eyes wide and her arms dangling at her sides.

“Just a minute Mary.” I said impatiently. I turned back to Mr. Way. “But he threw a freaking sandwich at me!” I yelled. Mr. Way nodded.

“I know how you feel.” he said sincerely, looking at me intently. I looked at him, remembering what Gavin told me about Gerard being kind of like me. He was, in a way, I realized. We were both different in a sea of stereotypes. Or thats how it appeared. I sighed.

“I bet you your just saying that.” I said, rolling my eyes and walking away. He caught my by the shoulder and I repressed my urge to grab his fingers and bite them right off. He spun me around and bent down the foot of hight difference between us, until he was right in my face.

“No.” he said. “I'm not.” He looked really serious, and I could see shards of pain and understanding in his eyes. It ran deep, and thats when I knew there was something about this man that could help me, understand me, be my dark red apple in this sea of shiny green. I looked down and nodded a little, biting my lip. “Okay. You better get going.” he muttered, still a bit in my face. I nodded again, and walked towards the door. Mary was staring at me with wide eyes and she was clutching her book bag so tight her knuckles were white.

“Hey,” I said, turning back to Mr. Way. “Would it be okay if I ate lunch in here, from now on?” I asked shyly, scratching the back of my head.

“Absolutely.” he grinned. “I'd love to have you.” I smiled and nodded, then motioned for Mary to stop gawking at me and walk. We turned out of the room and down the hall, the only sound being our footsteps clacking on the hard, shiny floors.