High School Is Not a Fairy Tale

As the last classroom door banged shut I turned the corner to the art wing and was met with complete and utter silence. Since it was the end of the day each door was closed and there wasn't a soul anywhere in sight. This early in the year none of the clubs had started meeting yet but soon I hoped to have the hall bustling with life.

Every footstep echoed back ten times louder off the linoleum floor as I made my way to Studio 3. The metal handle was cold in my hand as I turned and pushed against the heavy wooden door and there, just where I had left it at the beginning of summer break, was my heaven. My easel was still standing facing the south towards the windows that looked out over the senior parking and the football field to river valley below, there was even still half a roll of paper draped over the top.

I put my bag gently on the large table at the center of the room before moving over to the cabinets that lined the left wall; I opened the third door from the end and stared up at the top shelf where my oil pastels were just laying waiting to be used.

As I was gathering my supplies I heard the studio door creaked open and shut again followed by a deep male voice, “Um, hello?”

Stepping out from behind the cabinet door I turned to look at the newcomer, he was tall – well taller than me that is, with dark hair and a tan complexion; someone whose portrait I would definitely consider drawing. “Hi?”

He nervous shifted his weight to his right foot, adjusted the strap of his backpack and quickly surveyed the room before returning his gaze to me, “Alexandrine Tewers?”

“…yes?” I spun around and walked away from him to set up my materials next to a fresh page on my easel. I heard him follow and place his bag on the table next to mine before coming to stand beside me.

“I’m Tyson Kate, I just transferred here.”

"Alright.. and?"

"Well..." he cleared his throat and I turned to look at him. "I was looking for Ms Winters and was told to come find you instead.."

"Ms Winters?" he nodded, shifting his weight again. "Well for the first two weeks of school she doesn't stay after hours, that's why she couldn't find her. What do you need? I'll try and help you the best I can."

He walked back over to his bag and after a few minutes of rummaging through it he pulled out a crumpled packet of papers. "I'm just trying to submit this information for art club."

I reached out for the papers which he quickly handed over and after smoothing out some of the worst creases stared down at the application that I had put together at the end of last year. "Well I can definitely help you with this, Ms Winters would have sent you to me anyway."

He followed me over to the cluttered desk tucked away in the back corner of the studio and as i pressed the power button on the oldest computer in the school asked "Really? Why/"

The computer sputtered and literally coughed up a cloud of dust, waving a hand in front of my face I pulled the keyboard out of the drawer and began to type my log-in information. "Well I've been Art Club president for the past two years and she kinda just lets me run everything so she doesn't have to worry about it."

"Oh that makes sense I guess." We slipped into silence as I filled in the electronic edition of the application. The clicking of the keyboard the only sound in the room other than our breathing.

Finally I hit print on the generic art club flier from the year before and with a pen wrote Tuesday September 10th on the line for the first meeting and began powering down the computer. I turned to hand Tyson the flier and found that he had migrated to the bulletin board by the door, I moved to stand next to him, "Looking at anything particular?"

He pointed to a caricature posted above Ms Winters' name plate, "Who drew this? It's awesome."

I reached up and moved a posting of this week's lunch menu to reveal a bright blue signature on the bottom corner of the page, "I did."

He looked down at me, "I can see why you're president."

I laughed nervously, "Thanks, um here;s some stuff about the club. The first meeting with everybody is next week; it would be a good idea to bring an example of your work, it doesn't have to be anything elaborate."

We'd moved back to the table with our bags and he folded the paper and put it away without looking at it "Alright, thanks." he half smiled and picked up his bag and made his way towards the door but he stopped just outside the doorway and turned back around, "Um this is kinda embarrassing but it's my first day here and I have no idea where we are... do you think you could show me to the front door?"

Smiling I grabbed my bag and put my pastels away again, they would have to wait until another day. "Sure, no problem. Just follow me." I locked the studio door and turned to head towards the math hallway.

We were both silent for several steps before he cleared his throat, "So.. Alexandrine, what year are you?"

When I looked at him he had his hands shoved deep in his pockets and he kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, "Well first off everyone calls me Allix and you can too if you want and I'm a senior this year, What about you?"

"Alright, Allix. I'm a senior too, I guess."

"You guess? You mean you don't know?" I must have been looking at him like he had six heads because he broke out in laughter. His laugh was deep and resonating, the kind the when you hear it you can't help but laugh as well, so that's exactly what I did.

"No, I'm quite sure I'm a senior. Just not so sure how I feel about the whole finishing high school thing."

"I think I know what you mean," at this point we turned into the main lobby and stopped just next to the main doors "everything that's after high school has always felt so far away and now it's just right around the corner."

"Yeah, pretty much. Okay so I have no idea how we got here.. I need to like tattoo a map on the back of my hand or something."

Again I was laughing, "It's really not that hard once you've been here for a little while. I'm sure you'll be fine after a couple of days but if you ever get lost you'll be able to find someone willing to point you in the right direction."

We exited the building and began to head in separate directions, him to the parking lot and I, just away from the school. "I sure hope so, see you around Allix."

"Later, Tyson." I waved and turned around, listening to the gravel crunch under my beat up converse as I dug for my iPod in my bag. Once I had the headphones in my ears I turned the volume all the way up and crossed the street.

One day down, one hundred and seventy-nine more to go.