If Looks Could Kill, I'd Be Dead

Theta

Since it’s the first day of school, the teacher introduces herself, gives a summary of the class, et cetera. The first assignment for us is to paint a landscape. Simple. Today we’re just going to look through magazines for pictures to see which landscape we would like to paint. Tomorrow, she’ll teach us how to mix paints, and whatever else.

She passes around a few miscellaneous magazines to all of the students. She gives Loren and I a stack to peruse. People talk to each other while looking through the various scenic pictures. I put the stack of magazines on my lap and take this opportunity to talk to Loren. I turn to him and he looks up at me.

“So, you’re from England…?” I say, hoping he’ll elaborate.

“Yep. I’m from Liverpool.” He replies.

“Liverpool? The Beatles were from there!” I didn’t realize how dumb that sounded until it left my mouth. Oh, God. I feel the blush creeping up my cheeks.

“Indeed, they were…” he says, chuckling.

“So, uh, what was it like there? I’ve always wanted to go to England.” I say.

“Well, it’s a city, but it has a lot of docks and waterfronts and such. My mates and I used to walk around the city and sometimes we’d even take road trips to London on the weekends.”

“Wow, it sounds like a lot of fun.” I have wanted to go to England all of my life. It sounds amazing. He takes another magazine from the dwindling stack on my lap before saying,

“Nah, it was redundant after awhile. I love London, I’d rather live there; it’s so brill. But America? This should be a whole new adventure...” He smiles and leafs through the magazine. I smile too, looking through a magazine about tropical islands.

“So why did you end up coming here?” I ask him.

“Well, I wanted to go to university in the United States. The rents thought it’d be good fer meh to come a year early, just in case I didn’t like it 'ere or somefing.” He shrugs.

“Well, this is the suburbs. There really isn’t much to do here. Really, all there is to do is go to parties or just hang out with your friends. But, the neighbouring city is really fun to go to. It’s not that far away, only around ten minutes by car. There’s a lot to do there.” I explain.

“Are there any cinemas around ‘ere?” he asks.

“Uh huh, there are.” I like the way he talks. The British words are so different. Like, he said cinema instead of movie theater. I think that is just so cool.

“Huh…” Loren says, but he’s busy contemplating, flipping through pictures. Then, he finds a picture he wants, ripping it out. “Look ah this!” he says, excitedly. He holds up the image so that I can see it. The picture is a beautiful snowy scene.

“I love it!” I take the picture from him and study it. “It’s beautiful!”

“Yes, it really is.” He takes the picture from me and smiles.

“I still haven’t found anything.” I groan in frustration. “None of these have really jumped out at me, you know?”

“Yeah, I know the feeling.” He takes the second to last magazine from my lap and starts to look through it. “I’ll help yeh look for one. What did yeh want to paint?” he asks.

“I don’t even know. I really wanted something with trees in it. Something really colourful.” I reply. The picture better be in this magazine. There’s not a lot of time left in class. To my dismay, nothing else pops out. I sigh and look around. There’s a few magazines strewn about near the populars. Shit. That means I have to walk over there and… ugh.

I walk over to them and take a few magazines, asking, “Can I, uh, take these?”

They don’t really pay me much attention. “Yeah, sure.” One of the girls says.

“Kay, thank you.” I walk back to Loren. He’s sitting there, and looks up when I approach. He holds out his hand for another, so I give it to him. We page through the pictures, and I’m starting to become even more frustrated. Why can’t I find one?

“Theta.” Loren says my name and passes me a magazine. The picture that he has is just stunning. It’s a photograph of a lone tree at sunrise. It’s absolutely magnificent.

“Whoa…” Loren found the perfect picture for me. “It’s… incredible.” I say.

“That’s going to look ace!” he says, smiling.

“Thank you.” I look up at him gratefully.

“Yeh welcome.” He grins. And then the bell rings. “Jus’ in time.” he says, and I chuckle. We stack up the magazines and put them back on the shelf.

“So what class do you have next?” I ask him as we walk out the door of the art room.

“Uh, hold on.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper. He scans it, and says “Anatomy.”

“Can I see it?” I ask, stopping on the side so that I don’t interrupt of the flow of students.

“Mhm.” He hands me the slip of paper. I look it over. Ironically, we have four classes together as well… four classes?! That’s quite a significant amount. Photography, lunch, AP Art, and of course, advanced painting. Thankfully, Sascha, Loren and I all have the same seventh period lunch. Loren and I have photography sixth period, AP Art ninth, and we just had advanced painting first, while Sascha and I have AP English third and P.E. together eighth.

I decide to walk Loren to class. I mean, his class is on the way, so why not? As we walk, I ask him,

“So have you made any friends here yet?”

“Nope. I have only been ‘ere a week before today.” he replies. “You’re the first mate I’ve made ‘ere so far.” He smiles kindly.

“Oh.” A grin blossoms on my face, a flush running up my cheeks. He’s scanning the numbers of the classrooms.

“This is meh class.” He says, stopping in front of a door.

“Okay. It was nice to meet you!” I say.

“Nice to meet yeh too. See yeh later?” he asks.

“Of course.” I smile. He returns the smile and then, with a salute, he walks into the classroom.

I make my way to my next class, a huge grin on my face. Just as I walk in, the bell rings. I find an empty desk in the back row and stare out the window as the teacher begins the class, thinking about my new British friend.