Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

My second class was art. I absolutely loved art. We sat in front of our blank sheets of paper while the teacher gave us our assignments.

"I want you all to draw a portrait of someone close to you, anyone." Ms. Hart said to the class. Soon as she gave us the signal we went at it. I picked up my pencil and sketched the outline, from the head down to shoulders. Then I did the hair, the eyes and then the nose. I didn't know who I was portraying quite yet, i was just going with it. I closed my eyes and felt the picture. I opened them again and started with the paints, mixing colors and giving the eyes an electric blue. I pulled the lips into a thin line, giving a light red, almost pink.On her face, there were tears, just a few drops. Her skin tan-ish. I hit every detail, her cheekbones, eyelashes, everything. I finished it off with her light blonde hair. I set the paint brush down and took off the apron i was wearing which was covered in paint.

"Very good, haley and who is it?" Ms. Hart stood beside me.

I looked over the features of the painting and finally realized. "It's.. my mother." I said quietly.

"Very nice." She smiled and walked away.

I combed my bangs to the side with my hands and tucked some hair behind my ear, eyeing over the painting.

My mother had such grace, such beauty. But her personality was so ugly, and horrible. I looked at the picture, disgust and hurt filling in my eyes. I grabbed the pencil once more and scribbled my signature at the bottom, then turned in the picture before the bell rang.

Just as the bell did ring she told us our assignment was just a simple to go home and sketch a family member. I grabbed my bag and scarmbled out the door, to my next class, P.E. I changed quietly in the locker room into the P.E. clothes and we all walked out to the gym. I pulled my hair into a ponytail as the teacher yelled at the boys across the gym. I saw the tall lanky brown/blonde haired guy next to the one i was trying to avoid. I didnt really know his name but.. whatever. I stood there awkwardly, hugging my arms to my body and laney ran over to me, her ponytail bouncing as she did.

"Hey, what's your next class?"

"Government." I shrugged.

She looked irritated somehow.

"cool.." She tried to play off that irritated look that was just on her face. I just shrugged it away and hugged my arms to my body again. A horrible habbit of mine.

"EVERYBODY GRAB A PARTNER!" Mrs. Bell yelled.

"Hey, mrs. bell, you single yet?" The guy asked the teacher, probably in a joking way.

"Get a partner, Alex." She said in an exasperated tone.

"Partners?" Laney smiled

I nodded with a small smile and kept my arms tightly around my body. I looked over at alex, i guess his name was, and he was looking back at me, smiling and the smile I had on my face fell.

After a while the teacher asked if we all had partners and Alex responded with some flirty remark that pissed her off some more.

We did our stretches then she told us to all get up and stand shoulder-to-shoulder. and we did. I was next to Laney and she was next to that alex kid. Then she counted us off and sent us to different sides of the gym to play coed softball. I looked around the team and noticed Alex, he looked back at me.

"Alex," Mrs. bell tossed him the ball. Alex jogged over to me and held out the ball.

"Care to pitch?" He smiled at me.

I shook my head and looked away. He walked behind me and wrapped his arms around me, which caught me by surprise.

"I can show you how." He whispered in my ear, causing me to stiffen and hug my arms to my body again.

"I'm pretty excellent at this." He told me, grabbing my wrist. I let him extend my left arm all the way out.

"Mr. Gaskarth." Mrs. bell snapped.

"This is a lesson in softball, ma'am." Alex turned his head to the teacher then back to my ear. He placed the softball in my left hand and I gripped it.

"Do you throw overhand or underhand?" He questioned. I answered him with a shrug. He held my left hand in his own and helped me toss underhand toward the plate. The plastic bat hit the ball and the ball came down onto the first baseman.

"You go an out, are you sure you havent done this before?" He gave a soft laugh and i curled my lips into my mouth and bit down on them.

He helped me pitch again, this time the other team struck a homerun. "You're really good at this." He whispered in my ear. I shivered.

"What's your favorite thing to do?" He asked as we tossed the ball.

I didn't answer, instead I watched the ball sail across the gym.

"If i get hit in the nose will you take care of me?" he questioned, looking into my eyes. I looked back at him with a shocked expression. I looked back down to the floor as our third baseman threw the ball back to alex. He placed the ball back in my hand and held the back of my hand with his own.

"I think she understands how to pitch, Mr. Gaskarth." Mrs. bell called to him.

"Not sure, ma'am." He called back as i tossed the ball one last time. We got our third out and now it was time for us to pitch. Alex and I sat at the end.

"Do you play sports?" He looked over at me.

I looked at whoever was batting instead of him and he touched my cheek, I gasped.

"You can't ignore me forever." He laughed. I swallowed and reached up to touch his hand but stopped short.

A deep red flushed over me. I opened my mouth to say something then shut it.

"What's your favorite color?" He smiled at me. I went to say something but the bell rang. I jumped up and went to the locker room, Laney glaring at me the whole way there.

When i got to government I was trying to figure out why Laney was glaring at me, like a jealous girlfriend glare. I mean why would she be jealous I was around Alex when she was with Zack?

I shook the thought from my head and sat down in the front row corner in the class.

With my luck of course Alex sat next to me. I turned away from him and pretended he wasn't even there. Mr. Shae walked in and started talking, then he took roll.

"Haley Mathers" He called out.

"Here." I said quietly, raising my hand.

"She speaks." alex whispered.

I heard more whispers coming from around me and people giving me wide eyed looks, i heard someone say 'That's her, thats eminem's daughter!' I sighed and flipped through the textbook, the whispers still going around the room.

And so it begins.