The Art of Life

"Now this is first position... Yes, that's right, Chastity, you've got it. Marissa, just a little bit straighter, yes that's it."

I beamed at my teacher, whom was dressed in tights and a leotard. She was slim and beautiful.

"This.. is second position. Just take a step apart."

The dancers took a step. I felt giddy and excited. I was becoming a ballerina already!

"This is third position. It's a little bit tricky, so watch me.... Place your front foot with your heel touching the middle of the back one... That's it, Chastity. Marissa and Casey, you've got a little trouble..."

She fixed us and then moved on.

"Now, fourth position is just a step in front of you like this. Beautiful!"

I looked at the others. The girls have their hair up in tight buns, their chins tilted and their faces stone-cold and prim like they were the best ballerinas in the world. A few boys here were looking bored. Of course, we were just beginning. I think I would be the best ballerina in the world when I hit ten years old.

"Fifth position is just like the third, only with your heel touching your other toe... Yes, exactly, Chastity. Boys? Are you listening?"

I watched the teacher instruct the boys and then looked at the girls. One, the girl Chastity, was stick thin, her knees knobby and her ribs visible under her leotard when she stretched. She gazed at me with a pretty freckled face, but then her mouth oozed into a sour smile. Then that smile twisted into a sneer.

I blinked, a bit insulted, but also confused. What did I do to make her look at me like that?

Eventually, the teacher came back. Chastity slipped back into the facade of coolness; she was sculpted ice. The teacher complimented, "Chastity has very good form, take her for an example."

The freckled girl's eyes glittered with that praise, but she kept her chin high and her expression apathetic. The teacher continued on with the lesson.

I swallowed and participated for the rest of the time.

---

"Wow, what a beautiful drawing, Marissa!"

I glanced up at Mr. Meyers, who was admiring my drawing of a bridge. I didn't think it was all that, as I wasn't very good at drawing, but I nodded and accepted the compliment anyway. Mr. Meyers then went on to look at other students' artwork.

I automatically took a look at the clock. There were seven minutes left until this class was over. Slightly impatient, I let out a sigh, examined the reference photo, and started shading. I didn't have much time though; a couple minutes afterwards, my class started cleaning up materials. I put the pencils back into their correct drawers and tucked away the charcoal. One of the guys in my class fumbled with his pencils, dropped them, and bumped into me as he tried to pick them up.

"Sorry!" I flushed, as if it was me that bumped into him. The boy swept them up and grinned apologetically. He had a messy flap of drawings tucked under his arm, which his disorganization was probably why he dropped his pencils in the first place. Shwoop! Then they all flew out and scattered.

"Oops." He said.

I knelt down and helped him pick them all up. Shuffling them all into another pile, the boy flipped his hair back and said thank you. We got up and he put his pencils into the drawer.

"Sorry about that, Marissa. I do really need to get my act together." He laughed weakly.

"Sure, it's fine." He knew my name, what was his again? Aidan? Adam? No, Asher, that was it. I was pretty sure it was Asher. He moved here a bit ago; I think I had another class with him.

As I expected our short exchange to be over, I started to go back to my desk and get my drawing, but Asher's voice diverted me.

"Um, I know this is weird for me to ask you this," He said, his hand lifting up a little, as if he was going to reach out and stop me, "But can you look at this picture for me?"

I looked at him. He had hazel eyes, and they looked a bit worried.

"Um, okay." I said.

He held out a small piece of paper and I took it. It was a drawing of a fairy sitting on a mushroom looking out into the distance. It was a kind of dark drawing, but very well done, and it was obvious he had a lot of skill with anatomy and drawing in general.

"Does she look evil?" He asked.

"I don't think so."

"I mean, be honest. I think she looks a bit... 'out there'. I wanted a second opinion." Asher smiled weakly.

I looked at it a bit closer, frowning. The fairy's expression seemed lost and a little pained. Her hands were also wrung together, like she was anxious, and her shoulders seemed tense. I didn't think she was evil.

"I think she's anxious, like she wants to go somewhere or see someone." I said and handed it back to him. It was pretty amazing that he put that much detail into her to make her look like that.

Asher scrutinized it. "Hm, I think you're right." He looked up and flipped his hair back. "Thank you. I'll see you in ceramics!"

Then he smiled at me and in the turn of his heel, he left to go to his next class.

---

In ceramics, Asher was making a kangaroo.

I was a bit distracted from my last class, photography, for me to notice much of what I was doing. A person turned on the lights in the dark room and all our photos were ruined. I was devastated. Some tears even managed to leak out or my eyes, but I held them back and told myself that I'd have to just try again later.

In ceramics, we were supposed to be making these little pots out of clay. We needed to make two bowls, one with legs so it could stand up, and we had to make it creative. I had no idea what I was going to make.

Asher was sneaking looks at me as I was hopelessly drawing sketches of ideas. I felt my face turn red, and I tried to ignore him, but whenever I'd look to see if he was looking at me, he was looking. Our eyes would meet, but I never saw anything after that since I shot my gaze away. Eventually the last time this happened he just gave me a cheesy smile and then sidled over to the empty seat beside me.

I tried to act calm. Why was I so nervous anyway? I have guy friends that I talk to, Asher shouldn't be that different... even though he wasn't a friend yet.

"Whatcha making?" He asked, trying to see what I was drawing.

"Nothing yet." I sighed, and let him look at my futile attempts.

Asher took the paper in his hands, held it in front of him, and adjusted an imaginary monocle on his face. "Hmmm, quite lovely.. yes... quite lovely indeed." He turned up his nose, gazing at it thoughtfully. "Yes, my dear. You look like you have a masterpiece."

An involuntary grin spread across my face at his antics. "You're a theatre kid, aren't you?"

"Musical theatre, actually, is my specialty." He winked. My face flushed. Asher combed his hair back with his hand and added, "What do you do?"

It took me a moment to get my tongue to work. Was he really trying to make a conversation with me? "Photography and ballet."

Asher nodded, his reddish-brown hair falling into his eyes. He flipped it back and smiled. "That's really neat. I tried photography once and I couldn't get any good pictures, so I didn't really like it." He chuckled weakly.

"It could've been the camera." I said. "Some just don't take quality photos."

"That was probably it. I used a cheap digital camera."

We both laughed. I felt myself slide out of my awkwardness a little. He was... kinda cute.

"You draw as well, right?" I asked.

Asher's gave me a frail smile, and averted his gaze, which surprised me. "Yeah, I do. A little too well for my own good."

Was he being shy? "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, I draw really scary things." He shrugged.

"That fairy wasn't that bad." I said

"I guess so. I'm trying to draw happier things." He managed a smile. But it grew bigger when he got the idea, "Do you want me to show you some of my other drawings sometime?"

"Oh, sure." I blinked. He acted like I was already his friend, and that startled me a bit, but I went with it. I liked him.

"I could text you pictures if you want; I have a bunch on my phone." Asher said, though hesitantly, as if he knew he'd probably scare me off.

"Yeah, I'll give you my phone number." I tried to hide back my smile as I recited the numbers. Asher flipped his phone open and punched them in.

He then grinned and said, "Alrighty! I'll text you after school sometime, I promise. I'll even pinky swear."

I laughed. Asher gave me a I'm-being-serious look. And then we shook pinkies.

And I couldn't help but hope this would turn out to become a beautiful relationship.