Mary Quinn

Mary Quinn was a bitch, there was no two ways around it. She knew it, too. Mary felt almost distant from the rest of the world; her family, her friends, her peers - she barely even cared about them. For her, high school was a stepping stone, an obstacle of sorts, that she just had to leap over before she could finally move on in life. Everything and anyone she encountered along the way was inconsequential to her, because in time she would leave them all behind.

Mary Quinn was known for being a less than talented liar, but what people didn't know was that she actually did have a talent for pretending. She was good at pretending that she was okay around her parents. She was good at pretending that she was okay around her peers. And she was good at pretending that she didn't think her friends were all bitches, too.

Because they were. Mary's friends were hypocritical, nasty, and unnecessarily judgmental. Mary didn't necessarily hate them, but she hated the way they made her feel. She couldn't share her own opinions about things, because they always had such strong opposing opinions about them. They hated almost everyone in their small school, and there was always a reason why they were better than everyone. Even though Mary didn't hate her friends, she couldn't help but look around at all the other people in school and wonder what it would be like to be a part of a different group.

Which is exactly why Mary loved her art class so much.

Well, firstly she loved art because she loved to paint. But she also loved art because it was almost like a separate universe from the world of high school. She knew it sounded stupid, though, so she rarely thought about it in those terms. The class was small, almost too small to run with just nine students enrolled in it. The class was all juniors and seniors, and none of them were friends with each other outside the classroom. But in that art class, they were friends. It was weird, Mary knew, but she couldn’t help but think of all of them as a family. In reality, only four of the other students were really close to her (well, as close as they could be considering they only talked during art). The other four didn’t really talk much, and Mary didn’t care much about them.

But she enjoyed the company of the four that did talk very much.

First, there was Chloe Moore. Chloe was a bitch – like Mary and most of the teenage girl population. However, Chloe was nastier than some of the other bitches. She had a serious attitude problem and seemed to be able to find something wrong with everyone. But at the same time, Mary liked talking to her because they hated most of the same things and people. And Chloe wasn’t always a nasty, sometimes she was just overly pessimistic and negative. Unlike Mary, Chloe didn’t seem to realize that she was so negative. Mary didn’t mind it though from Chloe, because while she was undeniably mean sometimes, she wasn’t a hypocrite. She spoke her mind, and even when it came off wrong at least it was the God’s honest truth.

Then there was Aiden Clark. Mary liked talking to him the best, not because she had a crush on him or anything, but because he was the most amicable. He was a big-time wrestler despite being one of the smallest boys in their grade. He probably stood around five feet four inches and weighed one hundred fourteen pounds (Mary knew because they often talked about wrestling and how much he was allowed to eat – Mary thought it was child abuse). He was kind of mousy: a small pointed nose with small blue eyes and dimpled smile. Honestly though, Mary was obsessed with the kid’s eyes. They were this deep ocean blue, and whenever she looked into them she felt like she could get lost in them like the ocean. If he weren’t so small and child-like she would have had a crush on him. But Mary was rather shallow, and even though she loved Aiden’s personality, she could never like him based on his looks.

William Lee was weird. He was the only “true” artist of the group and was aspiring to go to art school. At the beginning of the year he had seemed to have a stick lodged up his ass, but he loosened up a bit as time wore on. He was closest to Aiden, and Mary only really talked to him because of Aiden. William was often the butt of their jokes, but never in a harsh way. Through the course of the year he slowly loosened up as the group became comfortable with each other. They often joked that William had gone insane. He had transformed from a perfectionist to a crazed artist who would rather finger paint than use a brush.

Lastly there was Noah Hayes. He was weird too, but not the same way as William. He was one of the nicest people Mary had ever met, but also painfully naïve. Though he had come from a relatively rough background (from what Mary could tell at least, she knew he was in foster care and that he had moved around for most of his life) he seemed to always think the best of people, even when they didn’t deserve it. Mary knew that was all and well, but Noah seemed so pathetically and blindly faithful. He was innocent, despite whatever he had gone through, and it bothered Mary; he made her uncomfortable. She didn’t like to put herself in other people’s shoes, and that’s what Noah made her do whenever she talked to him. Mary couldn’t understand him, which frustrated her.

She also loved her art teacher, though not in the student crushing on the teacher type way. He was really bizarre, but funny and interesting. He was a real artist, not just an art teacher that liked to do arts and crafts. Mr. Dunn’s projects often frustrated her because they pushed her creative limits, but she enjoyed them all still.

Even though every day, fourth period, Mary would talk and laugh with Chloe, Aiden, William and sometimes even Noah, none of them talked outside room 328; they rarely even acknowledged each other. It was a strange relationship and one of a kind.

All the same, Mary Quinn loved it.