We'll Keep a Secret (If You Keep Me Guessing)

After a couple of months, I finally got used to being back in school again. It didn’t seem as hectic as it did before, and it really helped to have Rian, Alex and Jack in a few classes with me. They kept me from going insane, and their crazy antics kept class interesting. I was glad to have them around.

“What is that?” I asked Alex, nearly dying from laughter as he and I sat in art class. We had been instructed to draw an animal of our choosing, and I decided to draw a tiger cub, but I had no idea what that deformed-looking creature on Alex’s paper was.

“It’s a dog,” he said.

I turned my head sideways and continued to stare at the picture. “Why does it have an extra, messed up leg?”

“That’s not a leg. That’s his tail.”

“And what is this?” I pointed to a growth on the “dog’s” underbelly.

Alex smirked slyly. “That would be his wiener.”

“Oh, my God,” I said, unable to take anymore. The muscles in my face and stomach were starting to hurt from me laughing so much.

I guess Mr. Garner must have heard all the commotion because he appeared at our table rather quickly. Alex and I tried our hardest to control our giggles as Mr. Garner inspected our work. He looked at mine first.

“Very good work, Sophia,” he complimented. “Nice detail.”

“Thank you,” I beamed.

Then he moved on to Alex’s drawing. He frowned almost immediately. “Alex, can I speak to you in my office for a minute?”

Alex shrugged. “Sure.” He pushed himself up from his seat and followed Mr. Garner into his office.

I turned back to my tiger cub and started adding a few more details to it while I waited for Alex to come back. He returned roughly five minutes later, but he looked upset. Whatever Mr. Garner had to talk to him about, he must not have liked it very much.

“What did he say?” I asked as Alex sat back down.

“I’ll tell you about it later,” he said as he snatched his “dog” picture off of the table and crumpled it into a ball.



“Will you two cut it out?” I pleaded as Jack, Alex and I all sat down in Jack’s basement. Jack and Alex were on a couch less than five feet away from me, groping each other, and it was starting to make me uncomfortable.

“You’re welcome to join if you want,” Alex offered with a sly grin on his face.

“The more, the merrier,” Jack added.

I laughed and shook my head. “No, thanks. You can keep that to yourselves.”

They both shrugged their shoulders and continued rolling around on the couch.

“Um, Alex?”

He pulled away from Jack and turned toward me. “Yeah?”

“Are you going to tell me what Mr. Garner said to you earlier?”

Suddenly, his mood changed. He sat up and distanced himself from Jack, frowning and heaving a deep sigh in the process. “He said that I’m going to fail the marking period if I don’t start putting more effort into my work. He told me that I would do a lot better if I did more pieces about things that mean something to me, and then he started going on about passion and emotions and all that other bullshit.”

“Well, you’re gonna fail then,” Jack said, snickering. “You don’t have passion or emotions. On the other hand, though, you are full of bullshit.”

“Shut up, Jack,” Alex spat, scowling and punching Jack in the arm.

“Ow!” Jack complained, rubbing the spot where Alex hit him.

“Mr. Garner is right, you know?” I told Alex. “You just need to dig deep down and find something that you care about or a feeling that you could never express in words and draw it out.”

“I don’t want to,” he whined like a child. “I swear he just hates me. He has since day one. I’m the only one in the class that he picks on.”

“He doesn’t hate you, and I’m sure he wouldn’t pick on you as much if you took the class more seriously and didn’t treat it like a blow-off.”

Alex rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Teacher’s pet.”

I resented that comment. I got up from my seat and jumped on him, grabbing a handful of his hair and pulling on it. “I am not a teacher’s pet. I’m just trying to help you out.”

“Okay!” he shouted, a pained expression on his face. “Let go.”

I released his hair and went back to the chair that I was previously sitting in. “You know that I’m right, so what are you going to do?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I guess I’ll have to figure something out.”

“You can draw me,” Jack suggested with a smile, running a hand through his slick, black hair. “You know, since you’re all in love with me and whatnot.”

“Oh yes, Jack! Please be my muse,” Alex begged sarcastically.

I giggled a little. “Think of something that you never could say, never wanted to say or kept bottled up and put it on paper. Not only will it make a great picture, but it will make you feel better too.”

Alex sat there quietly for a minute, pondering his options.

“Enough talk about art and feelings and junk,” Jack said. “We need to figure out something to do because I’m getting bored.”

“We could call up Erin and the guys and go hang out at the park,” I proposed.

“It’s better than just sitting here.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Zack and Rian while I called Erin and told her to meet us at the park around the corner.