Say Anything

I sat down at the stool in art class and sighed happily at the fact that no one in this class could potentially disturb me. It was free period, which basically meant we could all sit around, talk, paint or draw. I chose to draw. I took out a large piece of thick sketch paper, and placed it down on my desk. I grabbed out some pastels and laid them out gently in front of me, slowly thinking of what I was going to draw. Sometimes it took me the whole period to think about what I wanted to convey on the paper, just because not much of my life could ever be placed onto something and have people fully understand its meaning.

I grabbed a dark green and began sliding the side of the pastel along the paper, not even knowing what I was doing, it just felt right. Soon enough I grabbed brown, and then black. And less than thirty minutes later, I stared at my drawing, not even knowing what to think of it myself.

It looked like a grassy field, full of long, jagged grass with trees all around it, and what laid right in the middle of this abandoned field, was a baby blue envelope.

I sighed and laughed to myself a little that my body practically forced me to draw that.

“Wow, that’s really good.” I heard a girl say behind me. I turned around to see Avery standing there staring at my picture intensively.

“Thanks,” I replied quietly and slowly began to cover the picture with my arm. “Since when are you in this class?” I asked the nicest I could.

“Since today.” She replied and shrugged. “I was on the waiting list to get in here.” She then softly pushed my arm away and began to study the drawing more attentively. “What are you trying to say with this?” She asked.

“I’m not really trying to say anything.” I replied. “Just something I drew.”

“It’s really beautiful. You combined the colors so well.” She remarked and a smiled faintly.

“Thanks.” I said quietly and looked back down at my paper.

“No problem.” She replied, smiled and was just about to walk back to her painting when she stopped and turned around. “Hey, you wanna eat lunch with me today?” She asked. I stood there for a second and nodded my head faintly.

“Sure.”

-x-

Finally it was after school. MM hadn’t left me a letter at lunch, and I was pretty disappointed. But I actually had a good time with Avery, and she wasn’t like all the others at this school, which I definitely liked.

I rushed to my locker, hoping that a letter would be there. I was mainly just excited to see if MM would reveal more about himself. I opened my locker and smiled when I saw the envelope. I kind of like how this has become a regular day to day thing.

Bay,

Like I said, Derek probably has an ulterior motive. It may be good or it may be bad, but I know it’s there. So I guess you’ll just have to wait it out and see for yourself.

Ha, I’ll lay it down right now that I am NOT a teacher, nor will I ever be one. I tried teaching my neighbor kid piano and I almost strangled him because it was probably the most frustrating thing in the world.

I am a senior here, and I’m waiting to see which colleges I have and haven’t been accepted into. It’s kind of nerve-racking. I really want to be an architect. I know that sounds really lame, but for some reason I have always been good at math, and it just seems right to apply it to such a cool thing such as that. I also love building things. Are you planning on going to college? I’m sure you are, you seem very smart.

And actually, if you look close enough, I’m giving you hints after every letter about me. So maybe you’re not as smart as I think? Hmm...

Just read the last bits, and put them all together. I’m sure that sooner or later you’ll find out who I am, and it’s going to suck for me, because I truly really want to remain a mystery to you, even though I know that that will get me nowhere. I just feel that once you find out it is me, it’ll be different and you won’t think of me the same anymore. Maybe I’m wrong. But I have a gut instinct that I’m right.

MM

Just because you paint a picture doesn’t mean it fits the frame.

I stood there and smiled at his letter, but then frowned at the fact that he would think I would be so judgmental as to not like him if he showed his true identity. It seems like he’s trying to make it out like I’m shallow, and I’m completely opposite of that.

I gave myself a quick reminder that I should take all of the last bits he writes and put them together later today. It made me excited to think it would be like solving a puzzle. I slipped the letter into my backpack and headed out towards the student parking lot. I groaned when I saw Derek with all of his friends. I kind of stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do. I really didn’t want to walk up to them, knowing that it would result into some extreme awkward silences. I just played with the hem of my green sweater and was just about to turn and walk away when I heard Derek shout at me.

“Baylin!” He yelled. I stopped, closed my eyes and turned around to see him and his whole group staring at me.

“Who’s she?” I heard Heather ask. I slowly walked towards the group with my head down.

“She’s Baylin. Project for English.” Derek replied and Heather just scoffed and looked me up and down.

“Oh.” She remarked snottily. I shifted uneasily, and Derek obviously noticing this, waved goodbye to his friends and led me to his car.

“Sorry about that.” He muttered.

“No need to apologize to me. Apologize to yourself for having such lame friends.” I remarked. Derek just smirked and unlocked his car for me to get in. I hopped in the front seat, and he hopped in the driver's seat and turned on the ignition.

“You really do have quite the mouth for someone who doesn’t usually talk to anyone.”

“Yeah, and I would keep that mouth closed if it wasn’t for the sudden difficulty of having you randomly deciding to invade my life.” I remarked and stared out of the window.

“Am I really that much of a nuisance to you?” Derek asked and patted his fingers on the steering wheel along to the rock music that was playing quietly on the radio.

I didn’t bother to answer him; I just sighed and stared out of the window, dreading what was to come next.

But little did I know, it was something I would have never expected.