True Colours

"So how's your third day at Dulaney High going?" Alex asked cheerfully, sitting down next to me with Jack at the other side of him.

I shrugged but couldn't keep the hint of a smile from my lips at his presence. I liked Alex: he was so bright and kind. Not too cheerful like this girl called Jillian, and not too depressing like me.

His balance of evident emotions was perfect.

It was my first Art class and I couldn't be more excited for a lesson to start. Art was practically my only talent: I couldn't play an instrument, I wasn't very sporty despite my twice daily jogs and football, I hadn't any skills in something unusual that could be shown off on Britain's Got Talent, I wasn't a fast swimmer, I couldn't sing and I sucked at everything. Except art. I knew I could draw, I'm not being big-headed, and my paintings turned out pretty accurate. It was something I used to do as a hobby - I wasn't too good back then - before it turned into an escape from the pushy therapists and my standoffish dad who was afraid to hug me. I had all the comfort I needed within a pencil case or paint set. The therapists my dad had given me to, gave me art sets so that I could speak without opening my mouth- and to entertain myself. I'd often draw people I loved but they always turned out sick and twisted, so I turned to nature.

Back then my mind was darker than it is now, which is saying something, and everything was twisted to me.

I drew beautiful scenes of nature that my therapists praised me over... Until they left me to it. My mind ran away with the pencil and dead bodies, sometimes even people screaming for help, would enter the place. The sky would become grey over their heads and the lush green grass would soon turn red with the blood dripping from their severed limbs and wounds.

I drew people I loved, one person I loved the most, but her face soon became sick and twisted with fear. Just how I'd seen her after it happened. Scrapes and bruises would line her cheeks and her pupils would soon dilate before I'd rub them out completely, choking with sobs, and draw over it with closed eyes. I wanted her to be peaceful, but it seemed whenever I drew her she ended up like something you'd see in a horror film. My mind ached with darkness and the only way I could let it out was through the sick drawings.

I wasn't the most sane child.

The therapists and doctors took the art sets away from me after a while once they saw that I'd pinned them up on the wall of my dingy room. One woman was scared of my drawings and refused to touch them. I couldn't see what was so wrong about them when I was drawing them, it was just my mind projected onto paper, it was when they showed them back to me after about a week I'd jolt backwards at the horrifying drawings. I couldn't help what I drew, it just went like that, but over time it changed.

When they sent me back to my dad they'd 'fixed' the drawings and decided against telling him about them. Keeping them a secret. I'd been told that my mind was tremendous by a few humans, they said the fact that I just know things was amazing and how easily I could read even the most unpredictable people was incredible, but I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. I just knew things. Wow, big whoop. It didn't mean I had any talent; just drawing.

I decided I should stop thinking about the therapy sessions I was put through when tears threatened to spill over onto my cheeks and sniffed them back, hoping that no one would notice. I hadn't been zoned out for long, I'd say five and a half minutes- accurate I know but as I said I know things, but Alex seemed just as curious as he had been when I first got here. I was fixated on the fact that he was staring at me and shuffled uncomfortably in my seat, hoping to shake his stare from the side of my face. He took the hint after a moment or two and blinked hard like I always did when awaking from a daydream, before gazing down at the piece of paper Miss Tenfold had just placed in front of him.

"What're we supposed to do?" He asked Jack.

"Draw something we find fascinating, apparently. I'm drawing Hayley Williams." Jack smirked back and I forced myself not to grin. I liked Jack, he was hilariously overconfident.

"Hmm." Alex hummed and looked to me. "What're you drawing?" He asked, gesturing towards my sketchbook as if to say 'open it and speak to me'. I did open it but I didn't write anything. I just shrugged. I didn't know yet. "C'mon, you've got to find something interesting."

'Well, what're you drawing?' I wrote down in the best sarcastic font I could pull off.

He smirked, "I also don't know."

'Stop bitching about me then :3' I printed in a playful font and giggled gently when he pushed my shoulder softly.

"If you two are quite finished flirting." Miss Tenfold smirked.

Alex and I's heads shot up to see her staring at us with a sly smile scribbled across her pale, young face. A few giggles surfaced and the blush in my cheeks followed suit, turning them a bright crimson.

When the attention turned away from us, Miss Tenfold crouched down so that she was at my eye line. I just stared. "I heard you're really interested in art." She informed me and I nodded conformation. "What do you like to do then? Have you got anything you could show me so that I know where I'm starting with you?"

No. No I haven't.

I shook my head and flipped my sketchbook shut way too obviously. She smirked at that and took hold of my beloved book, her fingers clasping around the edge of the scruffy front ready to open it. I felt sweat drip down my back and noticed that my cheeks were flushed with a brighter colour than ever before. The hairs on my neck stood up and my heartbeat increased dramatically as she teased the front of the book.

That book held everything:

The depths of my mind were scrawled into that back.

My frequent conversations with Alex and that one with Mr Jacobs.

My drawing of Alex.

My drawing of her.

Oh God, she just couldn't see. I couldn't move to take it from her and, even if I could move, I couldn't snatch it from her. My voice escaped me, as always, and the voices in my head laughed at me for putting so many precious things into one book. I felt nauseous and wanted more than anything to dash from the room and throw up. I was on the verge of hyperventilating when Alex opened his mouth, preventing her from seeing all of my secrets.

"That's sort of personal to her, Miss, she doesn't like people looking at it." He told her, glancing at me with a look of reassurance.

My fingers curled into a fist as the teacher's face turned into that of a coy smile. Gosh, she was such a prick. I jolted a little when something wrapped around my hand but felt a wave of reassurance pass over me when I noticed that Alex was squeezing my hand. It was under the table so Miss Tenfold couldn't see but it stopped the sweat. Unfortunately, my heartbeat picked up the pace and my breaths turned to gasps. When Miss noticed that her teasing was really affecting me, she rested my sketchbook on the table and I immediately grabbed it, releasing Alex's hand, and stuffed it into my bag before she could pick it up again.

"I'm sorry, Oli, I didn't know it was that private." She apologised quietly and I nodded softly, surprised that my back wasn't stuck to my chair with sweat. "Well, continue with the task anyway and I'll check it out tonight so I know that way."

I was now at twenty on my 'thank you' count.

"So, what're you drawing?" Alex changed the subject with a short smile, and carried on shading in whatever it was that he'd already scribbled onto the page. I couldn't see over his hand. I thought for a moment before picking up my pencil and writing on the table rather than risking the exposure of my sketchbook again.

'A skull.' I wrote down and he raised his eyebrow at me. I rolled my eyes and turned my paper over to the side that I'd written my name onto earlier. 'The human brain fascinates me, but I can only draw that when I've got a picture in front of me- so I thought of what protects it and the skull has that job.' I showed him the paper and he nodded, jutting his bottom lip out.

"Fair enough."

'What're you drawing?'

"Oh, um, nothing." He mumbled and went back to his work, shielding it from me. I decided not to question the subject any further and went to work on my skull. No wait, a skull and crossbones. Yeah. Pirates are pretty interesting.

By the end of the lesson, I had two versions of the skull and crossbones: a cartoonish version in a bold black colour which I'd finished of with one of Jack's marker pens to go around the edges with, and a literal drawing that was carefully shaded in and in no way scruffy like my cartoon version. I decided that I'd give Miss Tenfold the latter and maybe keep the cartoon one for myself.

"That's really cool." Alex nodded to my drawings and I smiled.

Twenty-One.

"I like this one best, it looks like it should be on Adventure Time." He smiled sweetly, looking over it carefully. I couldn't help but grin and picked it up from the table, going over in my mind whether what I was thinking would be weird or nice.

'Weird.' The voice in my head snorted, so I went against it as a sort of rebellion, for once in my life, and handed Alex the drawing.

He looked at me confusedly, "Is this for me?" I shrugged in a way that said 'yeah, if you want it' and watched as his face lit up. "Awesome, thank you." He grinned and planted a kiss on my cheek.

Instantly my cheeks flooded with colour and my lips twitched at a smile. My cheek was tingling like mad, a tingling that quickly spread down to my neck and up to my ear. I choked a little and my heart felt all fluttery for a second, much like my stomach. I felt my heart jump a little and my cheeks warmed up even more. Surely it wasn't him that did that, he can't have that much of an effect on me already: It must've just been bad digestion.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

I shook my head and gave him a timid smile, the only kind of smile I could muster in this situation, before returning to hide behind my fringe.

"Ooh, aren't you two cute!" Jack teased and slapped Alex's back hard enough to break a vertebrae. "Cute cute cute!" He grinned.

"Shut up." Alex snapped and left his seat. I followed him, my detailed drawing in hand, and watched as he folded up my cartoon so that it wouldn't crease and carefully placed it in his bag. He noticed I was staring at him after a while and laughed. "Sunburnt?"

I rolled my eyes and pushed his shoulder, slinging my bag over my shoulder, shoving past him playfully and walking briskly to Jack who'd already left his drawing of Hayley Williams on Miss' desk. It was a childish drawing that looked as if a three year old had drawn it, except a lot dirtier, which is what I'd have expected of Jack really. He was immature, and that's how I liked people. Mature people suck.

I gave my drawing to the teacher and she smiled brightly at me after giving it a quick glance, I returned to Jack and we waltzed out without Alex, knowing he'd catch up and probably shove Jack for not waiting for him. I giggled at Jack's joke about how white Rian's teeth were but stumbled when a shoulder came in contact harshly with mine. My jaw fell open but I quickly picked it up when I noticed who it was that shoulder barged me and walked in a rush in front of Jack and I, sending me a playful wink when he looked over his shoulder at Jack and I.

It was Alex.