Tomorrow's Money

"Today is a new day, and yesterday is not a reflection of today." I thought as I sat up in bed, readying myself for the day. The day before had been an odd one. I felt out of place and strange, I didn't really want to feel that again. Though I was happy I had made a few friends, I wasn't so happy with all of the blank stares and whispers.

I showered, dressed, and put some make up on, as usual, and neatly curled my hair like every other day. I suddenly felt tired of my routine. I hadn't even realized how robotic I was, I wanted a change but didn't know how to change.

My driver dropped me off at school and I went in with a nervous demeanor. I noticed that the stares and whispers were finally fading, not gone, but not as prominent as before. I sighed in relief, feeling like things were going to be better today.

I met up with Marley in my first class of the day, History. "Hello!" I greeted her as I sat in the same seat as the day before.

"Hey!" He smiled at me, a real smile. It wasn't one of those "I'm only smiling because I need you to like me for a social status" smiles that I had gotten all the time. She was actually happy to see me.
"Hi Mikey." I wanted to make sure he'd known that I acknowledged him too. I felt like he was so shy because he got ignored a little by his other friends. I wanted him to warm up to me like Marley said he would. He gave me a friendly wave but stayed silent. "So today is the first day of real classes. No more class expectations sheets." I sighed, hoping that the homework would be easier than at the other school.

"Yeah. Back to boring high school!" Marley said, slouching down in her seat as if nothing on earth would make her more miserable.

"At least we get to hang out with my brother for a while." Mikey said, quietly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Marley smiled. "Well that's a plus."

"Who is your brother?" I asked Mikey, having not heard of him yet.

"He's the student teacher coming in. He's not really a student teacher though. He's here more to take notes and observe." He explained. "He'll be in your art class today."

"So why is your brother doing this? Is he in college?" I asked. I didn't really think that Mikey's brother would be too much older than him by the way they talked about him.

"Yeah. He's an art major. Maybe you could get to know him. He's a cool guy, just tell him you know me." Mikey gave me an encouraging smile. He was so sweet, I was happy Marley was with someone like him. Most guys I new were complete jerks and the ones that actually were nice didn't want anything to do with a nice girl, they only wanted a girl with a reputation.

We sat through History pretty quietly, hoping to actually get through this class with high grades. I had high hopes, but as time went on, I realized that the material they were covering wasn't the same kind of material I had covered before. This was a whole lot different and I was hoping that I could keep up. I suddenly felt like Private school dumbed down their classes to make their students look better. Why did my whole entire life have to be so full of deceit?

I sat through my next class, math, happily understanding more than I thought I would. Math was my strong suit besides English. By the time 3rd period came around, I was tired as all hell and was ready to go home for a nap. I drug myself into art, relieved that I would finally get a break from academics for a while. Our teacher, Ms. Kurt, stood at the front of the class room beside a very attractive, and calm looking man.

"Good afternoon everyone!" She greeted with a friendly wave. "As I was explaining yesterday, we have a college student here with us for this semester." She turned to the man happily and clapped her hands together. "Tell everyone a little about yourself!" She insisted.

"Okay." He said, a little awkwardly, and stepped forward. "My name is Gerard Way. I'm a fine arts major at the School Of Visual Arts in New York. Honestly I'm sure most of you already know me or my brother Mikey." He smiled as the rest of the class quietly laughed, probably agreeing.

"Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Way?" She asked the class.

"Are you single?" One girls shouted out.

"How old are you?!" Asked another. This was quickly turning into a dating show.

"Are you into younger girls?" I heard another call.

"Wow, uh, yes, 24, and no." He laughed, taking this pretty lightly. He seemed to handle awkward situations well. "And I'm not dating any of you, you're all probably underage." He mentioned.

"That's right ladies! Enough!" Ms. Kurt intervened. "Mr. Way is here to teach, not date. Now, no more of this." She lectured, obviously very irritated. "Now, your projects are simple. Sketch anything you want. No nudity, nor profanity, no obscene messages. Understood?" She looked around at the nodding heads and embarrassed teenage girls. "Good. Now get to work."

I looked down at my blank page, wondering what to draw. I found myself thinking about Mr. Way. He seemed cool and collected, though I could see he was somewhat of an introvert with a past as dark as his raven black hair. I noticed a few things about him like his gorgeous hazel eyes, bright and vibrant for what they were, half hidden under his long, soft yet messy locks, and the way his leather jacket clung to him in a way as to be able to tell that he was fit and a bit more masculine than you'd expect. I noticed his laid back yet careful composure, like he was friendly enough, but didn't trust anyone. I found myself glancing at him mindlessly, his hair dangling in front of his face as he wrote in what looked like a planner or notebook that was resting on his propped up knee. He only took a second to flip the little dangling strands away from his line of sight, though they fell right back into place anyway. Before I could look away, the man, clad in black, looked up at me, probably feeling my eyes burning into him. Oops.

I looked away as quickly as possible, wishing I hadn't been caught. "Hey Marley what are you drawing?" I asked, nervously, trying to forget about my gaze at Mr. Way.

"My cat." She smiled. "What about you? Any ideas yet?"

"No. I have nothing." I shrugged, looking back down at my paper. "Maybe a dragon." I said, though an odd thought, I wanted to do it.

"Why a dragon?" She laughed, probably thinking it was pretty random.

"I've never done it before." I used to love drawing, but once I got into high school, I hadn't had much time for anything fun between private school nonsense and my mom forcing me to go to parties all the time.

I plugged in my iPod and started drawing, going into my own little world. I was really going fast and it was coming along pretty well. I was slightly impressed with myself. Suddenly I noticed a presence behind me. I took out my ear buds and turned to find Mr. Way standing behind me, looking at my work from the last 35 minutes. "What do you think?" I asked, hoping to get some input on it.

He leaned in a little closer, taking a better look at my drawing. "I think it's good. But I think you should enlarge the head a little. Make it more dramatic." He said.

"Why?" I asked, looking at my dragon. Honestly I thought it looked fine.

"Well, the body, head ratio is more of a realistic type, but your technical aspects are more cartoon. In making the head a little bigger and more dramatic, you'll really get your point across that it's meant to be a cartoon instead of something between an attempt at realism and comic." He explained. You could tell he was really into his passion, he looked so deeply into things that normally someone would never look at.

"Okay. I'll try that, thank you." I said, not really agreeing with him but deciding I'd try it anyway.

"Yeah. I can't wait to see the outcome tomorrow. What's your name?" He asked. I was surprised by his question though I didn't know why.

"Lily." I smiled, looking at him finally, instead of my drawing.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow Lily." He smiled at me once more and walked away as the bell rang.

Damn my racing heart.