I Have Loved You

Chapter 6 - Winner and Losers

The price of winning has lost me you, something far greater than playing this game. 

"Wait. What? What are you talking about?" She pushed Liam backwards. He stepped back, caught off guard. 

"Just what I said. I thought this is what you wanted?" His eyes furrowed, his signature look of annoyance filled his features. She knew this Liam well. 

"It doesn't make sense." She looked back to the door of the art lab. "Hold on a sec, and stay here!" The last was a warning. She imagined him following her and seeing her art project. There was nothing more humiliating. It wasn't her best work. He would make fun of her, because it was Liam, and he knew all her buttons. 

"Fine, but hurry up. Your backpack is getting on my nerves." 

"Hey, You were the one acting all chivalrous. Don't complain about it now." She slipped through the door of the lab. 

Once inside, she quickstepped her way into the classroom weaving between easels and sculptures, some were the stuff of nightmares. Wow did her classmates have frightening imaginations. 

Mrs. Krupsky, their art teacher, sat on a stool at the back of the room working on her own painting. An artist in her own right, she led by example. Likely in her mid fifties, with dark curly hair highlighted by silver streaks that she never attempted to hide. Zara liked her for her confidence, living life on her own terms. That's how Zara saw it, anyways. 

"Mrs. Krupsy?" 

She turned on her stool in the direction of Zara's voice. Peering at her through her reading spectacles, she said, "What's up Zara?" wiping her brush, full of paint, onto her apron. She put it into a jar of turpentine and gave Zara her full attention. 

"Yeah, hi, um, I was wondering if I could miss today's lab? I can make it up during my study hall tomorrow. I promise not to get in the way of your class." 

"Sure. Is that all?"

"That's it. That easy." None of the other teachers were this lax, and honestly, she never asked to get out of a class before. 

"Yep. As long as you finish your project, I am fine." 

"Okay. Thanks" She perked up, "Bye Mrs. Krupsky." She always seemed to worry for nothing. She hated confrontation, but there wasn't an easier teacher to confront than her art teacher. 

Back in the hallway Liam, while still in the place she left him, was talking to Taylor. 

"Dude, it's not going to work." Taylor's back was to Zara. 

"Shh." 

Taylor turned around. "Oh, hi Zara. Just catching up with this fool. Oh, and hey, are you working on Friday?"

"No. Um, so what's not going to work?" 

"Nothing." Taylor loved to be evasive. It would work too, if not for the pink splotches that showed up on her face, like now. Her tell. 

"Right. Well, we'll talk later," and she gave Taylor a knowing look before she pointed at Liam, "but you, you need to come with me."

Taylor yelled after her, "So, can we switch for Friday?"

"I'll talk to you later Taylor." The hallway was filling up with her classmates. Taylor was lost in a crowd coming from the computer room. 

She pushed Liam into an empty classroom that other teachers used for storage. It was like a Room of Requirement, but other than a dumping ground, it never turned into anything useful. Until now, now it was very useful.