The Only One I Wanna See: Calum's Story- H.S. Fanfic

In Sickness and in Health

Flynn: 24
Calum: 22

September 2040

"Mr. Calum, what color do I use to make this look more yellow?"a young boy with bright red curls asks, sitting at a little easel in the back corner of the studio away from all of the other students.

"Mmm, it's a bit dark,"Calum deciphers, squatting down next to the 8 year old boy with a kind and nurturing smile, tapping his finger against the mostly empty canvas. "Try using a little bit of white and add just a touch of red to cancel out the green you added, 'kay?"

"Okay,"Collin nods, dipping his paint brush into the pallet sitting beside him before brushing on a bit of red onto his painted bird's feathers.

"Oooo, see, that's looking better already, bud,"Calum encourages with a big nod, reaching his hand up for Collin to high five him. "Awesome job, mate."

"Mr. Calum, I can't make pink,"a little girl named Bryony lisps, sitting up as tall as she can on the stool she's sitting on and yet she's still a bit too tiny to reach the table in front of her where her canvas is placed.

"Hmmm, maybe you'd be able to make it better if you could see, huh babe?"Calum laughs, reaching his hands out for her as she sets her paintbrush down on the table and reaches towards him. He picks her up and places her on his hip before squatting down to pull the lever to bring the stool higher towards the table.

"Try that, how's that?"Calum asks, setting Bryony back down onto the stool where she grins cutely and nods, her brown hair braided in two plaits with a few fly away hairs cupping her cheeks.

"Goooood,"Bryony sings, dipping her brush into the orange and guiding her hand towards the canvas.

"Woah, hey careful there,"Calum chuckles, catching Bryony's wrist gently before she can reach the canvas. "You're trying to make pink, right?"

"Yeah,"Bryony nods, smiling over at Calum which makes him realize for the first time that she has yellow paint dried on her cheek.

"Okay, well we don't use orange to make pink, what two colors do we use? Do you remember?"Calum inquires, guiding Bryony's hand to rest her brush gently against the palette.

"Umm red?"Bryony guesses as Calum bends down to be more eye level with her.

"Uh huh, awesome, that's the base color of pink,"Calum gently teaches, smiling at her widely, "what do we use to make the red lighter? What color?"

"Ummm...I dunno?"Bryony frowns softly, shrugging her little shoulders as Calum chuckles and carefully reaches across her body to point at her palette.

"What about that color? What's that?"Calum asks, pointing to the dollop of white paint on her palette.

"White,"Bryony smiles confidently, giggling at Calum makes the "cha-thing" motion with his arm and drops his jaw.

"That's it! So use a little bit of red and a lot of white, okay?"Calum instructs, rubbing a soft hand down Bryony's back before beginning to walk away.

"And no orange, yes?"Calum teases gently, walking backwards so that he can continue to look at Bryony as she giggles and nods.

"Watch out!"

"Shoot, sorry,"Calum quickly apologizes, turning back around in just enough time to skid to a stop in his tracks as he stands centimeters from one of his coworkers who's carrying two jugs full of dirty paint water.

"All good,"Flynn, the coworker laughs, shaking his head at Calum, a hairbrush holding his shoulder length wavy light brown hair up into a bun. "Just didn't want to spill water color water all over you."