Sketches

8. Strawberries

Baring

I picked up my duffle and hooked it onto my shoulder. I was late. Turns out staying in the sickbay to make sure a cute boy was ok, was a little exhausting. Especially since Josiah's parents had a million follow up questions when they arrived. I barely introduced myself before they started asking me about their son and what had taken place in class.

"You are late!" Joanna stood at the bottom of the stairs with her hands poised at her waist and her green and brown apron dangling from her fingers.

"I know," I said, pulling my door closed. I locked my door and joined Joanna at the bottom of the stairs, " I overslept. It happens."

"Not to you," She countered, typing her apron around her waist.

I rolled my eyes and slipped past her into the coffee shop's kitchen. Grabbing a fresh bagel from the pile on the counter I winked at Joanna and darted out before she could stare me into oblivion. The cafe door jangled and Joanna moved past me into the kitchen. I used the small destruction to escape into my car before she came back. Even as I slipped into my car I knew I was going to miss the first few minutes of my history class.

My tires squealed as I parked my car into the school parking lot. The school was quiet except for a few students here and there. Something that was typical every morning. I pulled my locker open and caught a single sheet of paper that seemed to have been snuck in by my mysterious admirer.

I placed the single sheet between my textbook and shoved my bag into my locker. I could have used the privilege of being a soccer & rugby captain to skip my history class altogether but unlike most of my teammates, I needed my education if I was ever going to survive past high school.

Mr Casey turned to write on the board and I used that chance to sneak into history class unnoticed. I breathed a sigh of relief as I slid into my seat. Before I could get comfortable, Mr Casey shook his head and simply said, "Glad you could join Mr Baring." My Casey's voice was jarring as usual and I couldn't help but sink into my seat. I opened my textbook and looked down avoiding his shaming gaze.

The new sketch fell out of my book and Caspian picked it up. He looked at and shook his head.

"Another one?"

I shrugged and pulled the paper away from him. It was a great sketch and seeing it made me happy especially since I was already having a crappy day. The sketch was of me working at Grind Me Up. The artist had gotten a few details about my workstation and my uniform wrong but the sketch it was was pretty cool. It was the closest you could get to a photograph from a sketch.

I smiled at the small coffee stain etched in graphite onto the corner of the uniform. The picture was different from what I imagined I looked like at work. For one my usual scruffy uniform and unruly hair were presented neatly. And if you looked at it from a certain angle you would think the artist was drawing a model instead of me. A coffee model posing with a marker in one hand and an empty coffee cup in the next. The sketch itself was a huge ego boost who would think I looked like this in someone else's eyes. 

I placed the sketch onto the open page of my textbook and before I knew it I was tracing the lines on it. I wondered who the artist could be. Could it be Sandy I had seen her draw some pretty decent diagrams for the science fair or could it have been Ibrahim, I hadn't seen him draw but he had long fingers and that seemed like something an artist would have? Or maybe it was June she always walked around with a sketchbook clutched between her fingers and I had caught her staring at me a couple of times.

"Dude, Class is over. What are you thinking of?" Caspian said, kicking my desk leg.

I blinked at him and shook my head, "Practice?" I lied.