Glowing hatred

5

I left for school in a hurry, luckily the walk from my house to school takes only about 10 minutes and so when I rush into class, the lesson hasn't started yet.

The school we go to is a private one. You only get in through your wealthy parents, alumni's or extremely good grades. But usually you need at least two of those to enter.

Because of the history of the school we still wear uniforms. It's also common for the parents to pass their uniform down to their kid.
And so my mom obviously had given me her uniform she wore when she attended school.

Everyone here wears the almost the same exact thing. The girls have options like these.
Red and black blazer with the school logo on the chest. Or red and black pull over. Theres also a warm sweater in the same colors for winter. And a black and red tie. You can choose whatever you want to wear underneath.
Lots of girls choose to wear black skirts or pants.

For the men it's nearly the same.
Same blazer, pull over and sweater. The tie which is obviously slightly longer and then they usually wear black or grey trousers.

As usual I go with the black skirt my mother had passed along as well. She used to wear it all the time and so now i'm doing that as well.

But since today I was running late I had no time to put on my usual black tights.

Since the weather for today seemed to be alright I didn't think much about it but seeing as I was the only one wearing skirt without tights it made the decision be a bad one.

All eyes were on me as I stepped in, out of breath. I flattened my skirt and continued to walk in and over to my seat.

When I glanced Jaime's way he quickly pulled his gaze away, and turned his body to the other side.

What the-

I guess he's ignoring me, or the situation?

I decide not to dwell on it since I'm embarrassed about the whole ordeal as well.

The art teacher walks in and continues to explain the final assignment due next week.
"Before explaining the goal of this assignment I want you all to pair up!"

I groan inwardly. All of my girlfriends attend different schools and so I have nobody here in my class who I could call a 'friend.'

I let people pair up as usual, always ending up with the person left out as well.

But today when pairing up I notice Jaime hasn't talked to any of his friends and thus they all pair up without him.

"Raise your hand if you haven't made a pair yet." The teacher asks.

I hold my hand up and the teacher claps is her hands.
"Good, fine. Carla, Jaime. You'll pair up for this assignment as well! That's everyone right?"

The teacher continues but my mind wanders off to Jaime who surprisingly is also left out.

This is the first time we've paired up since... well before everything started going bad between us.

I feel myself biting down on my bottom lip. I see no problem with finishing the assignment. It's easy to meet up and work on it. It's my heart and mind who are in conflict.

My heart wants to scream and yell, tell him to just work on his own. That I don't want to work with him and he needs to get off my back.

My mind knows to keep calm and professional. A conflict between us could cause a big conflict between our fathers business. My mind also knows that deep down I don't mind Jaime's presence.

I'm too busy arguing in my head when suddenly a chairs shoved next to mine and my nose catches this very familiar perfume.

"So work out the details, you can start preparing the assignment before hand, i've also made sure the crafts and arts room is open so gather your supplies and go ahead and start!" The teacher finalised her explanation.

Fuck I hadn't listened. What are we supposed to make?

I glance at Jaime who had been leaning on my table. His gaze fixed on me.
"I uh, haven't really paid attention..." I admit.

He crosses his arms and leans back. A smirk plastered on his face.

A hum escapes his mouth before speaking.
"Really? I haven't either..." clearly a lie.

I sigh, resting my hand on my head.
"What do you want?"

He chuckles.
"Why do you think I want something?"

I sigh even deeper.
"Then just name something and i'll do it. Just tell me what the assignment is." I say. Wanting to get this stupid joke of him past us.

Suddenly he was quiet and his eyes widened.
"Anything?" He mumbled.

I look to my side, confused.
"Huh? Yeah sure whatever."

"I- I'll think about and get back to you." He says. Suddenly much too quiet for me to not notice.

"So? The assignment?" I asked.
Clearly running out of patience.

He looked back and leaned onto my table again.
"Yeah so, we gotta make two paintings using the impressionism artstyle. I gotta make one of you and you make one of me."

"They also gotta look like they belong to the same piece, or at least correlate to one another." He adds, flipping the pencil in his hand once again.

Great. Fucking hell. We gotta make a painting of one another.

For a while I can't muster up anything to say, still debating my options on having him as my partner.

Until I finally get up and walk past him.

"Where you going?" He asks. Confused.

"Paper." I mumble back.
Leaving the classroom, following two other students towards the arts and crafts room.

When I make it there I gather two of everything we might need.

Paper, canvases and a couple of paint colours.

When I return to the classroom I notice him staring out of the window.

The window I stare out of everyday. His eyes following something flying past.

And it's then I realise to just accept the fact we have to work together on this assignment.
Yes, we're not on the best terms now. But somewhere deep inside Jaime is still that boy that used to be my friend. Who'd care for me and take me along anytime I felt bored. Who used to cover me using his shirt when I was 7 and we were at the beach.

That boy must be in there. I just know it. He didn't despise me. I know he didn't.

If he really doomed our friendship a long lost thing he'd act differently towards me right?

I sigh and place the supplies on the table.
"I uh thought we could use the same color-palette to tie our paintings together. Maybe blue, black and beige?"
I said, knowing his favourite color used to blue, knowing he wears black all the time and how my parents called me the opposite of him when I used to wear beige all the time.

He nodded and slid one of the papers towards him, leaning onto his paper and he started sketching.

In the back of my mind crept a thought.
Did he just smile at me sweetly, for once?