Undercurrent

Chapter 6

The rest of the week passed without too much drama. I managed to get to the end of Thursday without anything going wrong. Pretty successful! I'd had a couple more English and psychology lessons, which I was starting to feel more comfortable with. I recognised a few more faces that I was happy enough to nod to in acknowledgement and of course, I'd spent some more time with Ro in psychology class. Everything was starting to slot into place.

By Thursday, I still hadn't had my first art lesson yet. For some reason that was only known to the college tutors, they'd decided to block the art lessons into just one day this year. I guess it meant that we wouldn't have to hurry to get our equipment tidied away like we would if the lessons were the usual hour-long blocks. Still, if I was honest, the idea of spending a whole day in the same place, with the same people, was quite intimidating to me.

Friday rolled around at last and I woke up with a knot of discomfort in my stomach. I skipped breakfast, still feeling a little uneasy and headed out for the bus. I was earlier than usual, so I took a longer route, along the high road which looked over the coastline. I smiled as I remembered that I would be seeing Zach after college tonight. It had only been a few days but I'd missed him.

I reached the bus stop only a couple of minutes before the bus pulled slowly round the corner. It screeched as it came to a halt and the driver had to get out and open the doors himself. Clearly, they'd sent the crappy bus today. I got on, ignoring the wheezes coming from the engine, and made my way to the back, since the bus was empty.

I stuck my headphones in and stared out of the window, wondering what kind of people I'd meet today and whether any of them would live up to the tortured artist stereotype. I really hoped not.

The bus pulled up at the college stop, coughing and spluttering from the tired exhaust. It didn't seem like there were many people there. Perhaps that's why they'd put on the rickety old bus, since there wouldn't be a lot of passengers.

I wandered round to the Creative Arts block which was just next door to the main college building, which looked pretty deserted. Other than a couple of people walking into the arts block, there didn't seem to be anyone around. Maybe it was only the arts students that were in on Fridays? I thought back to yesterday and remembered that Ro had said she wasn't in today. It seemed profoundly unfair that we were the only students still here when everyone else had finished for the week.

I found the art room at the top of the stairs. As usual, I was a bit early so I waited outside. After a few minutes, a woman seemed to float up the stairs. Now, she was an arty stereotype, although definitely not the tortured version I'd been worried about: paisley skirt, wavy blonde hair that went down to the small of her back, some kind of knitted waistcoat in around five different colours. She came to the door, fumbling in her macrame bag for the keys to the classroom, dropping a pile of papers over the floor as she rummaged.

"Gotcha!" she said, as she pulled out a tangled bunch of keys and started trying them one by one. She didn't seem to notice me until I'd collected up the flurry of papers. "Oh thanks, my love. Just a second." I stood awkwardly as she worked her way through several more keys.

"Aha!" she triumphantly pushed open the door and let me through. "Just pop them down on the bench will you, love?" I nodded and went over to where she was gesturing. "Just the two of us this morning, is it? Well, looks like you've got pick of all the good seats!" She chuckled. I really hoped it wasn't just the two of us. I might not have been a social butterfly but a full day of one to one art tuition was far too intimate.

My internal monologue had already started telling stories about how awful it was going to be, when the door opened again and four more students came in. I couldn't fully relax – I was out of my comfort zone after all – but at least my nightmare of being with one person all day hadn't come true.