Blast: The Teenage Hero

15. The Attack of the 50 Foot Teenager

Tommy hops excitedly across the hallway, humming along the way, while Alice walks next to him, crossing her arms and frustrated. Alex walks over to them, and is curious as to why Tommy is so excited and Alice is frustrated.

"Hey, what's up?" Alex asks them.

Both of them, without even trying to, answer in unison. "It's art class." The two then look at each other, surprised that they're having almost completely opposite reactions to the same thing.

"Don't you like art class? It's so much fun!" Tommy tells Alice, bouncing in place.

Alice sighs. "For you maybe... you're good at art. But I can never seen to get things to look right." she says, still keeping her arms crossed.

Tommy chuckles, putting a hand on Alice's shoulder. "Oh come on Alice! Don't be so hard on yourself! You don't need to paint like a professional artist! It's like Mr. Collins always says! It's all about having fun and expressing your emotions through your art!" he reassures her.

Alice shakes her head. "I don't really have anything to express... other than the fact I don't really like this class." She says, still frowning.

The three of them arrive together at the art classroom.There, they are greeted my Mr. Collins, a tall and slender man with straight brown hair, with a short beard, and wearing a light yellow shirt and red pants. "There you are kids! I was wondering where you were."

Alex smiles as he sees the art teacher. Mr. Collins is probably the only teacher who didn't get too worked up if they were a minute or two late.

Alice however, still seems a bit frustrated. "Let's get this over with..." she says, resigned as she just walks in with the others.

Soon, everyone takes their respective spots, and Mr. Collins is inspiring them to create something expressive. "True art comes from deep within your soul. Your emotions, that's what will guide you to make a masterpiece!" he tells them passionately. "Look within yourselves!"

Tommy giggles as he starts to draw something.

Alice however, has no idea what to do, and is just staring at the blank sheet of paper. Tommy looks over at her. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Alice shrugs. "What am I supposed to do?" she asks him.

Tommy smiles at her. "Just draw whatever you feel like! Go with the flow!" he tells her.

Alice closes her eyes and tries to think of what to do, and in her mind, something comes up: a circle, with the mathematical formula to find the area of the circle: A = π r². She shrugs, deciding she'll do that, and starts to try to draw the circle... only to make a horribly shaped blob.

Tommy looks at her progress and smiles. "Hey, nice cloud you made there!" he tells he.r

Alice looks back at her paper, baffled. "It's supposed to be a circle!" she tells him.

Tommy shakes his head. "No Alice, you've gotta do it like this!" he tells her, drawing a perfect circle easily. "See? Easy!" he tells her.

Alice looks at Tommy's circle, and tries to replicate it, only to fail again. "Ugh!" she groans in frustration, as she crumples up the paper and throws it into the trash bin, and tries again. But no matter how many times she tries, it just doesn't come out right! She tries yet again, and accidentally snaps the pencil's tip. "Why can't I make a simple circle!?" she yells, furious.

Mr. Collins comes towards Alice. "Calm down. Come on, try some meditation, it'll help you!" he tells her. "And try to not waste that much paper... protect our natural resources!" he adds.

Tommy looks at Alice, and grabs her pencil. "Hey, it's alright Alice! I'll help you sharpen this pencil." he tells her, grabbing her pencil and going to sharpen it.