Lesson One - A Monster School Fic

Chapter Thirty Six - Art Homework

You sank down against the dining hall wall with a sigh, tilting your head back against the wood planks and closing your eyes. The rain still hammered against the wall behind you, it had barely let up all day. Your parents would say that it was a much-needed storm, especially this time of year.

You were a little worn out after athletics class. Apparently players were the only race that could easily lift anything small enough to hold, which meant half your class was quickly distracted from their work by the promise of you picking them up. None of them were very heavy to you, but lifting a lot of people was still hard work.

It was just after dinner now, your classmates finishing up their meal and slowly filtering off to their respective rooms. There were only a few left, as well as Red, who had stuck around to have dinner and keep an eye on everyone. You thought you'd noticed that he was paying special attention to you and Jace, though maybe you were just biased.

You breathed out, relaxing as you listened to the rain and the soft murmur of your classmates' voices. Tomorrow would be art and brewing class, the homework for which you had already long finished, so you had the rest of the evening to chill. Maybe you could go hang out with Geode and Kai again.

As you mulled over the idea, you heard soft footsteps approaching you, and you opened your eyes to see Morpheus making his way across the room.

"Hey, Y/N," he greeted you softly. You lifted your hand to wave.

"Hey." Your gaze fell to the folder in his hands as he sank down at your side, sitting cross-legged on the floor. "What's that?"

"Um, my homework." He fidgeted a bit. "I had a favor to ask you." You blinked at him, looked over to the nearly-empty dining table, then back to him.

"Yeah?"

"Can you help me with my art homework?" Morpheus held up the folder sheepishly. "I'm not... very good at this kind of stuff."

"Oh." You sat up straight. "Um, sure. How about we go sit at the table?"

"Sure." Morpheus got up again, and you staggered up against the wall, heading towards the far end of the table where nobody was sitting.

"What part are you having trouble with?" You asked as you sat down. Morpheus pulled out the chair on your left, sinking down onto it beside you. Across the room from you, Kaden and Dusk got up, heading down the hall towards the dorms and leaving only Red behind.

"Um." Morpheus opened the folder, sliding out the page he had been working on. "We're supposed to draw a place that's important to us, right?" The paper only has a few messy scribbles on it, smudged charcoal from a pencil. "Well, I was trying to draw my dorm, but, uh..." he shrugs. "I'm not very good at it."

"Oh." You frown down at the page, trying to make sense of the lines. "...hmm. I'm not sure I'll be able to do any better..."

"What did you draw?" Morpheus leaned his chin into his hand as you picked up his pencil.

"I drew a street that I used to walk down with my parents when I was younger," you said, trying to sketch out the corner of one of the cookie-cutter dorm rooms. "We'd walk down to the ice cream shop. It's a really good memory." A frown appeared on your face as you realized that being at this school was apparently the most meaningful time of his life.

"Oh," was all that Morpheus said. For a minute, neither of you spoke as you sketched out a bed and a chest, and out of the corner of your eye you watched as Red quietly left the room.

After a long moment, you cleared your throat. "How have you been doing?" you asked quietly. It took Morpheus a long moment to respond.

"Better," he finally said, "I think. I'm not so sad at night anymore."