Teiko's basketball III: Three's a charm

Kise's masterpiece

"A pig with anthrax?"
"No."
"A seriously disfigured apple?"
"No!"
"Oh, I know! A crab... Holding a beach ball over its head..."
Kise facepalmed. "Is it so bad, Akiracchi?"
"No, no. Just give me two more guesses," said Akira squinting at the paper Kise held out to her. Kise had asked her to guess what he had drawn. Akira had accepted but little did she know it would be so hard. "An aeroplane?" she hazarded. Kise wanted to become a pilot and Akira prayed that he had drawn something on that line.
"No," said Kise who was getting distressed by the minute.
"Oh I know. It looks like someone who's crying! That's it, isn't it?" said Akira.
Kise moaned. "It's a tree!" he said with his face in his hands. Akira's jaw dropped. She ripped the paper out of Kise's hands and tried looking at it in every angle possible. "A tree?" she demanded. "As in the huge green things? Seriously, do you know what a tree is?"
"I was thinking of turning it in for the art project but now I'm reconsidering," said Kise wistfully.
"Good plan. Go with it," said Akira grimly. "But how did you manage art projects so far?"
"Oh, I mostly wrote p.t.o on about thirty pages and sensei got tired of searching and just gave me an F. Art doesn't count anyway... But this time, she said she would supervise me when I worked if I didn't give it any effort, so I'm thinking about what I'm going to present," said Kise.
"The p.t.o plan seems quite good," said Akira.
"I know! But I've used it too many times already. I need something fresh."
"Why not draw a few squiggles and title it 'worms'?"
"No worms," said Kise firmly. "They're horrible, slimly, wriggly, pukish, disgusting, abominations....."
"I get it!" interrupted Akira. "Okay. Put a few dots and call it 'Le bacteria collection'. How does that sound?"
Kise blinked. "Genius!"
"You're actually going to do that?" said Akira surprised.
"Well yeah. But wait, what's your grade in art? I'm looking for some expert advice."
"I'm above average," said Akira.
"Hmm... Oh, there goes Soracchi! I'll take a look at her project for ideas...."
"Don't!" warned Akira. "If you look at what either of those midgets drew, you'll just get depressed. We're looking for someone you can copy."
"Time to unleash perfect copy!" said Kise enthusiastically.
"Hmm... I could nick Aho's project for you," said Akira. "He'd have probably gone with something easy."
"But where'll we go for that?" said Kise.
Akira winked and strode over to Aomine's locker. She looked left and right then entered his combination and swiftly took out his project. Kise watched in amazement. "You know Aominecchi's combination?"
"Drop it," warned Akira. "Let's see what we have here.... Oh." Aomine had drawn a crude stick figure with lines emerging from the head that were supposedly hair.
"I could do that!" said Kise brightly. He leafed though a notebook he had and pounced on an empty page. Akira watched with fascination as he vigourosly attacked the paper and then thrust it in front of Akira's nose. Akira sneezed.
"What do you think, Akiracchi?"
Akira squinted at the paper. "I thought Aomine's was rubbish but this looks simply.... Mutated."
Kise visibly wilted. "So I'll have to spend an hour with sensei glaring at me."
"What are you guys doing?" Sora had stopped at her own locker and was curious to see that Akira and Kise looked like they were planning on how to survive the apocalypse.
"Soracchi! I'm so dead. I have no idea what to do for my art project," moaned Kise.
"You're worried about your art project?" said Sora surprised.
"Not everyone's Picasso," pointed out Akira.
"Akira and I were planning strategies," said Kise.
Sora laughed. "That's where you're going wrong, Kise-kun."
"Eh?"
"Art is spontaneous, no? It just depends on who's looking at it. You could draw a few squares and pass it off as art. That's the beauty of the whole thing. You have to find your own style. It's just like modelling."
"So I shouldn't worry?"
"It'll only make it worse."
Kise nodded thoughtfully. "Rodger."
"This is hopeless! You have no idea how he draws, Sora-chan..." said Akira.
"He can't be that bad can he?" said Sora. Akira's eyebrow twitched but she didn't say anything.
"Thank you, Soracchi!" said Kise.
"Any time, Kise-kun," said Sora before walking off to class.
"Nae, if you don't tell Sora, I'll even draw the thing for you," offered Akira.
"No thanks, Akiracchi. You and Soracchi have given me the greatest idea ever! I'm going to ace this," said Kise with a huge smile.
"If you say so," said Akira doubtfully.
That evening the art teacher sat in her room grading the projects. She took up a rather bed-raggled book labeled 'Kise Ryouta' with not a little trepidation. She still hadn't forgotten the time he'd written p.t.o on about fifty pages and sent her on a wild goose chase.
She flicked though the pages and was shocked when a flash of colour caught her eyes. She took a deep breath and opened the page.
On the center of the page stood a brightly coloured orange square with green dots pressed on with crayon. It was rather flamboyantly titled 'Bacteria on a square'.
She sighed and graded the picture 'D-'. After all, art was all about imagination.