Roman Roommate

9 - It's Not Just A Planet

"This place is huge!"

"Divide and conquer?" Elijah suggested glancing around the glorious art room. There were walls lined with all sorts of art and there seemed to be an endless amount of rooms.

"We just have to find Penny and her painting then get out," I agreed. That seemed totally unlikely with how things looked from here. Everyone was dressed very formally too while I just had on a salsa skirt that was peeking out underneath the jacket I wore. I felt completely out of place but I was doing this for a student. I would stick it out here for her or at least until she saw me once.

Elijah and I split up which turned out to not be a very good idea. I worked my way through the crowd from one room to the next searching in over all the heads for a pale teenage girl. Unfortunately for me, this place was crawling with those kinds of people.

As promised, Elijah and I came to Penny's art show to help support her after the adult salsa lessons. I turned out to be a better teacher than I thought I would be. I wasn't half as bad as most of the adult students in the class which made me feel better about my lack of salsa skills. Class went well even with the students having to adapt to a different teacher and Carmen was thankful for being able to spend the morning with her son. Apparently, Jay started work later in the afternoon and only had the morning available.

I focused on my current situation searching through the crowd trying to recognize anyone. I came to about my tenth room and sighed in defeat. My feet were beginning to ache from the day's events. My high heeled shoes were not the best support to have all day. I didn't change my shoes because I didn't imagine this event taking long but well...it didn't seem that way now.

I sighed and actually glanced around the room. The paintings seemed very generic with a basic slap on of shapes and smears of colors. One painting caught my eye in particular and I found myself getting closer and closer to it. I went through one open door way and went right up to the wall to inspect the painted canvas.

It was a dark and gloomy painting and yet I felt drawn to it. It was a picture of a man sitting in a throne looking very bored. He had some sort of mask covering his face and two horns coming out from the helmet type hat he wore. The colors were on the grey and blue-ish side and there was an array of skulls on the ground and creating the throne. I didn't understand my attraction with it but for some reason, I wanted to know more about it.

"Hey," a small voice called from behind me. I turned and found the dark haired pale girl I was looking for.

"Penny!" I greeted holding my arms out wide. She came and gave me a quick hug which I returned.

"You came! Is Elijah here too?" Penny asked.

I nodded glancing around the room really quickly. "He's around here somewhere. Never mind him, show me your fabulous work."

Penny's hallow cheeks reddened slightly as she pulled away from me completely. "You've already seen it. It's right here!"

She pointed to the creepy and mesmerizing painting behind me. I frown at it but turned to her and smiled encouragingly.

"You did that?"

She nodded enthusiastically. I just briefly looked up when I spotted Elijah from across the room. He was wearing a similar outfit to mine with just a jacket covering his salsa gear. I waved to him like a hysterical castaway trying to catch the attention of an overpassing plane. Elijah thankfully noticed me after most of the room stopped to stare at the crazy waving lady.

He made his way over to us and gave Penny a hug in greeting just as I had. She went through the motions of showing him her painting and he of course reacted with tons of support and vigor.