By the Skin (completed)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Good morning, class! Welcome back to Traditional Art II." Mr. Hammond claps his hands, and we shuffle to our seats. "Before we get started today, I want to introduce a new student to our class..." He motions for the student to come out.

A girl with long blonde hair wearing overall shorts, an orange striped shirt, and dope white clunky boots walks into the classroom of our first period.

It's Mayo?

As much as I wanted to see her again, I did not want to see her again. Especially not here.

"This is Mayo Ostelli." Hammond motions to her.

PFFT. ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?

"Spelled M-E-I-O." She jokingly curtsies.

Ohhhh. Explains a lot. Not as bad as Mayonnaise.

I hear stifled laughs from the back of the classroom. Todd, the stupid-est guy in TA II, takes a deep breath.

He grabs Mayo- shit, Meio's attention. "Like the dressing?"

"Meio derives from Hebrew, it's actually a name that my Italian father really liked- I'm sorry, did you just call mayonnaise a dressing?"

Another round of snickers circles the room.

"Anyways, I wouldn't mind if you spelled it like M-A-Y-O."

"Okay, thank you, Meio. Welcome to Birmingham High. Please take a seat next to Rashida." Mayo softly positions herself at the two seat table.  "IIIII..." Hammond thinks to himself. "...forgot our charcoal sticks. Elliot, you're in charge." Both Mayo and I flinch at his name. Elliot is the class favorite; he pays attention, frequently answers questions, and is extremely good at art. I'm always jealous when he shows me his sketches. He can whip one up in fifteen seconds.

As soon as our art teacher closes the door on us, everyone gets up and starts walking around, talking to each other. Including me, which is kind of weird knowing I can't even order one thing off of a menu without sweating. TA II is my favorite class.

I stand up, pull up my jeans, and scooch over to Mayo.

"Mayo?" I approach her desk.

"Oh, hey!" Mayo stands up and greets me. "It's nice to see you again, um..." she gets a bit flustered.

"...I'm so sorry, I forgot your name."

"Evangeline. It's Evangeline. What are you doing here?"

"Today's my first day. Family moved here from out-of-state." She glances at Elliot, who is at the other side of the room reading one of the books he got from the library. "He seems way calmer than he was last night?"

"He probably got cranky," I play with the sleeve on my windbreaker. "Plus, he said he had something to do." I glance at him and look back at a confused Mayo. "Please don't mention anything we talked about at the library."

She shrugs her shoulders, grabs her backpack from the floor (giving her leg a few scratches in the process), and pulls out a tattered book. The rims of the paper inside are all different colors, stopping at the white edges of presumably unused pages.

"Do you mind if I-"

"Ayo!  Mayo Spaghetti!" a voice that is more than recognizable as Todd's yells from the back of the classroom. 

Mayo rolls her eyes and lets out a sigh. "Meio Ostelli, dick-face!" She zooms over to Todd, the sound of her boots clicking around the area. 

You see, I was about to ask her if I could see her sketchbook. She said she liked abstract art. And she's fucking weird! Giving motherly-style advice to a bitch she hasn't met. I totally wanna see what kind of material she creates.