Into the Depths

Chapter 4

It was the day before Cotillion and all through the school, every kid was relaxing because it was cool.

Okay, so maybe not every kid. It was a school after all, they were still studying for exams and getting ready for Cotillion. One purple haired teen, though, was relaxing in the best way she knew how; her art. Mal grinned as she shook the can of spray paint that was going to go on the canvas before her. The areas of the canvas that she was going to use regular paint on had already been sketched out and taped off; the paint to be added later.

Now, all she had to do was spray. Holding her breath to avoid breathing in the fumes, Mal began spraying the canvas.

She started with a bit of black that she took to maybe a third of the canvas. Next was a bit of dark purple right underneath, followed by a small bit of lighter purple. The bottom half of the canvas was sprayed a dark blue, as if to make it look like the ocean at dusk.

Now you may be asking yourself, why hadn't Mal gotten more done before now? Especially since she had gathered her stuff from Rowyn the previous day? Well you could blame Natalie for that. The keeper of schedules had found Mal in the art room and dragged her to about five different meetings before Emma and Travis had 'kidnapped' her so she could grab dinner.

By then, it was too late to try to get started on the painting—Mal was too exhausted to do it justice anyway. But she knew she had no meetings or committees today. It was the day before Cotillion, the only thing on her schedule would be a final dress fitting with Evie and Evie had told her to come whenever she wanted.

Mal couldn't help but smirk a little as she thought about the conversation she'd had with Natalie.

"Mal, what are you wearing?" Natalie asked, looking at Mal in shock. "And what did you do to your hair?"

"Clothes, Natalie. That's what most people wear throughout the day," Mal said as she continued to set up her art stuff. "Or would you rather I be naked? That would certainly make for a different Gazelle headline. As for my hair, I decided it would be better if I went back to my natural color."

"You know what I mean. What happened to the dress you were wearing to your date with King Ben? You should still have time to run and get changed, if you'll just hand me that jacket—"

"Why?" Mal asked whirling around to face her.

"You know we've talked about that jacket Mal," Natalie stated.

"No, you talked about it," Mal shot back, feeling a bit empowered since the viewing. She knew now that Ben would have her back if Natalie went to complain to him. "It's my jacket Natalie. If you don't like it, you don't have to look at it. I will be wearing what I find comfortable from now on. I'll be willing to compromise but you don't get to dictate my style anymore."

Mal walked toward the door. "Come on, let's get these meetings over with."

"You're not going to change?"

"Why? All the people I'm meeting with know I'm an Isle kid. Besides, the more time you spend arguing me on this is less time we have to actually get to where we're going to go."

Natalie sighed but Mal smirked, knowing she'd won an argument with Natalie for the first time since she'd known the woman.

Mal wasn't stupid, she knew what Natalie would have done to her jacket if Mal had let her have it. It was the same thing she kept threatening to do to it before the viewing. Basically, had Mal actually given Natalie her jacket, her jacket would have found its way on a one way trip back to the Isle.