Chapter Three

Song: Eye Contact - Crisaunt

*****

"The art of eye contact"

After some more banter, Bailey finally manages to lead me to my first class for the day – Art.

All of the arts classrooms at St. Domenico's were tucked away in a small brick building near the back of the school grounds. From the outside the building didn't look like much, but inside, there was a vast open space illuminated by light pouring in from large industrial windows lining the walls. The space was filled with artwork; paintings, drawings, pottery, fashion. Beyond that the classrooms were each decorated with easels, sketches and paints.

Something about the building and its cosy classrooms brought a sense of comfort to me.

I had always loved art. And not just art in its main sense, but extending to music, dance, and basically any form of creativity. There had always been something so fascinating to me about the creativity of the mind.

My go-to had always been painting though. I had forever loved the ways colours blended into a canvas. The simplicity and feeling of tranquillity it brought to sit for long hours in front of a canvas as daylight faded away.

I had spent many long hours painting in yellow. The warmth and delicacy of the colour would bring a surging sense of happiness to the easel as I would paint. It was the colour of the sun. The sound of laughter. The feeling of joy. The way you could take simple shades of this simple colour yet mix them to capture an image of pure sunlight. A colour which loves the sun so much it radiates its warmth...

How can something so simple go from being a part of your everyday life – something which brings you so much joy and freedom – suddenly turn into something which even the thought of feels suffocating?

I hadn't painted since the move. I had tried of course, but it didn't feel right anymore. It hurt to even look at my old paintings, filled with bright yellow tones and long past moments of happiness.

Eventually, I gave up trying, packed all my art supplies away and moved my paintings into the back corner of dusty cupboard, already overflowing with suppressed memories.

I picked art as a subject on a whim, thinking maybe it could help me regain what I had lost. If I could take it back – redo that split-second decision – I probably would. But I can't, so I'm forcing my mind to just get over it.

Anyway, Bailey dropped me off at my class then had to run off to her history class, so I'm now waiting outside the classroom with a few other students for our teacher to arrive.

Somehow talking to Bailey had completely distracted me from my nerves, and the fact that I knew absolutely nobody at this school and nobody in this class.

Literally every possible concern I could think of was popping up in my head.

Where was I supposed to sit? Did people have arranged seating here? Did I bring the right books?

While one arm cradled my books, the other hung at my side, my hand clenched into a fist to try to supress the tremor running through it.

Soon, I spotted an older woman with curly mop of silver hair resting in a messy bun on top of her head making her way towards the classroom. The corners of her eyes crinkled with each smile she offered to each student lining the hallway, her demeanour radiating warmth and approachability.

"Good morning everybody! Welcome back!" she said in a chipper tone as she walked past us to unlock the door to the classroom.

As she walked into the room, the congregation of students waiting outside followed her in, chatting happily amongst themselves. I lingered at the back of the crowd, not wanting to face the possible awkwardness of picking a seat, only to discover that it was in fact someone else's seat. That would just be an amazing way to start my day.

I hesitated when I passed the threshold into the classroom. Everyone was still messing around; people finding seats, calling out greetings across the classroom. With nothing feeling remotely familiar to me, my feeling of seclusion only intensified.

Probably seeing the look of fear on my face, the teacher, who had been busy sorting papers on her desk, walked over to me. As she moved, the beaded necklaces resting around her neck clacked in a steady rhythm against one another and her long floral skirt swayed softly around her.

"Now then, I don't think I've seen you around before, and by that confused look you've got on, am I correct in assuming you're our new student?" she asked me politely.

I don't know why, but there was something in her gentle gaze and lopsided smile that reassured me, quelling my nerves.

"Yep, that's me," I replied, breathing out a sigh of relief that I had been saved from my own awkwardness. "My name's Lola."

"Well, it's lovely to meet you Lola. I'm Mrs Saunders," she smiled at me with a knowing glint in her eye. "You know, I have a sneaking suspicion that we are going to have a wonderful year together Lola, I can already feel the artist raging within you. Oh, and feel free to take a seat anywhere, we'll be getting started soon," she said, gesturing to the room.

Turning around, I noticed the classroom was still filled with overlapping voices and laughter behind me. I was glad our conversation hadn't drawn the attention of the class.

There were four large tables scattered across the room and I noticed a few empty seats at each one. Everyone was engrossed in their conversations, probably filling each other in with details of their holidays, so there wasn't exactly a table that stood out to me as particularly inviting.

I decided to just sit at the table closest to me, pulling out the rickety stool and dumping my books down as I sat.

Glancing back to the front of the classroom, I saw Mrs Saunders had returned to shuffling through the papers and art supplies scattered across her cluttered desk. Clearly, the class wasn't about to start just yet.

Suddenly though, I felt uneasy.

You know that feeling you get when you can tell someone is watching you?

Yeah... after a few seconds that's exactly what I felt.

Drawing my eyes up from my nervously fidgeting hands, I looked across the desk to discover a guy with messy dark brown hair which looked almost black in this lighting and a tanned olive skin tone staring straight at me.

Generally, when someone catches you staring at them, you tend to look away as fast as humanly possible.

Well, apparently this guy didn't get the memo, because even with my gaze now locked questionably on his, his eyes didn't falter. In fact, his eyebrows were now drawn together, almost as if he was confused by me.

The boy sitting next to him, a head fully of messy chocolate brown curls, continued to speak to him, not realising his friend's attention was clearly elsewhere.

With his dark brown eyes still locked on me, I was beginning to feel more and more flustered by the second.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, he might not actually be looking at me. I glanced over my shoulder to check if there was someone behind me, that I wasn't mistaken. But, nope definitely no one and nothing there.

Drawing my eyes back to the boy, I titled my head to the side and scrunched my eyebrows together, asking him a silent question.

'What the hell are you staring at?'

A sense of familiarity stirred within me. For some reason the boy's messy hair and sharp jawline paired with the intense set to his eyes looked familiar. It almost felt like I'd met him before.

But that would be crazy. This is a completely new school in a completely new town, the possibility of me knowing anyone here would be miniscule.

I shook my head to erase the thought, 'he must just resemble someone else.'

After a few more seconds, I couldn't stand his unwavering gaze anymore.

"Do I know you or something?" I suddenly burst out, meeting his eyes.

The boy who had been speaking nonstop since I sat down glanced at his friend, then turned towards me in shock. He proceeded to turn back to his friend, then finally drew his gaze back to rest on mine. A look of confusion settled across his face. It was honestly comically that he had been so absorbed in whatever their conversation had been that he seemed to have only just noticed I had sat down at their table.

"Hi! You must be new, I'm William Gardiner," he said perkily, extending his hand towards me with a lopsided grin.

"Lola..." I replied hesitantly, shaking his hand before turning my attention back to his friend.

William followed my line of vision. An awkward pause later he nudged his friend in the ribs, tilting his head slightly in confusion as he remained broodingly silent.

I watched mystery eye-staring boy's lips quirk up in a small smile as his gaze finally shifted to his friend.

An awkward silence settled around us as we waited for William's mysterious friend to say something.

"Sorry, he can be a little slow sometimes," William said with a mischievous grin as he poked his friend's cheek. "Come on Leo, aren't you going to introduce yourself?" 

I watched with amusement as William proceeded to tickle the boy – Leo – under his chin.

"Come on little baby Le-Le, say something to the nice girl," William cooed in a high-pitched voice. "It's simple. Just repeat after me... 'Hi... my name is Leo, it's nice to meet you'."

William pronounced each syllable of each word slowly, the grin on his face only spreading as he teased his friend. Yet, despite a small smirk forming on Leo's lips, he remained completely silent.

A few seconds of silence later, William let out an agitated breath and suddenly shoved his friend so hard and unexpectedly that the wobbly stool he was sat on tilted underneath him. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as I watched Leo try to regain his balance and a look of shock fell onto both his and William's faces. Before I knew it, there was a loud crash, and he was sprawled out on the floor of the classroom

The look of anger on Leo's face, and the contrasting look of terror covering William's face was actually priceless. I had to cover my mouth to try to prevent the laughter about to burst out of me.

"What the hell, Will!" Leo finally spoke, albeit from his awkward position on the paint splattered floor. His exclamation drew the attention of the entire classroom, including Mrs Saunders, and I watched as everyone's heads were drawn curiously to the commotion.

"Whoops?" William looked down at Leo with an expression of innocence plastered onto his face, but even I could clearly see the humungous grin he was struggling to supress.

"Whoops? That's all you have to say!" Leo exclaimed.

"Hey, it's wasn't my fault. You were the one being antisocial," William raised his hands up in mock surrender.

Mrs Saunders had now made her way directly into to the centre of the havoc.

"Boys," she stated firmly. "Care to explain what on earth is going on here?"

"Mrs Saunders, I promise it wasn't my fault this time. That idiot over there pushed me," Leo had finally stood up and was staring at Mrs Saunders with a pleading but terrified face.

I watched as William's eyes widened in fear behind Mrs Saunders back. He shook his head in disappointment and saw him mouth what looked like 'dude' towards Leo.

Mrs Saunders slowly turned around to face William, her breath coming out in an exasperated huff as she saw his face.

"William..."

"Mrs Saunders..." a sheepish smile covered William's face, as the whole class sniggered at him.

"It's no wonder why my son is friends with you two boys," she spoke under her breath, her head shaking.

Mrs Saunders had a son? I couldn't help but be intrigued in who he was, and if he was just as goofy as the two boys standing across the table from me.

"Caleb just loves us so much," William responded dreamily and casting his eyes to the ground, before quickly adding, "So much that he would hate for us to get a detention and not be able to see him at lunch like we promised..."

His sentence trailed off with a puppy dog look in his eyes and a pout present on his lips.

"Unfortunately for you, I have a class to teach right now," seeing the look of relief crossing William's face, Mrs Saunders continued, "oh, but don't worry sweetie, this conversation is far from over."

"Busted..." I heard Leo chuckle.

"Oh, Leo!" Mrs Saunders exclaimed, spinning back around. "I nearly forgot to tell you; you're both invited over for dinner tonight. I'm sure Caleb will appreciate the company."

Leo and William shared a look of absolute horror.

"Now sit down, both of you."

Mrs Saunders returned to the front of the classroom as Leo and William took their seats with an embarrassed flush covering both of their faces.

"That was your fault," William whispered angrily.

"Nope, definitely your fault," Leo whispered back.

I tried to pay attention to Mrs Saunders as she begun the lesson, but out of the corner of my eye I could see the two boys engaging in a series of silent banter. William raised his eyebrows, Leo rolled his eyes, William stuck his tongue out.

I watched on amusedly for much longer than I'd care to admit.

Their foolishness continued until Mrs Saunders finally noticed, walked over to them, and smacked them both lightly on the back of their heads.

"Mrs Saunders!" William whined, his hand reaching up to rub his head.

Mrs Saunders didn't respond, walking back to the front of the classroom and continuing the lecture as if nothing had happened, but I could see the glint of amusement sparkling in her eyes.

Clearly, Mrs Saunders was used to the two boys' behaviour. I could only imagine the countless absurd situations with not only William and Leo, but her son Caleb, which she must have experienced.

I had a feeling this class wasn't going to be so bad after all...

Mrs Saunders explained the course for the term, the media options available to us, and the tasks we would have to complete. Once she had finished explaining, the class broke away to begin working on our own projects.

I figured my best option would be painting as I had the most experience with it, so I pulled out my sketch book and started designing. Ever since the move, it had been hard for me to pull inspiration from anything, but I tried my best to draw out some simple plans.

The class was filled with noise again, voices overlapping and intertwining. I felt a warmth spread across the room.

Who would've thought an art classroom filled with strangers would be where I'd feel the most at home since over a month ago before we moved? Certainly not me, but I clasped onto the feeling of serenity and used it to draw inspiration for my sketches.

Despite the calm I felt though, throughout the entire class I still felt slightly uneasy. It felt as if I was being observed, someone scrutinising my every detail, every flaw, every movement...

And why did I feel like this?

Maybe because I could feel Leo's piercing gaze resting on me for the remainder of the class...

*****

Hi friends! 

I hope you enjoyed getting introduced to some new characters this chapter ;) 

Please vote / comment!

~ Eloise