Chapter 4

School had ended and Alex had dropped me home. We hadn’t spoken in the car at all, which isn’t unusual but he just seemed more zoned out than he normally was. I’d spent about an hour of doing nothing at home before I decided to come down to the local park two blocks away. I set up my easel and now greens and reds were flying on to the pale white canvas, transforming it’s empty surface into a garden. My fingers were numb from the cold and my body was shaking.
    “Yo.” Alex came up from behind me, holding two steaming cups of coffee “Figured you’d appreciate it.” He smiled at me and handed over the paper cup. I put my pallet down and  we walked over to the park bench  together.
  “What’s up? You seem a little down.” I looked at his tired face, he was slightly pale and there were dark bruises under his eyes.
  “Nothing’s up, I’m fine.” He smiled half-heartedly and took a sip of his coffee, swearing when the hot liquid scalded his tongue.
  “Whatever you say” I sighed and stood up, placing my cup on the shelf of my easel “Mind if I paint you?” I asked him, pulling the easel in front of the bench and perching myself on the stool.
  “It’s cold out here, Isla. Let’s go to my place, you can paint me there.”
 There was something bothering him and I wanted to know. Normally he’d just tell me anything but today he was being kind of odd.
  “Hey, stop looking at me like that. I told you I was fine didn’t I?”
Maybe he was just tired; he did say he’d been up late last night.
  “How was school?” I smiled at him as I began packing up my things.
  “It was fine, I guess. A lot of student council meetings have been on recently and they’re eating away at my brain.” He let out a long sigh and continued “There’s an Art Exhibition held by that scholarship group next month, thought you’d want to know.” I perked up at that and just stared at him with a massive grin on my face. He laughed at me and said “You like a child on Christmas morning.”
  “I’m just happy that I can finally show my stuff.” I giggled and stood up; portfolio hanging from my shoulder.
This could be something to work for. My art project is due next week so once that’s out of the way I can work on something for the Art Exhibition.  At times like these I loved the fact I attended New York Arts Academy (NYAA). Scholarship programmes held events like these every so often, and it was the perfect chance to show off my art work.
  “I’m going to have to plan and think, and oh I’m just going to love this!”

The entire way home I rambled on about my ideas and how much I was looking forward to this, the words just flying out everywhere and filling the silence of the streets.
  “Calm down, you’ve got an entire month to plan. Why did I tell you now? You’re going to make the next few hours a living hell, aren’t you?” Alex ruffles my hair and pulled it all towards the left, dropping it over my shoulder in a fuzzy heap. I glared at him through the curtain of hair. At this point we’d reached the apartment complex where Alex and I lived which consists of four buildings marked A1-4. I live in A3 and Alex lives in A1.
  “You go on ahead; I’ll meet you at my place.” Alex handed me his keys and jogged towards the small shop at the base of A2. There was a figure there, leaning against the wall. I looked closer, trying to work out who it was in the dark. From the person’s shape you could tell that it was a girl.  Alex stood beside her and she was up to his chin. Her hair was in a braid and falling over her right shoulder. I couldn’t tell what colour it was or see much of her face since it was dark out.  She reached for his collar and pulled him in for a kiss. Right, so I guess she’s one of his many girlfriends. I walked over to the apartment and found another figure leaning against a wall.
  “Hey.” It was a tall, skinny guy who had the look of a nervous cat.
  “Um, I’m just waiting for someone; I don’t mean to bother you.” He looked at me and his eyes were completely blue, his pupils’ dark pinpricks.
  “It’s alright, you’re not bothering anyone.” I jiggled the keys in the lock, struggling to get the door open. There was this awkward tension in the air, and then I heard the satisfying click of the door; nodded to the boy and quickly walked into Alex’s apartment.
 
“Alex, dinner’s on the table. It’s pizza tonight.” Alex’s mom came out from the kitchen, saw me and smiled. “Hey sweetheart, Alex not with you?” She had such a gentle voice and soft features. She has light blonde hair and is quite pale; she reminded me of a dandelion, small with the look the she might blow away with the wind.
  “Hi, Ella. He just popped into the store. Mind if I stay for dinner?” I smiled at her, taking my shoes off and placing them on the rack by the door.
  “You know you don’t need to ask Isla, go and help yourself. I have to go out for a while; I got a call from the nursing home. Tell Alex I’ll be home late.” She gave me a hug and grabbed her coat, “His dad’s in Brooklyn so it’s just you two tonight. Remember to lock the doors.”
  “Don’t worry Ella, I will.” She shut the door behind her and I let out a long sigh.
I wonder what’s taking him so long. He better not have ditched me to go out with that girl, though it wouldn’t be the first time. I let out another sigh and I looked around me.  Alex’s apartment was very modern the furniture was simply shaped with simple colours; mainly browns and beiges. His apartment was the same size as mine but looked larger since there wasn’t clutter. His room was pretty much the same as the rest of his house; neat and organised. The only things that stood out were his stacks of comic books and games which were filling up the shelves and the keyboard which was covered in concert tickets and album covers. Alex was big on Indie artist like Sóley and Low; basically stuff that no one else listens to.  Alex is amazing on the piano; he’s played it ever since he was a kid. When we were little and it was acceptable for a girl to spend the night at a boy’s house, he’d play me a lullaby so I’d fall asleep.

I scooped his laptop up off the floor, typed in his password (which had been ‘Quails22’ since we were about 10) and started playing Sims3. Luckily that was short lived and Alex appeared in his doorway with a plastic bag filled with Doritoz and Haribo jellies.
  “Ooh snacks.” I placed the laptop on his bed and began rooting through the shopping bag. “Where’d your girlfriend go?” I asked him as I picked at a bag of Jumbo Jelly Babies.
He emptied out all of the contents on the bag onto the bed, looking for the Doritoz.
 “She’s not my girlfriend and I sent her home, she just came to ask me something.”
 “She sure looked like your girlfriend, with that kiss and all.” I said cheekily.
He raised one eyebrow at me and snorted.
“For how long were you looking, you snoop?”
 “Long enough to see a kiss.” I smiled at him, and then bit the head off of the Jelly Baby. He laughed at me and said;
“Friends can kiss too. We’ve kissed and you’re not my girlfriend.”
He made a good point, we’ve always been friends but we have kissed a number of times in the past.
 “Okay, you’re just friends.” I shrugged and dismissed the topic, he knew the past was one of the few things that I wasn’t fond of talking about and it shut me up each time.
 “Shall we play the mighty ‘Little Big Planet’?” Even though I’m nearly eighteen, that game never ceases to amuse me.
 “We shall, but I thought you wanted to paint me?”
 “I did, but I’m too lazy to set up everything now and I’ve painted you enough times to be able to do it without a live model.” Alex began setting up the PS3.
 “But you can’t possibly get bored of this face, I’m just too sexy.” He posed like a pin-up and started singing ‘I’m Sexy and I Know It’.
 “Of course you are, I bet your girlfriend agrees.”
 “I told you, she’s not my fucking girlfriend!”
The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed. Alex hadn’t raised his voice at me since we were fifteen when he found me “innocently” snooping through his bedroom.
 “What difference does it make to you, anyway? My relationship with other people is none of your business.”
His words were sharp and mean in the new found silence. I didn’t reply, I just looked at his face, trying to read his expression. At first glance he looked pissed off, but the closer you I looked at the tightness of his lips, his furrowed brows and the bags under his skittering eyes, I could tell that he was scared. This girl wasn’t a lover or even a friend but someone he was afraid of. He can’t hide his feeling from me, like I’d said; I’ve painted him enough times to know his body language, and I know enough to see that he’s terrified.
 “I didn’t mean to yell at you, it’s just really complicated.” He ran his fingers through his hair and looked down at his hands which were covered in song lyrics.
 “Her name’s Alyssa.” He let out a sigh and looked over at me, then back down at his hands. “She was one of the people who got me into drugs.”

Chapter 3

  "Where were you? You're late." Mr.Doran said it in the same irritated tone Edith used. He was a short, round man with bald patches on the sides of his head. He always reminded me of a stressed out parrot.
  "Sorry sir" Alex awkwardly scratched his head and smiled. "I slept in this morning. I was up late writing my speech for today's teacher orientation." He always covered for me when I got us late but since he's Alex everyone buys what he says. Mr.Doran nodded in response and let us in for morning registration. We were a class of about twenty-four and we were loud. No wonder Mr.Doran was going bald, he dealt with this mess everyday.
  Alex and I made our way to the back but even before we passed the third row he was surrounded by student council members. It hadn't always been like this, a few years back no one would have even known his name. Alex had been involved in a seriously bad crowd. He's started doing drugs and shit and ended up owing people a lot of money. One time he barged into my my house completely wasted, he was too ashamed to go home so he stayed with me, crying until he eventually passed out ;his head resting in my lap. After that he decided to change. He cleaned himself up and told his parents everything. They gave him hell but he took it without a word. He gradually improved his grades and became more social and that's how he ended up like this. He came to the conclusion that if he put on a 'social mask' he'd be able to hide his shameful past. He started to act differently around others and eventually I stopped hanging out with him at school. He's a great guy, but he's just not the same Alex I grew up with.

"Class, please settle down. I have an announcement." The chatter died down and everyone took their seats. Mr.Doran cleared his throat "Thank you. Right, well before all that noise starts again, I'd like to inform you of a newcomer in our class. Everyone exploded into conversation.
 "Is it a boy or a girl?"
  "I reckon it's a girl"
  "Did you guys hear about this?"
Mr.Doran banged his book on the table and it all went silent. He grunted and waddled over to the door, opening it and ushering the newbie in.
  "Everyone, I'd like you to welcome Jasper Hense into 12-D. Go and take a seat wherever you like, Jasper."
The class erupted ; people calling for him from all directions and introducing themselves. Alex stood up and they both just stared at each other, a some-what mocking smile on Jasper's face. He pushed past Alex, saying something to make him go rigid. No one else seemed to notice so I'm probably just imagining it but, there was a tense atmosphere around those two. Jasper was about an inch taller than Alex and he looked tanned in comparison to Alex's pale complexion. His hair was short, brown and scruffy and stood up slightly at the front in a sort of quiff. He was wearing a maroon T-shirt and a black hoodie with dark blue jeans and skater shoes.

He made the move any new guy would and he chose the table with  the one person in the room who wasn't hounding him with questions; me. He dropped his bag half way down his arm, his hand resting on the chair as if waiting for persmission.
  "Go ahead, it's free." he nodded in reply and slid into the chair with a sigh, accepting the long day ahead of him. Now that I think about it he's actually quite attractive. He has a sort of rugged feel to him. His ears were pierced twice on the left with black studs and he was wearing two bracelets ; black and silver bands and white beads.
 
"Ah great, You're with someone reliable. Isla, You'll show him around wont you?" Mr.Doran was hovering over us, looking at me with a look of hope. "Wonderful, I knew you wouldn't say no. I'll leave you in her care then, Jasper."
  "I didn't exactly say yes either." I muttered. I leaned my chair against the wall, balancing it on it's back legs. "I guess I'll be showing you around then." I said, turning to Jasper who just nodded in response. I suppose he's more of the strong, silent type. "Where's your subject sheet?" I asked. He didn't respond so I added "I can't show you around properly without knowing what blocks you're in." He raised his eyebrows and pulled out a crumpled sheet from his back pocket.
  "Is this it?" His voice was different to what I expected. It was soft and surprisingly sweet. I thought it might have been a bit more rough. Maybe he's just nervous, talking to someone he's never before, in a school where he knows no one.
  " Yeah, that's the one." I took the paper from him, scanning over the subjects highlighted in yellow: Visual arts -Photography and life drawing, English literature, photo journalism and French. The rest were the compulsory subjects such as the sciences and maths. "Right, so you're in block A - the arts department, block C  -that's the compulsory block which we're in right now and block E is the language section.
  "That's a load of blocks. How many are there? " He leaned his chair back to the same place as mine. That's a good sign, he's getting more comfortable.
  "There's blocks A-E which are all student blocks and then there's block F" I pointed out the window at the building across from the pitch "Which is for the teachers and staff. It's also where the student council meetings take place if you're into that kinda shit."
  "Student council, huh? Sounds like quite the effort."

Once the bell rang everyone started shuffling towards Alex, as usual, asking him what he got up to on the weekend.
 "Nothing much, just hung around  Isla" He smiled apologetically in my direction, knowing that I hated it when people payed much attention to me. They'd always point out my flaws to Alex, asking why he hung around someone so, peculiar, strange, odd ; take your pick, the judgements never ended.
  "Lets go, I'll show you around during first period. I don't really feel like going to maths this morning anyway." I pushed my way through the crowd and out the door, finding it hard to avoid everyone's glare.
"Jasper" I said looking back and seeing him still stuck in the flow of students blending around him and Alex. "If you don't push through you're not going to be able to make it out of there. You're fresh meat ;the girls will not hesitate to attack." I flashed him a grin and he smiled back.
  "Right, in that case" He began to lift Hannah Martin, the vice-president, out of his way and placing her to the side. He just had to nod in the direction of the other girls for them to scurry back to Alex. "Sorry Ladies" Jasper shrugged and followed me out the room. I couldn't help but laugh, only five minutes ago was he the 'nervous new guy' and now he was picking up and relocating the student council's vice-president? I'll admit that I was curious. Maybe getting to show him around wasn't going to be half bad.
  "Well done, newbie." I gave him a knuckle bump and walked on ahead. "Come on, I'll show you around. This might take a while."
He had a triumphant  grin on his face as if that was the most fun he'd had in weeks. Alright, so my analysis was wrong; he's not the shy type at all.
  "Ya think they'll leave me alone now?"
  "Nah, like I said Jasper, you're fresh meat." I turned to him and smiled "Keep it up though and they will, eventually."

I guided him through block C, showing him around each registration room. Every grade was split into two classes with their teacher's name as their labels.
  "We're 12-D and the other class is 12-G for Mrs.Gregory. Don't think you have her for any classes but if you do, never be late. She will not hesitate to pass you a detention slip."
Jasper shook his head and looked over his timetable.
 "This school is so organised that it's confusing."
 "Yeah, I know but you'll get the hang of it soon enough"I peered over his hands and scanned the sheet noting that he had Mrs.Gregory for French. "Well, your timetable is pretty similar to mine so just stay with me and you should be alright. If you do want a social life here though, being around me will probably ruin your chances, so once you've found your footing you're welcome to ditch me."
I leaned against the wall next to locker 125 labelled J.H. "Here's your locker, all the one's here belong to our grade so they all start with 12." He unlocked it with the code Mr.Doran gave him and he began loading his stuff into it.
  "I'm not the type who looks for a social life, so being around you really makes no difference" He looked over at me and smiled. It was strange, you wouldn't expect him to smile so much. He just looks like someone who'll get you into some trouble. He kind of reminds me of Alex, acting differently around different people. I'm not going to pry, though. Everyone has their reasons and their secrets.
  "Fair enough. So you're doing the Visual Arts then, huh?" He looked over at me, his eyes twinkling for a second.
  "Yeah, you too?"
  "I do Visual and fine arts so, we should be in block A together pretty often."
  "Sweet, should we head to class now or...?" I checked the time to see that there was about fifteen minutes left until the end of maths.
  "We might as well. We're in different maths classes, yours is straight down the hall in room 1. Honors maths." I said shaking my head at him mockingly "Jeez" I crossed the hall and walked to the door labelled 3.
"Sorry, Mr.Doran got me to show around a new kid." I nodded back in Jasper's direction, smiled and headed inside for class.

Chapter 2

I woke up to a sharp pain in my hand, I looked over and saw a hungry Homer chewing on my index finger. Ever since he was a kitten he's woken me up by either chewing on my hand or sitting on my face.
  "Homer, come here you ugly ball of fluff." I rolled to the left, scooping him up in my arms and cuddling him like a teddy bear. He was purring and nudging my face, loosing patches of hair in the process. "You know what? I'm going to make you a fish cake. How's that sound, huh?" I looked at him, half expecting him to answer me. "Oh at least pretend like you understand me." I scratched him behind  his ears and stroked his nose, making him purr even more. "Alright buddy, I've gotta get ready for school, up we get." He meowed in protest as I lifted him up and placed him on the window-sill behind my bed.
   It was Monday morning and I was already late. Last night I'd gone to Edith's and stayed up 'till 2am playing PS3 with Rick. I reluctantly got out of bed and opened up the curtains to a surprisingly sunny day. "I guess I'll head down to the park today to get some portraits done." I said turning around to talk to Homer. With that in mind I padded over to my closet retrieving a Pink Floyd T-shirt and skinny jeans. After changing out of my pajamas I turned the radio on to my favorite station and walked into the bathroom to find Homer drinking out of the toilet bowl like a dog. "Do you ever learn?" He meowed and padded back into my bedroom.  I began brushing my teeth but there was a knock on the door so when I opened it to a happy looking Alex Hart I had toothpaste dripping down my chin with my toothbrush in my mouth. Alex was tall-about 6ft and skinny. He had dirty-blonde,shaggy hair and blue eyes. Alex and I had been friends since 1st grade and he's also been my lift to school for the best part of two years.I waved him in and went back to rinse out my foamy mouth.
  "What's up, rubber duck?" He perched himself of my bathtub, his long legs resting on my laundry basket.
  "As you can see I'm trying to get ready for school. So get out of my bathroom and go make me a coffee or something." I pulled him up and shoved him out the bathroom.
  "Isn't that the woman's job?" he snickered as I shot him a glare and shut the door behind him. Once alone, I went to the mirror and tied my long, scarlet hair into a tight bun making it look like a Christmas arrangement.I undid the bun and ran my fingers through it, letting it flow over my shoulders. Then I began the 5 minute ritual of putting on all my jewelry.
  "Yo, fatass. Coffee's gettin' cold." Alex was different around me, he was sloppy and impatient. Around everyone else he was the organized, responsible and understanding school president. We'd known each other  too long for him to act that way around me. He was really popular with the girls but the last time he tried to use his seduction skills on me I hit him with my pillow, real hard. We've had our flings but we  were always meant to be 'just friends'. Alex tells me everything, you could call me his diary, so when we'd tried dating it just messed that up for us.
  "Did you pour it into the flasks?" I walked into the kitchen to see the coffee machine off and two empty cups on the kitchen table. He shot me his prize grin and a wink that usually made every girl giggle. I just sighed "Fine, lets go you lazy shit. We'll be late for class." He stood up and saluted,
  "Yes Ma'am, Starbucks on the way then?" He shouldered his bag and grabbed an orange off the kitchen counter .
  "Sure, but you're paying this time."
  "Don't I always pay?"
  "No Alex, that's me. You're the one who's always broke." I grabbed my portfolio off the couch, flicked the lights off and we headed out the door.

On our way out we'd bumped into Edith and Joannie. He loved Alex, for some strange reason he treated Alex better than everyone else. In all fairness, He was like an older brother to Joannie. Alex was an only child so he didn't mind the company of a toddler. Joannie was only five so there was a thirteen year gap between the two of them. Even still, they were really close.
  "Hey Kid, I'm cooking dinner for you guys tonight, alright?" Alex was always good at everything but cooking was not his forte. We all just laughed and headed on our way. Alex drove an old, black Honda Civic which was a pretty decent car despite the fact that last summer he thought it would be a good idea to park it in a pond. Ever since then the faux leather seats have an uncanny resemblance to a homeless guy's blanket.Since no one made coffee this morning, we stopped off at Starbucks getting coffees and caramel waffles. Alex nearly got a number from the girl at the counter but I didn't have the patience for his flirting.
  "Come on lover-boy, lets go already." He winked at her slipping a few extra caramel waffles out of the box in the process. "You're quite sneaky you know that?" he offered me a waffle and I accepted it with a sigh and a shake of the head as we headed back to the car.