Colt went to the school next day. People kept staring at him and laughing, probably talking about Duncan’s party. He knew he shouldn’t have even bothered going.

“Hey, Colt!”

He saw Stephanie coming toward him and turned away, not feeling like talking to her. She’d probably known they were going to set him up and that was why she’d invited him. He was fairly sure of it. It wasn’t the first time, but he’d thought maybe she would be different, maybe she had actually wanted to be his friend.

He went to his locker and pulled out his math text and binder. Having math first period was the cruelest thing the school system could’ve ever done to him.

“Hey.”

Colt turned around and jumped, “Jaysin. Um, hi.”

“Yeah, hi. How are you?” Jaysin looked so out of place among the straight-laced students around him with his oddly dyed hair and rumpled clothing. People were staring, but Colt wasn’t sure if that was because he looked so out of place or because it was an actual person speaking to him.

Colt nodded, “I’m fine. I didn’t know you went to school here.”

“First day,” Jaysin replied shortly, “So far everyone here looks like a douche or a tool.”

Giggling quietly, Colt nodded in agreement, “Pretty much. Um, do you need help finding your classes or anything?”

Jaysin shrugged and handed him his schedule.

Colt grinned, “We have art, lunch, chemistry, and English together.”

“What do I have first?” asked Jaysin, “I haven’t really looked at it.

“Soc. That’s right down the hall from my math class. Come on, I’ll walk you there.”

Colt led him to class just as the warning bell rang. They both hurried to their respective class rooms and sat. The entire math class, Colt’s thought were preoccupied with thoughts of Jaysin. He was so unlike anyone else he’d met in his life. He seemed to have such a rough exterior, but somehow he was so kind despite his jadedness.

He wanted to spend more time with Jaysin, get to know him better, have a real friend for once. He hadn’t had a real friend since he was very little, since he’d always had trouble adapting socially and he’d moved around so many times before finally finding a foster home that fit right. It would nice… just to have someone to eat lunch with, someone to talk to during class, someone to hang out with on the weekends instead of staying home and spending time with his fosters all of the time.

It felt like the class was dragging on forever. He didn’t care what x stood for, he wanted to go talk to Jaysin. They could walk to art together, then he’d go to soc and Jaysin would go to study hall then they would have lunch then chemistry together. Colt would go off to his Spanish class while Jaysin would go to math and then they would have English together and school would be over. Maybe then they could hang out afterward…

Maybe I’m getting my hopes up too high. He probably doesn’t really want to be friends with me. He just needed someone to talk to and I was the only person he knew other than Duncan. I hope that’s not the case. I know it’s possible, but I really hope that isn’t it. That would just be really frustrating…

X

Jaysin glared at the clock, mentally willing it to go faster. He hated this class already. The teacher was soooo boring and everyone in the class was a complete moron. He wanted to go to art and draw. He wanted to hang out with Colt.

The kid was kind of weird, but he was fun to hang out with. He had a very calming presence, which was not a common characteristic found in the people of Jaysin’s life. Usually people annoyed him or frustrated him or angered him or aggravated him. But Colt, he just made him feel very calm and relaxed.

The bell finally rang and Jaysin hurried out the door, glad that he’d gotten all of his make-up work from the teacher earlier in the class. It all looked really easy too, stuff he’d already learned at St. Joseph’s.

He found Colt waiting for him around the corner and gave him a nod. Colt smiled at him, “The art department is at the complete other end of the building so we have to hurry to get there on time.”

Jaysin nodded and just followed as Colt weaved gracefully through crowds of people, girls talking about pointless crap, boys talking about pointless crap, teachers yelling at students about pointless crap. Jaysin was very cynical about the whole mess.

He got next to Colt as they walked and asked, “So what’s this art class like?”

“Well the school has a very small art department,” Colt replied, “There are too classrooms, one for drawing and painting and another for sculpture and clay and all of that. The teachers give you assignments if you don’t work on anything, but usually you just got tell them what you want to do, they give you the materials and you have at it. As long as you work and have a couple things to show them when they ask you about your progress you get and an A.”

“They?”

“Ports and Grand. They run the art department together. Since the classes are so small they just combine them into one and one teacher will watch one room and while the other watches over the other room, then they decide on grades together.”

“So what are you working on?” asked Jaysin.

“I’ve been doing wheel construction most of the semester. I’ve gotten pretty good at it so far. I’m going to start working on a dishware set for Cheri, my foster mom.”

Jaysin nodded, “That sounds pretty cool.”

“Yeah,” Colt said with a smile, “I’m not really a very talented artist, but it’s an easy A and I have fun with it.”

Jaysin nodded, “I like drawing a lot and it was one of the only classes that wasn’t closed.”

“Here we are,” said Colt, leading Jaysin into a classroom with students milling around, some grabbing paint, others getting out drawing paper or sharpening pencils. “That’s Ports,” Colt said pointing to a man sitting at a Mac using a tablet, “Talk to him. I’m going to be next door in the back room.”

Jaysin was suddenly left alone and he didn’t like it. He much preferred having Colt at his side. He walked over to the teacher. “Ummm… Ports?”

The man turned and looked at him, spiky blonde hair, warm brown eyes, and square black glasses. He wore a black t-shirt and jeans. He grinned a broad smile, “New kid?”

“Jaysin.”

“Right,” Ports replied with a chuckle, “Pull up a chair and talk to me. What do you like to do?”

Pulling over a chair, Jaysin sat down and nervously replied, “I like to draw.”

“Ok… What do you like to draw?”

Jaysin shrugged, “Lots of different things.”

Ports nodded slowly, “Do you have anything you can show me? A sketch book? Doodles in the margins of you math notes? Small drawing on a notebook cover?”

Slowly nodding, Jaysin pulled his beaten up sketch book out of his army-issue backpack he’d gotten at a thrift store for a couple of dollars the evening before. The sketch book had a cheap, black fabric cover and had various rips and white-out splatters covering it.

Ports opened it and started flipping through it. There were drawings of landscapes, cars, animals, people, dancing robots, and random cartoon characters. Most of the sketches had areas circled and notes written to the side on how to improve it, what to do differently. Some had big marks across them and the words “this sucks” off to the side. There were pictures taped in for references and random pages of notes written about a possible work.

“You’ve got a lot of preliminary stuff in here,” said Ports, thinking deeply and analyzing each work before going to the next one. He spoke slowly, but surely when he chose to, “It all shows a lot of potential. You have a lot of good thoughts on composition, perspective, and foreshortening. I think you should take some of these and do them bigger, make an actual finished piece instead of sketches, notes, and studies. Try several different mediums and the like.”

“That sounds like it would be cool,” Jaysin said nervously, “I’ve only ever just used pencil or pen.”

“Have you ever painted?” asked Ports, “I think some of these could make amazing paintings.”

Jaysin shrugged, “I’ve never painted before…”

“Pick a couple of these you’d like to make into larger works. I’ll get you some compressed canvas boards and you can do some small studies, experiment with color, painting techniques. Then once you’re comfortable with it, I can get you a stretched canvas and you can do a large piece. Or if you decide you don’t like painting, I can get you some high quality drawing paper and you can do these on a large scale.”

“That sounds really great,” Jaysin replied. He was shocked. This guy seemed like he actually wanted to help him. Looking at him, he looked like some idiot kid just out of college, but… he was a real teacher. Jaysin was so used to teachers that would just put him in the back and ignore him…

While Ports went and got him the canvas boards, Jaysin snuck next door. There were people working with clay, plaster, wood, wires, and everything else. He hurried to the backroom.

Colt was there, sitting at a wheel, his hands, jeans, and cheek covered in gray clay water. His foot moved surely on the pedal, changing the speed slightly whenever he needed to, flattening the clay on the wheel down into a plate shape.

“Hey,” he said with a smile when he noticed Jaysin, “How’d things go with Ports?”

“Fine,” said Jaysin, hating how the other kids on the wheels were staring at him, “He’s going to help me make some of my sketches into paintings.”

“Sounds fun,” replied Colt, “Ports is an awesome teacher. I wish I was better at drawing and stuff so I could be in the other room more.”

“But then you would be in my room less,” said a large, muscular man wearing a pair of clay stained jeans, dirty hiking boots, and a gray t-shirt with a ratty plaid flannel over it. He was carefully loading finished projects into a large round kiln.

“Grand, this is Jaysin. He just moved here,” Colt explained happily.

Grand grinned, showing the laugh lines around his eyes. He had dark brown hair cut short and parted to the side, a matching goatee and a crooked grin. His pale blue eyes seemed to sparkle with excited mischief.

“You stole my student!” Ports exclaimed, entering the room with a stack of canvas boards under his arm.

Grand grinned, “All’s fair in love and war, Porks.”

Ports glared at him, “Do not call me that. You’re bigger than I am. Jaysin, I’ve got you those boards. We can go get you a workspace set up if you’d like.”

Jaysin nodded, “See you later, Colt.”

“Bye, Jaysin.”

Grand and Colt watched the two leave.