Chapter Nine
Artisans
It all started in art class.
Here’s what happened:
First of all, when Flynn
entered the room I whispered to Hilary, “total cuteness.” Hilly agreed. Veronica
and Tyler all nudged me and I was way happy that the only seat empty was the
one beside Hilly.
Ms Dash is always busy, in a
hurry to make sure everyone is present or absent, not misbehaving, has an idea
about what colleges or more importantly, what Art Colleges they’d be interested
in attending). She really is the best-natured teacher at Sunrise, by far. (It’s
not her fault that her boyfriend dumped her for the local realtor. That was
horrible of him. Grown men can be so evil when they are only driven by selfish desires).
Anyway, I’m choosing my paint
brush and wondering if I should recommend highlights to Ms Dash, when I realize
it’s time to update Flynn’s file. So far he’s just been included in my daily
wrap up.
Newsflash.
I have Ethan to thank for my
official matchmaking system.
Of course, when he was web
designing, he didn’t really think he was designing a matchmaking system, even
though he’s very clever. He sorted out this technology and a web page for me to
input all my information into (thinking I was just playing ‘a game’) but I changed
some of the titles and used the system to generate what I term, ‘perfect
matches’. You just put the information
of a person into the system along with the corresponding person’s information
and whoala!
I really think we could
patent it but I’m not ready to go public. Sometimes my system generates other
names that match and sometimes I just get a set of characteristics of a
person’s perfect partner. Then I match up my two new B&Bs or D&Ds (that
stands for Bachelor & Bachelorette or Desperate & Dateless).
For example, Hilary (who is currently a
D&D but is probably moving up to Bachelorette status) would probably not be
an immediate match with… oh, let’s just call out Ethan as a random example.
B&Bs are peeps who are often
prepared to wait. D&Ds tend to be more than a little desperate. For example
a B&B would definitely be new boy, Flynn Elton. A D&D would be peeps in
need of… dating advice and clues – Ms Dash, for example.
Right now, I’m drafting Flynn’s
information into my laptop under my desk although Ms Dash thinks I’m working on
our commercial art project. Ms Dash is so not into computers but I explained to
her last year that she needed to incorporate new technology into art classes. I
encouraged her to develop her foundation program. I’m so glad she took my advice
because from the freshman art projects on display, everyone is benefitting.
Of course, I’m a bit dismayed
that my advice to teachers is often misinterpreted. I’m also dismayed students
mess up in art class – they don’t take it seriously, especially the guys. Every
hottie in school takes this class because they have access to a computer and
most of them are addicted to research of a, let’s just say, more adult nature.
I totally think some kids need
to be saved from themselves.
Take Flynn, for instance. He
definitely takes risks where school rules are concerned. There is even talk he
has a sideline business having his homework delivered to him, but I refuse to
believe it. It’s so obvious Flynn is way too intellectual to need a homework
service. Maybe he’s just busy; too busy to finish his homework. Either way, he
has no idea how semi-perfect he and Hilly would be together. Even their star
signs mesh well.
Once we chose our afternoon
projects and Flynn chose to sit between me and Hilary, I realized he wanted to
be closer to her. Sometimes the only difference between the dated and the
dateless is mere proximity.
“Yum,” I mouthed to Hilary as Flynn sat down. It
would be totally uncool to let new boy see how many fans he has already though.
Flynn is very sure of himself.
This is obvious from the way he slouches and smiles, first at me, next at Hilary.
I go into my laptop and tick that box: Image redesign.
Ms Dash suddenly stops
blabbing on and looks at me.
“Honey Woodhouse, please
explain the morning’s project.”
Unshaken, I quickly flicked to
my schedule which gave me the exact plans for the day.
A few peeps yawned as I
started, but that’s okay, I’m undeterred:
“This morning, Ms Dash, we are working on the portrait section of our syllabus: the medium to be used is either computer animation, old fashioned painting, or sketching or photography – your choice. But remember, your initial choice is important as it informs all aspects of the final product.”
“This morning, Ms Dash, we are working on the portrait section of our syllabus: the medium to be used is either computer animation, old fashioned painting, or sketching or photography – your choice. But remember, your initial choice is important as it informs all aspects of the final product.”
I heard that very annoying red
haired boy. Rafe Martin, say under his breath, “Is that this week’s dating
advice, Honey?” His little partner-in-crime friend, Trip, who’s a total wastrel,
laughed. They hang out together in totally unco-ordinated clothes and geek on
about computer science. Really? I know ‘the geeks shall inherit the earth’ but
couldn’t they just be a little less resistant to those with better fashion sense
before they do?
I continued when I was rudely
interrupted again, “As I was saying, the class may work in pairs or larger
groups depending on numbers.”
“Thank you, Honey. I’m glad you
were paying attention,” Ms Dash said.
Whatevvs.
I sat down. That’s so like Ms Dash to cut me off before I’m finished but I
wouldn’t want to keep on dishing out unwanted advice. That would just make me,
dare I say it, dare I even type it – unpopular.
