An Artistic Duo

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Monday, July 16

I sat down next to Eli and shot him a smile which he gave me back. I turned to the front of the classroom and tried to calm myself down, but his smile was etched into my brain.

"Hello everyone!" Bailey called from the front of the classroom, a bright smile on her face as always. "So, today, our activity will be a little different from usual."

I was listening to her talk, but I was also very focused on Eli tapping his slender, but manly, fingers on the table. It was distracting.

"Instead of doing individual work and having me look over it like normally, you guys will be accessing over your peers work," Bailey continued, but I was still looking at Eli.

He had stopped tapping his fingers, but now his leg was going up and down and up and down, at a fast pace.

"I'm sure you've noticed the tissue boxes on each of your tables and the stack of scrap paper beside it. When we take your art and set it up, we'll all go around the room in stations and say what is perfect and what can be improved for each painting."

Eli's leg had stopped moving, after many switches of leg choice, but now he was rocking side to side, bobbing his head to some unknown song. I didn't realize that I was smiling as I watched him until he saw me looking at him and froze.

I blinked at him then turned my head back to the front of the classroom. I should be listening to her instructions, not laughing at Eli. Yeah, that's what I'll call it. Laughing at him.

"First, you and your partner have to decide which painting you want to be set up for everyone to judge, then we'll get started."

Bailey led us all to a storage room where all of our paintings were and we all went to our little sections to decide which painting to choose.

"You have to choose a painting that you and your partner have both worked on!" Bailey called.

"That limits us to only three choices," Eli said and pushed our individual ones aside. Then he placed the three that we could choose from side by side to each other, backed up and examined.

"I like the one with fire," I said after a couple of seconds.

"I like that one too, but I don't want to agree with you, so-"

Before he could even finish I pushed him and grabbed the painting I wanted and a small easel to set it up on. I laughed as Eli called, "Hey!" Behind me.

"You're so mean, Lace, you know that?" Eli said with a smile as he helped me set up our art. "You should be put in jail or something."

I rolled my eyes but didn't respond as I sat and waited for further instruction from Bailey, while Eli tapped away beside me.

"Do you never stop moving?" I asked him.

The look on his face suggested that he didn't expect that question, and didn't really know what I meant until he saw himself tapping away.

"Why are you watching me so hard, Lace?" He countered.

"It's distracting!" I told him.

He shrugged then. "Well I don't know why I do it, it's just a habit. Boys move."

"Could you stay still for one minute?" I asked, generally interested to see if he could do it.

"Is that a challenge?" He smirked, leaning in a little bit closer to me.