Girl Meets Ryan Matthews

25.

Girl Meets Art Show

Art can always be a fun subject. For Ryan, it was a great way to express himself on a canvas while also getting credit for it.

One day in art, the class was assigned to draw a living subject. However, there was a bowl of fruit on the stool in the middle of the room. 

“Hey,” Ryan leaned over to the left to a girl named Gracie, “why’s that there?”

She shrugged.

Ryan sighed and sat up straight. A second later Farkle walked in wearing a towel robe. 

“Why draw fruit?” He moved the bowl onto the table behind where he was standing. “Why not draw a real work of art? 48 pounds of nasty,” He threw off his robe, and Ryan laughed behind his canvas.

Farkle was still wearing a swimsuit underneath and cackled as the room cringed away, expecting something worse. He and Ryan high fived, as Ryan had planned the dramatic entrance.

“You’re late, they started drawing the fruit,” Ms. Kolassal said, looking at Farkle. Farkle sighed defensively, “Hey, ten minutes is not late, that’s on time.”

Ryan immediately got to work on drawing Farkle, taking the period to sketch out and paint a piece with Farkle as the center. About halfway through when Riley started complaining. 

"Why are we drawing him? Why not Lucas?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. She drew Lucas enough, it didn't need to be made an assignment. 

"Because nobody looks like that," Ms. Kolassal said, looking at Lucas while he posed. 

"Why not Ryan?" Maya pointed out, gesturing to him. Ryan rolled his eyes and continued working. 

"I asked and he said no."

Ms. Kolassal drew attention back to Farkle. "Get used to this, everyone. The male physique. When drawing a Farkle, start with the eyes."

Ryan was sketching out his pose first, completely tuning her out. He tuned the class out, only focusing on the drawing and his subject. 

After he had begun painting, Ms. Kolassal moved on from Riley and Maya, she stopped at him. 

"Wow, Ryan. This is… amazing."

Farkle got up from his spot in the middle of the class to look.It was a profile of him with a space long sleeve shirt. The shirt looked like it was a snapshot of a galaxy. The shirt was the only thing painted then. 

"Ryan," Farkle stared at the picture for a second, speechless. 

"Shooeth, man, you're the subject of the class right now," Ryan pushed him back to the stool, ignoring how warm his face felt at seeing Farkle's reaction to his painting. 

Riley rolled her eyes. Ryan stuck his tongue out at her. Maya turned his head back toward his painting. 

"Ryan, you should put a piece in the upcoming exhibit," She smiled at him. 

"What exhibit?" 

"I was explaining to Maya earlier that the schools having an art exhibit soon, and you should put a piece up."

"That… that sounds awesome," Ryan beamed, "I'd love to."

"That's great!"

He grinned as he finished outlining the painting, deciding not to color the rest in.