As an exchange student from Scotland, a whole new world opens up to Darren Green when he moves to the United States. He'll live with a host family, start at a new school, and he'll have to make new friends. However, what won't be a part of this new...
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"DARREN, OUR SCOTTISH STUDENT." Ms. Wilson smiled when Darren walked into her office. "It's great to see you." Aside from being a math teacher, she was also a counsellor that had offered to help Darren in his application process. Because Darren had decided he could use all the help – better be safe than sorry, he thought – this was the third time he'd visited her.
Darren acknowledged her by smiling and sat down in the plastic chair that stood on the opposite side of the desk from where she was sitting.
"I'm really happy to see you here," she said. "You said that you wanted to talk about your application essay?"
He nodded. "I changed my topic – again." He bowed down to open the backpack he'd put on the floor and get a folder out that he'd dedicated to the application to universities. "I wanted to know if it was any good."
Ms. Wilson was distracted by something else, though. Her eyes were fixed on her desk and the folder that was laying on it. "Did you make that yourself?" she asked, pointing to the drawing on the front of the folder.
Darren's cheeks flushed. "Yes," he said, opening the folder up. The motion made the female face in black and white on the front of his folder disappear. He wasn't one to share his art and only practiced drawing as a hobby.
"That's really good, Darren," she said. She used a different tone than the one in class when she applauded someone for fixing a math problem. It sounded as if she was genuinely amazed by what she'd seen.
"It's nothing really," he said. He took a page out of the folder that had the plan for his essay written out on it, with the intention of moving on.
She shook her head. "Many wish they could draw like you," she said. "Me included." She laid her hand on the folder and closed it with the other to take another look at the girl on the cover. She tilted her head to get a good look. "Her gaze is so mesmerizing, and she has this smize..." Ms. Wilson smiled weakly. "But the color palette makes her look sad, as if she is just wearing a mask, pretending that she is fine while she isn't on the inside."
Darren rubbed his hands together nervously and wished she would open the folder or give it back to him. Her looking at his drawing and analyzing it made him feel vulnerable.
"You have some talent," she said. She leaned back, let her back rest against her black squeaking office chair and looked at Darren again. "I mean, I don't know anything about art or drawing, but this... It tells a story, even to a noob like me."
"Thank you." Now that her hands were off his folder, he took the opportunity to slide it towards him and put it back in his backpack. Would she have recognized the face? The girl in the drawing might not be in Ms. Wilson's class, but that wasn't a requirement for identification. "Now, the essay..."
"Right." Ms. Wilson rolled her chair closer to the desk and let her folded hands rest on the desktop. "Tell me about it."
"I wanted to write about the health implications of human cloning." Darren put down the piece of paper that had all the info on it, but before he had the chance to say more, she had started talking.
