His World | F.M

chapter twenty-three: neveah meets creativity

"Was the doorways of New York."

Riley nods her head, "Yep. Yep."

"You were asked to specifically focus on..." Ms. Kossal motions for Riley to finish.

"Unique doorknobs. Uhuh. Yeah." She looks up at her not seeing anything wrong.

"And paint it from memory."

"I did."

"You painted a cat." Ms. Kossal picks up the canvas to show the purple cat, Neveah giggles.

"It's a door." Riley says.

"It's a cat."

"The whole thing's a door." Riley moves the canvas closer to her and peeks her head to the side, "Anybody home? Okay, I'll come back later. Don't let the cat out." Ms. Kossal gives her an unamused look and walks over to Maya.

"Maya has something very special, Riley. She paints from a place that few of us are able to reach."

"That's because she has an awful life." Riley says, Maya tilts her head with a sarcastic smile as she continues painting. 

"I love it when I'm reminded." Maya sarcastically shoots back, Riley rubs her arm as an apology.

"Take a look at Maya's work." Ms. Kossal picks up Maya's canvas and shows the class the beautiful artwork of a New York apartment door.

"Wow, Maya. It's beautiful." Neveah tells the blonde, Maya shyly nods her head in thanks.

Riley nods her head in agreement, "I want to know what's behind that door."

"So does the artist..." Ms. Kossal replies back and looks at Maya with a proud smile, "Because I think it's been closed to her up until now."

"Veah and I are gonna get you in that door, Maya." Riley brightly smiles, Maya hums as she looks at the curly head girl who was nodding.

"Oh, I know you both are."

"Good. Because it's Maya's last painting." Ms. Kossal says causing the group to furrow their brows in confusion.

"W-wait, why is it my last painting?" Maya stands up and walks over to the woman as Neveah places her brush down.

"Well, it's your last one for me, you beautiful girl." Ms. Kossal pats Maya's arm.

Neveah slides off her stool, "What?"

"What's going on?" Maya still wasn't following.

Ms. Kossal rubs her hands together as she looks at her students around the room. "Our school is running out of money. They're cutting art, music, and dance classes, effective after the next school board meeting." Neveah, Jake, and Eva frowns.

"They can't do that." Neveah says in disbelief.

"Yeah, they have competition coming up. They've been practicing since August." Lucas defends the three who were in dance and cheer.

"And how will Maya learn? What comes after light and shadow?" Riley adds, just as upset about it as them.

"What about you, Riley?" Ms. Kossal rebuttals.

"Who cares about me? I stink. What about Maya and Neveah? What about them?" Riley asks, worried for her friends.

"And what about drama?" Farkle brings up, "My one-year suspension from not being able to audition for any of the plays ends on Tuesday. I'm gonna be pippin!"

"They're not putting on pippin." Riley tells him, Farkle frowns.

"I'm gonna be pippin whatever they're doing." Neveah walks over to him and rubs his shoulders. Farkle wraps an arm around her waist to comfort her when he sees her sad face.