Zander walked into school, as if nothing had happened.
He walked along to his locker. He could visibly see that it was scraped and dirty. Oh dear. He just shrugged, he'd stay late to fix it. As he opened his locker, he saw that his stuff was disorganised and the wall paper was torn. He seriously had to ask for a new locker combination.. he saw a glass of spoiled milk and gagged. He'd clean that out later too.
As he picked up his textbooks, he saw a lovely crinkled sheet of paper. A Note!
He smiled as he picked it up. Thinking it was maybe something from Luke or someone wanting to become friends.
"..Nevermind then- that is indeed a death threat-" he whispered as he scrunched it up and put it back in his locker, noticing in the back corner, there was a bottle of rat poison.
He just rolled his eyes as he shut his locker. Ah well, he'll live, unless they jump him in an alleyway as per written, then he probably won't. (Author note, that is NKT foreshadowing he will not be jumped in an alleyway💀‼️)
Zander had finished all his classes for the day, aside from art. He was so excited! He had been working on a project for months and he knew he'd finish it today! It was huge, a 10 foot tall canvas!
His teacher had even offered for it to presented in a national art competition! She was his favourite teacher, no one else but he and Daisy liked her. She was so sweet, though strict.
He smiled to himself as he hummed a small tune and set the two paint buckets he was carrying down.
He walked over to the furniture trolley as he wheeled his painting to the center of the room where a tarp had previously been laid out beneath it.
He pulled the cover off.
His painting was destroyed.
It was like someone took buckets of paint and hurled it at the canvas, a colourful mess.
They had thrown what seemed to be cooking oil on it, they burnt it. They cut holes in the canvas.
He gasped as he covered his mouth.
He slowly backed away from what used to be his painting, so he could see the disaster in full.
He hoped it was some mean joke.
But near the bottom of the canvas, one tiny area that was unaffected, showed him part of the original painting. It was his.
He felt tears come to his eyes. For one of the first times, it was because he was actually sad. He was distraught.
He stood there wide eyed, hand pressed over his mouth as tears rolled freely down his cheeks.
Just then the door behind him opened.
"Zander! I'm here Dar-...ling..?" The teacher froze as she too saw the destruction.
"..Your painting..- what happened to.." she cut herself off, noticing Zander was crying. He never normally showed any form of emotion. She became increasingly worried.
"Zander- Hey hey hey-! No need to cry honey-! Uh.. We can find who did this yeah-!? I can even help you make a new one-!" She offered frantically, moving infront of him to divert his eyes onto her rather than the painting.
"No-! I don't want another painting! It has to be that one! I spent months on it!" He hiccuped as he brought his hands up to rub his eyes as he gently cried, getting eyeliner on his blazer. He was trembling.
"Hey.. nonono.. come on darling.. come take a seat.."
She put one hand on his shoulder and the other on his back as she guided him to a chair and sat him down. Pulling up another chair next to him and resting her hand on his shoulder.
She grabbed her Walkie-Talkie and whispered into the radio, something Zander didn't care to make out as he continued to cry.
Within minutes, Daisy had arrived and ran in.
"Zander-! What happen-...Oh my..- is that the national submission..?" She asked as she walked up to it and ran her hand down the dried paint.
That seemed to be Zanders breaking point as he sobbed out.
"Yes-! I can't submit anything anymore-!"
And he started bawling.
"Hey-! Zander! Calm down-! It's alright! I'm sure we could work something out-!" Daisy tried to suggest, causing him to cry harder. To which the teacher quickly stood up, recovered the painting as she wheeled it into the art rooms storage room. Zander didn't have to see such a sight.
Stacy stood by the door, smiling to herself as she recorded the scene, she wasn't going to do anything with it. More just keep it to herself and watch it on repeat.
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Author notes!!
Zanders painting looked something like this:
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Like that but on a 10 feet tall canvas
(He's been working on it for 4 months)
He was going to go to a national art competition where the prize is you'd be able to go to art school and it would be fully paid for (apparently Americans have to pay for higher education?)
