smiling critters

chapter 3 - park painting

"Neil!” a voice called out. He turned to see Dylan waving him over with the others. He trotted over excitedly.

“We were gonna go to the park, wanna join?” Dylan smiled. Neil nodded and the group began to stroll to the park a few blocks down. Once they got there, everyone went off to do their own thing, Hollie and Kai went to the soccer field with Dylan and Penny to play a few rounds, Camila set up her easel and sketched the landscape as she talked with Neil while Bobby and Bryson talked about the homework they had to do since they shared a few classes. Eventually, Neil's conversation with Camila fell flat, leaving him to watch as she sketched and hummed a tune, mostly alone with his thoughts. He looked around at his friends, they were all so talented in their own right; Bobby was endlessly compassionate, Hollie was super athletic and did a ton of sports, Bryson was super smart, Penny was a great cook and knew a whole lot about proper nutrition, kai was super charismatic and outgoing, Camila was so effortlessly creative, and Dylan was an excellent leader, but that kinda ran in the family. Compared to them, Neil was dull and talentless. He couldn’t do anything special, especially compared to all his friends, not to mention they all had such nice voices. It was always a pleasure to listen to them talk, while his voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. when he really thought about it, he didn’t fit in with his friends at all; he didn’t talk, kept to himself more often than not, and didn’t have anything special going on about him. When he looked at it that way, he stuck out like a sore thumb. The only reason he was with them was because Dylan had pitied him enough in 4th grade to invite him to hang out.

“Neil, are you alright?” a voice suddenly snapped the cat from his thoughts. Camila was looking at him with a sympathetic smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just got a little caught up in my thoughts, sorry,” he signed to her.

“Don’t apologize! I guess it was kinda my fault for not keeping our conversation afloat.”

“Hey, don’t blame yourself.”

“Ok, but feel free to bother me if I get quiet again.”

Neil nodded and kept watching her draw the landscape before suddenly turning towards Bobby and Bryson.

“Hey bobby pin, could you pose for me?” she smiled. Bobby nodded before standing up and going over to the area of the park she was sketching.

“How do you want me to pose?” she asked, turning to look at her friend. Camila grabbed Neil’s shoulder and dragged him to stand beside Bobby.

“So you sit down like this and act like you’re blowing on dandelions and Neil, you climb that tree and just chill out,” Camila instructed, moving both of them around accordingly. Bobby did as told and sat down exactly as Camila told her and held her pencil like it was a dandelion while Neil carefully scaled the tree and sat on one of the branches and started people-watching. He saw a lot of other yokai doing mundane things, a family was enjoying the playground a few feet away with their hound, two people looked like they were enjoying some quality time together, Bryson and Camila were talking as they did their own things, and the other four were enjoying playing soccer with some other kids. Everyone at that park looked like they were enjoying themselves, and that made Neil smile a bit. He kept watching the other people and animals as they passed him by, now completely alone with his thoughts, he should get home soon, it looked like it was getting late and he needed to be home to clean his room and eat dinner.

“Neil, I’m done!” Camila suddenly shouted, standing under the tree he was in. He nodded and jumped down before walking back to her easel with her.

“Are you alright? You looked thoughtful.”

“I just like watching everyone as they do stuff, it’s relaxing.”

“That’s a weird thing to like doing.”

“I know, but still.”

Camila hummed before deciding to change the subject.

“Wanna see the picture?”

Neil nodded before the horse grabbed him by the wrist and excitedly trotted over to her easel to show her friend her work. The sketch was of the landscape with Bobby and Neil drawn how Camila asked them to pose earlier.

“I’m gonna ink and color it when I get home, want me to send you a photo of it when I’m done?”

“That sounds great, thanks.”

“Ok, and when we come back, I need to get a picture of you in that tree, you looked so peaceful.”

“Alright, whatever makes you happy.”

After their conversation, everyone started to go home for the night. Once Neil got home, he decided to take a look at the chore board and saw that tomorrow was his turn to run errands. He glared at the task written by his name. He hated running errands. He eventually walked away and decided to see if dinner was done before going to sleep. He ate and after seeing that his room was cleaned to his eldest brother, Godfrey's standards, got 20 minutes to himself. He decided to find a random book to read. He put on his headphones and took out a random book, which turned out to be Because of Winn-Dixie, before he suddenly got a text. He picked up his phone and saw it was a text from Camila. He opened the message and saw it was the inked and semi colored version of the piece she was sketching. It looked really nice, she was so talented.

Wow, that looks great! Is it done?

No, I still shade and fill
in the background more

Need to* oops

Ugh, working with
gouache is so difficult!

lol, good luck with
that can’t wait to see it

Thx ^^

Neil shut off his phone and went back to reading until his 8:45 alarm went off, signaling that he had to get ready for bed, so that’s what he did and he was in bed by the time his 9 pm alarm went off.

1047 words

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