Playful Spirit [2] Plans

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Chapter Two

 Plans

I had skipped my last two periods to go back and finish the painting. Luckily, Phillip left me alone for the rest of the day and I was able to finish the painting right as the bell rang. The art teacher helped me bring it out to my car, and we securely put it in.

"I hope you get paid good money for this." Mr. Berlin told me, staring at the painting. It was a picture of the side profile of a girl, her whole body a dark brown, but I watered it down as I painted outwards for her hair, making it a light brown, almost the color of coffee. The only splash of color was a red cloud like the area around her shoulder that was originally an accident, but I decided to keep it in.

"Thanks. I'm actually really proud of it," I admitted. He looked at me and smiled. Mr. Berlin knew about my parents and how they didn't support my dreams. He was supposed to act like he didn't support them either since our school was supposed to focus on making us learn everything but the arts.

But there were times when I could see that he actually did want me to pursue this career. And even though he couldn't actually show it, I would take the subtle hints with a smile.

He said goodbye and wished me luck. I pulled out my phone to call the women I was delivering this too. We agreed to meet at the cafe down the road and I climbed into the car and headed off. I turned the volume up as "No light, No light" by Florence and the Machine came on.

"You are the night time fear. You are the morning when it's clear," I sang along. I smiled to myself as the wind blew around me. If I couldn't find anywhere to settle down, I guess just driving on the open road wouldn't be so bad. It made me feel free like there was nothing holding me back.

I sang along to the song, ignoring the stares I got at stoplights. The people in this town were really too uptight about everything. I pulled into the parking lot of the cafe and turned the engine off. I saw the women in the shop already, so I hurried out of my car and into the building.

I came here quite often, so the Batista knew my face by heart. I greeted them and quickly walked over to the women. She looked up from her cup of coffee and smiled at me.

"Oh, there you are! I was wondering what was taking you so long," I smiled back at her.

"Sorry. I had school and traffic, so you know. But anyway, the painting is out in my car. We can take a look and settle a price." She nodded to me taking one last sip of her drink before putting a couple of dollar bills down and getting up.

"It's very windy today," She commented as she tied her salt ad pepper colored hair into a messy bun.

"Yeah, it is isn't it?" The weather wasn't something anyone in this town worried about. It was either sunny and hot, cloudy, cold and windy all the time. Some people considered it annoying, but I enjoyed the wind, so it was no bother to me.

"Oh, my. Is this it?" She gasped, covering her mouth as she looked at the canvas.

I nodded my head, "Yep. That's it. Took almost a month to do, but now that it's done I'm pretty proud of it."

"You should be! This is gorgeous darling. I just-- No words can describe this."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Indeed you should. How much do you want?"

"Uh, I honestly don't know. Not too much, maybe one hundred, hundred and fifty?"

"How's five hundred?" My eyes nearly popped out of my head as she dug into her purse to pull out the money.

"Whoa. No, I can't take that much for this!" I gushed, shaking my head and holding up my hands. She stopped and looked at me, her face serious.

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