The Hooded Actress (GXG)

Chapter 29

I walked into the classroom early this morning, sitting up in the chair behind my desk.

"What's with all of the makeup today?" Tamara chuckled lightly, taking a sip of her coffee. "Got a date later?"

"No. I just wanted to look nice." I shook my head, opening up my book to continue a sketch from earlier. 

"Alright, you did a pretty good job on it." Tamara pointed out. "I've never been great with that stuff."

"Thank you." I gave her a thumbs up. "What are we doing today?"

"A pretty fun lesson, I'd say. The students are going to create a piece based around everything they've learnt so far, then Wednesday when they get back, they'll get to grade each other's work." Tamara explained. 

"Cool," I nodded. 

"Cool?" Tamara glanced back at me like she was about to ask another question. She decided not to after noticing my expression. 

Though the went class well pretty well, I dreaded lunchtime. I knew it would've been miserable since I'd most likely remember the texts I got from Avery around that time. 

A student from the third class I had that day dropped a piece of paper off in front of me after the bell rang. She smiled and left the room after waving at Tamara and me.

"Should I open it?" I raised an eyebrow, closing the door.

"Yeah, go ahead. I'm curious." Tamara hummed. 

I unfolded the paper. It was a letter of sorts, written in bold letters.

To Miss Davis

Hello. I think you are a really nice teacher, and you've helped us learn a lot these past few weeks.

So like, I wanted to thank you for assisting us.

I'd put my name, but sometimes teachers do that embarrassing thing where they call out people's names in front of everyone.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

-From Anonymous

"That's sweet." Tamara nodded. "You should hang that up in your living room. Kids don't write that stuff often."

"I'll consider." I placed the paper into my bag, letting out a light laugh. "I honestly expected them to hate me."

"Well, some like to get close to teachers so they can have a classroom to sit in at lunchtime," Tamara explained. "I know I for one, never used to like sitting out in the cafeteria."

"That makes sense." 

-=+=- 

I walked into the staff-room, setting down a little sandwich on the table.

"What's with the face?" Rebecca inquired, switching her attention back and forth occasionally between myself, and her papers.

"It's not important," I shrugged, bringing the sandwich up to my lips to take a bite. 

Rebecca set her pen down and looked directly at me, eyebrows raised.

I rolled my eyes a small bit, gently throwing the sandwich back down onto the foil and cleared my throat. "Girlfriend broke up with me," I admitted. "Or well, said we should take a break but, it's killing me. Talked with my sister about it, which felt weird honestly, and it still didn't help."

Her eyes widened for a few seconds before she quickly shook her head in understanding.

"It's like all the bad things are just caving in on me all at once, suffocating me," I continued, planting my face in my hands. 

"Look, after you get home you should try to blow off some steam. Forget about her. Have a drink or two and unwind."

"One, I don't drink and two, I can't stop thinking about her," I shook my head. "It feels like I'm seeing the world in greyscale."

"It's not all because of her though," I quickly corrected myself. 

Until I became more comfortable with using art as my primary outlet, the world around me always felt colourless for the most part. Like an unfinished drawing waiting to be outlined. Waiting to be filled in. 

Then Avery came in like a legit psychedelic rainbow, and things felt really colourful.

"What do you think can you help you stop thinking about her then?" She asked, looking over at her papers.

"If I had an answer we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"My place today at five? After I'm done grading a few of my assignments we can binge-watch a show or two on Netflix," Rebecca suggested.

"I'll pass."

"Alex, get your shit together. I'm trying to help you."

I moved my hands away from my face, staring at Rebbeca in a mix of anger and confusion.

"I didn't mean for it to come out that way, but all I'm saying is you can't just mope around and expect things to get better. You need to move on." She paused, making eye contact with me.

The gears of my thoughts churned before I finally decided to give in. "Well, tomorrow is a Friday. How about tomorrow? That'll give you more time to find a good show." 

Her eyes lit up. "That's the spirit," Rebecca smiled. "Now, also make sure to stay in contact with whomever you need to speak with about everything because I'm terrible with advice."

I smiled softly, finishing off the rest of my sandwich. "You got it."

-=+=-

I texted my sister again that evening when I got home to update her on my situation and asked her how our mum was doing. She just responded with a text smiley face.

After a few moments, she called me, and we sat and just conversed. She told me everything... and told me how things were getting a little better over on her side. 

A wave of relief washed over me. "That's good," I responded blithely. 

"Yeah," Emily hummed. "How are things going on your side?"

"Better. I'm doing better."

"Great, well mum is getting a lot of her memory back as well," Emily went silent for a few moments. "She's been talking about the accident and stuff."

"The one that got her in the hospital?" I asked quietly, running my right hand against the fabric of my sweatpants, gripping it tightly. 

"No."

I felt a tight feeling near the centre of my chest as my breath hitched. "The one I caused?"