Wooo! I'm back! Sorry for the wait, writer's block is a bastard. Anyway, I also wanted to say thanks because this book is currently ranking #27 in Scarian which is a huge accomplishment for me. Have a wonderful time and I hope you enjoy the new chapter! (Damn that's a long intro...)
[Word count: 2433]
The math teacher greeted the boys as they entered the classroom. "Welcome my name is Mr. Glen! The new seating chart is on the board," Their teacher said, his blue eyes glancing at the board.
Grian walked in and stole a quick glance around the room. It wasn't as decorated as Mr. Vincent's room but it was nice. Rather than having tables for two people, Mr. Glen had single-person desks. The avian quickly found his seat, frowning. He was near the front. Scar sat a row behind him.
The teacher's desk was polished cedar wood and there was a small potted cactus next to the desktop computer. There were thin, translucent, blue curtains over the windows, flooding the room with blue light.
More students came in and soon, most of the desks were filled. Mr. Glen closed the door and Grian glanced at the seat beside him. It was empty.
Mr. Glen clapped his hands, startling the avian. "Right! Today we will be-" The door opened and a familiar noirette walked in, followed by a ginger. Mr. Glen frowned, "Not only have you interrupted me but you are late. Take your seats, Micheal and Henry. Top student or not, Micheal, you need to be on time."
The noirette took the seat beside Grian and the avian frowned. The ginger sat a few rows back. "As I was saying," Mr. Glen began again, "Today we will be taking a test for the rest of the semester. You aren't expected to know everything on here but this will affect how you are taught, don't be worried. This is just to show me what topics everyone needs help with."
There was a faint thump behind Grian and he glanced over his shoulder. Scar's head was on his desk and he had a large frown on his face. Grian smiled faintly.
"Make sure to take one paper and pass the rest back," Their teacher instructed.
When Grian got the paper he quickly scribbled a note before passing it on to Scar. You'll be okay. He wrote. And he heard Scar whisper, "Thanks"
Grian looked over the test and began, catching Micheal glancing over. The blonde carefully put his arm on his desk to block the noirette's view. There was an irritated chuckle from his left and he grinned.
The test covered many different topics and Mr. Glen was reading a book while he waited for students to finish.
Around forty minutes into the class Grian stood. He flipped the papers back to their original order and strode over to Mr. Glen's desk. "Ah! Finished already?" The math teacher asked, glancing at the clock on the wall. Grian only nodded. "Well then I'll take that off your hands and you can spend the rest of the period as you wish." Grian thanked him with a slight bow and hurried back to his desk.
"Not even gonna try huh?" Micheal asked from beside him.
"Or maybe you're just not as good as you think," Grian retorted, there was a small chuckle from behind him. Grian smiled to himself and pulled his earbuds from his bag and scrolled through his playlists.
As the music filled his head the avian pulled out his sketchbook. He wanted to prepare for the ELA project and began a couple of base sketches and the material list.
Time seemed much faster when Grian was listening to music. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see people getting up and turning in their tests. His wings twitched and the avian glanced over his shoulder. Scar was standing with the test in hand, he smiled at the blonde and hurriedly walked to their teacher. A few more students turned in their tests, Mr. Glen grading them as they came in.
Roughly ten to fifteen minutes later, Mr. Geln clapped his hands. Scar looked up from his sketchbook. He had been drawing tree designs for the ELA project. He saw Grian take out his earbuds and put them away as Mr. Glen said, "Right everyone! I have finished grading the tests and I am pleased to announce that the student who got the highest score was-" Micheal stood.
"Thank you Mr. Glen but I have it from here," he said with a wink. Henry clapped quietly.
"Micheal, sit down. Henry, stop clapping!" Mr. Glen snapped, irritation filling his voice, "You didn't have the highest score. The actual student with the highest score was our newest exchange student, Grian."
"Woah you are good!" Scar whispered. Grian glanced behind him making contact with Scar's emerald eyes. The avian gave him a small smile but Scar could tell something was worrying Grian.
"Seeing as it is almost the end of the period," Mr. Glen began again, pulling the attention from Grian back to himself, "You may all leave, you have a few extra minutes before your next class, Grian if you could stay back for a minute that would be great." Many students got up and began filing out of the room.
Micheal glared at Grian who stared back. "I can have you fired for rigging the grades, Mr. Glen," Micheal snapped, breaking the stare he held with the avian.
"Son of the principle or not, Micheal, you control very little here. The grades were not rigged, and, if I didn't know better, I would say you are worried that Grian is going to take your top student spot." Micheal scowled.
"My mom will hear of this!" The noirette snapped, grabbing his bag and stomping out of the room. Mr. Glen pinched the bridge of his nose and ran his dark hand through his jet-black hair.
Henry stood and hurried out of the room and Scar stood. He and Grian were the last ones. "I'll wait for you outside!" Scar called over his shoulder as he hurried out of the room.
Grian stood and walked over to his teacher. "I'm sorry about him-" Mr. Glen began with a sharp sigh, "He thinks he is entitled simply because his mom runs the school..." He sat in his desk chair and looked at Grian closely, the avian flinched.
"Right! I had a question for you, I was wondering if you could do me a favour?" Mr. Glen asked, pushing the test out to the avian. Grian nodded and picked up the paper. 60/60 +5 for the bonus.
"You're quite smart for your age... Makes me wonder why you weren't sent to a more... advanced school but that isn't my business," Mr. Glen shrugged. Oh, Grian knew why he wasn't sent to a better school. Darcel would never pay for a higher education than he was required to by law...
"I was wondering if you could tutor one of my students. You seem to get along well," Mr. Glen stated, handing Grian another test. 19/60... Scar. "He's a sweet kid but... he needs help with math, never could seem to wrap his head around it. Anyway, I gave you the test so you could walk through the question with him, presuming you are fine with this?"
Grian cleared his throat, "I-I um, I will gladly tutor him." the avian murmured, cringing at how weak and stupid he sounded. Damned anxiety... Mr. Glen smiled, "It's settled then! I will count this as extra credit, have a good day Grian."
The avian bowed slightly, "Uh, you too sir." he said, willing his voice not to shake.
Grian walked out of the room and closed the door, they still had around five minutes until their next class. Grian smiled slightly, next class was art. That would be fun. "How'd it go?" Scar asked. The avian jumped back, assuming a defensive stance.
"Oh for gods' sake Scar you scared me!" The blonde sighed, relaxing slightly.
"I am soooo sorry! I didn't mean to!" The vexling winced.
Grian smiled, "It's fine. Mr. Glen just wanted to ask me if I could tutor you." Scar groaned.
"How bad did I do?" He muttered as they walked down the hallway.
"Well... 19/60 isn't great but," Grian started, glancing at the map, "Next period is Art and that is much better."
Scar nodded quickly. The pair made their way down the hall and stopped outside the room. The door was colourfully decorated and left slightly open. The two walked in and were met by a pair of yellow eyes. "Hello! Grian and Scar if I'm not mistaken, welcome to art!" The owner of the yellow eyes said, "You can call me Mx. Corgain! You are free to sit wherever you want, class will start in... ooh... roughly three minutes!"
The boys sat down near the back, Grian stared intently at the floor as everyone else walked in. Their table was meant for a group of four and soon two more people joined them.
"Bdubs?" Scar asked, "I didn't expect you to do art." The short boy shrugged.
"It's the most relaxing class," He muttered, yawning, "Cleo will be joining us soon she was just talking to Mx. Corgain about some of the lessons or something..." Bdubs yawned again, "Who's that?" he asked glancing at Grian.
Scar looked beside him at the avian whose head was on the table. "That's Grian, he's new." At his name, the blonde startled, spreading his wings slightly.
Grian noticed the new person and gave him a skeptical look. "Wow! You're an avian, I've never met one of those before. Name's Bdubs." The dark-haired male said.
Grian blinked slowly, "R-right uh, my name's Grian though I think, um Scar already told you..." Bdubs nodded, glancing over his shoulder as a girl with bright orange hair walked over.
"Hey Scar, Bdubs... annddd new blonde kid," The girl said, sitting down across from Grian, "I'm Cleo," she said, extending a green hand.
The avian hesitantly shook her hand, "I-I'm Grian..." he muttered. Cleo began to say something when Mx. Corgain clapped their hands.
"Heh, alright, that seemed to get your attention!" They grinned, flicking their pointed tail, "I am Mx. Corgain and welcome to Art! I will be replacing your old art teacher. I'd like to get to know more about you and your art style so today you will have the entire class period to draw whatever you want. I will provide many different supplies so you can colour and detail your pictures in any way you'd like. I will pass out some paper and then you may begin!"
Grian relaxed. He didn't know what to draw and when he didn't know what to draw he would just space out and let his hands work. Scar passed a piece of paper to Grian who nodded to him in thanks.
The avian watched Mx. Corgain set paints, coloured pencils, crayons, pastels, and many other art supplies on the table before he began his drawing. Grian pulled out his pencil and began to sketch.
Time seemed to fly by as the avian sketched and outlined. Soon the sketch was finished and the blonde looked up. Cleo was drawing a ship in a stormy sea. Bdubs was drawing some sort of glowing bush ghost and Scar... Grian glanced to the right. The vexling was carefully sketching out plants. Many trees and flowers cover the paper. The drawing had artistic chaos about it.
The avian turned back to his paper and grabbed coloured pencils and watercolours, not paying attention to what he had drawn. His subconscious was doing the art so Grian didn't study the outlined sketch he had made.
Art class was over as soon as it started, or at least it felt that way. Mx. Corgain was going around and collecting all of the work. Grian set the pen down as he finished his signature and looked at his finished piece. He froze. "Great work Grian!" Mx. Corgian said, picking up the drawing.
Grian flinched but didn't have time to respond as his teacher walked away. Oh no... oh nooo. He thought franticly, What did you- why did you... Grian put his face in his hands. He wished now that he had paid more attention to what he was drawing.
He had ended up drawing the person beside him. Scar. He felt stupid. Out of everyone, he drew Scar?
"I have collected everyone's work and there are a few outstanding pieces I wish to share, the creators are anonymous but you can still see their work," Mx. Corgain said, projecting images onto the screen in the front of the room.
There was a landscape drawing of a castle. An oil painting of the moon. Scar's plants which, to Grian, looked quite good. Another painting of an angel and... Shit. There it was, the final painting on the board. Grian's painting.
"Woah!" Scar breathed from beside him.
"Damn Scar!" Cleo laughed, "Whoever drew you is a pretty good artist!"
Grian wanted the floor beneath him to swallow him whole. Better yet, he wanted the painting to disappear, hell take Grian with it.
"Gra..er Grian are you okay?" Grian's head snapped up and his eyes locked with a pair of wide, glittering, black eyes.
"You looked a little pale," Bdubs said, smiling slightly.
"I-I uh..." Grian frowned, "I'm just a little hungry... that's all, eheh..."
"Man I really want to know who the artist is," Scar huffed, disappointed at the anonymity of the paintings, "Their really good and I want them to know that! I also kinda wanna know why they choose to paint me but..." He shrugged.
Bdubs looked a Grian suspiciously and then glanced at the board. Grian was staring blankly at the drawing of Scar. Now why is he so focused on that... Bdbubs thought to himself, pulling out his phone and snapping a picture of the painting before Mx. Corgain took them off the board.
"Alright! That's all for today, you all can leave a little bit early and head to lunch, I'll see you tomorrow!" The blaze-borne said, flashing a smile.
Grian stood quickly, grabbed his bag, and beelined for the door. The sooner he got to lunch and found Pearl, the sooner he could forget about art class. Scar jumped up and ran after him leaving Cleo and Bdubs sitting at the art table.
Hmm. Scar has found an interesting person... The zombie thought watching Scar and Grian run down the hallway. "C'mon Bdubs! Let's go catch up with those two before Scar forgets us!" Cleo said, turning to the short male beside him.
I think things will be better for Scar this year... Cleo smiled to herself, grabbing Bdubs and dashing out of the room after the elf and avian.
I hope you all liked the chapter ( - v - )