Ep5

In the morning I wake up, ready to greet the world. I"m in a great mood. I have a look outside and see its already late morning. The meeting is going to start in ten or so minutes. I wander over and wake Judy up. Once she"s awake enough, I tell her about last nights events. "Wow, that"s amazing!" smiling she gets up and heads to the door. "Now I"m hungry, so let"s get some food!" She pulls on the door and her face grows into an expression of confusion. "That"s weird." I look over, from putting on my shoes. "What"s weird?" She looks at me worried. "It"s stuck."

I run over and start pulling on the door as hard as I could, but to no prevail. It was locked. But as I pulled, I notice something trough the crack. It was a slab of wood, slipped in through the door handle, holding us in the room. "Scarlett!" I thought. It had to be her. I turned to Judy to spit out my accusation only to find her there shaking. "Charlotte...Are we stuck in here?" I need to be brave. "Course not!" I walk over to some desks and stick my hand in the drawers. Each time I pull out dust, my heart falls a little bit. Judy is banging on the door screaming for help, hoping the others might hear us, but I know that they won"t. They"re probably all in 1-C by now. I stick my hand into one final desk and pull out a thin metal ruler in the shape of an L. Smiling, I run over to the door. I push Judy out of the way and stab it through the crack.

I wiggle it back and forth and with a clutter, the plank fell to the floor. Judy pulls open the door and runs towards 1-C. "Wait, Judy!" I catch up to her. "I don"t think we should tell the others about this. It won"t end well." Judy looks upset but nods in agreement. "Ok. Let"s get to the meeting before we"re late!" Together we dash down the hall, laughing. I reach 1-C first and dive into the room. Judy comes I behind me panting. "Geez, I thought you were only fast at swimming." I laugh and sit down next to Sue. "Sorry we"re late." I call out. Judy grabs some food and joins us, and we eat while Lawrence and Harry recount last night"s events. I stay behind at the end of the meeting and help Ethan clean up. When we"re done, he leaves but I stay. I walk over to the window and look out over the city. It"s so peaceful out there.

With I sigh, I turn and leave. I walk out and find Zion waiting by the door for me. "You ready?" he asks me. I give him a bright smile and nod. "Alright follow me." He starts walking away and I have to half jog to keep up with him. As I walk face paced next to him, I notice just how tall he his. He"s not as tall as Ethan but he"s a close second. I make note of this and make sure to include it in my artwork. I"ve been sketching my idea in my notebook and now I just need Lawrence"s permission to start painting. "You done staring?" I look up and realised I had been staring at Zion, while I zoned out.

"Ah! Sorry. I didn"t even realise I was." He gives me a look. "Uh huh. So, what were you thinking about?" My face turns red and I look away. "It"s stupid." I mutter. He stops and leans against a wall. "Now you"ve got my attention. What is it?" I hesitate. Should I tell him? Well, there"s no harm in doing so. Besides it"s not a secret. "I was making note of your height. I"ve been drawing and I"m planning to do a piece of art. I originally had you shorter than you are." He looks surprised. "You were...gonna draw me?" I nod. "Not just you but everyone. As a thank you."

Zion smiles at me, clearly pleased. "Well, let"s keep going." We start heading up towards the stairs, and I notice he"s walking a lot slower now so I can keep up. I smile to myself. Maybe he"s not so bad, although the company he keeps is questionable. Suddenly I hear a noise behind us. I turn around and see a dark figure running away. "You good?" Zion calls. "Did you see that?" I ask. Zion walks over to where I stand. "See what?" I shake my head. "Never mind. Let"s keep going."

We walk for a bit longer before coming to the library. "The library is closest." He explains. "The broadcasting room is next to a flight of stairs as well, just on the other side of the school." I walk to the door and stick the key into the lock. It fits! I twist the lock around, but it doesn"t move. I start to jiggle the key around, hoping it"s just stuck but to no prevail. I shake my head at Zion who sighs. "Dammit..." I laugh at his response. "I never took you as a reader." He shakes his head. "Not really. I was hoping for some comics or some old books we could burn to stay warm." Burning books is a smart idea. Winter here is so cold and it"s approaching quickly.

"I had never seen snow before I came here." I say slowly. "Winter isn"t that cold back home. It would be Summer there right now, actually." Zion looks at me, almost with pity. "So, you never grew up throwing snowballs or making snowmen? Geez, Bush Girl your childhood must"ve sucked." I giggle. Bush Girl? "No, my Christmases were spent swimming in a pool and eating sausages of the barbie. Sausages from Bunnings were bloody good!" "Australia is almost the opposite from here, isn"t it?" "I guess it is." We turn and start walking towards the art room and supply closet, ready to keep trying.

Hours later Zion and I collapse in his room, exhausted from all the walking around. We had tried almost every room but with no luck. We had walked around for ages and we were puffed. I opened my bag and took out a water bottle and started chugging. I handed Zion a bottle and he opened it and poured it all over his face. I shrieked as the freezing water splashed onto me. Zion looks over, soaking wet and his expression just makes me start laughing. I may be cold and wet, but his innocence just makes me laugh. "What?" he asks. I look over and start laughing harder. He gives me a smile and starts laughing to. We sit in his room for ages just talking and laughing. He"s actually really nice, despite what I first thought. Eventually it"s time to head to the meeting.

I open the door and walk into the room, with Zion behind me. I plop down in a spare chair and lean back. In the room it"s just me, Zion, Lawrence and Hailey. Lawrence is talking to Zion about something or other and Hailey is standing in the corner looking at me. I give her a smile and she looks away, embarrassed. I look away and close my eyes. I hear the sound of footsteps coming to me and I sigh. I open my eyes and see Hailey standing over me. "Hi Hailey." She takes a few steps back. "Um, hi." "How can I help you?" Hailey looks up at me, then quickly averts her eyes. "I, uh, wanted to know more about you. About what life was like for you before, uh, this." I give her a smile. "Sure. Well, I wasn"t very athletic that"s for sure. I did play some sport though. I mainly swam, to be honest." Judy"s voice cuts in from the other part of the room. "That"s a lie! Charlotte here was the fastest swimmer in our school! She"s second in our district!" Judy walks over and sits down next to me. I blush and look away. "I did swim competitively too. But other than swimming I didn"t do much sport. What I did do though, was paint."

"I"ve always liked art. I used to play around with paint and try to create different colours. I love the feel of the brush against the canvas and the satisfaction of seeing my finished product. It was always so relaxing to chuck on some music and start painting. I like to create my own music as well. Writing songs, playing instruments, singing. I guess I"m an artsy person, now that I think about it. One of my favourite pieces reflects onto a song someone wrote for me. It"s kind of hard to explain what it looked like. It had big swirling blues and greys and yellows. I used an expensive gold paint to add swirls and stars. A fan wrote that song for me. I actually made a cover of it, but I never had time to upload." I look up and notice that the room is silent. Everyone else has arrived and they"re all listening to me. "Oh, uh sorry!" I call. I feel my cheeks heat up. God, I"m so embarrassing. "Wait!" Hailey looks up at me. "Tell me more."

I pause. "Another piece I did won first place at a contest. I based it off a hard part of my life. I like to incorporate real life events into my work. I used a lot of greys and blacks. It was one big mess. Swirls and splashes in a random order over the white canvas. But in the middle is a rainbow ball, lined with bits of gold. It"s meant to represent that there is always a good side of things no matter how dark your problem may seem." I finish and realise everyone is still staring at me. "Wow..." Sue is the first to break the silence. "You sound very artistic." Still blushing I reply with a quiet, "Thanks." Everyone slowly goes back to their normal conversations and I sit there my face burning. After a few minutes Lawrence glances outside. "Alright everyone! Time to discuss Nightwatches!"

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