Teen Ink

Drawing Class

A frown formed across my face as I walked into the classroom, that bitch was there. Gritting my teeth, I made my way over to the teacher. She looked like a decent kind hearted person and I didn’t want to seem rude to her. Slowly, I approached her as she dipped a tea bag in a mug of hot water.

“Hello, I’m guessing you’re the new guy? I’m Mrs. Vienna.” The teacher greeted cheerfully.

“Yeah, I guess… I’m KC.” She took a sip of her tea and then stood and looked me over. There was something about her personality that caused me to remove my earbud. Mrs. Vienna had an air of authority that I was not going to disrespect.

“You guess? What do you not know if you’re new here or not?” She rolled her eyes, “Ugh, you guys are killing me! You are all the future and KC here doesn’t even know if he’s the new guy!” Mrs. Vienna announced to the class, it had filled up within the past few minutes and once again, the only free spot was next to Misti. Luck wasn’t with me today, “Here, follow me.” The teacher led me to her desk and she handed me a packet, “Hand the lab fee within a week and you’ll get a sketchbook and some charcoal pencils, for now just use a piece of paper and the class charcoals…Misti, honey, could you help KC out here?” Misti didn’t even look up, she just nodded and came over.

“What am I showing him?” She asked, only staring at Mrs. Vienna. Misti didn’t even bother to look in my direction.

“Just help him get started, show him where the paper and charcoals are…And nobody sits next to you right? KC, you can sit next to Misti and if you have any questions, just ask her.” When she was finished talking, Misti just nodded and turned around, heading for the back of the room.

“Follow me, New Guy.” Her tone was a bit bitter as she spoke over her shoulder at me. Reluctantly, I followed her to a huge storage cabinet in the back. Misti opened it by turning the handle at a weird angle. “Budget cuts.” She muttered as she yanked the door open. There were a great number of shelves, but only about half were filled with paper. Each shelf had a different type of paper, but none of them were labeled. “Okay get ready to memorize, because I’m not repeating this for you.” The girl turned to face me and pointed to the top shelf, working her way down as she told me the types of paper.

“They are organized by weight, color and grip. At the top, we have 90-weight paper, then 75, then 68, and it works its way down from there. After that you have this manila paper,” she brought out a beige piece of paper, “We will use it in drawing 2, if you plan on taking it next year. Under the manila paper is this grey paper,” she returned the beige paper and showed me the grey one. “It has a better grip and we’ll be using it for our charcoal ribbon drawings…Which brings us to charcoal…” To shut the cabinet she had to punch the doors closed and then turn the handle back to its original position. After that, she took me over to a counter with many drawers. “One of these will have the charcoals.” Her hands motioned to the drawers, “Vienna and Stryker share this room…This is Stryker’s section and he’s not organized…At all…Ever.”

“So I have to search for my own piece of charcoal? And what paper do I have to use for this project? What is the current project?” My mind buzzed with questions, and I was trying to seem nice after our little fiasco last period. If Misti could show me around the room after our fight without having an attitude, then I could try to forget about it too.

“Just find a piece of charcoal, get a 68 and start drawing boxes,” Her eyes narrowed and she pointed a finger at me, “But I swear, if you knock my books down one more time, you’ll have something to worry about.” Well, so much for thinking she was over it. Misti went back to her seat and started drawing and I tried finding a piece of charcoal.

By the end of the period, I had one box drawing done. Not sure what to do, I stared at Misti, wondering if I should ask her or not. For the past thirty-six minutes she was fully focused on her work. Hell, she had her full drawing done and it was almost finished. Biting my lip, I poked her. She glared at me.

“Um... Where do I put my drawing when I’m done? Is there a folder or a cabinet or something?” I felt pathetic asking Misti this stuff, but she had gotten up and collected her things, heading off to the back room. So I followed her with my drawing and piece of charcoal in hand. It was a small room, basically as big as a walk-in closet. On all of the walls were rows and rows of bins. She grabbed an empty bin and handed it to me.

“Use masking tape and put your name on the bin. You store all of your projects in here until the end of the year.” She instructed while putting her stuff in a bin close by. “The bell’s about to ring so hurry up before it gets crowded back here.” The warning was nice of her I guess. Quickly, I did what she said and returned to my seat just as the bell rang.
Checking my schedule, I headed off to my English class. Sitting in the back, I just waited for her to walk through the door and end up sitting next to me. Thankfully the bell rang and there was no sign of Misti. Maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore today. Without Misti around, I ended my English class on a high note and went to lunch after.