Aiden was happy that the end of the day was near, as Miss Ellis, his Art teacher, sat at the front of her desk waiting for the students to come in. she smiled as each student came in waiting for the last one.
Placing his headphones in and playing Afrobeats to focus on his project. Unable throughout the class to draw anything that would be good enough. He looked out the window to find the rain falling down from the sky.
The rhythms of it all drummed against the window as he was able to formulate some ideas to start with. As the bell rang for the start of class, he felt a tap on the back of his shoulder.
Taking out my earbuds and looking at the person. "Rosalie," someone said over him, as he turned around to face them.
"Huh, what?" Aiden said as he was still confused.
"Hello, I'm Alice, I'm also Rosalie's sister" She said, with a bell ringing voice.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Aiden White" Aiden said, placing his hand out to shake but Alice just stared at it for a bit. Before looking back.
"Sorry I have a little thing about touching," she said, stepping back a step. But she was immediately looking at the drawing that Aiden had done.
"This is amazing, you drew this?" she said, picking up the notebook which he had all his drawings in for the last year. " But why are they all smiling?" she said a little puzzled about that thought.
"Well it's just kind of a habit , I guess when I was younger I looked at a couple of pictures they were not smiling, and I told my grandmother and she said something I would never forget". He said back
"And what is that?" Alice said, curious to see what I said next.
"When you're young you have all the smiles in the world, … and when you're older, you give all the smiles to the kids so that they can smile more." Aiden said, getting a little embarrassed, as he scratched the back of his head.
"Aahhhh". Alice said understanding a little bit.
"And I said maybe if I draw some smiles, maybe I can give some back to the adults so they can smile too, so yeah I just draw people smiling, for this fact, …a little embarrassing, but I live with it."
"Not at all, I think it is sweet." she said with an endearing voice "And it's good to see Rosalie smile again. I don't know how long it's been since I last saw her smile." she said as she whipped a tear from her eye.
"If you want I can make you a copy of the drawing, it's no hassle '' he said, "I really think nothing of it.
"Oh really, Thank you, thank you" she said, jumping for joy a little. "I'll come get it after class" she said going back to her painting easel to do some work.
Aiden was surprised by her action and how happy she was to have just a drawing of Rosalie smiling. He soon realized how important it was to see her sister happy. So he changed the flow a little bit and went to the supplies room and got a large piece of white construction paper, and went to work.
Drawing a light outline for the first half and then going into the detailing and shape of what I wanted. I wanted to draw Rosalie behind a wall of easter lilies, as her face smiled and unbothered as her golden eyes showed matching the wall of flowers.
Starting with Rosalie in the middle, drawing her first, and getting all the details I could remember, as I was drawing for memory.
And ending it with the shading and placement of the point of view. As it was centered on the face. But I left enough for her to have a light sundress, poking from the bottom.
Aiden moved fast as he had finished what he needed before the end of class, also providing a color full border and make-shift frame.
"Oh my, it's wonderful, thank you, thank you thank you" Alice said one more time. As others around us looked at her with weird stares, some with interest, as they looked at the portrait, and were also amazed.
The bell rang signaling for the end of the school day, as everyone packed up all their items and headed out the door.
Aiden looked at the portrait of Rosalie, and though he didn't do much, he had a good memory and displayed most of what he saw. It was no big deal.
"Thank you Again Aiden, you don't know how much it means to me, and he knows we would be great friends…" Alice started to say, but she soon lost her voice and her eyes started to retract back as if she was looking into herself.
Her eyes fluttered as if she was seeing something within her golden eye's. As she stood stiff as a board, posted up like a statue forever suspended in time.
"Alice, …Alice" he said, as he almost grabbed her shoulders, as she shook off the weirdness and stepped back. Clearly not realizing what is happening.
"Alice, you alright?" Aiden said, concerned about what just happened.
Her face said it all, as she looked at me with fear and panic. As if she saw something that left her speechless.
"I'm sorry, I have to go?" she left with an unknown quickness, as she grabbed her stuff and left without any more words. Leaving the drawing and him stumped for what just happened.