As the bell rang, the five of us headed off to class, Hip and Davie breaking away once we were inside. As soon as they left, Margo was on me.
“So, what was that about? Are you and Hip an item now?” she asked, getting pretty close for my personal comfort.
I stepped away from her and closer to Jason. “No, he’s just a really good friend. I have gym with him. He was there yesterday after everything happened with those girls and helped me out with getting away from everything.”
“Aww, like a knight in shining armor! That’s so cute!”
I felt Jason stiffen next to me. Glancing at him, I noticed that his jaw was clenched, his eyes staring ahead with fire in them.
There was no mistaking his expression as anything other than jealousy! I couldn’t help the mini internal girly squeal at the idea. Yet, my logical side also recognized how tense he had been during lunch thanks to me, so I spent English trying to cheer him up. Mr. K gave us another reading period, so we talked about the book he had given me the day before and I helped him and Margo with ideas for prom.
A very sociable day for me, I would say. Cal would be proud.
After the bell for math rang, both Jason and Hip met me in the hall and escorted me to class. It was a little embarrassing to have both of them standing next to me like bodyguards. Their banter was entertaining to listen to, though.
“Kingdom Hearts One was way better than Two,” Hip challenged Jason.
“But the gameplay in the second one was way better, and you have to admit that the art for the first one was pretty terrible.”
“Are you crazy?!” Hip exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "Two was needlessly complicated and you needed to play the spin-off games to understand most of it!”
“It was only complicated because you probably suck at video games,” Jason said pointedly.
“I’m awesome at video games,” Hip shot back.
“I’m sure you were, if you thought the second game was too hard.”
Hip growled. "I never said it was too hard, just too complicated.”
I had to mentally roll my eyes. I love video games as much as the next person…when I could get my hands on one, but I didn’t feel the need to constantly bicker about it like these two.
Tired of their verbal sparring, I chimed in. "I don't even know what you two are talking about.”
They both gasped, looked at each other and then back at me.
“I can’t even look at you right now,” Jason teased.
Hip cliched his chest dramatically. “Look at her? I can't even. She’s breaking my poor heart!”
“Seriously, guys?”
They both laughed at their antics before Jason said, “Kingdom Hearts is only one of the best video games of all time! How could you not know it?”
“I don’t really play many video games,” I shrugged.
“We’ll have to rectify that, then.” Hip smiled.
When we got to the gymnasium, Jason asked if I wanted him to wait until I was done changing but I told him I would be okay and didn’t want him to be late to class. Reluctantly he left, looking back over his shoulder a few times as he hurried down the hall.
Hip waited for me, though. He seemingly stood by the door the whole time I was getting dressed before leaving to get changed himself. The girls weren’t in the locker room, and beyond a few of them giving me wary looks during class, nothing happened. The coach acted none the wiser as well.
“What did you do, anyway? To make all of that go away?” I asked Hip as we sat doing stretches.
“I called in a favor.”
And that was all he would say about it.
When the end of school came around, Jason waited with me as the initial rush of kids left the building. With his hand in mine, he escorted me to his car.
“Such a gentleman,” I said as Jason opened the door for me.
He rolled his eyes. “Just get in.”
I slid into the passenger seat, far more comfortable than I had been two days ago.
The drive to the community center was short and full of laughter as Jason mimicked the math teacher’s boring monotonous voice.
“And that is the how the derivative of pi is equal to the square root of my love for all things cheese related,” Jason droned, his face somehow managing not to crack a smile.
I snorted. “That doesn’t even make sense!”
“Neither do half of his lessons,” he replied.
We pulled into the joint parking lot of the two buildings. Over the last two weeks, I had noticed how ever so slowly the community center gained more and more color. Its bland walls were now painted with images similar to the library next to it. Even though I came here almost every day, I had yet to see the artist who could paint such exquisite work. Like the images just sort of appeared overnight.
Until today.
On a ladder stood a man. It was hard to make out any features from where I sat in Jason’s car, but the guy was hulking like a bear. A bear with dark clothes and a paint brush in his hand.
“Oh my god, I feel like I’ve spotted the elusive Bigfoot,” I whispered, my eyes fixed on the giant man as he swept his brush along the side of the building.
Curiously, Jason looked in the direction I was watching. “Who? Ajax?”
“That’s his name?”
“Yeah, he’s the town’s artist. Keeps to himself mostly, but I’m surprised you haven’t seen him around yet. He does jobs all over the town,” Jason said matter-of-factly.
“What do you mean?” I asked. Thinking back, I hadn’t seen any other buildings painted like these two.
“You know all those mermaid statues?” I nodded. “Well, he’s the one who makes them. Along with the shop’s name plates. And he had a hand in all of the renovations.”
Wow, that was a lot of work. There were a good thirty statues I had noted placed all over the town. I wouldn’t have guessed they were all done by the same person.
“That’s really amazing,” I said, awestruck.
“With how much work he does, I sometimes wonder if he ever sleeps.”
I stared in wonder. Some people were just like that I guess— had their fingers in so many pies you can’t help but wonder how they did it all.
Without my noticing, Jason got out of the car and opened the door to let me out.
“Do you need a ride home?”
I blinked, focusing my attention back to Jason. “I think I’ll be okay today.”
“Alright, well I’m just next door if you need me.”
With long strides, Jason made his way into the library. Turning towards the community center, I slowly approached the bear who seemed to be quite focused on painting what looked to be the start of a coral reef.
Coming closer, I could see a clear bin at his feet filled with small paint tubes and in his hand that wasn’t holding the paintbrush was one of those round white boards with the hole in it for the thumb and small splotches of paint. The way he feverishly swashed his brush across the wall, the strokes rapid yet precise drew me in, like he was putting on some sort of show, an audience of 1.
When I got close enough to begin to make out some of his finer features, he suddenly halted his painting and flinched, cupping the right side of his face. The fumbling movement causing his foot to knock against the bin of paint brushes and sent it crashing to the ground, the bright colorful tubes scattering everywhere.
I picked up my pace and bustled over to him, gathering up the tubes of paint as Ajax cursed and scrambled down his ladder.