Creative Girl and Him

Chapter 22

I open my eyes to see Art looking down at me. "What?"

"School. Come on." I groan and bury my face into my pillow. "Opal."

"Go away." Art sighs and I hear him walk away. I start to drift back to sleep when I feel water hit my face. I shoot up from my bed angry. "What the fuck Art?!"

"Get your ass up."

"Why?!"

"We have to practice and our finals are important for photography."

"Why did you throw water at me?! Now my bed is gonna be wet the rest of the week."

"You can sleep in the guest room. I'll be going home today anyway." I stand up and brush my wet hair out of my face.

"Why?"

"I have things at home I gotta take care of."

"Like?"

"It doesn't matter. Come on, get ready." He walks out of my room and closes the door behind him. I sigh and walk to my closet to grab some clothes. I slip them on and go to my vanity mirror and blow dry my hair. When I finish i turn and see Art leaning against my door frame in a black long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms and blue jeans. "Ready?" I nod and stand up, following Art to the front door. I grab my keys from the key hook and my bag from the floor. When I stand back up I'm pushed against the door and kissed. I gasp at first but soon kiss back. Art and I kiss against the door for a few minutes then he pulls away. "We're taking my bike." He opens the door and walks out.

"What the hell?" I whisper to myself but go outside, closing the door behind me and locking it. I walk over to Art and stand beside him on the bike. "Um."

"Well? Get on."

"But your back."

"It's fine Opal. Just get on." I bite my lip and gently slide onto the bike. Art turns it on and revs the engine. He pulls out of the driveway and go to school. I can't help but keep thinking about why he randomly kissed me, no intimate or deep conversational moment, he just did it.

~~~

It's lunch now and I'm half asleep as Asia, Peter, Frankie and Jude chat. Art gave me a rude awakening and needless to say, it woke me up well before I was ready.

"Opal!" I open my eyes and look at Frankie.

"What?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah! Just tired." I sit up straight. "What's up now?"

"We were asking you how your music final went." My eyes widen.

"Shit! I've gotta go!" I grab my bag and run to the music room. I totally forgot I was giving my final during lunch. I had to play my instrument for the teacher, a song chosen by Mr. Freely himself. I run into the class with a sigh. "I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry about it. Are you ready?" I nod and walk over to the back to grab my flute. I think I chose this instrument because it was the easiest to handle... I put it together and sit in the front of the classroom while Mr. Freely sits on the second row of stands with a clipboard. "Start whenever you're ready." I exhale slowly and start playing 'Think of Me' from the popular musical and movie, 'Phantom of the Opera'. I practiced so much that I memorized it. It wasn't a requirement to memorize the song but I figured that I might as well show I do have some talent.

When I finish I lick my lips and set my flute on my lap. Mr. Freely writes stuff on his clipboard with an amazing poker face, I have no clue if he liked it or not... "Well done Opal. You can leave now." I nod with a smile and walk to the back again to clean and put away my flute. As I finish cleaning my flute I hear someone playing the piano, is that Mr. Freely? I put away my flute and walk out from the back room to see someone at the piano and Mr. Freely sitting in the exact same spot from when he was watching me play the flute. I look back at the piano player and as he turns his head I can see a side profile of Art. He can play the piano too?!