Class Dismissed (Vic Fuentes) ✔️

Chapter 8

"Where the heck is the teacher?" Austin complained as he leaned on the back two legs of his chair, wobbling forth and back.

"Mrs. Lee's on pregnancy leave, right?" Gerard pointed out.

"Well then where the heck's the replacement?" Austin immediately argued.

We were all getting pretty impatient. Gerard was right though; Mrs. Lee wasn't assigned as our teacher for this year's art classes. So I wondered who was? Some of the guys had started making a mess of the classroom; painting random things on the walls while others were just half asleep on the big crafting tables.

I on the other hand decided to be usefully creative, something that seemed appropriate since this was art class and all. I had taken out my sketchbook and flipped it open on an empty page, found myself a sharpie and crossed a few random lines across the piece of paper, challenging myself to actually make something out of it. Before I even knew it, a skyline started appearing and soon enough I was drawing Batman in the foreground.

"That looks really fucking awesome, Chelsea." I then heard a raspy voice say, pretty closely by my side. I looked over to see who it was and ended up staring right into Andy's smiling face. "You're pretty talented."

I smiled a little and then looked back at my drawing. "Eh, it's just random scribbles. I usually throw them away after I finish them." I told him.

"Well if you're planning on throwing it away anyway, can I have it?" I looked back at him and frowned questioningly. He wasn't serious, right? "I'm serious." He then suddenly said, as if he had read my mind. "I really like it."

I chuckled softly and carefully tore the page from my sketchbook. "Okay, well there you go." I said as I handed him the drawing.

He took it from me and looked at it for another few seconds. "Thanks!" He then said with a satisfied smile. I couldn't help but to also smile a little as I cocked my eyebrows and watched him walk off, still kinda confused at what had just happened.

"Good afternoon class, sorry for being so late. Traffic was horrible." Some random guy said as he came walking into the classroom. I looked up and watched him walk over to the main desk, throwing his bag and a couple of rolled up posters onto it. "I'll be your art's teacher for the next two semesters. My name is Mr. Stump, but you can call me Patrick if you like."

What was with the new teachers letting us go on first name base all of a sudden? New world order? "It's going to take a while before I memorize all of your names, and that's why this first assignment is going to be a fun one. You're going to be showing me who you are in your art." Patrick explained.

Immediately I was interested.

He started pacing forth and back in front of the class, further explaining the assignment. I was all ears. "As you all know, at the end of the semester there will be a dance. There is no specific theme to this dance, and none of you will be allowed to bring dates."

Well that doesn't make sense. What does that have to do with art class?

"The assignment you will be getting is to make a mask, which you shall wear to the dance, making you unrecognizable to everyone else. You will all receive a robe as well to cover any other features that may give away who you are."

What the fuck?

"Each of you will choose a dance partner, based on what you see on their mask. So the trick is to make your mask interesting. Make it appealing. But make it... you. Any questions so far?"

Hayley immediately waved her hand in the air. "Yes, miss...-" Patrick started as he pointed at her.

"Williams. Hayley Williams, sir. Um, do we have to wear said robes all night? I mean, what if I was planning on getting a nice dress and all?"

Patrick smiled and shook his head. "No, you're only supposed to wear the robes until you've chosen a partner. After the first dance you may take it off." He explained.

"Good." Ashley then muttered. "I don't want to have to end up finding out that I was dancing with a douchebag all night just because he had some glitter on his mask."

Half of class started laughing a little at her comment. This was a very interesting and yet weird assignment though. I could only imagine what horrid things those Jersey boys would end up making.

We were allowed to use whatever material we wanted to sculpt and decorate our masks, which was pretty cool. I intended to use lots of black. The teacher had divided the class in such a way that the boys couldn't see what we were making, and vice versa. This dance was definitely going to be an interesting one.

I hardly knew any of the guys well enough to recognize them in just masks and black robes. Well, apart from Austin's distinct height of course... Bryan's insanely muscular body... and Andy's lip ring. Many of the girls had nose rings; even plenty of the guys did, so that was kinda amusing. Shockingly, I was looking forward to it.

Hayley, Ashley and I were at the same table. For this class we were simply supposed to draw out ideas and get them approved by the teacher. Hayley had designed a mask that would just go around her eyes and over her nose. It was a colorful rainbow design with glitter and a heap of colorful feathers sticking out one side that would fall over her hair. It definitely screamed Hayley.

Ashley designed a theatrical one that would cover her entire face, one half of it looking angry and the other half smiling. It was quite simple but it was very much like her. I on the other hand decided to be a bit more dark and mysterious. Not a lot of people knew me that well and it's how I liked it, so I wanted my mask to represent that. I drew a mask that would cover my eyes and the majority of my nose, added some black leaves on the sides, some lace around the edges and drew the lace on the actual mask too, wanting to add some glitter here and there. It was going to be a mixture of blacks and dark grays, no color whatsoever. That was me.

Now all I had to do was find a nice dress to match, but luckily we had enough time to get that done. We were still in only the first quarter of our semester after all. I was looking forward to this.