Riuki
Legacy Name: Riuki

Sorry, art class revelations tend to make me seem boring and dull. I'm really not. Anyone who colours their hair with every shade of the neon rainbow cannot be boring, right? That's my philosophy. More colour, more character. Though there's a difference between what I wear for colours and what the cheering squad wears for colours. Half the time they look like the 80's threw up on them.

I blinked back to the class, the teacher was assigning partners for the end of the year project. I smiled. I was the only one not afraid of art class homework. The rest of the kids in the class were here for the AP credits, which I could respect them for a little bit I guess, me taking advanced trig would be about the same as them taking this art class. But they lacked something. Art requires courage, and they looked like scared bunny rabbits, afraid to splash a little paint on their papers. “Riuki,” the teacher said. I looked up. “You're going to be paired with Elijah. Savanah...”My world kind of froze. I looked across the room at the thin tall boy huddled in the corner, his head deep in his note book. His lips were moving as he worked. I shivered a bit. I had to do a project with HIM?

As soon as class let out I scrambled out the door, melting into the masses of people escaping in the hallway. I looked over my shoulder a couple times. If Elijah never contacted me for the project I would have an excuse for doing it myself. I wouldn't have to work with him. I wouldn't end up doing all the work either.I thought I had made it into the clear when I opened my locker. Elijah tapped me on the shoulder. I nearly jumped ten feet in the air. His dark curly hair was stacked on his head. He had tanned skin and brown eyes that looked a bit like caramel.“We're doing the project together?” He asked. It was phrased as a question but the tone didn't change through the entire sentence.“Uhm, yeah, but I can do it myself if you don't want to work together.” I said quickly, taking out my Biology books and shutting the locker. Elijah backed up a bit.“Oh, okay,” he said, his voice not changing in inflection. He seemed nervous. This was the most I'd ever heard him say in one day, thinking back on it. He thought for a moment, standing between me and my only escape route. It was completely unintentional, but it seemed evil at the time. “We could figure it out at least?” He offered. I sighed.“Fine,” I said, moving past him. “In the park?” He offered. I stopped, sighing. I liked the park in the centre of town. It was big enough to be quiet and I knew it well enough that I could vanish if Elijah was overbearing.“Yeah, sure, after class.” I said quickly, vanishing before he could say anything else.

Elijah was known as the loner through the entire school. He didn't talk in class unless he had to, he mumbled while he worked, and he had never had a girlfriend. He was never at school dances, ate alone at lunch, and really didn't blend into the whole school dynamic. Not saying I was much better, but at least I had my part in the whole school social structure. I was the scenery girl for drama, I worked on the yearbook committee, I even helped with a mural on the backside of the school my freshman year. Elijah did not seem to fit in anywhere. I had never seen him on the list for any clubs, groups, or events. He didn't seem to do much of anything. That was what I was afraid of. I'd been saddled into projects with people before. They always used me to finish all the work in the end and then mooched off of my grade. I bristled. I was not letting that happen again.

I sat down in the centre of the park. There was an amphitheatre in front of me made of recycled metal. It had been a Go Green! project by the town. Then they had basically abandoned it. Grass covered the walkways, the stage was rusting, and grapevines seemed to choke out the entire back arch of the stage. I sighed, standing up and walking to one of the only clean chairs. It was beautiful in its own way, I guess, but it seemed sad and lonely to me.“Hi,” Elijah said, nearly scaring me to Mars. He sat down a couple seats down from me and took out a sketch book and a set of watercolours. I blinked. They were the most beautiful set of watercolours I had ever seen. They were organized, not by colour, but by what mixed best with what. The back of the case had dried clouds of colour where they had been mixed. The paints themselves were well used, the blue was dented in the deepest followed by the green. However they weren't cracked or chipped. He had taken good care of the set. I moved a seat closer.“Those yours?” I asked. Elijah looked up and nodded. I caught sight of his notebook. It was full of people, perfectly drawn people. I recognized a lot of people from school, some from around town, and then faces that couldn't possibly be real. Red skinned men and three eyed women and people with purple teeth. At first I was shocked, then I noticed the colour choices said more than the actual people. I looked at Elijah in shock. He didn't look over at me for a long time. When he did he had stopped on a page of a girl with black braided hair with the ends dipped in the rainbow. “You painted me?” I asked, looking over. He nodded, looking at the amphitheatre.“Your hair has good colour,” he said, smiling a little at the corners of his mouth. “I was thinking, if you wanted to do it, we could paint the amphitheatre for our project.” I nodded.“Sure, it would be a cool painting.” I said. Elijah laughed a bit. “Not like that,” he said, smiling. “I have a bigger plan.”

Two weeks later we had the entire art class in the centre of the park. Somehow Elijah had gotten permission of the Go Green! group to paint the actual amphitheatre. I never asked him how. He had let me pick out the colours. We had spent hours sitting in the clearing painting each individual leaf, every vine, all the chairs. In the end we had changed a sad attempt at recycling into something beautiful. As we spoke the local Drama club was scouting the area out for their next play. I grinned, looking over at the slight smile on Elijah's face. His mouth was moving while he thought, and he was still a little weird, but he was smiling.
So was I.

Story written by User not found: dauntless
Profile by Dotty
Overlay by Rathoren
Chibi by RootieMcCutie
Easel Artwork by WhatsGroovin