78 New Friend

Dante sat at the back of the classroom, so absent minded that his fellow classmates found him boring. They were currently supposed to be working on an art project, which Dante had already finished.

The paper he cut apart was clean and accurate, the placement was very precise as well. The problem was, however, that it simply didn't have the 'feeling' that Mrs. Lin wanted. His shapes were simply glued onto the sheet of paper, and they weren't 'interesting'.

"Why do I need to start over?" Dante frowned.

"No, don't start over, just do another." The teacher spoke in a sweet voice, but in truth she was worried. What did it mean when a child didn't like to socialize, and didn't have much creativity? Not only that, but he was also very intelligent. Did his parents not notice?

"Can I do something else?"

"Uh… why don't you just try it again?" Mrs. Lin tried to persuade him, and to her astonishment, he began working again. After only a few minutes however, the next one he created looked exactly like the first. It looked like a photocopy.

As she stared at Dante's hard work in exasperation, another child came up to her from behind. "Mrs. Lin! I got a paper-cut!" The boy was teary eyed with his finger lifted up for the teacher to see.

Without much thought though, Dante reached out his hand and held the boys finger in a fist. Mrs. Lin didn't know what to make of this action, and apparently neither did the child.

There was a few seconds of silence before he let go and stared up at the teacher with expectant eyes.

After checking his finger, the child exclaimed in admiration, "Woah! Are you magic?!"

"No, it was just marker." Dante made up an excuse for the mystical event, although there really had been a cut.

"What? Nuh-uh! It hurt!" The child screamed, and while Mrs. Lin was still in shock, he came to a realization. "Oh! I get it! It's a secret, huh? I promise I won't tell even my mommy!"

Dante looked around at the other children whose attention was on him and came up with a new solution. "Hm, good. Don't tell anyone."

Mrs. Lin finally came out of her stupor, and in attempt to not ruin what ever friendship could ensue between the children, she backed away.

Normally, she would be more strict about her students doing the task given, but seeing her worries unfounded, she decided to let the two form a bond.

"My name is Rodney." The child smiled proudly.

"Hm. Dante." He answered as he stretched a hand.

Rodney took his hand and gripped tightly. "Pleaz-oo-ore to meet you!" He couldn't pronounce 'pleasure', it seemed.

Dante didn't know what to say.

There was silence as Rodney looked at Dante with extreme interest, almost making him uneasy. So, Dante could only speak. "Can you explain why Mrs. Lin told me that my collage has no artistic style? I don't agree with her assumption that the imagery is meaningless."

"Huh?" Rodney was stumped. That was when Dante suddenly understood that he was talking to a 3rd grader. He had to dumb it down.

"Why is my art bad?" He lifted both his masterpieces off the table and held them for Rodney to see. Dante was undeniably upset about not knowing what was wrong, his level of understanding was usually quite high, so why didn't he understand?

"Woah! It's so good! Your circles are so good! Your squares are so good! It's so good!"

And so the rest of class continued with Dante trying to pry an answer out of Rodney, and failing. At some point he did give up, but Rodney still kept praising him relentlessly.

Towards the end of class, the others in Dante's grade were being picked up or had gone on the bus. Arius was usually early everyday, so it was strange for Dante to wait so long.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"What do you mean you need proof? He's my brother." A teenager's voice entered Dante's ears. Asrael was there, speaking with Mrs. Lin.

"Well, his dad usually picks him up. You also seem awfully old to also be that man's son... he looks about 21."

"He's legally 16, and I wasn't adopted by him like my brother was." Asrael's face grew colder by the second. "Just ask Durante."

Mrs. Lin was surprised, but after spending some time with Dante, things seemed easier to accept now.

"Dante, come here." She called.

Dante wanted to deny the brotherhood, but instead left with Asrael peacefully.