Drawings Become Reality

"Ashley Holland." The teacher called role in a monotone as we all answered to our names respectively. I raised my hand in answer.

"Here, Mrs. Tanger." I called out with a smile sent her way. Her face brightened considerably and she went on to continue the role call.

I rolled my eyes, turning to the notebook on my desk to doodle pictures of my newest crush. He was a cutie, though new, and I couldn't help myself. I'd seen him, and now I couldn't get him out of my mind. I couldn't place why, but he was interesting to me. The worst part was, we hadn't even officially met. We were going to meet next class period, I was going to make sure of it.

"Ashley!" Someone to my right whispered, catching my attention. "Ashley! When is your birthday, again?"

"What? My birthday?" I questioned and looked over, realizing it was one of my friends, not a close one though. "Why?"

"Well, it'll be your eighteenth birthday, right?" Sarah Gold asked. I nodded in response. "So it has to be special. When is it?"

"The last Saturday of this month. You can come if you want." I sent her a toothy smile, glad to remember that my birthday was soon. "We're having a pool party. Glow sticks and blacklights, so wear neon."

"Cool, sure thing." She bounced in her seat. "Anything specific you want for your birthday?"

"Not really." I answered, glancing at my notebook and snapping it shut. "Nothing anyone can help with at least."

"Well, let me know if you think of anything." She got up as the bell rang and skipped out of the class. I rolled my eyes, giggling at her excitement. I packed everything up and walked out of Mrs. Tanger's classroom, heading straight for drama with Mrs. Falcon. When I got to the door of the classroom, everything froze around me. I smelt something delicious, edible almost.

I shook myself out of my daze and stepped up to the door, grabbing the handle and turning it to go inside. The smell only got stronger. I searched the room for what could be making the almost chocolate-like scent, but there was nothing. Only a few people were in the room, and none had food. One of the people, though, was my mystery man, and he was sitting to the left of my usual spot. I took my seat, not looking at him, and pulled out my Drama IV notebook, glancing every now and again out of the corner of my eye to look at him. He stuck a hand out to me, running his other hand through his midnight black hair.

"Hey, I'm Cole. Cole Feral." He smiled, and I noticed his small lip ring on the left side of his mouth. I looked up, turning toward him to look at him head-on, admiring how God had blessed him, and took his hand to shake it. I took the time to examine every nook and cranny on his face.

"Ashley Holland. It's great to meet you, Cole." I smiled brightly as I felt tingles stemming from his hand touching mine. He pulled his lip ring into his mouth, sucking on it. "So you're new here?"

"It's great to meet you too, Ashley. Pretty name you've got there." He grinned, full and happy, completely ignoring my last question, to my relief.

"Thank you." I blushed, my eyes leaving his crystal blue irises. "I like your name, too."

"Is that so?" He winked. I nodded. "Well this is a pleasant turn of events. Say, Ashley?"

"Yes?"

"What's your schedule?"

"M-m-my schedule?" I stuttered, my eyebrows raising. He nodded, pulling his lip ring into his mouth again. I racked my brain, looking for the answer and finally realized what he was asking. "Oh!"

I pulled out the timetable sheet they handed all of us at the beginning of the year and handed it to him. He looked it over for a few seconds, his smile growing as he read each line.

"Well, well, well, Ms. Holland. It looks like we have every single class together." He winked again and my eyes bulged. He leaned forward and whispered in a joking tone, "You stalking me?"

"Oh no, never! Why would you think such a thing?" I blushed profusely. "As a matter of fact, my parents chose my schedule, not me. My dad is the principal and my mom is the counselor."

"Really? It sounds like your parents are powerful." He smiled. "Are they the alphas here?"

"Um, I guess you could say that. A power couple is practically the same thing, right?" I asked, confused by what he meant. His eyebrows drew together and he shook his head, to clear his thoughts, I guessed.

"Oh. Yeah, power couple." The bell rang and we both turned toward the front, sneaking one last glance at each other. The teacher walked into the classroom, getting up onto the stage.

"Fellow thespians and followers in the ways of theatrical arts, today we welcome a most prized student and actor. His name..." Mrs. Falcon stopped dramatically to create suspense. "Is Cole Feral. And he is sitting beside our own beloved Ashley. I expect you all to treat him as if he has been here all year. And I do mean it. Now, onto today's assignment: we are doing partner scenes. You will be paired with the person seated on your left. Cole and Ashley, Tiffany and George, Micheal and Laura, Tyler and Isabelle, and so on. If you do not have a partner in 10 minutes, come see me."

I turned back toward Cole, smiling. "Looks like we're partners."

"Howdy, partner." He used a thick southern accent. I laughed because there was no way he would pass for a cowboy. He fixed his voice and smiled back. "Do you know what the assignment is?"

"Not really. She tells us by the 15 minute mark unless we ask before. Then she'll just go ahead and tell us." I answered, glancing her way. He nodded, standing up to go talk to her. I pulled at his arm to keep him from going. "What are you doing?"

"Going to get our assignment." He answered plainly, rolling his eyes as a smile broke out across his face. "Unless you want to just talk about nothing in particular this whole next," he looked at the clock, "12 minutes."

"Well... Fine. Go ahead. I'll wait here." I conceded, dropping my hand from his arm. He nodded again and took off, returning a minute later with a sheet of paper in his hand. "What's that?"

"A referral." He shrugged, taking his seat next to me as if it wasn't a big deal.

"A referral? For what?" I gasped. I'd never gotten a referral before.

"I interrupted her." He pursed his lips, shaking his head. I gawked at him.

"What?!" I all but screamed, and he busted into fits of laughter.

"It's just the assignment sheet, jeez. Chill, Ash!" He exclaimed through chuckles. I froze at his use of my nickname, and smiled slightly.

"What'd you call me?" I hid my smile with a scowl, and he stopped laughing to look at me in confusion.

"Ash." He answered simply. "It's just a nickname."

"Only my friends can call me that." I glared at him menacingly. His smile dropped.

"So I'm not a friend of yours?" He asked in disbelief. "But I thought... We're... How could we not even be friends?" He seemed to sink into himself at that, his eyes glazing over, and I let a frown through as I leaned over.

"I was joking, it's fine if you call me Ash. We can be friends if you want. I want to be friends but I just didn't know if you would. And I was just teasing, trust me." I blubbered out, not really registering how much I said or even what I said. He sat up straight in his chair, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"So I am your friend?"

"Yes, you're my friend." I smiled goofily, a lot less stressed since seeing the hopeful look on his face. "And if you want you can try to come up with your own special nickname for me, and I'll make one for you, since I am, I think, your first friend here."

"Okay. That sounds like fun." He smiled. "How about Holiday?"

"Holiday? Why would you call me Holid-oh. Holland." I laughed after I realized why. "No, that's a bad nickname."

"I thought it was good." He pouted. I shook my head, crossing my arms over my ribs, and he sighed. "Fine, Ace, have it your way."

"Ew, Ace is bad too." I hid my smile behind my hand, and this time he shook his head. "Oh, come on! You can't give me Ace as a nickname."

"Nope, Ace is definitely staying. It's cute." He winked. "So it's staying."

"But I don't think it's right for me." I pouted this time.

"It fits you perfectly, trust me." He gave me a genuine smile as I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever, Coney." I patted his cheek, turning back to face the front. He spun me around with a hand on my shoulder.

"Did you just call me Coney?" His forehead wrinkled. I nodded, raising an eyebrow in defiance. "But that nickname is worse than Holland!"

"Well it's better than calling you Colt and having everybody think that's your real name so they start calling you that." I defended myself. "Coney seems more of a nickname so they don't think it's your real name and call you by it." He thought for a second before shrugging.

"You're actually right."

"Wow, is it that much of a surprise?" I laughed. "I mean I know it sucks and all, but geez, 'actually right' is a bit mean." He shook his head in laughter and handed me the assignment sheet.

"We'd better get to working." he chuckled.

"Fine." I sighed, reading the sheet of paper.

We had to create a scene and perform by the end of the week, about two people in some form of a relationship (like married, boyfriend girlfriend, bet friends, etc.) who get in a fight, but we need to decide what we fight about and what the end result will be, like a break up of friends, or a saving of the relationship in some way.

"It seems like a cool assignment." I mumble, deep in thought.

"Seems like it'll be hilarious." He smiled wickedly.

"Why are you smiling like that?" I asked, worry seeping into my voice. At that, something clicked. "Oh no... Oh, no, no, no. That is not happening."

"What's not happening?" He asked, pulling an innocent face.

"Whatever you're thinking. It's not happening." I shivered at what he could be thinking about.

"Well, I was thinking a young couple, arguing about if they should get married or not, the woman saying not, and the guy winning in the end." He shortened up his thoughts and explained them. I frowned. It wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be.

"That's not half bad." I pulled out a random notebook and blushed when I realized it was the one I was drawing him in.

"What?" He questioned, his brows furrowing as he tried to look over my shoulder. I flipped the notebook closed and shoved it in my bag, pulling out a fresh notebook so that I didn't have doodles of him in it. "Okay then..."

"Sorry." I flipped the new notebook open to the first page and drew bubbles big enough for me to write in. In the first I wrote 'Married couple', the second 'bf/gf', the third 'BFFs', the fourth 'OK friends', and the last 'Strangers'. "So these are our choices; married, boyfriend and girlfriend, best friends, okay friends, and strangers."

"Great. What if we do my idea?" He asked, peeking over my shoulder. I wrote a brief summary of his idea under the 'bf/gf' bubble. "Cool, so it's all organized. Can you teach me that?"

"Yeah sure, but let's go over it after we have our scene, okay?"

"Whatever you say, Ace."

"Cole-" I started, only to be cut off.

"I'm sorry, who are you talking to? I'm Coney." He winked, making me laugh.

"Fine. Since you're using Coney, I guess Ace is alright." I rolled my eyes. "Now stop distracting me! We need to get this done before workshop."

"I never signed up for workshop. I'm deadly clumsy." He raised his eyebrows. I shook my head, laughing again.

"Acting workshop." I giggled. "We perform a small portion of our scene for input from the class and the teacher."

"Oh, then I love workshopping." He smiled. "One of my favorite parts of drama."

"That's good then." I looked back at the paper, and a thought came to mind. "What if we were already married?"

"What?" He jerked away a bit in surprise before coming closer to the paper.

"What if we were married? We could be arguing about children." I spun to look at him, and realized our faces were incredibly close.

"Why would we argue about children?" He rolled his eyes. I sighed and started to explain my idea.

"We could be arguing about whether or not we should have children." I said, backing away slightly to avoid getting sidetracked. "You say we don't want them and I say we do. It would be perfect."

"But I want children." He pouted, and it was my turn to roll my eyes.

"So do I. But do you like the idea?" I asked, exasperated.

"I do. I think we should go with it." He smiled brightly. I nodded, and we immediately set to work on the script.