Ivy woke up suddenly and looked at the clock. It was 7:47am. Spanish class starts at 8.
"Dammit!" she yelled, jumping up.
She quickly threw some clothes on, ran to the bathroom to wash up, grabbed her book bag and ran to class. Ten minutes late again, she slipped as quietly as possible into the first available seat by the door.
As she pulled out her Spanish book, her sketchbook fell out onto the floor. She picked it up and made eye contact with Dyson, the guy across the aisle. They held the gaze for a second and then simultaneously looked away. Ivy's stomach tingled and she felt a rush of heat to her face as she tried to pay attention to the professor.
When class was finally over, she walked down the hall toward the front of the building where she always met her friend, Hilari. She found her in the same spot she was always in, doing the same things she was always doing: Leaning against the wall by the door smoking a cigarette and talking to her boyfriend, Rian, on her cell phone.
When she saw Ivy she smiled and waved as Ivy stood and waited for her to hang up. They always met for breakfast between her Spanish class and Ivy's art class. Usually they would talk about what Hilari did in class because Ivy was taking the same art class with the same professor, Mr. Rolando. Hilari finally hung up the phone with her boyfriend and put her cigarette out.
"Hey Ivy!" she grinned.
"Hey girl," she smiled. "Ready?"
"Yeah, c'mon," she said as they headed toward the cafeteria.
They went in got their food and sat at their usual table in the corner where they could see everyone. "So what did you do in class today?" Ivy asked. Hilari rolled her eyes.
"Another portrait, another model, another day. I mean when are we going to do something new? I don't understand why he makes us do the same thing every... single... day. It's really getting old."
Ivy laughed.
"Girl you know that man ain't right. He don't know what he's doing. He probably majored in flute or something."
Hilari laughed agreeing.
"We're supposed to be doing nude models next week though. How hot will that be? At least I hope it is. I don't wanna see no herpes or nothing on his junk."
"I know that's right!" she laughed loudly. As she laughed, she glanced toward the door and her smile quickly faded. Hilari looked at her.
"What's wrong?"
"That's him," Ivy said trying not to stare but not able to tear her eyes away.
"Who?" Hilari asked, confused looking around.
"That's him. The guy in my class, Dyson," Ivy said as her heart rate kicked it up a notch.
"The one that always makes eye contact with you and then gets all scared and looks away?" she asked following her gaze.
"Yeah... him."
Hilari looked at the guy Ivy was infatuated with. He was about 6 feet tall, had a statuesque build and short curly black hair.
"He is pretty hot," Hilari said in awe. "You have good taste."
Ivy smiled.
"I know girl."
They watched him for a minute in silence as he walked over toward the yogurt and fruit. He got a bowl and filled it with strawberry yogurt, then sprinkled granola on top.
"Shut up!" Hilari said giggling. "He is eating the same thing as you! I'm gonna go say something to him," she said getting up.
"No!" Ivy said even though it was too late. Hilari moved fast; she was already halfway to where Dyson was standing. Ivy's heart was beating so hard she thought it would burst through her chest. She looked down at her food trying not to watch what Hilari was doing but couldn't help it. She peeked up and looked at her.
She was standing next to Dyson; her 5'3" making her seem even shorter than she already was standing next to him. She pretended to look for a piece of fruit then looked over at Dyson. He was still fiddling around with the fruit trying to find a decent apple. Ivy was nearly jumping out of her skin. She couldn't see Hilari's face and therefore couldn't tell if she was talking to him or not. Then she saw her smile and walk back toward the table.
"I can't believe you did that!" Ivy said as soon as she was at the table. She laughed.
"What?"
"Did you talk to him?" Ivy asked eagerly. Hilari bit into her pear.
"Maybe," she grinned.
"Did you!?" Ivy asked again.
"I just said 'You would think for all the money we pay to go here we could at least get decent fruit right?' and he said 'You would think so. Or at least decent food.' Then I grabbed this pear and said 'Good luck with that'. That was it," she reported.
"I can't even believe you did that!" Ivy gushed. Hilari giggled.
"He is really, really attractive up close. I seriously doubt he's single," she said.
"Girl, I don't even care."
"I know you don't," she laughed. "But we gotta go. We have 15 minutes until class starts."
They stood up and gathered their trash and belongings from the table. As Ivy was putting on her coat, Hilari spotted Dyson again. He had finally sat down a few tables away from where they were. He was staring straight at Ivy. When he saw Hilari see him, he looked away quickly. A smile spread across Hilari's face and she turned her back to Dyson.
"Alright, you ready?" Ivy asked. Hilari just smiled at her.
"What?" she asked half-smiling. Then she focused over Hilari's shoulder and saw Dyson who looked away as Ivy made eye contact with him. Her stomach fluttered again and she headed toward the trashcan, Hilari following. When they got outside Hilari grabbed Ivy's arm.
"He was so checking you out! Did you see him?" she said excitedly.
"No, he wasn't," Ivy said slightly embarrassed.
"Yes, he was!" Hilari said again. "He didn't see me see him and I saw him looking at you. When he saw that I was looking at him, he looked away!"
Ivy laughed.
"You're crazy. I gotta get to class."
"Hey, call me later!" she said as they parted ways.
"I will."
Ivy headed to class and made it just in time. She took her seat at the table and waited for Mr. Rolando to begin class.
"Hello everyone. Before we begin I just want to let everyone know that if you missed a portrait of a model, you can make it up. The only difference is that you have to find your own model. You must pair up with someone else that has missed an assignment and take turns arting each other."
Ivy rolled her eyes and chuckled. Mr. Rolando was very eccentric. He talked with a weird fake accent. He was from Canada but sounded like he spent equal amounts of time in England, Texas and France. He also talked a lot of the time with his teeth clenched together as if his jaw was wired shut.
He made up his own words to describe things that nobody else would ever need to describe. Like 'arting'. Arting as defined by Mr. Rolando was creating some kind of art whether it was sculpting, painting, drawing or whatever.
"If I call your name that means you have missed an assignment and you need to see me after class to find out the assignments which I need by next Friday."
He began calling out names and eventually called Ivy's.
"Ivy Micheaux. You are actually missing three. Be sure to talk to me after class. We need to discuss."
Ivy nodded, confused. She didn't remember missing three assignments. Two maybe, but definitely not three.
"So, on to other matters. Next week, we will begin doing flesh portraits of models. We have four models coming in. Two male and two female. Monday will be female, Wednesday will be male and Friday will be a male and a female. It is in your best interest not to miss these classes," he said looking directly at Ivy, "because doing so will make it nearly impossible to make up unless you find a classmate that is willing to bare it all for the sake of art. Now, let's begin."
After class was over, Ivy went to talk to Mr. Rolando. She was told to email him later to find a partner because there were 4 other people that missed assignments and they had already paired off to work together. Mr. Rolando said that he would pair her with someone from another class; she hoped it would be Hilari.
When she got back to her dorm room, she emailed the professor and then went for a jog. After her jog she stopped to get some hot chocolate and donuts - which completely defeated the purpose of exercising, she thought laughing - and then headed back to take a shower and study.
Before she went to bed she checked her email and saw that she received an email back from Mr. Rolando. It said that there was someone else from another class that also missed three assignments and that they could work together for all three of them. He also sent Ivy's partner's email address and told her to have it done by the following Friday.
That gave her one week to get all three portraits done. She sighed and thought about where in her day she had room for make-up work. Between dance practice, the school Newspaper Chronicles, her part time job at Barnes & Noble and the rest of her schoolwork, she barely had any time left to do anything, not to mention sleep.
She emailed her partner and said that tomorrow would be a good day because she had nothing planned but dance practice, which wasn't until 4:30 anyway. After turning off her computer, she climbed into bed and called her friend from home, Veronika.
"Hey, what's up?" Veronika said answering the phone.
"Nothing, bout to go to bed. What are you doing?"
"Sitting here with Joaquin. What are you doing?"
"Laying here with Dyson," Ivy laughed. That was their on-going joke. Veronika liked movie star, Joaquin Phoenix and Ivy obviously liked Dyson. They talked for a while and whined and joked and finally hung up when Ivy started to fall asleep.
Early the next morning she went to eat breakfast, came back and checked her email; her partner had emailed her back. They were supposed to meet in their classroom at 10am. She looked at the clock, and saw that it was 8:37am. She decided to go for a quick run and then take a shower and head over to meet her partner.
When she arrived at the building it was 9:57am. She barely made it on time. She had her sketchbook and pencils in her black messenger bag. The building was pretty much deserted since it was Saturday so she knew she would recognize her partner pretty easily. As she waited, she looked at her reflection in a mural which was made of different shaped mirrors, in the hallway.
She was often told that she could be a runway model with her lean 5'9" frame. Her moss green eyes and demure grin paired with her reserved yet friendly personality made her the object of many people's affection: men and women alike which she discovered once starting college two years prior. She took her cellphone out of her book bag to make sure she hadn't missed any calls and as she was reading a text message from Veronika and laughing to herself, her partner walked up.
"Hey."
Ivy gave a start of surprise as she looked toward the voice. It was all she could do to keep her jaw from dropping to the floor. There was a sudden burst of adrenaline running through her veins. It was Dyson.
"Hi, hey," she said her voice barely above a whisper.
"You're my partner for Rolando's class?" Dyson asked. His voice was like butter and Ivy was melting inside.
"Yeah, how are you?" Ivy forced out clearing her throat.
"Good, you?" Dyson asked.
"I'm okay," Ivy said trying to will her heart to stop beating so hard and fast. She could have sworn that Dyson could hear it.
"Well Rolando left the door open for us so I guess we can get set up," he said walking into the classroom. "Okay," was all Ivy could muster.
She followed Dyson into the classroom filled with shock and disbelief. Her palms were sweaty and her heart was beating triple time. The butterflies in her stomach seemed to be fighting each other to get out. "So you missed three assignments too?" Dyson asked setting his book bag down. "Yeah. I thought it was only two but he says I missed three."
"How do you like the class?" Dyson said taking his coat off.
