Art History
"Oh. My. God. If I have to walk through one more museum, I think I'm gonna start screaming."
"Sammy, mellow out. What'd you think we'd be doing on this trip? The whole point is to go to museums and look at art." Beth smacked her friend on the upper arm and rolled her eyes.
"No. The whole point was to come to Europe and to be...in Europe – not in museums."
Beth's grin hadn't faded. "That might be the dumbest thing I've heard you say considering that art is what this trip is all about. Well maybe aside from what you said when you stole that pack of Twizzlers."
Samantha was clearing errant strands of hair out of her face by using both hands to pull it back and away from her eyes. She had temporarily gripped her hairband in her teeth which made her mumble, "I was thirteen for fuck's sake." After putting her pony tail in place she said more clearly, "You and that stupid story."
Beth put a mocking ring into her impression of a younger girl, "'I paid you but you must have forgotten.' And we were the only ones in the store. The look on that guy's face...it was like...like...he couldn't believe you'd said it either." Beth giggled. "You were so lucky he was cool."
"He wasn't cool, and neither are you. It's five years later and you just can't let it die. Come on, let's catch up with Ted, Lia, and Natalie."
The girls hustled past a set of Magritte paintings of doors that didn't exist without paying the masterworks any mind. They'd been overloaded with "culture" for the past week. When they passed a security guard, the two also missed the fact that his eyes followed them well past the line of propriety.
They caught up with their friends and Samantha slipped her arm through Ted's and asked him, "What's up?"
Ted gave Samantha a little squeeze back. "Hey, Thing 2. See anything you like." Samantha liked the nickname Ted had given her but Beth wasn't as thrilled with her nickname. Ted called Beth, Thing 1 because when the two girls were together, they were trouble as far as he was concerned.
Ted enjoyed the new-found familiarity he had with most of the girls on the trip. He had no idea that his growth spurt between sophomore and junior year had caught the attention of the entire female population in his class. Another year of running cross-country and track only augmented his fitness, making him leaner and causing more of a stir than he knew. His newfound maturity coupled with the collective bonding of this group of twelve kids travelling together had seemed somewhat of a miracle to him.
Samantha grimaced and repeated her complaints to Ted. She thought it was cool that he liked this stuff so much, but she really wanted to get out and have a chance to see the city on her own terms instead of the constant ramblings of docents.
Ted said, "You know, if you slowed down a minute you might actually like some of these paintings. Like that one, it's incredible."
"It's a big fuckin' apple in a room. WOW. I'm dazzled."
Ted shook his head. "2, you're hopeless. Remember what Thrad talked about – the whole point is not to have a point. Magritte is messing with perspective, making you question what you see, what reality is." He enjoyed looking at the paintings and knowing a little about what was going on with them. It made him feel, as cheesy as this seemed, grown-up.
"Nope – doesn't make me question my reality. It makes me think that guy was hungry for an apple. REALLY hungry for an apple."
Ted felt the pressure and warmth of Samantha's leg pressed up against his. Her black leggings were tight and he caught himself thinking about the curving line of of her ass that was so tantalizing in view at the base of her shirt. He knew he needed to move and change the subject or he'd embarrass himself. He detached from her arm in order to read the small placard next to another painting.
Samantha was a kick; fun to hang around with, but he felt that she hid behind her disinterest in things so she wouldn't have to work. She probably wasn't a genius, but it was too bad that she seemed so intent on not showing whatever smarts she had. It was a different story with Beth, and he really liked that about her. Of all the girls in the class, he was most interested in Beth but the two of them had a hard time talking. All of the casual contact he had with most of the others seemed to be out of reach for him with Beth.
The art history elective for seniors was an unusually small class, and it turned out that eight of the kids in the group were girls. Beth was sharp and it was obvious that Mr. Thrad enjoyed having her contribute. He'd often start a discussion about a painting by asking her a leading question to get things rolling. Somehow Ted frequently found himself seeing things differently and there were more than a few classes where their disagreement had sparked the long discussions in which Mr. Thrad clearly took pleasure.
Samantha had encouraged someone else to share in her dissatisfaction and Ted wandered off, absorbed in the art around him. He found himself looking at a nude of Magritte's wife when Beth walked up next to him. The painting was hung right next to an equally bare photograph of the model.
She said, "I'm not sure Magritte knew where her breasts were supposed to go." The painting was a human head whose eyes were breasts and mouth a V of pubic hair. The image bore little resemblance to the stark reality of the photograph.
Ted was embarrassed to have been caught looking so closely at the pictures. "Err...yeah. You mean they don't usually go there? If they were there, at least guys wouldn't always be blamed for staring at them." Unfortunately his embarrassment was only worsened because he'd looked directly at Beth's chest when saying this. His face flushed.
Beth's own embarrassment stumbled along just behind his. She folded her arms and turned back to the picture. "Well if they were like, putting a bra on would mean we'd be smashing into walls all the time."
They both laughed.