“Oh, piss off!” Claude laughed, his voice clear like a bell. “It’s true! If it’s easy, you’re not learning.” He looked down at Kalen, his eyes warm. “I’m sure it’s alright, though. I saw the edits you made on the papers, and I know that at the very least, your grammar’s near-perfect. Can’t say anything about the actual substance of your work, but you got accepted into this place. You’ll be just fine.”
“Wow thanks for the confidence boost.” Kalen laughed, the corners of his eyes creasing a little as the grin on his face broadened. He started making his way back inside, a light spring in his step. “What lesson do you have?”
“World history, and then art.” Claude opened the doors to the school, holding the door for Kalen before going in himself.
“You have Art too?” Kalen’s eyebrows raised, pleasantly surprised that the two of them would have a lesson together. “I uhm…Where is Art again?” Hell, Kalen couldn’t even remember where the common room was from here, let alone where all the classrooms were, he told himself he would make a map of the place when he had the chance.
“Art is in the fine arts wing. The nice thing is that most classes here are grouped by subject and places into wings accordingly. For instance, I’ll be in the humanities wing first period for history. Which wing is philosophy, again? I want to say it’s in the humanities wing, near religious studies and literature, right?” Claude paused for a moment to think. He knew pretty well how all the classes were divided up, although some of them still baffled him a bit.
“It’s been a while since I was in the class.” He said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
“And why is that?” Kalen raised an eyebrow, waving his index finger. “Has someone been ditching classes because there’s someone in them that they don’t like?”
“What? No, no, nothing like that. It’s just been a couple years since I took the course, is all.” Claude raised his eyebrows. “Trust me, if I skip a class there’d be hell to pay at home. My parents have the school send them a copy of my attendance at the end of every month, which- I don’t think I have to tell you- means I try not to miss any classes if I can help it.” He shrugged, hands back in his pockets.
“Ah… The strict parent business is something I understand. My father would have my head on a silver platter if he found out I was even late for a lesson.” Kalen shrugged, his shoulders hunching slightly. His smile faded into something more tired. “He’d give me a lecture on how he didn’t have a son for me to disgrace his name with tardiness. And that’s something I would rather do without.”
“I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t heard that one too.” Claude shook his head, turning into the humanities wing. “Oh. It seems like this is where we go our separate ways, yea? I’ll see you next period.” He smiled at Kalen, turning into the world history classroom.
Kalen waved a little as Claude walked away from him, and before he thought he was lost, he found someone he recognised from the Philosophy class and followed them to the lesson. Hopefully he wouldn’t fall asleep in the middle of class…
(timeskip to art? unless you’ve got any ideas)
(I have no ideas so a time skip would be appreciated 😅)
(alright! i’ll take care of that)
Claude sat in art, staring down at his closed sketchbook and pencils. This class was really the only reason why he had pencils- he hated the feel of using lead instead of ink. The art class was one of the few classrooms that used table instead of singular desks, meaning that students had more room to work.
Kalen eventually found the classroom and stumbled his way inside, looking around nervously before making his way over to an empty table. He began to lay his things out on the table and waited in silence for the lesson to begin. He seemed a little shaken from the previous lesson, tired almost…
The class was working on a project they had started the day before- landscapes. Today was the rough draft— no color just yet, only blocking out shapes and plans. Claude was fairly proud of his work so far, an autumn scene inspired by the surrounding lands around the school. He hadn’t really noticed Kalen come in; he was too busy trying to mentally plan out his piece.
Kalen felt rather out of place in the silent room, but put his head down and looked at the blank page of his sketch book. Nothing had come to mind yet, which was rather unusual since he was known at home for his wild imagination. Then it hit him. The perfect scene he wanted to create. He picked up a pencil and began working, completely unaware that they were only supposed to be blocking shapes. While there was no colour to the page, the amount of detail he had put onto paper made up for the monochrome.
Claude was no doubt a perfectionist. He certainly had a vision in mind, abd luckily for him, his landscapes were fairly decent. His piece was pretty far along in terms of the sketch- after adding a little more detail, he would go up to the teacher and get it approved, making sure that it fit the criteria well enough. As Claude added the fine details to his tree, he grimaced, noticing the small chunk of dead space on the page.
Kalen stared at the page he had sketched on, feeling that something wasn't quite right. He flipped onto the next page and began drawing his image again, changing a few of the components this time. He did this again and again, until at least six pages had been filled with this one piece. Finally, on the seventh page, he got it exactly how he'd pictured it in his mind. A winter forest edge at the lakeside, with the trees reflecting in the water, and a great sunset in the background. Hopefully it would meet the criteria the teacher had set for them, though at this point he couldn't even remember what that criteria was.
Claude stared at his piece for a bit, rubbing his eyes and pushing it away from him. An autumn piece, supposed to be filled with rich, warm tones. His focal piece was a small pond lined with fallen leaves. A few large trees stood tall in the background, although he wasn’t sure quite what kind. The page before it was a basic blocking, and the page before that was full of notes- color palette, mood, the criteria, and objects to include. He had nothing to fill the blank area with, though. Possibly a tree stump? After all, it was in a bottom corner, some kind of plant should be there.
Kalen noticed that Claude was having a moment of blockage, which obviously struck up some concern. He pulled a spare piece of paper from his bag and started scribbling a note onto it. 'I don't know what you're drawing, but perhaps a holly plant?'
He folded it in half and discreetly leaned over, sliding it onto Claude's desk before quickly going back to his own work.
Claude took a moment before he noticed the note. He unfolded it, looking over at Kalen for a moment before reading it. Claude seemed to ponder the idea for a bit, lightly sketching the holly plant into the scenery. It would work, as long as he added a bit more greenery later on. He nodded to himself, adding a couple more plants here and there into the drawing.
(Quick question, what are they supposed to be doing in the lesson, because I feel like Kalen has done all he can do?)
(honestly, i had an idea, although it’s kind of stalling, i’m sorry! should we just ts to after classes?)
(Perhaps, although if you have a plan then we can try and go through with it?)