Chapter 1

I’ve known Val since we were little kids. We used to hang out all the time but for some reason about a year before high school started we kind of went our separate ways. We still talked but it was kind of limited. But then part way into her junior year we slowly started talking and being friends again. I felt really lucky to count her as my friend again. She was smart, beautiful, kind, and very energetic. She had beautiful black hair that reached down to about a couple of inches past her nice, cute round gymnast ass, sorry excuse me; kind of a rude thing to say, I meant butt. I could look at her blue eyes all day. Some would say that blue eyes were odd on her, because she was part Asian, but to me it was beautiful.

I never expected much more to happen between us than being good friends. I actually considered her my best friend, but I had no idea what she thought of our friendship. That is until she was a senior, and I was a junior in high school. We were both 18, but I had been held back a year because I had been really sick, and it made me miss a lot of school, way back in elementary school. Finally one year we shared a couple of classes together. And as luck would have it we were usually partnered together in one of those two classes, if hot both.

One day during art class, Val looked upset. I was lost momentarily in watching how her eyebrows scrunched close together. It was amazing how even that look on her was cute, but at the same time I didn’t like seeing her upset. I looked around us and noticed that the teacher was busy with one of her projects, so I leaned in close and quietly asked, “What’s wrong?”

Val jumped slightly and dropped her knife, she looked confused, then saw me and rubbed her eyes with one arm and after a few seconds said, “Oh, I just can’t figuring out how I’m supposed to make this sculpture look the way I want it too. This sculpture sucks. I swear if i don’t get this looking the way it’s supposed to, I’ll go crazy or something.”

She took another look at her sculpture and sighed before picking up her knife again. I looked over her project and wasn’t very surprised to see that it still looked good despite what she may think of it. I could see what she meant by it not looking like it was supposed to but still, wow.

I slid closer and asked, “Can I make a couple of suggestions?”

Val smiled and nodded. I took my paint brush and pointed to a few areas and quietly gave a couple ideas. She looked at me for a few seconds and then quickly went to her project and started with the touch ups. She turned to me and mouthed ‘thanks.’

After the class was over Val, and I were the only ones to stay behind because this was the same room for our next class. I went to the back of the room to put my project away and get my film and camera. I stopped in my tracks to look at Val’s project. It looked like a beautiful yet very nude female angel. The point of the project was doing something with the human or near human form, it could be of Bruce Lee throwing a punch, a replica of The Thinker, or even The Minotaur, or even Medusa as long as she had something recognizable as part human form.

I was giving all my attention to the angel sculpture especially the full round breast and nipples that I was shocked when someone suddenly grabbed me from behind.

I heard Val call out, “Thank you so much. Your advice really worked. I think my sculpture will be great now.”

“That’s great to hear. I’m glad I could help.” Is what I would have liked to have said, but nothing came out. I was so shocked by the hug, I couldn’t really say anything.

And before I could correct that mistake, Val was out the door calling out that she would be back. It was then that I noticed I had dropped both my camera and the containers that held my film. I looked around and quickly found them on the floor by the sink. The containers were fine but the camera’s back had popped open, exposing the film. I silently cursed the fact that we still had to use the old-fashioned film that if exposed would cause the film to go bad, instead of using digital cameras. I just wished I could remember if I had put in new film, or if it was the roll with the special picture in it.

When Val finally came back to class, she was about five minutes late. She sat down next to me without even saying anything. Not even saying sorry for being late. She looked as if she was just trying to pretend she was invisible or something.