Two

THE OVERVIEW OF THE HUMAN BODY is complete,” Dr. Dennis lectured. “We’ve covered the basic systems: skeletal, skin and fascia, muscular, cardiovascular, lymphatic, and nervous. Next, we delve deeply into regional anatomy to see how these systems work together. You will have the opportunity to share your knowledge with your classmates on projects that will be team based. Choose your team carefully. Grading will reflect the poorest member’s effort.”

Bree grabbed my arm and pulled me over to where Justin and Amanda were huddled together on the side of the room. Everyone in the class had their eyes on the two, but Bree was not about to be beaten to them. Justin Chen and Amanda Fortier were pre-med students and were considered the most brilliant members of the class. They’d gravitated toward each other the first week of class and created their own unapproachable clique, considering themselves above everyone else. SCU didn’t turn out that many pre-meds, but they were considered the highest quality. I didn’t like the two all that much.

“We want you to be our teammates,” Bree said as we approached. I swear Amanda’s lip curled in a sneer.

“So does everyone else,” she said. “Why should we pick you?” Yeah. I didn’t like her at all. Justin just stood there looking at us.

“We did the picking,” Bree said. “You are the two people in this class least likely to drag our grades down.”

“Your grades?” Amanda began. “I just got a 98 on the systems exam and you think I could bring your grade down?”

“Same grade I got,” Bree shot back. “Tony aced it.” That shut Amanda up. You could almost hear her teeth clack together.

“Maybe you should find someone better than me for your fourth,” Justin said quietly. “I only scored a 96.”

“We’ll carry you,” Bree said. “After all, we all owe it to each other to help the weak.”

I lost it. Sometimes Bree’s natural cattiness just comes out at the right time. When I started laughing, Justin did, too, and finally Amanda cracked a smile.

“Don’t you ever say anything?” she asked me.

“I live with three women and have this one as a lab partner,” I answered. Well, that was stretching it a little as Kate didn’t really live with us, but as far as I was concerned, she was part of my family.

“Okay. Bree and I will do the talking. You guys do the lifting.”

“Are you pre-med?” Justin asked me as we left the classroom. “I thought I knew all of us.”

“No. I’m an artist,” I said.

“And why do you know so much about anatomy?” Amanda asked.

“I paint figures. I had to study anatomy.”

“Figures?”

“He paints nudes,” Bree supplied. I swear Amanda blushed. “How about you?”

“I don’t paint nudes,” Amanda sighed. “When my pediatrician died, I swore I’d find a cure for breast cancer.”

“How about you, Justin?” I asked.

“Nothing so dramatic,” he said. “I just want to be a surgeon. Probably specialize in the nervous system.” I looked at him.

“You mean you’re going to be a brain surgeon?” I asked.

“Hey, it’s not rocket science,” he quipped. We laughed and I had to wonder how often he’d used that line.

“Focal points,” Doc Henredon said as we looked at the complex arrangement of objects and people on our podium. He hadn’t allowed us to draw anything yet. “You aren’t going to draw this composition,” he continued. “What I want you to do is study it. Think about it. What path does your eye take as you contemplate this scene? Close your eyes and re-open them. Where are they drawn? From your initial point of entry into the composition, where do your eyes move most naturally? Up? Down? Left? Right? What is the next point on which they focus?”

I let my eyes wander around the composition randomly for a minute and then closed them again. I’ve always been attracted to the human form and love to paint figures and there were three nudes in this composition. But when I opened my eyes they were riveted on the blank space. I hadn’t even noticed it the first time I looked at the scene, but I suddenly realized that everything in the scene was held in relationship to that negative space. It was like the scuff on the front wall of court two at the club—an anchor for my mental image of the court. With my new awareness of the starting point, I let my eyes follow the path from focal point to focal point.

Fuck! Doc is a fuckin’ genius. This was no random assortment of objects and people. It was a planned composition in which the eye was led in a way that brought order out of chaos.

“Now draw the path,” Doc said. “Don’t draw the scene. Draw the focal path. Great art is not simply painting accurately. It is about the artist’s control of the viewer. How well can he or she communicate with a viewer that is years—maybe centuries—removed from the artist?”

“That was intense,” I said, wrapping my arm around Kate’s waist as we went to meet Melody after class.

“I couldn’t believe the path you drew,” Kate responded. “It looked exactly like Doc’s. I got the starting point, but I didn’t move more than a few inches from it.”

“That’s the way you look at things, though,” I said. “Doc followed your path like he was seeing the whole composition for the first time.”

“Hi darlings,” Melody called out. “You look beat!”

“It was an intense 2D class,” I said. “Eye-opening. I’m exhausted.”

“Me, too,” Kate said.

“I hope you’re not too tired, sweetie,” Melody said, looking at Kate.

“Are you going to do that again?” Kate asked.

“Do what?” I chimed in.

“They were mean to me yesterday,” Kate pouted. “I made them both come and they just teased me.”

“I promise more than teasing tonight,” Melody said. She hugged Kate and pulled her into a kiss. “I have something new to show you that I learned in Minneapolis. I promise you’ll like it,” she whispered.

“Now?”

“No. Now we have to go over to the studio and pack outfits for shipment. Amy says we’ve got twenty more orders to fulfill.”

“Do we have that many?”

“Just. Fortunately, the second half of our order from Singapore is due this week. Amy changed our site to ‘ships this week’ instead of ‘ships in 24 hours.’ We should have stock again by Saturday. Then we’ve got to decide a time to treat more fabric and figure out if we’re switching to US manufacturing.”

“Amy, Sandra, Wendy, and I spent most of Saturday ironing. At least all we have to do is pack them for that cute UPS guy,” Kate said.

“Whoa! Who is this that has caught your eye?” I exclaimed. First Wendy and now a UPS guy? What was up with Kate?

“Relax, lover,” Kate giggled. I noticed Melody’s eyes were popped wide open, too. “Just because I let a tiger pet my pussy doesn’t mean I’m interested in a gorilla.” She kissed me. I mean—kissed me.

“You’ve really got a thing for zoos, don’t you,” Melody laughed. Kate got a faraway look in her eye. “Kate?”

“That gives me an idea,” she said.

I met Lissa and the team at the club after I’d had a light dinner with Rio to go over the week’s Critical Reading assignments. I noticed Rio sat very close to me as we ate dinner and went over the notes and seemed to take every opportunity to lean across me to point something out or to brush against me. I can recognize flirting. I just didn’t know what to do with it, so I pretended it wasn’t happening. Man, what a coward!

I left the cafeteria to go to the club and Whitney intercepted me.

“Hi. Can I walk with you?” she asked.

“Sure! haven’t seen you since I got back. How’s it been?”

“Frustrating.”

“Oh yeah.”

“I worked out at the club every day. That nice trainer, John, got me court time. I think that Friday he was afraid I’d jump his bones. You guys were awesome, but we all got really horny,” she said.

“Nobody here had to participate in that. It was something we were doing to help us pump up our game,” I said. “Really, you’re free to ... um ... well, you know,” I said.

“Masturbate?” Whitney declared. Hearing that word spoken by a woman with a deep Louisiana accent gave me an instant boner. Whitney knew exactly what she was doing, too. She threw her gym bag over one shoulder and grabbed my arm with her other hand, dragging me close to her as we walked. Yep, more flirting.

“Do you think I could be a real racquetball player? Like Lissa?” she asked.

“Well, maybe,” I said. “The real test will be how you respond to breaking a fingernail.” We laughed and she held out her immaculately manicured nails.

“I watched you at dinner this evening. Rio wasn’t very subtle, but you didn’t respond,” Whitney said. “I don’t intend to not be noticed. So, I’m just telling you right now, I’m going to flirt with your girlfriend.”

Chapter 3 »