“Now, slowly move your hand to the left…”

  “I’m doing that.”

  The art class was about to end. The teacher explained to us how to draw with perspective using angles and other tricks, so we tried to do drawings with that. I finished very quick, so I used the extra time helping Lusia with her drawing. The first four attempts ended up being horrible lines without logic, but this one was better.

  “Now move it down…”

  “Like this?”

  “Yes.”

  The drawing was just a house from a side, is not that hard when you have someone literally guiding every single step. But I was underestimating Lusia’s skill issue.

  “I got this.”

  “Okay, now don’t-”

  I stopped when the draw somehow was ruined by a bad move of Lusia’s hand. This is impressive. Maybe her body is genetically made to always fail in this class? Probably, but right now my job is trying to cheer her up, after all, failing in this always depresses her.

  “I ruined it again…”

  “You’re getting better”

  “...”

  “At least you did this part right.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, it’s a really good corner.”

  Lusia smiled when I said that. The best way to cheer her up was telling the truth. If I had said that her drawing was good, she probably would've reacted worse, especially because the drawing was very ugly. So this was the right move.

  “???～.”

  Lusia got distracted when the teacher hummed a song a little loudly while sticking something on the wall. We tried to see what it was. Maybe a drawing of a family member.

  “You can see it?"

  "Her body is covering it..."

  "What could be?"

  "Hmm....maybe...Oh, right, we're in that time of the year."

  "Huh?"

  When the teacher walked away, we finally got a better look at what she just put on the wall. It was poster-sized photo of the courtyard full of drawings, sculptures and in general, art. It had a description in a corner but it was too little for reading it from our position.

  I inmediatly understanded, but Lusia touched my shoulder confused for what she was looking at.

  “What is that?”

  "Is like a art exposition that the students do.”

  “Huh?”

  “A thing that we do every year, is like a school event.”

  As every school, we have some events. In this one the students can make any work of art and during a specific day we’re gonna see those works like in an art exhibition. This event is for the ones who wanna express their emotions with art and for the ones who wanna show their talent.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “And that would be the short explanation.”

  “Cool.”

  “Yeah, the art club is the star on that day for obvious reasons, but some people from outside can be a good surprise. Also that day the students are allowed to come with casual clothes so it's really loved.”

  “Only drawings are allowed?”

  “No, as you can see, sculptures and other types of art are allowed, some students even modify their own uniform and present it.”

  “Is that allowed?”

  “Only if 30% or less is modified.”

  “You know a lot. Have you participated in that?”

  “I did it once. They needed someone to finish painting a little sculpture made with matchsticks.”

  “I see.”

  Lusia seemed a little interested. Honestly, I can’t imagine her doing something good there, but if she wanted to do it I guess I should say nothing.

  “Are you-”

  DING DING

  Before I could finish my sentence, the class finished and Lusia quickly went to talk with the teacher. She clearly wants to participate.

  “I guess I can’t stop her…”

  Without saying anything else, I grabbed Lusia’s notebook and went to our classroom.

  “Maybe she asks for help…”

  If that was the case, then I had no choice but to help with something like painting or shaping. I didn’t even know if Lusia would do a draw, a sculpture or something else. Whatever she wanted to do, it was going to end badly.

  “What are her plans?”

  I decided not to think about how ugly the result would be and instead I tried to guess what her idea was. She is funny and good with makeup…Maybe a paint with nail polish?

  “She likes playing with cards, reading books and using cosmetics…That’s all I know about her?”

  My knowledge about Lusia wasn’t that big. At least I knew her habits, some fears and her favorite food, but that wasn’t enough for guessing.

  “Maybe-”

  “Hey, Aisha.”

  Suddenly, while I was still thinking, Camila approached.

  “How's it going?”

  “I’m okay…Thanks for helping me with the earrings…”

  “It's nothing. Lucia is taking her time in the art classroom, right?”

  “She got interested in the exposition.”

  “I noticed it. In fact, she asked me for help”

  “Really…?”

  “Yes, she told me that four hands wouldn’t be enough.”

  “So it will be something hard…”

  “Yeah. By the way, I still can’t believe you wanted that.”

  “...Hmm?”

  I didn’t knew what to say. When I told her I wanted something?

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Wow, Lucia was right.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She told me that you would act like this wasn’t your idea.”

  “...Huh?”

  “You know, you told her that you wanted to be the one leading the creative part.”

  “...I said what?”

  That definitely wasn’t something I said before. Why would I choose to do something that I can’t manage? It doesn’t make any sense. Right now I was being a fraud victim.

  Lusia arrived after I learned that so I approached her.

  “Hello Aisha.”

  “...”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “What did you do?”

  “You already discovered the thing? That was fast.”

  “Why did you do that?”

  “The main reason is that it could be fun.”

  “...”

  If Lusia wanted that I should do it. But how am I gonna help with the creative part? The art class is already a problem when the teacher doesn’t tell us something specific. But now I need to do something from zero. It seemed impossible.

  “Is this some prank…?”

  “It’s funny, but it is not. I already told the teacher.”

  “...”

  “C’mon, it will be fun.”

  “At least, you have some other reason besides having fun at my expense…?”

  “Well…yes”

  “What is it?”

  “Remember last month?”

  “...Yes…”

  It was impossible to forget the month I met her. Even more after what happened during the last day. Still, I didn’t understand the relation between that and putting me as the creative part in something. Lusia immediately elaborated a little more after noticing I wasn’t getting it.

  “Perhaps you can’t express yourself with words, but I want to see if I can help you express yourself with other methods, such as art.”

  “This is totally new for me.”

  “That is not true.”

  “I don’t think so…”

  “It’s true, you just didn’t notice it.”

  “...You’re trying to convince me to not tell the teacher that we didn’t talk about this?”

  “...Maybe…”

  “...I know you want to do this, so I'm going to do my best…”

  “Thanks!”

  “By the way, why is Camila in this too?”

  “She has been here more time than me, and it's not you, so is perfect for supporting us.”

  “...I can’t argue against that...I thought you were upset with her.”

  "Nah, that was mostly your fault."

  "True..."

  I guess having someone normal in the group would make everything easier.

  Somehow the things were already settled on so now I should think…something.

  “How are we gonna organize?”

  “We’re gonna go to your home in some days to discuss that.”

  “You invited yourself and a third person to my house already?”

  “Yes!”

  “...”

  “If you let us go I will paint your nails.”

  “...I’m gonna ask my dad…”

  “Hehe.”

  I wasn’t going to refuse, but now I was totally sure about accepting it. I’m starting to think that I wasn’t wrong when I described myself as Lusia’s servant, but saying what I was thinking would bother her, so instead I picked my notebook.

  “So, what are we gonna do…?”

  “It's your project, you can decide it.”

  “And that’s the problem. How do people get ideas?”

  “Right…I know, we can hang out during saturday.”

  “Where?”

  “Hmm…I don’t know.”

  “I can help with that!”

  Camila approached with a confident smile…Now that I think about it, I just left Camila alone while we were talking.

  “Sorry for that…”

  “No problem, I noticed you were a little shocked, I guess Lusia did something without your knowledge.”

  “You guessed it…”

  “Anyways, look at this.”

  Camila showed us some places she marked with an 'x' on her phone.

  “There is a museum, an art gallery and a few other places not far away, it's just a bus ride away.”

  “Great!”

  “You were marking these places while we were talking?”

  “I was a step ahead.”

  “Thanks for that. I guess we're gonna go there on Saturday…”

  “Perfect, just don’t forget sending me some pictures of that places, I’m really curious.”

  “Wait. You’re not coming with us?”

  “I’m a little busy that day. I can adapt with whatever both get so have fun without me.”

  “I see…”

  Maybe the start of the ‘project’ wasn’t the best. But now we could at least copy something from those places. This should be easy.

  “By the way Aisha, please don’t do something like just copying the things we’re gonna see that day.”

  “...Okay.”

  That way, we started what probably would be a big mess.