The Virgin Art Freak By Emily Manzie
I walk in the doors and there’s Taylor pashing on with her boyfriend lizard, well his names Liam but Taylor told us he kisses like a Lizard so we nicknamed him. Next to them is Laura my friend who isn’t so boy obsessed, well she is just older boys with beards and stuff, “oh my god, thank god you’re here! They haven’t stopped kissing since I got here, I was trying to tell her about what happened last night but she wouldn’t listen, so like...” Laura talks a lot, I mean I love her and everything but sometimes I just don’t want to listen, “and then Jake texted me and I was like holy cow this is the best night ever!!” the bell rings, and being Monday morning I don’t have class with either Laura or Taylor, “ugh, I really hate having Miss Kay first on a Monday, it’s like a guaranteed bad day, I’ll see you at break have fun” “Bye!” I shout back as she hurries off to fitness, Taylor has class next to mine so we walk and talk “Good morning lovely, how was your weekend?” ever since my parents split its like Taylors been worried I’m going to break down again, she’s always complimenting me and asking how things are, they broke up just over a month ago and the week they did I cried at school and Taylor has been different ever since, “It was good, we went over to mums for roast last night, how was yours? did you spend it over at lizard boys house?” I say giggling as I give her a wink “I actually did and I have huge news for you, I’ll tell you at break.” She says back before entering Mr. Pike’s room. Gosh I hope she hasn’t done the dirty with Liam, they’ve only been going out for a few weeks, I’m sure she wouldn’t, would she?

I walk into class and sit down, pulling out my sketch book and pencils ready for my full morning ahead, I love having art first on a Monday because it’s something I really enjoy. Mr. Palm is walking around telling us how important the excursion is on Wednesday, I open my sketch book up to the drawing I started last night and continue “wow, Alaska that’s really good! You’re coming to the University on Wednesday aren’t you? You would really benefit I believe” he says as he picks up my work carefully scanning over every inch “yes sir, I’ll be there” he places the book back down and continues on about everything that’s going to be going on. After I finish my assessment task, I take it up to Mr. Palm “You have quite the talent Alaska, this is an extraordinary piece of art, could you tell me what it means exactly” “Well it’s a mix of feelings, up there is my happy things, the flowers and the rain, and so going down is getting to the sadder parts of my feelings and emotions, so the red is represent mad or angry” I explain nervously, I’ve never really had to explain my personal pieces to him, I guess I like it that way because I don’t like talking about my feelings to other people. “This is the most beautifully tragic drawings I have ever seen” he says almost expressionless “I would love to take this into RMIT on Wednesday to show them, would you be happy for me to do so?” “I – I guess that’d be cool” he wants to take MY work into RMIT to show actual university students and teachers!? “Great! Make sure you bring it in on Wednesday okay?” “sure I won’t forget, thank you” the bell rings just as I’ve finished putting my stuff away. I walk out into the crowded halls to find Taylor standing over the other side of the hall blowing bubbles with her gum. “Hey, so like we have to create a whole song from scratch and its due in two weeks! I have to come up with lyrics for a song that I can't even hear unless I call each person and get them all to play at once, how stupid right!” Taylors in band, she's the main vocalist, she's really good too, but she is super bossy. Her stage name is Sassy Superstar, she came up with it herself. We get to the hill just as Laura is sitting down, “So Miss Kay was like how often do you eat junk food, and I was like not that often and she was like..” “Laura,