While they enjoyed their fifteen minutes of freedom in the hallway, Leon and Amanda told about their visit to the aquarium. Amanda showed pictures of the animals from her phone and Sarah was ready to go to the aquarium right away. Castiel smiled and rolled his eyes when the girls gushed over penguin chicks.

But soon it was time to head to the next class. Castiel and Leon had music while Sarah and Amanda had their own classes to attend to.

“I don’t think we have any classes together anymore so I’m gonna ask now,” Castiel said before he left. “Are you fine with a walk today too?”

“Yeah, I don’t have anything,” Sarah replied.

“Good,” Castiel said and walked off with Leon. Sarah and Amanda headed upstairs.

“You go for walks together?” Amanda asked. Sarah felt herself blush.

“Yeah… Because it would be hard for Castiel to walk Ares and the baby carriage at the same time. So, when it’s his day, I join them for the walks.”

“That’s nice. A great way to get know each other better too.”

“Yeah. It is. And Ares is adorable.”

“Oh, he is. I’ve met him a few times. Such a sweet dog. What class do you have, by the way?” Amanda asked.

“Art.”

“Oh, you took the extra class? I thought about taking it too but I’m not particularly good at drawing. The other course we have is challenging enough”

“It’s a nice class. Everyone can do pretty much what they want. It’s super chill. Mr Roe talks about his cats most of the time,” Sarah laughed. Everyone in class knew all of Mr Roe’s five cats by name and appearance. He named them after different art periods and had even brought Baroque and Dada to class to be used as models for warm-up exercise in the beginning of the course.

“He’s such a sweet man,” Amanda said. Mr Roe was a great teacher. Most students liked him because he was relaxed and approachable. “Oh, my classroom is already open, I better hurry. See you later,” she said then and hurried to her French class. The teacher hadn’t arrived yet, but most students were on their seats. Sarah continued her walk to the art class where the door was already open as well. She almost bumped to Mr Roe at the door.

“Oh sorry. And sorry for being late.”

“Oh, don’t worry. You aren’t late at all. The class hasn’t started yet. Everyone was early today, so I decided to let them in. I’m going to get myself a cup of tea.”

Arthur noticed Sarah walk in and his posture straightened immediately. “I was starting to think you aren’t coming at all,” he said when Sarah dropped her bag on the floor.

“I wasn’t even late,” Sarah said checking the clock to make sure she didn’t lie. “I was talking with some classmates.”

“Nice. Have you made progress on your work?” He had the basic colours of his landscape on the paper. Many different shades of green, bright blue sky and golden fields. Sarah thought it looked beautiful already at that early stage.

“I think so. I managed to work out the hair last time,” Sarah said. She had a pile of reference pictures in the same folder with her art. Faces from different angles, eyes and hairstyles, as well as close-up shots from her mum’s comic. Drawing faces was hard, and she wanted to make hers perfect. The character’s curly ginger hair and many freckles didn’t make drawing any easier. Sarah didn’t know how mum could keep drawing something this detailed all the time.

“It looks amazing. She’s from your mum’s comic book, right?”

“Yeah, she the main character, Heather,” Sarah said and pulled her hair up to a ponytail to prevent it from getting in the way. She rustled the box of coloured pencils, trying to find the right shade of light brown for the eyes. She’d have to add a hint of green to them too. Colouring the hair would be a painful experience she didn’t even want to think about yet. “Your drawing looks great too.”

“Ah, yeah I guess it’s slowly coming together,” Arthur said. “At least it isn’t as detailed as yours. But I need to get all the proper shades down,” he sighed. “Should’ve just gone with something abstract and thrown paint on the canvas…”

“I’m starting to think that too,” Sarah chuckled. It would’ve been way easier. But she was sure she would’ve still struggled with it somehow.

Mr Roe returned with his cup of tea and seated himself behind his desk. He gazed around the class while sipping his drink, looking for something that could give him a good excuse to talk about Rococo, his sweet soon-to-be-mother cat.

“How’s your project been going by the way?” Arthur asked. “I don’t see the doll anywhere.”

“Pretty well. Tim is still in one piece and in Castiel’s care right now. It’s been kind of fun to do this. I’m learning to know Castiel better and to be honest, it feels nice to have people to talk with.”

“You can always talk with me.”

“Yeah of course. And I like talking with you. But it’s nice to have other people too, you know? Like, we don’t really see each other outside of art classes.” They bumped into each other sometimes in the hallways but usually their schedules didn’t match at all, so they rarely met. Sarah knew she’d be sad when the course ended. Would they see each other at all? She didn’t want to think about it. Maybe they’d take more art courses and meet there again.

Sarah jogged down the hallway clutching her bag so it wouldn’t fall from her shoulder. Mr Coy had kept them too long again. Sarah didn’t really like Mr Coy. He always looked like he was afraid of his students. He constantly twisted his hands and every time he broke the chalk (which he insisted on using instead of the white board), he flinched. And worst of all, he spoke slowly, and his lectures were long-winded and boring. His class was always either the first or last of the day which made them even more sleep-inducing. A sleeping student was a common sight on his lessons.

Sarah looked out of the window and saw Castiel head towards the baby carriage park. She hurried her steps and ran down the stairs two steps at a time. Her back or legs didn’t appreciate it and she had to slow down before she reached the bottom of the stairs. She fetched her coat and put it on while heading outside. Castiel had already placed Tim in the carriage and was looking at his phone while waiting. Mercedes stared at him from a short distance away.

“Hey,” Sarah said after walking closer. She buttoned her coat and tightened her ponytail.

“Finally she arrives,” Castiel said and put his phone away. “I’ve been waiting for ages.”

“No, you haven’t. I saw you walking here just a few minutes ago.”

“Nope, definitely has been ages,” Castiel grinned. “Women always make other people wait for them.”

“It’s not my fault that Coy advances the class at a glacial pace,” Sarah huffed.

“Oh, you had his class? He’s so boring to listen to. What did you have?”

“Math. But I don’t know if I understood any of it,” she groaned. Math wasn’t her best subject and if she could choose, she wouldn’t have any of it. But she couldn’t, so there she sat, writing down notes and hoping that the formulas and numbers would start making sense before the exam.

“Leon and I have him in physics. His voice has nearly put me to sleep several times.”

“I’m not surprised at all. He makes me drowsy too and I pay attention to what he says even less.”

They made their way out of school grounds while continuing to share experiences about poor Mr Coy. Mercedes looked after them dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe her eyes. During the lunchbreak Mercedes had went to talk to Castiel while he had been alone. She had asked him for a coffee, an offer he couldn’t refuse for sure, but what had Castiel done? He had stared at her for a few seconds and said he’d be busy. That would’ve been understandable of course, Mercedes was terribly busy as well, but seeing Castiel just walk away with Sarah left her speechless. How could that little mouse be more important than she was? Unbelievable. She had known Castiel for longer than Sarah had. That little girl probably hadn’t even talked to him before that stupid course while Castiel had saved Mercedes once. They had a stronger and more special connection than Sarah could ever think about having. But now she acted like she was special. Preposterous! If Sarah thought she could keep it up and get off scot-free, she was wrong.

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Inksgiving goals

1,000 ink: Pinterest board for Alone in the Night

2,000 ink: Pinterest board fo Baby, I Love You

5,000 ink. Extra story

9,000 ink: Extra story + character sheets

20,000 ink: NSWF/Mature-ish extra story (unrelated to my current works)