Colors on my Canvas

chapter five

"Did you know the inventor of the frisbee was turned into a frisbee after he died?" Benny asked me as we walked into the cafeteria.

"Why would anybody know that? Or, better yet, why would anybody want to know that?"

"It's just simple facts," he shrugged.

"Alright, fact god, what do you have today?" I asked, gesturing to his lunch.

"Eh, same things as always," he sighed. "What about you? Wanna trade anything?"

"Give me your pineapple and I'll give you my brownie?" I suggested.

"Sold," he answered without hesitation.

Benny spouted off more facts as we ate our lunch. Most of what he was saying sounded like useless knowledge to me, but it helped him win trivia games.

The bell rang, meaning it was time for art. My all-time favorite time of day. I loved getting my hands messy with paints. We had started our first project on Friday and I had thought about what I wanted to do with it over the weekend, so I was really excited.

I loved painting with blacks, whites and greys, rather than all of the colors. The only time I would paint with colors was when I was assigned certain projects that had to do with the colors. I was still in the sketching phase of this particular project, where I was going to be painting a hand holding the earth.

Benny liked art as well but not as much as I did. He would sometimes ask me for help drawing in a little detail or shading a certain aspect of the work. Art has always come naturally to me, so I didn't have to put a lot into the work for it to look good. Benny on the other hand, had to take extra time with his pieces to get them the way he wanted them.

"Black and white?" I asked Benny as he drew pieces of garbage in a river flowing through a small town.

"Yeah, I'm going to try something new. You always seem to have success with this combination rather than the whole color spectrum. Also it gives the picture more of a depressing feeling to it, as opposed to colors making it look happy," he replied looking up at me.

"Very inspiring," I nodded my head.

"You should try adding color to yours," he suggested.

"Hmmm...maybe someday," I laughed. He knew how much I preferred to use blacks and whites over the color spectrum.

"Nice work, Wilde," our art instructor said to me as he walked past us. "What message are you trying to portray behind your work?"

"This piece is going to show how we hold the world in our hands. How we can do anything we can dream of and the possibilities are endless. It also shows that we are in control of the planet as a whole, and our actions, big or small, can lead to the earth's growth or destruction."

"Double meaning, I like it," he smiled at me before noticing the palette in front of me, "no color?"

"Nope. I much prefer the simplicity of black and white. In my opinion, the black and white makes the meaning more clear and not bogged down with the different colors. It just speaks to me more."

"Hm..that's a very interesting proposition." He looked over at Benny's project, "And what about you, Mr. Fields?"

"My project is to depict the way littering is affecting communities like our own. The black and white aspect of it is to add a more depressing feel to it. I felt that if I had used colors, it would've made a sad scene look happier than it should be."

"Very insightful," our instructor nodded to him, "I've not seen many students that can come up with responses that are quite knowledgeable and well explained. Good job, both of you."

"Thank you," Benny and I said in unison, my smile growing from his compliment. When we were younger, our art teachers wouldn't seem to care about the projects as they were art. They seemed to think of them as more of grades than anything, which I hated.

"Wow... he really seems to want us to see deeper into our pieces instead of just wanting us to get it completed by the due date," I said to Benny, absolutely astonished.

"Yeah, how long has it been since we've had a teacher like that?" he chuckled.

I thought for a second, "He's our first one that I can recall."

~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~

Benny and I climbed in through my bedroom window. We had our first science test at the end of the week and we had a whole packet to get through to prepare.

"I'll start at the beginning and you start at the end?" Benny suggested. It was all review material anyway, to show our teacher what she could just brush up on and what she had to go in depth with.

"That works," I replied, flipping my packet to the back.

*knock knock*

I looked up from the packet as my mom walked in carrying a plate of brownies and two bottles of water, "Walking in through the front door is not illegal."

"It's less fun that way, Mrs. W," Benny said and she laughed.

"You're right. I remember when I was about your age, my best friend and I would do the same thing. Stay young while you can kids," she joked.

"Thank you, mom. We have work to do though," I shooed her away.

"Okay, okay, I know when I am unwanted." She smiled at us as she left the room.

We made our way through our ends of the packet, then Benny gave his to me to fill out the end part and I gave mine to him to fill out the beginning. It was a simple system that worked and it took us half the time to get the work done.

"Is it still warm enough to swim?" he asked me.

"Not really but we still can," I shrugged, "our pool will only be open for another week or so."

We changed into our swimsuits and headed to the backyard.

"Isn't it a little cold to be swimming?" my dad remarked as we passed him.

"Mom says to stay young while we can...so no," I told him.

"Let them go, Mike, it won't hurt them," my mom chimed in.

Benny and I stood on the edge of the pool, both of us waiting for the other to jump in first. I focused on the water in front of me, trying to mentally prepare for how cold the water would be. The sound of footsteps running up behind me pulled me out of the daze that I was in. I turned my head to look towards Benny.

As soon as I turned my head, I felt someone's hands connect with my back, and I was being pushed underwater.

"BENNY!" I shouted when I resurfaced. He was doubled over laughing at me. When he had finally sobered up enough, he reached his hand down to help me out of the water. But rather than him pulling me out, I pulled him in.

"Hey!" he complained, splashing water at me.