FicWad

As winter drew near, the days got shorter and shorter. The old classrooms became ridiculously cold, wind blowing furiously against the ancient window frames and underneath the doors. My school uniform was nowhere near enough to prevent me from shivering through every single lesson I had during the day. My whole body went numb, my fingers ceasing to function. Writing was practically impossible. I turned up to an art lesson one day shivering and my hands a strange purple colour. Everyone else seemed fine, but no, my body had decided to completely shut down. I sniffed, and lowered my eyes to my work.
Suddenly I felt someone behind me.
“Not doing any work today Hayley?” It was Mr Way. I’d not heard him walking past. I looked down at my blank sheet of paper. I’d been staring at it for ten minutes and hadn’t realised.
“ oh, sorry…” I mumbled. I gripped my pencil tightly and put it to the paper. Then I didn’t know what to do next.
“ Hey, don’t force yourself. Art has to come naturally. It has to be something that comes straight from your feelings and emotions. If you can’t think of anything, don’t draw. Even the best artists have mental blocks sometimes” He said softly, smiling at me. I stared at him for a second, then smiled back and nodded. “yeah, I guess. “ I put my pencil down and rubbed my freezing hands together, flexing my fingers in an attempt to get them working again.
Mr Way’s words swam round and round in my head as I sat there. “Art has to come straight from your emotions.” Well, I had plenty of those, so why did I have trouble drawing today? It must have been because I was so cold. Cold made me shut down and want to go into hibernation.
“Hayley, can you stay behind at the end of the lesson please?”
I looked up, my eyes meeting his, “yeah, sure.” As I spoke, the bell rang loudly. I packed away my un used pencils and paper, slung my bag over my shoulder and stood by the teacher’s desk. He sat down, and waited until everyone had left until he spoke.
“Okay Hayley. You can sit down you know, I’d just like a little chat. You’re not busy this activity period are you?”
“no.” I replied, pulling a chair over and sitting on it nervously. I had no idea what he was about to say, and the somewhat wild look in his eyes made me anxious.
“Great, me neither.” He said, smiling again. “okay, so I noticed you were having a little trouble today, any reason why?”
“Oh no, I was just… well it sounds stupid but when I get really cold, my brain kind of stops working” I laughed at how bad the excuse was. “ I kind of found it hard to draw because my hands were so cold”
He looked at me, suddenly concerned, “ Oh man, that sucks. Let me see your hands a sec.” I hesitantly held my hands out, and he looked at them carefully. “you have nice hands. Thin….pale…delicate….a couple of scars here and there….and your nails are long too. You have very lady-like hands Hayley.” I blushed, the whole thing feeling awkward all of a sudden. “ah.” Mr Way said triumphantly. Something in his voice made me look at him. He was studying my fingertips intently. “ You bite the skin around here don’t you? I can tell. Your hands are nearly white, but the end are red and the skin is rough and uneven. You get scared. You get nervous.”
I balled my hands into fists, hiding my chewed fingers. How did he know all that? “I…I’m sorry sir…” I mumbled, but he shook his head and laughed. “ Don’t be. Your hands show that you are a true artist. If you are perfect, you can never really be an artist. Sure you can paint and draw, but you can never put true emotion into what you do. You have to know what it’s like to hurt. Now, your hands really are cold, may I?”
I looked at him, confused for a second, then realised. He took my hands in his and rubbed them together, warming them up. I laughed, “ thank you Mr Way, I needed that.” I said as I slipped my now warm hands into my pockets. “ No problem at all, though maybe wear gloves next time.” He replied with a wink. I left the classroom with a huge smile on my face and feeling warm all over.