Peas In a Pod (Charlie)

[Sunar Chugani]

It was fifty six degrees outside, which was a warmer temperature than Pilot Ridge had seen in a few months. Winter was finally fading, replaced by cool, crisp Spring time. Oh, there was still a danger of more cold, of ice and snow coming to blanket the land again and destroy the daffodils poking up their yellow heads to welcome the Spring. 

But for the moment the weather was pleasant, which was why Sunar had taken his sketchbook and gone outside. Perhaps he would find a patch of flowers to draw from life, or try to surreptitiously catch the poses of other students as they walked or ran or skipped down the sidewalk. 

When he arrived in the courtyard, however, something other than flowers and frolicking teens caught his eye -- another student hunched over a notepad. He hurried over and dropped down beside the other boy. 

"Hey! Are you drawing? Can I see?"

[Deleted]

Charlie opened the window of his dorm room, breathing in the crisp breeze that flooded into the room. It was the perfect day: the harsh cold melted into cool Spring and there were no urgent needs to occupy his time or mind. It was a day of infinite possibilities, but when another breeze flew into his room, he knew exactly where he wanted to be at that moment.

Latching the window shut, he laced on a pair of hi-tops by his door and grabbed a jacket and notebook before racing out of the room. He put the jacket on as he descended the stairwell, taking two steps at a time as he practically leapt down.

On arriving to the campus’ courtyard, he found a bench where the crowd was thickest and noise loudest. He was never one for solitude and silence, the lack of stimulation made him want to rip his hair out. He worked best when he was surrounded by energy and excitement, and this was the perfect spot. He could hear the clunk of wheels hitting pavement as a skater attempted new tricks on his board, and behind him shouts and giggles could be heard from a group gathering to talk.

He opened his notebook and unlatched the mechanical pencil that was clipped in. Almost all of the pages were filled with sketchings: mostly rough figures, but also a few landscapes. He didn’t know when he started, but for as long as he remembered he draw the world around him. It started out absentmindedly, as a way to past time, and the drawings were crude. But, through practice, he was now a fairly competent, and he focused his skill on designs and ideas he had for outfits.

A girl walked past by with a knee-length skirt that just skimmed the the frills of her tall socks as she moved. Charlie took a mental snapshot of her clothes, and began drawing it with; yet, also adding adjustments. As he was transforming the skirt into an empire-waisted dress, a boy came up to him and asked to see his sketches.

“Yeah, I’m drawing a bit,” Charlie grinned, and tilted his notebook so the other student could see. It was far from finished, but he wasn’t at all ashamed of his work so far. It flowed right on the featureless figure modeling it, and he managed to add a pattern of repeating detailed flowers in quatrefoils on its hem.