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| Dumbasses. The professor had left sometime prior, probably to escape the raging hormones and stupidity of his “knowledge-eager” neophytes. The moment his office door had closed, the room had erupted into chaos; girls began to flip their hair with their tiny hands and gossip about some goddamned thing that Mikhail couldn’t give a shit about – the jocks collected together into one corner of the studio and began to talk of the latest football game. Some of the more diligent students continued about developing their portfolios; Mikhail sat idle, his eyes tracing over each face in the room. This is AP Art. He could not figure why such precious time would be thrown away for the musings of entertaining one another. With an unsuppressed sigh, he turned in his seat and proceeded about his monotype print. Quick, thick strokes of the brush with a masterful precision on the plexi-glass molded his composition; within minutes, he was grabbing a damp paper and slapping it onto the ink. Applying careful pressure with a brayer, he pulled the print and took several steps away from it. Once satisfied, he took up his black Sharpie and went about attacking the paper. Knowing better than to leave his piece drying in the same room with immature dicks, Mikhail collected his things and decided to go elsewhere for the remainder of the period. Mikhail paused in the doorway entrance of the student lounge, as if to register what was taking place – then, nonchalantly, he turned towards the couch and seated himself, silently. Placing the print safely near one corner of the table, he plopped the duffel bag he had been holding beside him; the quiet of the room was briefly disturbed by the metal prongs of a zipper coming apart and quickly after, the sound of ruffling paper. The contents of his bag were unusually organized, divided into color-coordinated folders of a dull, rusty sort of hue. He pulled out a textbook – labeled Calculus in some fancy print – and automatically flopped it onto the table, proceeding to turn the pages carefully with calloused fingertips, as if the thing itself was delicate and prone to damage. A notebook soon followed after the textbook, finding its own place beside it on the table. The German went about jamming buttons on his graphing calculator to slowly scribbling numbers and variables onto the paper. He had the intimidating sort of appearance, despite the lack of weight on his frame – as he shifted his arms, the lines of muscle that underlined his taut flesh were evident signs of his physical prowess. The German was thin, but not underdeveloped. His hair was ruffled; his shirt was wrinkled. Dark crescents traced beneath the line of his eyes, signature to Mikhail’s recent sleep deprivation. Occasionally, a thin square hand would rise to rub away the tiring dust that collected on his eyelids; an indelicate and wide yawn emitted in unison whenever he would turn a page. Within a few minutes, Mikhail closed the textbook quietly and slammed his notebook closed, pushing them aside as he began to shuffle through his bag. He wore a “Tool” tee, ripped slightly at the hem of one short sleeve; jeans patterned with drops and thin lines of accidental paint hugged at his hips, held up by a simple, black leather belt. The German’s Etnies had some wear and scuffled damage of them – the rubber backing of his right shoe was nearing the point of being ripped off. The whitening of his knees on the jeans, along with the quality and condition of his shoes, both were enough to signify his liking to skateboard, even with the absence of the object itself. A few scabbing wounds lined his exposed elbows; a few yellowing bruises collected along the side of his face and hands. Despite these injuries, Mikhail’s movements did not seem the slightest bit awkward or forced. The German held a tired expression; the corners of his savage mouth were dipped down in dissatisfaction and disappointment. An old scar sketched down from his brow and over his temple, finishing somewhere in the corner of his thin lips; its jagged quality whispered of a violent origin. However, despite his malicious appearance, his shoulders sagged with the expression of a burdened man. He was evidently tired – of what? One would have to ask, but an answer would not be guaranteed. He seemed to completely ignore – or even, become completely oblivious – of the presence of the other boy altogether, neither addressing nor sparing another glance towards his direction. It wasn’t until he spoke aloud that such an assumption was smutted to falsehood. ”You wouldn’t happen to have any point five lead, would you?” His tone, thick with a Slavic accent, held little amusement as his eyes turned up towards the stranger artist. In his left hand, he held up a mechanical pencil. His powerful eyes were silent, as if waiting. |
