The Earth Painter (19 page)

I looked out and took a bow. It felt good. No, it felt wonderful. When the curtain closed Theo ran up to me and hugged me. His arms felt so inviting.
Reassuring.

Then Ms. Jones walked up. “Holly, you had me worried for a second there, but you did it.
Great job.”
She walked off to talk to the principal.

Fritz was still there, too. Theo walked up to him and got in his face. “I thought I told you to leave her alone.”

Fritz backed away. “And I told you, I don’t answer to you…
Earth Painter.”

He spit the last two words out like they were venom and he a cobra. Then he walked over to me. “Sorry if my little
joke
bothered you. No harm, no foul.” He grinned at me and stroked my hair. Theo knocked his hand away, but Fritz ignored him. “This isn’t your fight you know, little speckled thing. You could stay out of it. You’ve drank the water. You’ve gotten the benefits. Why should you care if anyone else ever does?”

Fritz nodded over to Ms. Jones. “I tell you what….you don’t show up at that school board meeting. You let things go and step out of all this, and I will leave you alone. In fact, I’ll do one better.”

At that, he walked over to Ms. Jones and whispered something to her. In an instant, she stood straight and looked out like she’d just had an idea. She looked at me and marched towards me. “Holly, I’ve just had an idea. I want you to be the lead in the Renaissance play. You don’t even have to audition.”

I looked at her and blinked. “Thank you, but…maybe you should let someone else try out, too.”

“Nonsense.
Yes, the beginning of your monologue was rocky, but it was your first time with an audience. I can’t wait for the scripts to come in so we can get to work.” Then, she walked off stage toward the crowd.

Fritz smiled. “See how easy it could be? You give this up, and I’ll pave the way for you someplace else.
Anywhere else.
You could run off to Broadway, and I could open doors just like that. But if you stay with Theo, you’re my enemy and… I will come after you.” His glare became more focused with the last part.

Theo got between me and Fritz. Fritz shrugged his shoulders and backed away. “The choice is yours, Holly.” And then he was gone.

***

In the car, Dad kept congratulating me on my performance. I didn’t tell him about Ms. Jones’s offer. I wasn’t proud about how it came about. Mom didn’t say a word.

When we got home I tried to call Shelby, but she didn’t answer. I texted her trying to explain, but she didn’t text back. Between Fritz whispering to me on stage and the Shelby thing, I couldn’t sleep.

I got up and started to pace. Fritz was right. The well thing wasn’t my fight. I’d had the water. I knew what I needed. What difference did it make if anyone else got a chance? I could run off and leave. I was eighteen—an adult. I’d lost my one friend in Chesnee. My mom wasn’t speaking to me. Life was hell for Dad because of him siding with me.
And Theo…Theo.
My
heart sank deeper as I thought of him. He couldn’t feel for me what I felt for him. There really wasn’t any reason to stay.

I sank down on my bed and looked up at my room and sighed. It reminded me of Theo, too. And then he spoke.

“Good, I’m glad you’re up. I came to check on you.”

My heart leapt at the sight of Theo. I thought about what I’d been thinking and glanced around the room. “Is Fritz here?” Maybe he was responsible for my train of thought.

“No.”

So it was just me thinking that. I looked at Theo desperate for an answer, “How do I know when he’s with me…whispering his…mind tricks?”

Theo came and sat next to me, “Fritz will play on what hurts you the most. If your thoughts go there and stay there or go somewhere even darker…it’s him.”

I stood up in frustration. “Why does he hate people so much? We’ve never done anything.”

Theo let his head drop over his knees before he looked up at me. His gray-blue eyes were dark and serious when he looked into mine. “No, you did exactly what he predicted you would do—not you in particular, but humans. When Fritz found out about your kind, he said you guys would ruin everything. All the hard work to prepare the world was for the arrival of people and people would bring it to destruction.”

I watched Theo, waiting for him to say more, but he didn’t. “We haven’t ruined the world.”

He looked at me, “Really?”

“It’s the sciences who do the tweaks, not us.”

Theo stood. “I’m not talking about the tweaks. You know that stuff you were talking about, the chlorine in the water, the side effects? The sciences didn’t make that…humans did.
Your friend all black and blue—human.
Your mom’s inability to grow up—human.
You ever looked at the newspaper or watched the news? The worst things about this world can be traced back to humans.”

I trudged back to my bed and plopped down on it, thinking about what Theo’s words. “Then why do you want to help us?” I looked up at him. “The well…why protect it…why help us at all when we bring such destruction?”

Theo sat down with me again. “Because you also carry such promise…such possibilities. The well…drinking from it brings out the best, the parts that make humans what they were meant to be.”

“Are you sure we’re worth it?”

Theo took my hand and led me to my dresser and placed me in front of the largest piece of my shattered mirror still in the frame. We stood there, but I didn’t get it.

“What?” I shrugged at him.

“I want you to see how beautiful you are. Your eyes are the color of the purest parts of the sea. Your skin the whitest sand speckled with volcanic rocks from an explosion of power and fire and strength. And your hair is the sun sizzling into the sea at the end of a day.
Absolute beauty.”

I looked, and I tried but… “I don’t see it.”

“Then look closer. It’s right there.” He’d said this before, but I couldn’t understand. All I’d ever seen in the mirror was that I wasn’t my mom’s idea of beautiful or Hollywood’s. But the
way Theo said it, the way he looked at me, the way he poured all those feelings into me—it made me think his words were true.

I changed my focus when I looked in the mirror. Instead of looking at me, I looked at him…at the way he looked at me. Maybe that would be the closest I’d ever get to seeing what he saw.

After a while, I was finally able to sleep with Theo standing watch. But there was still the issue of Shelby. She didn’t show up to pick me up for school either. I hated having her mad at me. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I sat in AP history unable to take notes for thinking about it.

If you’d stay out of other people’s problems this never would have happened. But you like playing around where you don’t belong, you stupid speckled thing.

My head shot up at that last part. I never called myself a speckled thing, but I knew who did. I turned to see Fritz inches from my face. He smiled as I recognized him. I glared into his mossy eyes, making sure not to flinch. I raised my hand until Mrs. Jolly called my name, and I asked to go to the restroom.

I stood silently and walked to the restroom without acknowledging him, but I knew he was there. Once inside and alone, I turned to face him. “Get the hell away from me. I’ve got enough on me right now. I don’t have time for your mind games.”

He smiled and bit his bottom lip in a seductive way. “I find that to be the very best time to play them. How did you know it was me?”

“I’m over my freckles.” It was true. Knowing Theo liked them made me less sensitive about them.

Fritz’s eyebrows
raised
. “Good to know. But I was on track with the other stuff. I’ve been hanging out with Shelby. She’s not the type to let things go. She doesn’t forget. She’s like me in that sense. I like that about her.”

Suddenly his tempting me had backfired. And this last case of him in my head only strengthened my resolve. “I’m not quitting. I’m going to the school board meeting. I’m going to fight you.” Then my glare became more focused. “And I’m going to win. How’s it going to feel to lose to a little speckled human…Water Painter? Oh wait, you’re not even that anymore.

He looked at me with such hate like I’d never experienced. “You will regret that.” And then he was gone.

I went back to class just as the bell rang.
Time for Drama.

Ms. Jones came fluttering into class shortly after we all arrived.
“Good news, good news everyone.
Our scripts have arrived.” She made her way to a box on the stage and pulled out little blue booklets and started handing them out to us.

“We will spend the class time reading the play to ourselves. Then tomorrow we will start tryouts. As you can see, there are more parts than drama students so after class try outs, we will have one open to the general student body on Thursday after school. We will work hard and make The Lady of Dragon Castle the best production we’ve ever put on at Chesnee High School.”

I read in between looking up towards the stage curtains for Theo. He wasn’t there today. I read through the play at my usual table. Anthony and Wayne sat down.

“Hey, is that The Lady of Dragon Castle?” Wayne asked after removing the rubber bands to eat.

“Yeah, Ms. Jones asked me to play the lead. But they’re having open auditions for some parts.”

Wayne started making that hiccupping laugh he did that day in the parking lot. “Anthony, why didn’t you tell me about this?” He elbowed his friend beside him. “I’ve got my own copy of the play and my own costume including sword. The edge is not sharp of course. I know the entire part of Sir Triton of
Greenshire
by heart. When are the open auditions?”

“Thursday after school.”
I looked at him for a second before I asked, “Why do you have the play and costume? I didn’t know you were into theatre.”

“I’m not. But that play is
hugely  popular
on the
LARPing
circuit. I got my copy and costume at a
LARPing
festival last summer. That’s also where I learned to shoe a horse. I was the blacksmith during one round.”

“What’s
larping
?” It sounded nasty. I almost didn’t want to know.

“L-A-R-P stands for Live Action Role Playing. People who enjoy studying about that time in history get together and experience the renaissance through role play.
It’s
lots of fun. You should come with us some time.”

“Us?
You go to those too, Anthony?” I was choking on a giggle. I could tell Wayne was serious, and his feelings would be hurt if he thought I was poking fun at him.

Anthony swallowed without chewing so he could answer. “No. He and his friends from science club go. I’m his friend from track and cross country—the only cool one he has.”

“You’ll make a great Lady
Oliandra
.” Wayne looked almost giddy when he said it. “Page forty-five will be so much better with an actual lady. At camp, there were only guys.
Thadius
Hoffman ended up with the part of the lady, so we omitted the scene at the top of page forty-six. Hopefully, that will stay intact.” The hiccupping sound started again.

I hadn’t gotten to that part yet. “I can’t wait to read it.”

I didn’t have to work that day, so my dad picked me up and took me back to the lot. There I sat and read the entire play. On page forty-five, Sir Triton of
Greenshire
breaks the spell binding the lady to the dragon charged with guarding her and keeping her in the castle. And on page forty-six… “No! No!”Dad was out on the lot. No one was in the building to hear me scream, “I refuse to have my very first kiss on stage in front of everyone.”

Chapter 19

Dad and I took home dinner from Turner’s Family Restaurant. We took a plate home for Mom too, but she ignored us and ate a meal she had prepared. Well, she tried to ignore us, but I could tell she honestly wanted to say something about Dad and me eating directly from the white foam takeout trays. But she held it in.

I took my time eating and checked and rechecked my math. Then I decided to work on more research for my presentation to the school board on Saturday. Without the sciences helping, it was all on me. I kind of liked that—having the chance to do it on my own.

I discovered the well under the high school was the first dug in the city. I wasn’t sure how I could use that information, yet. When I finished my research, it was bedtime. No time to rehearse the character of Lady
Oliandra
, but that was the plan—to not try and hope Ms. Jones would recast the part.

At the beginning of drama, Ms. Jones announced that a student with prior obligations with the track and field team would be auditioning with us. Then out walked Wayne in his costume.

“Holly, would you go read page forty-five with Wayne?” Ms. Jones asked.

I walked up there with my script and read the part. Just read it. No emotional tone, no feeling, no expression. Wayne, on the other hand, was over acting the part. I was very glad she called cut before we got to the kiss.