Witch and Wizard Destiny

I stared dreamily at Benny for the last half hour of school. Fifteen minutes of which my best friend was talking to me.

"Hello! Ariel! Who am I going to the mall with?" She asked. I shook my head and looked at her.

"Um, I don't know. Ask Sarah. She might want to go with you." Zoey rolled her eyes.

"Quit thinking and staring at him. He’s a nerd. He’s not even that cute. Popular girls like us don't need to spend their time with nerds like him." I scoffed and opened my locker.

"Speak for yourself. He's my prince charming. He's always been since fifth grade." Zoey shook her head. I opened my bag and put my textbooks in it.

"Are you coming to the mall with me or not?" She asked me with her hand on her hip.

"No. I got too much homework. Besides, you know I hate the mall." I slung my bag over my shoulder and shut my locker.

"True." She pondered. "Well, I'm going to look for someone I can go to the mall with. Maybe you should try talking to Benny." She snickered when I tried to hit her.

"No. I'm not. Now, get going before I kill you." Zoey laughed and left me at my locker. I watched as she talked to Sarah and left the school. I waited for forty-five seconds before moving. I sighed and headed down the hallway. I stopped in front of a door and set my bag down. Hearing the laughter in the room, I smiled and put my hair into a messy ponytail. I pulled my bag open and grabbed my art apron. As I was tying it on, I heard a voice behind me.

"You gettin' ready to cook or something?" I stopped tying behind my neck and turned to see who it was. Benny and Ethan were standing across the hall against the lockers. My heart started pounding in my chest.

"Um, no. I'm in the art club. Just keeping it a secret from my friends." Benny and Ethan talked quietly together for a second and they walked up to me. Something on Benny smelled weird.

"Why keep it from your friends? Tell them, they might think it's cool." I shook my head.

"No. Art is, like, the lowest on the chain. If my friends found out, I would be shunned by all living things." I finished tying strings on my neck and waited for their answer.

"What about us? Would you be shunned by us?" I shrugged.

"I don’t know. Depends on what happens." They arched their eyebrows, "I mean, it's your decision." I sighed and shook my head. "I really got to get to class. I'm already late. I'll see you guys tomorrow?" They nodded and I walked in the classroom with my bag in my hand.

"Alright. We're all here, finally. For the first half hour, I want you to draw the first thing that comes to your mind. It can be a person, an object, or a word." Mrs. Joey expressed. Everyone else got started. Should I draw a picture of Benny and I kissing? I pondered. Probably not. Maybe I'll make something up. Suddenly, my mind went blank and I saw a symbol. Right after that, I saw three people. Sarah, Ethan, and Benny. As quickly as it had come, it disappeared. I stood there, shocked.

"Whoa. What was that?" I muttered to myself. "Well, it seems good enough to draw. Since they’re in it, I should show it to them. They might know what it's about." I got my pencil out and started drawing the symbol on the left side of the canvas. I wiped sweat off my forehead. I just got done drawing in the details when the teacher spoke up.

"Time's up. Let's see what your creative minds made this week." By the time she got to me, the mysterious symbol was etched into my mind. "Whoa. What did you make here?" I shook my head.

"I don't know. It was on my mind, so I thought…."

"No, no. It's great. Where did you come up with it?" I rubbed the back of my head.

"Um, I don't know. It just popped into my head." She asked me if I was done with it, "No, I'm not. I still have to draw three more things." She nodded and got up in front of the class.

"Great job, everyone. Now, for the last twenty minutes, I want you to draw your emotion right now. Drawing is a way to express your thoughts, your emotions." I sighed and pulled out a new piece of canvas. Sitting on my stool, I thought about my emotions. What am I feeling? Love? For Benny. Confusion? For the vision. Maybe I can mix both. That'll express my feelings. I put my pencil down and grabbed my paint. Finding any shade of pink and green, I got to work making random shapes on the blank piece of canvas. By the time the class was over, I had a painting of red and green splotches.

"What do you got for me this time?" Mrs. Joey's voice surprised me.

"Oh. Um, I was just drawing my emotions. Don't..know..what...exactly I was drawing, but it's all I got." She picked it up and observed it.

"This is great. This is exactly what I was talking about. Showing your emotions through color, not objects. Great job, Ariel."
"Thanks, Mrs. Joey." I smiled and she headed off to talk to another student. "Oh, Mrs. Joey? Is it okay if I stay here a little while and finish my drawing?" She smiled and nodded.

"Of course. I'm curious as to what the three objects are." I thanked her and continued working on my symbol drawing as everyone else left. Half hour passed, I was just getting done with Ethan when my art teacher put her trust in me. "Okay. I need to get home. Are you okay with closing up shop when you're done?"

"Oh, yeah. I don't mind, Mrs. Joey. Thanks, again, for letting me stay late." She smiled and left me alone. With nothing to listen to and a pencil, I improvised. Well, not exactly. I just sang songs out loud to my favorite songs. When I got done drawing Sarah, I noticed a tiny detail on her teeth. I looked closer and saw fangs. Fangs? Where in the world did I come up with fangs on Sarah? Weird. I left it as it was and started working on Benny. It was about half hour later that I finished on the outlines on all of them. Sighing, I grabbed the paint and colored the three friends. 20 minutes later and half the picture was colored in. Somehow, the area around the symbol needed more to it than plain white. So, I closed my eyes and focused on the symbol.

"What did it have surrounding it?" I muttered. As I thought about it, Benny showed up, unsurprisingly, in my thoughts. That seemed to make everything clearer. Without thinking about it, I opened my eyes and started painting gray cloud, black lightning bolts, and dark red splotches around the symbol. It was fifteen minutes later that I was putting everything away. When everything was put away, I sat on my stool and looked at my finished painting. I sighed and looked for a big enough cover for it. When I found it, I took it and covered the picture, so it wouldn't get wet or ruined. My phone rang as I grabbed my jacket.
"Hello?" Silence. "Hello? Anyone there?"