RE: Trailer Trash, 62 pt 6

    With a new member here in the Art Club today, the half hour that followed after the meeting proper was mostly spent socializing and showing off. Alicia and William both took up stools near Tabitha, opened up their sketch books, and went through them page by page so that they could flaunt all of their cool drawings to Tabitha. Alicia’s work was dozens upon dozens of partial sketches of realistic human figures—mostly female, with a lot of focus on different angles and poses. Almost all of them were without clothing but not exactly ‘naked,’ as genitals or explicit details were omitted. Entire sheets went by with dozens of different facial expressions or hairstyles, and as always Tabitha found herself incredibly impressed by her friend’s talent.

    Whenever I see her stuff again I just start thinking that there’s no way this is freshman level work, Tabitha thought. If I were to see this without knowing who did them I would have guessed someone in college did these, these are solidly college-level figures and portraits.

    William, on the other hand, drew a little bit of everything and that was also an interesting contrast to see. Handguns and machine guns, maze-like diagrams of dungeons and space station bases, comic-book X-Men in spandex, a bunch of different drawings of his original character which seemed to just be a fantasy version of himself with a jetpack and two lightsabers. There were iconic fighter ships from Star Wars and different vessels from one of the Star Trek shows, as well as the alien fighter craft from Independence Day and some slightly wonky-looking F-18 fighter jets—there were no F-22s to be found, however, because Tabitha was looking for them and would have recognized those. There were also a few he clearly copied by eye from looking at posters or magazines, and these were detailed with lavish pencil shading—an Alien queen, a Predator, and several different pages of Terminators.

    It was all fascinating to see, but the creativity and sheer amount of practice and progress these two had with several sketchbooks each was also pretty intimidating. Tabitha felt more and more embarrassed by her own lack of talent in this area, especially thinking back to that wretched still-life drawing she’d been slowly chipping away at in the class just prior to this. Once again Tabitha felt a flash of raw envy, because it was plain to see how much these kids belonged in Art Club, and it was hard for her not to want that, too.

    Trying to bring me into the club just by caveat of my DIY fashion stuff feels like such a lie, though, Tabitha tried not to blush with shame at the thought. I’m not DESIGNING cool stuff, I’m finding cool stuff and then repurposing it. Literally just taking already amazing dresses and then re-hemming them into blouses, maybe with a bit of tailoring to better fit my figure. It’s not CREATIVE, not in the same way that these guys are.

    Across the table from them, Matthew was trying to finish a homework assignment while Casey was thumbing through her World History book with a pensive expression, and then at the table next to them Janaye had donned a large canvas smock and was working on a painting. A nifty rendition of a modern pair of tennis shoes was apparent on the posterboard, done up in surrealistic yellows, pinks, and blues. The color profile alone suggested Janaye was mimicking an Andy Warhol pop piece, but Tabitha didn’t know enough about what she was seeing there to judge the painting beyond that.

    “Hey, so yeah I’ve been thinking about those buckets—” Casey spoke up.

    “Again with the buckets!” William groaned. “Let it rest, will ya?”

    “Bill—shut up,” Casey rolled her eyes. “So, next meeting I’m gonna bring it up as a project for us. Some way to hide the cement buckets. At first I was thinkin’ paper mache, but takes too long, and it’s too fragile, so; plaster. What do you think?”

    “Is that much better?” William asked. “Plaster’s super fragile.”

    “Maybe? I dunno,” Casey shrugged. “Bill, shut up. But here, look, look. In my book here it has pictures—they’re not Roman, what we’re going for is the Greek column look. With the fluted pillars, and then it goes up and the top thingie curls over with that kinda scrollwork. We can flesh out the scroll curl things—the volutes with just like, a cardboard tube. Cardboard tube from wrapping paper or whatever. So, square of wood or posterboard for the top piece, glue two tubes on beneath the edges, there? And bam, basic shape is done, and we can just slather the rest with cheapo plaster and then clean it up and do the ridging details for the ‘column.’ Then, we paint it, and it’s good to go!”

    “Question!” Tabitha held up her hand. “If we uh, if we normally move the buckets using wire handles… how are we still going to use the handles, if the bucket tops are plastered over? How would we pick them up and move them?”

    “We… uhhhh… I don’t know,” Casey admitted, shoulders slumping. “We’ll burn that bridge once we get there? I just—look, this idea is so friggin’ cool. I really really want to do all the buckets up to look like Greek column pedestal thingies. Ugghh.”

    “Okay, and that’s cool, but—how do we move them?” William teased. “Little Red’s got a point.”

    Little Red? Excuse me?

    “We’ll figure something out!” Casey huffed. “C’mon. This idea’s super cool, guys!”

    “I could see us doing up all the fancy details in plaster or whatever, and then all of that just sorta… breaking off the second we try to lift one?” Alicia admitted with a wince. “I’m sorry, just—they’re cement, concrete, whatever, so—”

    “Whoa whoa whoa,” Matthew chuckled, taking his homework and tucking it into a binder to put away. “Think we’re getting lost in the details, here. We need cement buckets ‘cause they’re functional, right?”

    “Right,” Alicia answered.

    “Ugghhh but they’re so ugly,” Casey complained.

    “Okay, but then you want to make them look all, uh, artistic and stuff, at the same time,” Matthew said. “So, rather than ugly cement buckets that do work, or a pretty plaster exterior that’ll crumble off first thing… why don’t we make a big mold in the shape of the Grecian column thing we want, and then just pour the cement directly into that? Have like, an actual, functional real pedestal, instead of just the facade of one. We could cast three or four from the same mold.”

    “But, then even that’s like just having one of our busted old cement buckets, ‘cause it won’t have a handle to carry it by!” William argued. “The big problem is still gonna be how we get them from the store room to wherever we need ‘em.”

    “Skateboard!” Alicia suggested. “So, we keep a skateboard in the store room, and then whenever we need to move stuff like cement buckets, cement pedastal things, whatever? We just put ‘em on and wheel them over to—”

    “Do we not just have a handcart or something?” Tabitha asked, giving them a look of amusement. “A dolly? Surely the school—”

    “The theater kids have a big rolly thing they use to haul stuff over, but we never get to use it,” Casey groused. “And Edwards said no friggin’ way when we pestered him to see if we could use one of those classroom cart things for the buckets. Said we’ll lose them or break them or something, which is obviously just bogus! He’s always had it out for us. Although uh, yeah last year we were kinda pestering him a lot. Skateboard could work, maybe? I’ve got one in my garage we could use, but one of the wheels needs replaced.”

    “Can’t we just buy a dolly?” William laughed. “Then we won’t even have to—”

    “Not in the budget!” Casey denied. “No way.”

    “Oh, but plaster and cement and tubes and all that crap is in the—”

    “Yes, because we’re artists, not—”

    “Can’t we just borrow one from someone’s parents for one night? If—”

    “Casey listen, we’ll have plenty of budget. We’re already halfway there to tricking Elena into joining—”

    Their bickering was amusing and honestly even a little refreshing, and Tabitha watched them go on and on with a wry smile. Watching a group of teenagers struggle with finding practical solutions to things as a group like this was just somehow fun to watch. Some of them were locked into problem-solving mode, others were just teasing and being silly, and Casey in particular was caught up in making her cool idea a reality no matter how unrealistic it might be.

    Plus, all of these new things to think about! Tabitha mused. The Art Show, making a mannequin. Baking cookies. Maybe checking out the high school production of The Wiz and seeing if I might like to do something like that next year. All this nonsense here with buckets—I’ve needed some fresh distractions from all the drama that I can just… sink my teeth into.

    After some back and forth discussion about what they might do—with Tabitha thinking to herself that their post-meeting self study time had regressed back into an actual meeting again—William made a trip to the storage room and brought one of the aforementioned buckets out to place upon their table as a visual aide. It was faded white and had a wide, squat shape but was overall smaller than Tabitha expected, perhaps a three-gallon bucket. The one she had been given after her birthday was a tall five-gallon one she intended to use for composting, but this made much more sense. It was three quarters of the way full of concrete, the top of which was distorted with dozens of students' initials scrawled in by fingertip some years ago before the mixture had set. The wire bail had a loose plastic handgrip, which was already starting to split.

    Okay, I get why Casey’s so adamant about it. The buckets are pretty damn ugly.

    In the end, Casey and William voted to put a plaster facade over the existing buckets because it would be cheap and they could finish it during Art Club next week; Matthew and Alicia wanted to try to make a mold so that they could produce actual concrete grecian pedestals to replace the buckets entirely. Janaye ignored them all to work on her painting, and Tabitha felt that she should abstain from any kind of vote, as she didn’t feel very strongly about them one way or another—her mind was still on baking huge batches of cookies for concessions during the art show intermission.

    Not everyone likes oatmeal, but aren’t chocolate chip cookies pretty universal? I myself don’t really like cookies with raisins. Peanut butter cookies are probably out, because what if someone has a peanut allergy? Or, I could maybe just do half plain sugar cookies, half chocolate chip cookies? That wouldn’t be a problem.

    “Alright, alright, pack it up—I wanna get home and get me shoes off,” Mr. Peterson hollered, standing up from his computer and stretching. “Let’s call it a day, alright? Everyone has a ride home? If anyone needs to make a call, please do so now, or forever hold your peace!”

    “I’m good, brought my bike,” William said. “Although hah, if I got a flat tire again I’m gonna like, book it back here and hope I can use the phone?”

    “Well, hurry it up,” Mr. Peterson rolled his eyes. “Everyone else good?”

    “We’re good,” Casey let out an exaggerated sigh. “I can give the little freshman babies a ride, I suppose.”

    “The sophomore baby, too,” Janaye spoke up with a smug look, arching an eyebrow at Matthew.

    “Hey, I have my license, at least,” Matthew protested. “Just gonna be a bit before I get my own car.”

    “Just ride a bike, that’s what I do,” William said. “Springton’s not that big. Y’all are just lazy.”

    “Mm-hmm, good luck taking a girl out on a date on your bike,” Janaye teased. “I’ll see you all later.”

    “Bye!” Casey waved.

    “Later!” Alicia said.

    “I totally could,” William protested. “Sit her right up on the handlebars, if I wanted to. What’s wrong with that?”

    Weird that Janaye speaks up only right at the very end, after ignoring all of us just about the whole time, Tabitha thought as she gathered up her bag and slung the strap over one shoulder. I don’t know, maybe I’m being too sensitive? Don’t really know how to feel about Janaye quite yet. She’s not really part of the group most of the time, it doesn’t feel like.

    On the OTHER hand, William maybe has a point about taking a bicycle to school? I know the Macintires were hinting at getting Hannah and I bikes. It’d be good exercise? And, more than that it would open up the town to me, give me a whole bunch of freedom. Back in my previous life I never really just WENT places, not even nearby local ones, not until I started driving. I didn’t learn how to ride a bike until I was in my mid-twenties and lived at that one apartment, and even THEN I fell out of the habit and let the chain rust just because driving everywhere was more convenient. Maybe William was right, I WAS lazy. But, that was last lifetime…

( Previous, 62 pt 5 | RE: Trailer Trash | Next, To be Continued... )

/// Thinking one more section with Casey and Matthew and them in the car together, and then that'll wrap up chapter 62. Not shaping up to be a SUPER exciting chapter overall, but I do want to start building Tabitha up with a school social group that meets regularly, especially since after the first school week that establishes our baseline school experience we're going to start time skipping quite a bit more.

This first school week has taken eons to write, (and there's still Friday to go) but hopefully feels authentic! Tabitha is still at the forefront of many rumors, but unlike before she is now asserting herself and pushing back. The mantle of 'school loser' is shifting instead onto the shoulders of Ashlee and Clarissa—what will Tabitha do about that? The support of Tabitha's closest friends has been enormously helpful with Elena standing up for her in immediate confrontations, and Alicia helping to expand her social group. The inroads Tabitha has now with some of the nicer upperclassmen like Casey and Olivia is doing a lot to stop some of the malicious rumors dead in their tracks, and her new gaggle of friends in first period personal fitness are eager to jump into the fray. That's without even getting into Bobby.

All in all it's felt like a bit of a slog to write, because what I actually want to write is the later bits where because of all of these things, things work out in a very different way than Tabitha's previous life did. Except, I can't write those later bits without putting in the work here so that everything feels earned. Hopefully I haven't lost too many readers in this school arc so far! It's been a challenge and I feel like the cast of characters has quadrupled, but I tried not to go too crazy with POV jumping and keep people somewhat into their lanes (but without making them completely one dimensional stereotypes) so that they're easy to immediately identify and remember. One of my big gripes with reading fictions tagged "school life" is that they often feel inauthentic, like even gigantic academies have four actual classmate characters, and then the rest are a sea of faceless extras who are nobodies and don't count. I want this to feel super real, so that readers can find themselves very invested! That makes it easier to hurt readers.

Will fix links and guide page later, I swear!