Falling in Love is a Mystery

Mystery 3

Mystery of Art Pt. 2

"Oh my God!" Mildred was a bit surprised when Joice suddenly screamed behind her. It was already lunch time and they were just taking out their lunch boxes.

"What is it?"

"They texted me!"

"Who?" Joice happily texted on her phone before answering Mildred.

"You know. That girl from the art exhibit?"

"Oh! You mean they were serious?" During the art exhibit, a group of students from the Arts and Design strand approached Joice and asked her if she could be a model for one of their projects someday.

"Of course they are. Did you forget? They said, 'Your eyes shine differently.'" Mimicking how the girl said the last part.

"So? Have you agreed yet?"

"Well, they said to meet them after class in the exhibit room. Gosh! I'm so excited!" Both of them started eating their lunch. Mildred was very happy for her friend. The girl is right. Joice has very alluring eyes, they just shine with happiness and confidence. Mildred envies how vibrant her friend can be.

After class, the two just went straight to the exhibit room - Mildred ignored how crowded the hallway can become after class and went with her friend. Joice found Natasha, the girl from Arts and Design, talking to someone by the door.

"Joice! I'm so glad you came!" Natasha shook hands with Joice and Mildred.

"We are actually pretty excited." Joice said.

"I'll excuse myself then." the other girl said.

"Yes! Thank you so much for the other day." the girl smiled at them then left.

"She's from the ABM class. We invited their class over for the art exhibit since they were just literally next to our class." Natasha said. "Well, to start with, I would like to introduce myself again. My name is Natasha and these are Chris and Blake." The two stopped from sweeping the floor and waved hello to them. Joice and Mildred waved back. "Sorry, we were actually assigned to clean the exhibit room today but we are almost done. You can just look around again, the art exhibit is still the same as before." She was right, the arts were still in their place. They accepted her offer and looked around the exhibit.

"Natasha, what does that painting mean?" Joice pointed to the abstract painting of triangles before.

"Oh, that's a man and a woman dancing from the Victorian period." Natasha answered, then went back to cleaning. Joice glanced at Mildred, she definitely saw a smirked smile from Mildred.

Mildred suddenly spotted the canvas where she saw the guy during the exhibit. She carefully approached the canvas to contain her excitement. The canvas was a pretty oil painting of a seashore with lots of shells on it.

"Does he like going to the beach?" Mildred thought. "Seashells... Is it possible?" Mildred started to blush just by imagining the possibilities. "This one looks exactly like mine." She carefully touched the shell. "But the chances are very low. The color and the shape of the seashell is very common." She was already having an argument with herself. But her heart was still pounding with excitement. "It would be nice if he actually remembered me." Mildred couldn't help but feel fluffy inside.

"Sorry for the delay." Natasha suddenly said. Mildred snapped back to reality. "We can sit over here." Mildred and Joice went over to Natasha. "So," Natasha said with a straight face after they all had sat down. "I want Joice to be our model. You see, we have an upcoming contest and we really want to go all out, since you know, this will be our last year in high school and we really want it to be memorable."

"Well, I mean.." Joice looked at Mildred. They were both impressed, Natasha just said everything seemed like in one breath.

"I'm sorry! I was going very fast." Natasha noticed the uncomfortable reactions of the two.

"No! Actually, we understood everything." Joice said. "And, yes, I would love to help." she added. Natasha's face glowed with happiness. She immediately pulled out a scrapbook from the table.

"Okay, okay, okay." Natasha flipped excitedly the pages from the scrapbook. It contained various photos like a photographer's portfolio. "Look," she stopped at a page where the photo was the beach. "We could go with this theme." she flipped the pages again. "Or this one." the photo was autumn themed where orange leaves were falling and the sunset as background. "Or we could just go simple, a portrait... by the window!" Natasha was full of excitement that the two seemed taken aback.

"We could try everything?" Joice suggested. Joice actually has experience with regards to art modelling. Both her and Corbin were usually used by Mildred as her focus in her arts. It would actually take them days and lots of experiment and research before Mildred finally decides what her art would be.

"If it's okay with you? We would really love to conduct various experiments just for a perfect angle." Natasha was astonished by her answer. Usually, the models would decline but she never even offered it to Joice. Joice just nodded happily. Natasha, Chris and Blake started to debate about their schedules. Mildred found an opportunity to excuse herself.

"I'm gonna go to the restroom real quick." she whispered to Joice.

"Yeah, we'll wrap this up asap." Joice whispered back. But Joice was having doubts, since the three were so excited.

Mildred stepped out of the room and went to the nearest restroom. Their restrooms were the common type where the boys and girls are side by side. As she passed by the boys' toilet, she was startled by a sudden scream coming from there. She ignored it since the boys were probably just playing around. She was about to enter the girls' restroom when she heard a familiar voice. She was close to a few people, so it was very rare for her to hear a familiar voice. She could not help but peek at whose voice it was.

"I owe you one!" the guy said. If Mildred remembered it correctly, that guy was from the Arts and Design she saw during the art exhibit.

"No problem." the familiar voice - it was the guy she saw on the first day of class.

"No wonder the voice is so familiar." she thought. "Why was he here anyway? Could he really be from the Arts and Design class? Well, I mean this is literally their floor." Mildred peeked at them to see where they were going. Both of them were walking straight to the door of the exhibit room but then stopped at the front. "Oh come on! Arts or not?" Mildred was intensely observing them that the other students were weirded out.

"Excuse me. Can I.. ahmm.. get through?" a female student said. Mildred was still standing at the entrance of the girls' restroom.

"Oh my God! Sorry! Yes! Yes, go ahead." Mildred stepped away from the entrance to let the girl pass through.

As soon as the entrance was free again, she hurriedly went back to her position but they were gone. She immediately spotted the other guy going into the next class from the exhibit room, but she did not get to see her crush go in too. She also looked at the stairs to see if he was there, but no such luck. She hurriedly walked back to the exhibit room just to check whether he was there.

"Oh! You done?" Joice said.

"Yeah!" she sat next to Joice. She secretly scanned the room to see if he was around. But he wasn't.

"I wonder where he went. Did he perhaps go down? Hmmm.. That fast?" Mildred was starting a debate with herself. "I think he also went in with the other guy. So.. he's a Grade 12?" Then she remembered the day she saw him during the exhibit. He did disappear that fast when she went after him. "A year older, huh?" Mildred was in Grade 11.

"Let's go, Millie." Joice snapped Mildred back to reality. "You're deep in thought."

"Oh, nothing much. Just imagining stuff."

Joice and Mildred thanked Natasha and the others before leaving the room. Before they stepped outside, Mildred took a quick peek at the seashore painting where he saw his crush on that exhibit. "Maybe? This is his work? Maybe.. Just maybe." she thought.