She put out food for Nelson, her cat, who had taken to hiding the past few days as was his ritual whenever she went back to work.
Eventually, she left for the university, reaching half an hour before her class, and was surprised to see three students waiting in her room.
Gawain, the young man who had been first to class the day before stepped forward.
"Ms. Lace, we were wondering if you could squeeze us into your Art History class."
She looked at the other two young men with him, both of whom she didn't recognize from any of her classes.
"Have you two done any of my Arts courses?"
"No, but we heard they were good courses," one replied, shrugging, his spiky black hair shifting on his shoulders with the action.
"Well, I have a few vacancies, come to my class tomorrow and I'll fit you in."
She had seen this before and had watched as the guys who joined her class with the intention of having a hot teacher and an easy elective drop out when they realised that the teacher wasn't interested and the course wasn't so easy.
They all nodded and left the room calmly, but she heard the sets of high fives they gave each other as soon as they left the room.
She turned to her desk, taking the locket from her pocket and began fingering the gold chain.
Bianca Colten. She had gone through the list of students in her class and had found the name. What surprised her even more was that Bianca seemed to be in all her classes, Art History, Intermediate Pottery, Sculpting, even her Natural Art class. The girl's name had even turned up on most of the classes she had taught in the last two years.
If her student list was correct the girl would be in her Sculpting class that afternoon.
Her stomach rumbled, and she got up, planning on heading to the cafeteria and seeing if there was something there she could eat.
As she turned the corner, the smell of pizza already calling her before she even got the chance to decide. She came to an abrupt halt as a student burst through the cafeteria door and ran into her, sending them both toppling to the ground.
"Fuck! I'm so sorry," the girl exclaimed and Giana looked up, straight into Bianca's eyes.
She looked surprised when she realised who she'd fallen on and rose hastily, only to fall back on top of Giana. After several attempts, they both managed to get to their feet. Giana grabbed her arm, stopping her from leaving.
"Bianca right? I found this. I believe it's yours," Giana said, holding out the locket. Before Giana could get out another word, Bianca said a quick thanks, snatching the locket before turning to leave.
Giana grip on Bianca's arm caused her sudden turn to bring them both tumbling to the ground again, this time Bianca's folder bursting open, a myriad of papers fluttering to the floor around them.
"I'm sorry," Giana responded out of reflex, reaching to pick up the papers but Bianca snatched them from her reach, gathering the papers into her arms. Before Giana could say anything Bianca had risen and disappeared around the corner.
Giana rose, shaking her head as she realised she'd fallen on top some of the papers and picked them up, surprised to find they were all sketches of her done in varying styles and mediums, initialled B.C. at the bottom. So this was why Bianca hadn't wanted her to see her work.
Giana couldn't stop herself from admiring the beauty of the sketches. No one had ever captured her so well on paper.
She slipped them into one of the books in her hand and went into the chaos of the cafeteria. James Laurent, the music professor waved her over to his table and she bought her lunch and joined him.
The man was only eight years her senior and had been like a doting older brother to her ever since she had arrived at the university.
"Still eating like you did in university," he teased, pointing at her pizza.
"And you're still eating like you did when I was in university," she replied, pointing to his salad, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
He laughed, remembering her aversion to anything green and leafy.
"So, have you called Caleb back?"
She sighed, looking down at her pizza, picking off the toppings and eating them.
"He's serious about putting your work in a gallery Gigi. It'll be good for you," James said, tugging at her ponytail.
"Don't call me that." She whined, hating the nickname he insisted on calling her. "I've spoken to him already, I just haven't given him an answer." She wrenched her ponytail from his grip and he ruffled her hair in turn.
James snatched her phone of the table and dialled Caleb's number
"Tell him yes. I'm doing you a favour."
She took the phone from him just as Caleb answered.
"Hello," Caleb's voice rang clear through the headset.
"Hey, Caleb. It's Giana."
"Giana darling, you finally ready to answer me? I hope it's a positive answer."
Giana looked up at James sheepishly and the man shook his head.
"Yea, James talked me into it...but on one condition."
"Name it Gigi." She glared at James, wondering if he had let the nickname slip, but she honestly doubted it. It seemed both men liked to give nicknames.
"I want you to put some of my students' work in the gallery as well."
"Sure, with a teacher as talented as you they are bound to be good. I'm actually not too far from the campus. Cyrus and I will drop in."
"Actually I'm having a sculpting class,"
"Perfect, we get to meet some of your students," Caleb said, cutting her off. "We'll meet you in twenty minutes. Kisses."
The line went dead and Giana released a groan. "Is he always so spontaneous?"
"You haven't seen half of it." James teased. "He's coming?"
"Yea, and he's bringing Cyrus."
"Oh Lord. Good luck. I'll be hiding in a closet somewhere." Giana's curiosity peaked. What was so bad about the two men that James would avoid them even though they were such close friends?
She finished her pizza and told James goodbye, but not before he managed to tug her scrunchy out of her hair, refusing to return it.
With a sigh she returned to her classroom, searching her desk for a scrunchy, coming up empty-handed to her dismay. She would just have to suffer her riotous red curls to run free until she got home.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out to see she had received a text from Cassandra.
You haven't been answering my calls
She deleted the text, irritated that Cassandra would think they could still be friends.
She walked into the storage area, looking over the sculptures the students had been working on over the summer. Some were still a bit rough but she could see the potential in the pieces and knew Caleb would as well.
Normally she didn't go through the students' pieces, instead letting the head of the department mark them while she handled the written assignments.
She ran her hand over one of the finished pieces, amazed at the detail and work that had been put into it.
The pale white stone had been worked into the likeness of a lioness pressing its nose to that of a small lamb, the emotion on their faces of love, like a mother and her child.
The artist had gone so far as to add a single touch of colour to each animal, the lamb's eyes a green that was surprisingly close to the colour of her own. The lioness' eyes were a beautiful shade of hazel, specs of yellow and green making them look almost real.
Giana searched the sculpture for the name of the owner and was disappointed when she found none.
Several students came into the storage room, carrying out their pieces as she had left instructions to do so on the whiteboard. Giana waited until they all had taken their pieces and was surprised when she realised the lion and the lamb sculpture had gone without her seeing the sculptor.
She went to the back of the room and wheeled out one of her own sculptures, the piece covered with a large blue tarp.
"Afternoon guys," she called when she finally made it to the front of the class. "We're going to be having a visitor here today who will be looking at your pieces."
The students began murmuring to one another in excitement, some in trepidation.
She saw the lion and the lamb sculpture, Bianca standing behind it, seemingly adding details to the lioness and smiled, not surprised that the girl also had a talent with sculpting.
"Good day people. I have arrived!"
Giana jumped, barely catching herself before she became more intimately acquainted with the floor.
"Gigi!" The slender man walked up to her, hugging her tightly, kissing her on each cheek.
"Hello Caleb," she replied, figuring that the man embracing her with such familiarity could be none other than him. He looked nothing like she had imagined, tall and well built with a perfect tan despite the weather that was obviously a blessing of good genes.
Giana laughed as the exuberant man lifted her slightly off her feet, glancing over his shoulder to see his assistant Cyrus who was as calm as Caleb was energetic and a pleasant contrast even physically, slender and tightly muscled like a martial artist rather than a weight lifter, his skin as pale as snow with dark eyes ringed with darker circles that begged for a cup of coffee that were more intense than Caleb's sparking greys that seemed to show the energizer rabbit that powered Caleb.
"Class, this is..." Before she could continue Caleb waved a hand in her face, speaking over her in his excitement. "Caleb Jarden. I can't wait to see which pieces will be in my gallery."
The students' murmurs grew louder, more nervous as Caleb proceeded to inspect the pieces, all joviality mysteriously gone as he did.
Cyrus walked behind the man, taking notes for him though Giana could see no vocal communication between them.
The man paused on occasion to speak to a student, commending them or correcting some flaw they had made and showing them how to fix it.
As she watched him she wondered why he wasn't a teacher. He seemed so in his element amongst the students.
"Now, is this your masterpiece?" he asked tugging on the fabric covering her sculpture.
"Yes but it isn't finished," she said, moving to stop him, all too late as he pulled the fabric to the floor.
"Isn't finished you say?" He walked around the sculpture, his eyes going over every detail in the stone.
"A druid piece. Very unique," he said, tracing the naked form of the wood nymph emerging from her tree, her body still merged with the wood, tears streaming down her face, her head hung low as if she mourned being forever imprisoned in the wood.
A pool of water lay at her feet, formed from her tears, the water rippling from a tear that had landed on its surface.
"If you keep making pieces like this I don't think they would ever make it to the gallery."
Giana's heart fell at his words. She had thought it was a beautiful piece, if not a bit melancholy.
"If you keep making work this beautiful I would buy them before I could get them on display!"
Her head rose in surprise. He did like her work. Relief flooded through her.
"I want pieces from you and the students who did these." He took a paper that Cyrus extended without looking back at the man and handed it to her. The two were so in tune with each other it was almost scary.
She glanced at the list. He had picked four of her students for immediate admission into his gallery. Several others were marked potential upon completion. One particular one was highlighted.
Bianca's.
"Got to run. A friend has a piece he wants me to appraise. Tell James I know he is hiding and I demand he brings chocolates tonight." He hugged her again, kissing her on both cheeks as he did when he entered. "I'll return at the end of the week to see your art students and I expect to see several of your paintings."
The man vanished out the door, Cyrus following after him. She had never felt so worn out after spending time with someone. No wonder James had hidden.
She read out the sculptures that had been chosen then those who he would view again when they were complete.
Her phone went off in her pocket and she was shocked that her class was finished already.
"Could Bianca Colten please remain after class?" She saw Bianca groan, as though she dreaded having to stay.
*****
Author's Notes
If you've read this over on Wattpad, you know this chapter is much longer but the character limit here is much less so I've split chapter 3 into two parts
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