Jared and I got to the art room and he opened the door for me. Gentleman? I questioned as I walked in. He was behind me now.

"Where should we sit?" He asked in my ear. A whisper. I didn't answer. I walked to the back of the room to the empty table. He followed. We took our seats. His next to mine. He smiled at me. He looked strangely happy to be in my presence. It was odd to me. Strange.

The teacher came into the room, the door slamming behind her. She wore expensive brand name clothing and her choice of shoes were high heeled boots, a gray color. Her hair was a strong red, almost a rose color, it was short and curly. Her glasses seemed a bit small for her face, but obviously only warn for looks. She stopped in the middle of the room, then she spoke.

"Good morning, class" She said, annoyed then continued, "As if this morning is actually good." She added in a quick fill of words and turned around and walked to the white board. Her heels clicking on the floor with each step.

"My name is Art. Not literally, as you all know. I am Art. I breathe it and I see it and I live it." She claimed and turned her head to the class and smiled then turned to face the board, wrote something and continued, "the universe is one big canvas, everything created is art. The grass, trees, the sky, clouds, your face, your cloths, your house. Everything is art." She turned away from the board and her name was written on it. Miss Mason. Was written in almost perfect cursive.

"Now" Mason started and there was the sound of the art room door opening. She stopped talking abruptly and looked over. Her face showed annoyance. "Well, thank you for joining us, you must be Max." She looked at him, her eyebrows narrowed, her lips in a straight line.

"Uh, y-yes, I'm Max" The geek boy that stood out to me this morning answered shyly as he looked down at his feet to escape Manson's gaze. Anxiety. One thing we have in common. A fear of other people. "I'm s-sorry I'm late, I got lost." He added looking at her, his voice getting quieter with each word. Lost- it was a whisper of words. I'm lost too. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pink slip. Pink slips are these kind of late passes given to the inmates if they're late to a class. The office normally gives them out, or the security guards.

"Of course. Take your seat" Mason said. Max turned to walk to a table and she stopped him, her tone stern and unsettling. "And Max, don't be late again." She added and Max looked over to her. Mason looked angry now. Max looked away, eyes widened and he slowly moved to the table Jared and I were at. He actually sat next to me.

"Don't let Mason give you a hard time." Jared said in a whisper to Max. Max nodded. His head facing the table. Eyes shut. Breathing deeply and exhaling slowly. Another thing we have in common, breathing, to help the anxiety pass- or to just feel better.

I looked over at Jared. I was surprised he was actually being nice to someone other than me, but I was also surprised he was even being nice to me. Possibly because his other mutants weren't around. I looked away and I rolled my eyes to my thought. I took out my note book, opened it to the first blank page I saw and wrote on it. That was nice of you. My handwriting was terrible. I cursed in my head at myself then I showed Jared and looked at him and he looked at me and smiled. His smile made me smile a little bit but Mason brought us to attention.

"Since it is the first week, I'll be nice to all of you." She sighed and continued. "The first assignment will be painting anything of your choice. It doesn't have to be perfect. I just want to see how well you all are with painting." She took a breath and continued "Obviously, you're all taking this class because you probably don't know how to paint or you want more practice but it will be nice to see what each person needs help with and what I can help with." She turned around and started walking to her desk, "Now, canvases are over there." She pointed to a rack of canvases in the back of the class. "Pant and paint brushes are over there, next to the canvases in that cabinet, obviously by the word "PAINT & BRUSHES" She said as she sat at her desk.

The inmates around me rose from their seats and started getting some paint, their brushes, and a canvas. Max stood up slowly and he got a few brushes and some white, black, blue, green, and gray paint, and a medium canvas then went to the back of the class room where the painting stands were placed. There were many different painting stands to choose from. Ones where you stand to paint, and some small ones that can be placed on a table so you can sit and paint. I stood up and Jared followed like a puppy. Weird.

I grabbed a small, medium, and large paint brush, a small/medium canvas, some white, pink, yellow, black, red, and gray paint, I already knew who I wanted to try painting. Uta, of course. Jared got a medium canvas, some brushes, and black, white, red, pink, and brown paint. We looked at each other and he smiled at me. I smiled, just to be nice and we took our spots next to Max, I stood next to Max and Jared stood next to me. I wanted to get to know Max, and having him in this class was a good chance to get to know him.

Max started drawing out what he wanted to paint on the canvas. His drawing was faint but I could see it. It was a drawing of the print on his shirt. A simple dragon and sword and above that was the letters D & S. I thought it was a good chance to talk to him so I grew the courage and tried.

"Hey, uh Max?" I said, my face becoming red.

"Y-yes?" Max said, hesitantly. Scared. He slowly looked over to me, his cheeks grew red as he looked at me.

"I'm Jessi, it's nice to meet you." I said and smiled at him.

"N-Nice to M-Meet you. I'm M-Max." He shyly said and looked at his canvas, he started rubbing his paintbrush. I could see his anxiety kicking in.

"I really like your shirt." I said slowly, hesitantly.

"Thank y-you, it's the logo for my favorite trading card game." He said and looked over at me, a smile slowly grew on his face as he blushed more. He quickly looked away. I decided to give him some time to process that someone new was talking to him. I understood that this was hard for him.

"Let's talk some more later Max, I'd like that." I said and smiled to myself then faced my head to my canvas, but still looking in his direction.

"Sure." He said slowly. Smiling as well.

I looked over at Jared and he was looking at me.

"What?" I asked, my smile fading away.

"Nothing. Just. Uh. Nothing." He said he looked away and started drawing out what he wanted to paint. I didn't pay much attention. I looked away.