We walked through the door of the history classroom and Mr. Ketcher was sitting at his desk reading a book, not paying attention to any of us. I took a seat in the back of the classroom and Malum followed.
“So are you from Walpole?” He asked with a grin.
“Yup, I am. I’ve been here my entire life. What about you? What brings you here?”
“My family recently moved from Alaska. That’s where we have been living for the last few years, my parents finally got bored with it I guess, so they decided to pack everything up and move us here.”
“Alaska must have been freezing! You must be really sick of snow.”
“Yeah it was pretty cold for most of the year, and no not really. I find the snow to be calming. I’m glad that New Hampshire still has a decent amount of snowfall come winter time. I will miss having it all year long though.”
As he finished talking Mr. Ketcher closed the book he had been reading and placed it down on his desk.
“Good morning class. Today is going to be a review on what we have been learning these last few weeks. Instead of doing our usual quiz questions though, I figured we could watch a documentary that covers a majority of our subject matter instead.”
Mr. Ketcher then got up from his desk, turned off the lights, and pulled out the tv from the back corner of the room. After a few minutes of him fidgeting with the buttons to find the right channel, the movie began to play.
I settled into my chair and pretended to watch the movie, but in reality I kept glancing at Malum. It looked like he was actually paying attention to the movie though.
Of course he is. I thought to myself. He has missed these last few weeks of class so obviously he would be paying attention and try to catch up.
A soft poke made me jump.
“How old are you?” Malum asked. Leaning closer to my desk.
“I’m sixteen.” I whispered in response. “How about you?”
“Sixteen. Just turned it a few months back.”
“Happy belated birthday then.” I said with a smile on my face.
“Hey thanks. Want to cut class and go hide somewhere in the school for the rest of the period?” He asked with a wicked grin on his face.
I was caught off guard by this question. It was his first day here and he already wanted to break the rules by skipping class. This new kid was something else. After a few moments of heavy thinking I replied to his question.
“Um, sure. It is your first day here though and you already want to break the rules? Isn’t that a pretty stupid idea?”
“Well of course it is a stupid idea, but I’m full of stupid ideas.” he said, his smile even more wicked than before.
“Alright fine. How are we going to sneak out of the classroom though?”
“Easy, just raise your hand and say you feel ill, and I will offer to take you to the nurse. Works every time.”
“Okay fine. Let's try it.” I replied. Courage filling up my lungs.
“Excuse me, Mr. Ketcher, I don’t feel very well, do you think someone could take me to the nurse.”
Mr. Ketcher hadn’t even been paying attention the movie, let alone the students, he was once again engrossed in his dumb novel. A few seconds ticked by before he even realized he was being addressed.
“Oh, my apologies Grace. Yes, yes have someone take you. Feel better.” And with that he returned his attention to his book.
“Perfect.” Malum whispered as he swiftly rose from his chair. “Let's get going then.”
I slowly got up and walked out of the room, still trying my best to seem ill. We entered the hallway and started laughing.
“Oh that was too easy. You should be an actress. Or maybe Mr. Ketcher should pay better attention to his own class. Either way it worked, great job Grace.” Malum said while patting me on the back.
“Thank you, thank you.” I replied with a bow. Hopefully he already had a plan in mind. If not we could end up in more trouble. “Alright where are we going to go? We can’t afford to be caught, then our entire plan would be ruined.”
“I have the perfect place in mind. I may have only just started here, but I did take a little tour of the school last week and a room caught my eye. Follow me.” Malum took my hand and guided us down the empty hallway. We started walking down the flight of stairs located at the end of the hall. This led us to the basement level of the school.
This was getting interesting.
“Why are we down here? There's only the locker rooms and the cafeteria down here. And some old storage closets of course.”
“Exactly, storage closets. One of which, isn’t being used at all.” Malum said as he walked towards one of the old wooden doors.
“How do you know this? You just started going here.”
“Because on my lovely tour of the school last week, the principal had mentioned that this old storage closet right here had been cleared out over the summer in hopes of making a new arts room, but apparently the plans fell through. So now it’s just an empty space. Waiting for kids like us to cause trouble inside.” And with that he pulled on the door handle, but unfortunately it was locked.
“Well that’s great. It's locked. Fantastic thinking on your part.”
“Calm down Grace, I know how to unlock doors. A simple trick my dad taught me when I was younger. Now that I think about it, I’m rather unsure as to why he taught me this skill, but hey it comes in handy from time to time.”
Reaching down into his pocket, he pulled out a bobby pin and a paperclip. Quickly, he inserted them into the lock on the door and started to turn and jiggle them around.
I rolled my eyes and whispered,“Oh this is just ridiculous. That old bobby pin trick definitely does not work.”
“Shush.” he replied, eyes never leaving the lock.
A few more seconds ticked by and then Malum silently exclaimed “ah- hah!” He pulled down on the handle and the door opened.
“Wow, I can’t believe you just did that. I guess it wasn’t a cheap trick after all. Good work Malum.”
“Told ya so”. He snickered. “Alright, let’s get in here before our luck runs out.”
We quickly walked into the dark room and shut the door behind us. We walked a few steps forward before realizing we could barely see due to the complete lack of light in the room.
“Uhhh… Malum there is no light in here.” I said in an annoyed tone.
“Of course there is, just gotta find the switch on the wall. I’m sure it's somewhere around here.”
Even though I could not see Malum, I still felt his presence leave my side. Not wanting to move too far away from the door I stood still. A few moments passed and then the lights in the room flicked on.
“Tah dah!” Malum exclaimed, standing in the far corner of the room. “Lord only knows why the light switch is on the opposite side of the room, but hey at least I found it.” he said with a slight chuckle.
“Yeah thank goodness. I’m not a fan of the dark.” I said looking at the floor.
“ Is poor Gracie- Wacie afraid of the dark?” Malum said with a sad, but playful expression on his face. “I love the dark. It makes me feel calm inside. I’ve always loved it since I was young. The beautiful, dark night skies in Alaska always made me happy. Even if the nights were cloudy, and the stars weren’t shining, I still welcomed the darkness around me.” he said while looking at the floor.
“I would sneak out right before midnight. Just to lay under the moonlight in the snow right as the clock struck twelve. For some reason, nighttime was my favorite time to be awake. It symbolized the end of the old, and the start of the new.” His coal black eyes now making contact with mine. “Of course my parents did catch me on more than one occasion. They weren’t too pleased that I was out in the middle of the night freezing my butt off.” He said with a laugh escaping his mouth.
I was speechless. Lost for words. I couldn’t think of anything remotely intelligent to say in response. So of course I blurted out what came to my mind first.
“Thats beautiful Malum. The fact that you know yourself so well, and are able to find things you enjoy, even if they aren't the brightest ideas. You know your place in the world. I only wish I could find mine.” I said with a saddening tone.
“Grace I’m sure you will eventually find your place too.”
He started walking towards me now. “And even though we just met I’m absolutely positive it won’t be laying in the cold snow either. Since you don’t seem to be a fan of the snow. But you will find it. The place, or even person that fills you with peace and happiness.”
He was only inches away from me now. I could feel my heart racing. It was beating faster than it ever had before. What is going on? Why am I reacting this way? I just met him. I’ve had crushes on other boys before. But they were just little crushes. None of them ever grew to become serious. But again. I just met Malum. I’m getting way ahead of myself.
My face was turning a slight shade of red now. Great. Maybe my entire body can turn red. It would match my hair at least.
“Thank you Malum.” I whispered.
“You’re welcome Grace.”
He wrapped his arms around me and we were hugging. We stood there for who knows how long. It didn’t matter to me. Our bodys were connected. He was taller than me so when I went to lean my head into his chest, it felt just right. He smelled like lavender. Fresh lavender. I didn’t want this moment to end, but I knew that eventually all good things come to an end. They always do.
He looked down at me and smiled.
“So since we still have another half hour to spare before the next period starts up, what would you like to do?” he quietly asked.
Despite my current feeling of eternal bliss, I was still feeling rebellious. Mind as well break a few more school rules while we are here.
“Do you have a sharpie on you?” I asked.
I knew that by me asking this he would have to release me from his warm embrace. I didn’t want it to end but eventually reality had to strike us again.
“Well of course I do.” his eyes wide with interest. “Let me go retrieve it.” He let his arms fall off of me and walked away to the corner of the room where our bags were placed. He unzipped his bag and pulled out a black sharpie.
“Is this the weapon you were looking for my lady?” He said with a regal accent.
“Why yes. Thank you kind sir.” I took the sharpie from his hand.
“And what exactly do you plan to do with this object?”
“Well these walls are pretty bland. I was thinking we could spice them up a bit. Make them more unique. What do you say?”
He stood lost in thought for a brief moment. “Alright, sounds perfect.”
“Great, well here goes nothing.”
I removed the cap from the marker and walked towards one of the blank walls. I stood motionless for a moment, contemplating what to do. Then inspiration struck. My hand started moving the marker back and forth on the wall. After a few minutes, I let out a slight chuckle and turned to show Malum my handiwork.
“Well, what do you think?”
Malum walked over to my side and stood with a baffled expression on his face.
“Grace, is that?...”he trailed off.
“Yes it is. A moon. I hope it looks okay. I tried to make it more than just a shaded circle. I fancy myself an artist from time to time.”
“Well it is definitely better than anything I can draw. Wow. I love it.” he said with a huge grin on his face.
He took the sharpie from my hand and walked towards the wall. “Alright, now it's my turn. Stand back.”
Malum was completely focused on his art. While he was preoccupied I began to study every inch of his body. His messy black hair that looked so good on him. His black t-shirt with that dumb band logo on it. I’ll have to make fun of him for that shirt later. His torn up jeans fit him perfectly. Jeans rarely ever fit anyone perfectly but somehow he managed it. I noticed that his white converse were not dirty at all. They looked brand new, but maybe they are brand new? I’ll ask him about that later as well.
I wish I could see his face right now. His black eyes, dark as coal. They were spellbinding. I’ve lost myself in them multiple times already today. Wait, were his eyes actually black? Or were they a very dark shade of another color? I will have to look more closely next time. Great, another thing added to my “Malum research list.”
A foreign feeling washed over me and I tried to ignore it once again. Why am I staring at him? I shook my head. I really need to stop daydreaming so much these days. I hated doing it yesterday so what made me start doing it so much today? I could feel myself blushing again. I already knew the answer to that question.
Malum’s hands continued to fly all over the wall. After a few more minutes of waiting, he stepped away.
I stood in awe from the sight in front of me. Underneath the moon I drew earlier was a giant field. A field full of flowers. The background of the flowers were protected by mountains and trees. The artwork was finished in such a short amount of time, and yet I was amazed by Malum’ work. It was perfect. It could be hung in an art gallery and everyone’s eyes would flock right to it. Malum had talent. Great talent.
“Malum, oh my goodness. It's so simple, yet so beautiful. Where did you learn to draw like that? Your picture blows my moon right out of the sky.” I said to him with a laugh and a smile.
“I’ve just had years of practice, there isn't much to do in Alaska. I took art lessons to pass time on weekends and during school vacations. The teacher who taught me said I was a natural at it. She even said I was a prodigy. He gave a silent laugh. Whether or not I believe that, I’m not so sure, but art has always been one of my passions. I could sit in a room and paint, draw, or sculpt for the rest of my life.”
I stared at him in awe for a few moments before realizing what I was doing once again.
“Grace...earth to Grace.” Malum said snapping his fingers.
“Oh sorry. I got lost in thought. I tend to do that a lot these days.”
“No big deal.” he smiled. His teeth were just as white as his shoes.
“I wish we didn’t have to leave this room. It beats sitting in class watching that movie.” I said to him as I brushed a strand of my hair away from my face.
The school bell rang. Ironic.
Malum laughed.
“Well that went by quickly. Guess it's time for lunch already.” I said.
“Yes it is. I’m starving. Luckily the cafeteria is close by.” Malum replied with a wink.
We gathered our things and opened the door that led into the hallway. Only a few other students were walking around, but none seemed to notice us exiting our secret room. Perfect. It’s still our little secret then. I smiled the entire way to the cafeteria.
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