Open In The Eye Of The Beholder

[Audrey Beauchamp]

Audrey was teaching herself how to draw. Which was something of a gargantuan task to take on, as her drawing skills were sub-par at best, but she realized that if she wanted to keep coming up with new ideas, some of them might actually require diagrams. Besides, she thought. With the way she was playing Quidditch, perhaps she needed to cultivate a different talent. She decided to start by trying to draw some flowers, leaves, anything she could try and put on to paper and have it look even somewhat close to the real thing. Perhaps it wasn't the best way to learn to draw, but it wasn't as though she actually had anyone she could ask for guidance.

 

[Oskar Strom]

Everyday Oskar felt like there was a spotlight on him. Whether it was real or not he couldn't quite escape the strangeness that he felt covered his entire body like a second skin. He had felt this way his whole life but at least at home and his old school he had known where to hide and what to do to deflect some of the attention. Here, he felt like he was at a complete disadvantage. No one acted like he expected them too and it was driving him crazy. He walked out towards the lake and even farther to the large rose bush beside it. He spent his walk mumbling an old folk tale that his grandmother had told him once. He was pretty sure it was meant to scare him. But he liked stories. It was about an evil witch and some kids who disobeyed their parents and a large wolf who came to gobble them up. It was a brutal story that most people changed to a happy ending but he only knew the old version. It was an old habit, talking to himself, that he had picked up as a kid and he fell into it now as he sat down.

 

[Audrey Beauchamp]

Audrey was a little bored looking at flowers, in all honesty, so she was quite relieved at the distraction of hearing another voice. She was just about to say something, but was a little bit distracted by what was being said, and so she craned her neck to see who was talking. It was Oskar, someone she hadn't had much of a chance to get to know yet but she'd easily have ranked as the cutest boy in the year. Which was a fairly narrow superlative, really, the boys in that year weren't really anything to write home about. But Oskar had that cool transfer thing going and a nice accent. Shuffling around to watch him, half listening to the story, she started attempting to draw a picture of him. Attempting being the operative word. It kind of looked a bit like a potato with squiggles for hair and misshapen robes, but Audrey was taking it very seriously, tongue sticking out the side of her mouth as she concentrated. "Hmm, mmhmm, yes, it's all coming together," she muttered, not sounding ominous at all.

 

[Oskar Strom]

The large leaves of the bush had disguised the fact Oskar wasn't alone. He sat with his arms wrapped around his knees staring at the shining water, trying to remember the words of the story correctly when he heard someone speak. He whipped his head to the side and felt his face grow hot. He saw the girl now and wanted to kick himself for not noticing her earlier. But he had been so wrapped up in his head he was pretty sure a blast-ended skrewt wouldn't have gotten his attention. But he recognized the girl form lessons and from the fact she was on Ravenclaw's quidditch team. "Oh sorry." he mumbled before noticing that she was drawing. He wouldn't consider himself an artist but he was prone to doodling on his homework. "Are you drawing something?" he asked shyly.

 

[Audrey Beauchamp]

Audrey hadn't even realized she'd been muttering away, and looked up with a slightly embarrassed grin when she realized Oskar was looking at her. "Hello!" she said, cheerfully, as though she hadn't been the one to just start staring at him and listening in to his story. She wasn't sure she'd followed along with it completely, as she'd been splitting her attention and focusing a bit on her paper, but it had been a nice background sound. "Your voice is nice to listen to," she added, perhaps a little bluntly as a compliment but certainly earnest enough. "I was drawing flowers and stuff, then I tried to draw you." In a rare moment of self-reflection, she looked down and winced a little. "But I totally don't know how to draw at all, so like, if I show you, you have to promise not to laugh, okay? I'm just...trying to teach myself."