Art for Art's Sake: Meredith's Story by Barbara L. Clanton Read Free Book Online Page A

day before, just after the senior class meeting, had only lasted a few seconds. How could an artist capture a fleeting expression like that? And Dani’s anger at Ben—that, too, had come and gone quickly. If she intended to show growth in her portraits, she would have to capture all those meteoric emotions like happiness, anger, and love.
    Love. Meredith sighed. How was she going to capture love if she’d never experienced it? Well, that wasn’t really true. Her parents loved her and Mikey adored her, but she had never felt the all-consuming-grip-you-by-the-heart love she’d heard about in love songs or read about in senior English. Love. Maybe it wasn’t for her.
    She took out her sketchbook and grabbed a few colored pencils. On a clean sheet of paper she sketched a collage of images she had seen at the Martial Arts Academy. Mikey, face determined, making a high kick. The little girl with blond braids, face concentrated with effort, punching forward with one hand, pulling in with the other. She sketched the instructor, expression patient, leading his students through their rounds. Meredith was lost in her sketches when the phone on her bedside stand jangled her back to the real world.
    She looked at the caller ID. Lassiter. She took a deep breath. This whole partner thing was going to be nerve-wracking.
    “Hello?” Meredith said as if she didn’t know who was calling.
    “Meredith? This is Dani. Dani Lassiter.”
    Meredith almost laughed. How could Meredith not know who “Dani” was. As if the entire school didn’t know who “Dani” was. “Oh, hi,” she said coolly. “How are you?”
    “Oh, great. I hope I’m not interrupting anything. Your dad said you’d be home from karate by now. What belt do you have?”
    Meredith laughed into the phone. “Me? Oh, no. I’m not the one who takes karate. Actually, Mikey does. He takes taekwondo on Saturdays.”
    “Oh.”
    Meredith sensed the hesitation in Dani’s voice.
    Dani continued, “Mikey...that’s your brother?”
    “Yeah, he’s in sixth grade.”
    “Oh, okay. That’s nice of you to take him to his class.”
    Meredith stayed true to her decision to simply follow Dani’s lead. They would talk about whatever Dani wanted to. If Dani wanted to spend the next three hours talking about Mikey, that would be fine.
    Meredith said, “Yeah, he has a good time in the class.”
    “Well, uh...” Dani took a big breath. Dani sounded as nervous as she was. “We should talk about our project.”
    “Okay. What did you have in mind?”
    “Oh, well, I don’t really know. I’ve been so busy. The Winter Ball is tonight, and exams are coming up so I haven’t spent much time thinking about it. Well, except for thinking about calling you.”
    Meredith felt herself blush. Dani Lassiter was thinking about her. No, Dani wasn’t thinking about her. Dani was thinking about the project, and Meredith was just a miniscule piece of that. Meredith said, “Oh, well, I haven’t given it much thought, either.” That wasn’t exactly the truth, but she was going to stick to her plan to let Dani make all the decisions.
    She heard Dani sigh on the other end of the phone. “Okay, well, I suppose we could interview someone down at the Hudson Pines Senior Center.”
    “Yeah.”
    “But...” Dani didn’t sound enthused. “I bet a ton of people are going to do that. I mean, we could do that if you want to.”
    Was Dani Lassiter being indecisive? This was a new concept for Meredith. Confident, strong, able Dani Lassiter wasn’t sure of something. This was a surprise, but Meredith also surprised herself when she decided to run her idea by Dani. “You know, Mikey and I drove by an old house today. You know that old Victorian house near Fiesta Loca?”
    “The one by the auto parts store?”
    Meredith suppressed a laugh. Dani sounded just like her father. “Yeah, that’s the one. It creeps Mikey out. Could we research that? Find out who used to live there? How come the rest of