Ryan stared at the piece of paper in front of him. The blank piece of paper. He was supposed to be practicing. His art teacher, Mr. Chambers, told him the only way to really improve his art was to practice. But practice wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Ryan had been staring at his paper for the past 10 minutes waiting for an idea to come to him. At this point the had resulted to the most basic doodling, stars swirls and smiley faces.
“You are going to leave me like this?” Ryan startled and looked around his room. “Down here you dummy!” Ryan looked down at his paper where one of his smiley faces was now frowning. “Close your mouth you big oaf. You look like a giant fly catcher.” Ryan closed his mouth and glanced around the room again before leaning back in his chair.
“I’m going insane!” He whispered.
“Well duh, your pathetic drawing is talking to you. I would say that classifies as insane.”
“I didn’t ask you to start talking did I?”
“No one asks to be insane. But I had to start talking. You were planning on leaving me as a few dots and a curve! Would you want to live like that?”
“You aren’t actually living.” Ryan said smartly.
“That’s what I said. This is no life for a drawing, especially one coming from an artist like you. If you left me like this I would be the laughingstock of all your drawings.”
“That’s not actually-”
“Like these eyes, dots, seriously? I need eyelids and eyebrows and an iris and all those things. Maybe even some lashes, I don’t even know what gender I am.”
“Ok, ok, I’ll draw you some real eyes.” Ryan caved and leaned back forward and went to work-erasing the smiley’s eyes and put in more realistic eyes. “Do you want to chose your eye color?” Ryan asked grabbing his colored pencils.
“You’re the artist.” Ryan picked up purple and filled in the blanks. “Oh! So I am a girl!.” The drawing batted her eyelashes.
“Sure why not.”
“Now, how about doing something about this mouth. A line? Really? If I’m a girl, I need real lips.” Ryan nodded and picked up his eraser. "That seems about right." The face smacked it's lips, how about adding some nice red to them?"
"Well aren't you bossy." Ryan muttered and the smiley rolled her eyes. "I'm assuming you want something done about your nose too?"
"No I wan't to stick with the dot that has absolutely no use whatsoever." Ryan noted her sarcasm.
"Your nose wont be useful anyway since you are actually a drawing."
"Hey, don't get snippy with me, I am helping you finish a neglected piece of art. Now, are you going to give me a real head or just let me live as a floating collage of facial features?" Ryan started outlining the face when she spoke up again. "And while you're at it, why not keep going for the rest of my body?" Ryan worked in relative silence for a while. The drawing kept giving him tips and suggestions whether or not they were welcome. "Whoa whoa! What's this?" She looked straight down where her chest was taking shape.
"What?" Ryan couldn't tell anything wrong?
"That!" She pointed at her chest but Ryan still didn't know what she was talking about. "If I am supposed to be a girl make me a girl! I am not going to stand being a flat-chested ambiguity!"
"That doesn't really make sense you know."
"I don't care! Give me boobs!" She stomped her foot.
"But-" Ryan turned a pale shade of pink.
"Oh, stop being such a pansy, unless all of your drawings are going to be gay, you need to learn to draw a girl some boobs." She looked up expectantly. Ryan raised his pencil, still blushing and got to work. When he was done, his drawing surveyed the damage. "I suppose they will do. You definitely need more practice though."
"Well thanks for the encouragement." Ryan returned some of the sarcasm he had been dealt.
"How about a name?"
"Obnoxious sounds about right." Ryan said looking at the clock. He had been at this drawing for an hour now and he had to admit it did look pretty darn good, but he was ready for a break.
"Ha ha ha, now, how about a real name and then you can stuff me in a sketchbook and forget about me. Ryan leaned on his elbows.
"Um, Patricia?" She just laughed. "Lacey." She shook her head.
"Do I look like a ribbons and Lace type of girl?"
"Lexi?"
"Too common." Ryan groaned and put his head on the desk. Suddenly he popped up.
"What about Lee?" The drawing thought for a second.
"Hmm, slightly ambiguous, strong, I actually kind of like it." Ryan grinned and picked up his purple pencil again. He drew a spiky 'Lee' over the girl. She smiled proudly as she watched. "Spectacular!" She said as he finished.
"Ryan!" A voice from downstairs called. "Dinner time!" Ryan put his pencil down and made for the door. When his hand touched the knob he turned back.
"Thanks Lee." He expected Lee to make a sarcastic remark but she was frozen on the paper, like a real drawing. Ryan sighed and began thinking of his next drawing. He would make it a little nicer if he could.
