Chapter 4:

Chapter 4: A Work of Art

What Lies Beneath the Surface


“Remember, students! Make sure to capture the image of your Partner with your pencil as best as you can!”

Teacher Yukio paced up and down the art room, studying her students’ drawings.

For Art Class today, they were working on drawing portraits of their Partners. Jason was surprised because it didn’t seem all that different from their art classes in Secondary Education. Not that he was complaining, of course. He took great pride in his artistic ability, and Skye was a subject he’d had quite a lot of experience with.

“Boys, focus on your Partner’s curves. Their hips, the swell of their breasts, study them as best as you can!”

This was the first time Jason had drawn Skye’s entire body. In all their previous classes, importance was placed on the face. The bridge of the nose, the light of the eyes, the hairline, but now he was drawing the rest of her as well, so he was studying her figure closely.

She sat on a stool, hands in her lap and staring straight ahead, as still as a doll. She scarcely even breathed, the perfect subject.

“What do you think? Hands on my hips? Or maybe in my lap? Oh, I know! What if I pose like this, stroking my chin like I’m thinking really hard?”

…Moira, however, was far from the perfect subject. Since Primary Education it seemed like she had a pathological inability to remain still for any length of time, she was fidgeting like crazy.

Jason felt nothing but pity for Andrew’s predicament.

It was a shame that Art Class was only an hour long. That was scarcely enough time for Jason to finish, and even then, it was far from perfect. But he was proud of how well it had come out. It really felt like Skye was staring out at him from the page.

Teacher Yukio’s smile was just as proud. She clapped him on the shoulder. “Excellent as always, Jason.”

He looked forward to adding this picture to his collection. He had a little gallery in his room, filled with paintings and sculptures and drawings dating back to before Primary School. His parents had encouraged it, telling him that someday his works would be hung in the Bunker’s museum.

“You’re so talented, Jason! Ai engineered you perfectly!” His mother would say, her eyes shining as she gazed at his works.

As usual, his classmates had gathered around to admire it as well. Skye stood proudly beside it, showing off how closely he had captured her best features.

“Wow! This is real good!” Moira gushed, leaning in close to get a good look. “I wish Andrew could draw as well as you!”

“Hey! It’s an abstract!” Andrew joked, and the entire class burst out laughing. “Abstract” art was a term from the past Earth, used to denote an artwork as inferior. The beauty of art was in perfectly capturing your subject, not some mishmash of colors and shapes.

“Say, Jason, would you mind drawing a picture of me next time?” Moira asked, her green eyes sparkling as she stared up at him. “I’d really like one as nice as this!”

“Partners are to be the subject of all Art Class projects,” Skye reminded her with a scowl.

“I know, I know, but I’d really like one,” she sighed. “Andrew can’t seem to get my hair right!”

Jason glanced at her curly red hair. It definitely spoke to him. Skye’s was so straight and pale, it was always so simple. But Moira presented a real challenge.

“I know! I’ll pay you! I’ll give you some of my allowance credits! And we can do it during recreation time!”

“Recreation Time is meant to be spent with Partners,” Skye reminded her.

“You can come too then, and Andrew! And just… I don’t know, watch or something! Please? Please please please please please ple-“

“Don’t you have work on the aeroponic farm as a penalty today?” Skye asked.

“Oh! Drat! I forgot!” Moira groaned. “Sorry, guys! I gotta get going!”

She paused on her way to the door, turned back, and winked at them.

“Next time, Jason! Okay?” She was out the door before he could answer. The rest of the class headed off to their own activities as well, leaving Jason staring at the picture of Skye.

“So what would you like to do?” The real one asked, shaking him from his thoughts. He turned her way and pondered.

For recreation time, the two of them would usually go to the library to read. Or Skye would go to the music room to practice and he would watch, or if he had a project he was working on, he would go to the art room.

But right now, none of those things were what he wanted to do. His mind was still on Moira’s hair. He pictured that curly red hair, as wild and bright as fire, and her freckled cheeks that seemed to light up whenever she smiled.

He always drew Skye. What would the harm be in working with another subject, for a change of pace? He couldn’t see a problem with it, so he asked Skye what she thought.

“Moira is working now,” she reminded him. “She can’t exactly model for you at the moment.”

“That’s alright. I could just draw her while she’s working. Besides, I don’t think I could count on her to stay still in the first place,” he joked.

Skye wasn’t amused. “If you think it will help improve your skills, then by all means.”

So Jason grabbed his portable easel and some fresh paper, and the two of them headed to the aeroponics farm.

Moira lit up when she saw them.

“Jason? Skye? What’re you two doing here?” She asked, skipping over to them. She was wearing a set of overalls over her usual shirt and trousers.

A coy look crossed her face. “Did you two do something baaaaaad?”

“We’re not like you,” Skye replied immediately. “We follow the rules.”

“Hey! I follow the rules too!” She protested. “It’s just… I forget sometimes.”

“We’re 18 now. If you don’t correct your behavior soon, you may end up being sent to the Punishment Box.”

Jason shivered at the thought. Children and most adults were punished with extra chores during recreation time for their infractions. But certain violations merited spending time in the Punishment Box.

No one in the current Generations knew anyone who had ever had been placed in Punishment Box, so nobody really knew what happened there. It was just a scary story that parents told their kids to make sure they behaved, Jason wasn’t even sure if it was real.

“Make sure you eat your vegetables, Jason!” His mother once warned him. “You don’t want to get sent to the Punishment Box!”

Moira’s face looked a little green, but her smile quickly returned. “So why are you guys here?”

“I, uh…” Jason found it hard to speak all of sudden when Moira turned those green eyes of hers on him. He shook it off, figuring it was probably nerves from the talk of the Punishment Box. “I thought about what you said before, and I… I wanted to draw you.”

Her face lit up with joy. “Really?! Oh, great! …But wait, I’m supposed to be working now, I can’t just drop what I’m doing and pose for a portrait!”

“That’s fine, I’ll do my best to draw you while you’re working,” he grinned “After all, it’s not like you could ever stay still long enough in the first place, right?”

Moira doubled over laughing. “Yeah, you got a point there!”

Jason worked it out with her supervisor. Moira would handle work in a specific part of the farm, and he would be allowed to watch her work and draw her, so long as he wasn’t a distraction. It was the perfect arrangement.

He sat down on a stool and got started as she leaned over one of the large shelves, monitoring the mist levels.

It was hard to imagine that Moira could stand so still, but she was actually doing quite a good job. She was very careful and precise, not at all like how she was in class. He supposed that was necessary for her future work as an engineer, making sure that the Bunker’s systems were maintained.

He found himself getting lost in that hair. It felt like he was spending hours making sure he got every curl just right. And even when she’d turn her head or move to another section, he didn’t feel the need to start over like he would have with Skye; he just wanted to draw her, even if it wasn’t his most perfect work.

The shading was also a challenge. Oh, if only he was working with colors, he could just imagine the oranges and reds he’d use to capture that wild hair of hers. Instead, he put every bit of talent he had into making her as colorful as he could with shades of gray. He wanted whoever was looking at this picture a hundred years from now to understand just how beautiful her hair really was.

Everyone always complained about how short recreation time was. But Jason didn’t feel like he needed to rush. Every second he spent on Moira’s portrait was like an eternity.

Besides her hair, the thing he spent the most time on was her smile. Every time he tried, it just didn’t feel right. It wasn’t bright enough, it didn’t stand out enough, it was a little lopsided, he kept erasing it and starting over, and then he realized it was because he was trying to draw it from memory.

Jason couldn’t believe he could be so careless. He was supposed to be drawing the girl in front of him, not trying to impose his own thoughts on the page. Right now, Moira’s serious expression was a reflection of how diligently she was working, and that’s what he should be trying to capture.

But it just wasn’t feeling right.

He didn’t quite understand it himself, but he just knew that his picture would look so much better if Moira was smiling. So that’s what he told her.

“Moira!” He called. “Could you try smiling?”

“Smiling?” She called back, looking up at him. “Why?”

“Just do it!”

“Okay!”

She got back to work, this time with a big grin plastered across her face. Immediately Jason could feel the change. It just seemed so natural now, drawing her like this. Getting the dimple in her cheeks perfect, capturing the flurry of her freckles, yes, this was much better.

He didn’t know how, but he’d managed to finish just as recreation time ended.

“So how did it go?” Moira asked, skipping over to him, her eyes blazing with excitement. Skye also peeked in curiously.

He showed them.

“…Excellent as always, Jason,” Skye said with a sharp nod of approval. Moira’s response was a bit more… animated.

“This is AMAZING!” She gushed, staring in awe at the drawing of herself. “Do I really look like that?! Wow! I love it! I love, love, LOVE it!”

She threw her arms around Jason and hugged him tightly, startling him.

“Hey! Physical contact such as hugging is strictly between Partners,” Skye sternly admonished her. Red-faced, Moira pulled back, hanging her head in shame.

“I guess I just got a little excited because your drawing was so nice. I’m sorry for violating your personal space, Jason,” she apologized.

“…It’s fine.”

Jason was surprised by how little he minded the hug. Under normal circumstances, a hug from someone who wasn’t a Partner or a family member was a gross violation of one’s personal boundaries. But this time it felt good, having someone that happy to see his work. He’d always taken pride in how much people praised him, but for some reason hearing Moira talk so emotionally about his drawing of her made him feel… well, he couldn’t quite explain the warmness in his chest.

“And I can really keep it? For real?” She asked hopefully.

For a second he wasn’t sure. Yes, he’d drawn the picture for her, but there was something about it that was special. Of all the works he’d created, he’d never enjoyed himself nearly this much. It wasn’t any different from the portrait he’d drawn of Skye earlier, but even just the act of drawing it had made his heart race with excitement. He wanted to keep it for himself, to try and hang onto that feeling.

But the minute their eyes met he knew that didn’t matter. Suddenly giving it up to Moira didn’t just feel like not a big deal, it felt like the right thing to do.

“Of course you can keep it, I drew it for you, after all,” he said, and the look on her face when he told her that convinced him that his choice was the correct one.