027

Sitting down in his chair and waiting for school to start Jack was slightly unaware of his environment.

His fingers were tapping the screen of his phone and letters and words started to accumulate like wildfire with each passing second.

Last night when he started to copy the book from his mind he learned that even writing and typing ended up being a skill that could be improved. And with his high agility, typing things in record time was nothing really surprising.

The higher the skill went, the more his ability to correctly type out words ended up being. It also slightly improved his memory in other languages, which was a boon.

Though it was not really a help in formulating sentences. So if his grammar sucked or the structure was written lazily, it still stayed that way.

His trance went on like that until he got another tap on his shoulder. There was a short pause in his typing and he glanced over to the person

"Good morning.", said a smiling Eve.

"Good morning.", said Jack back, also smiling after realizing who it was.

"You look better today. Hope I didn't interrupt you in whatever you were typing there."

"Did I look that exhausted yesterday?" He chuckled a little and then glanced at his phone again, making a quick save of his work. "Well, not really. It's just a little project of mine in trying to write a book."

Eve raised one brow at that and then sat down on her own seat. "Aren't you doing a few too many things? Your major is computer science, right?" She started to count down with her left hand raised and each time she continued on, one more finger was shown. "Then there is you being a musician, a drawing artist, and now a novelist?" She looked a little bit confused at first, but it didn't seem she was not doubting him when he said.

"Add to that list being a soccer player and probably a new member of the track team." Jack sighed a little figuring out that he was literally going over his head with all the stuff. One way or another he would probably end up leaving something behind later. Then something else got his attention. "Wait, drawing artist?"

Eve sighed lightly hearing his response "No wonder you work on depleted batteries. And yeah, drawing. Though you haven't told me about that and I figured it out myself."

"Let me guess...The portrait?" Jack asked lightly and Eve smiled when she saw him look a little bit sorry. Probably because of not telling.

"Yep. Saw it yesterday in the art room." A quick confirmation was nodded toward him.

"And?" He looked at her more intently now to see any sharp reaction changes on her face. But she seemed to be staying calm and starting to think this question through.

"It was alright, I guess? There were a few peculiarities." Eve tried to rate the picture and it somewhat seemed she was not exactly fond of it.

"Yeah, I guess I got a few color combinations of your clothes wrong and couldn't color out all of the painting since I lacked time..." Jack now also thought about the picture again and tried to figure out what could have been so disappointing to her.

"...You chose one weird moment of me..." She was frowning a little bit now.

"You think? I believe I nailed the happy expression on your face, though. Probably the best moment I could have picked since you were unaware of my observation. Well, if you like I could do another drawing but I would need you to do the posing since I'm not sure what pose you would like more."

Eve stared at him now while he dwelled in his thoughts about the picture.

And when she seemed to realize that he was not simply saying random words to weasel out and really meant what he said, her face got a small blush on her face that she quickly hid by looking away before he could look at her again.

For a short moment, she bit softly on her underlip and then looked back at him. "You sure want to draw me again?"

"Hmm?" Jack was now confused and focused back on her. "Sure, I would gladly do so. Granted I get enough time for it. We would have to put it on weekends if possible. And this time I will ask before I paint you. Ms. Ross just went a little bit ahead of herself..." He also didn't want to tell her why he was drawing her in the first place. Would probably come as creepy, right? He literally ended up being swept by the moment.

'Come to think of it. Is she self-conscious about something?'

But contrary to his thought Eve showed an uplifted mood. At least if he had to judge her soft chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, busy as always. You do realize that you are at fault for that yourself? I can only imagine your schedule being massively overloaded now."

"True, I guess I'm just a little bit scatterbrained in that regard and take on more than I can handle." Jack agreed once more to that.

"Hey, uh, can I ask what grade the portrait got?"

"It wasn't really graded since I haven't yet officially joined the art class but she said it would be an A+" Now Jack kinda smirked because he felt somewhat proud telling her, the literal person from the portrait, that he did well in the teacher's eyes.

And just like he thought Eve made big eyes hearing his answer. She knew Ms. Ross liked to place drawings that got her interest in front of the windows, but it didn't signify that they were always A's.

Jack could see her small mouth open for a short moment and trying to say something but she remained stunned for that same moment.

Then Eve rummaged in her own sketchbook and frowned a little at it.

"Hey, don't beat yourself over it. Your art is amazing." Now Jack felt a little bit guilty.

But before the two could even continue their conversation their french class started. He had to figure out how to help her.