Room 402; Tuesday Afternoon, After Workshops.

[by137]

AC and rainy weather be damned. A.J. needed to paint something, and paint fumes were no good, so the window was open, with several fans set up expertly around it to send out the bad and and force in the good, even if it was hot outside. His old, paint splattered sheets were thrown over everything to keep from getting paint over it and he was just

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[misshargrove]

Annette wandered down the hall on the fourth floor, taking a longer round about way to get back to her own room. Don't ask why. Smelling paint, she paused outside of room 402 and peered in, raising her brows at A.J.

"Wassup?"

[by137]

A.J., tongue against lower lip in concentration, finished another square before turning toward the sound of a voice. "Oh, hey! ....Annette, right?" he grinned, and hoped she wouldn't take offense to the little pause, but he'd met so many other people since they last talked and he really hoped he got her name right. "Not much. Just making the place feel a bit more like home. What do you think so far?"

[misshargrove]

"Yes, right," she nodded and understood. Names were hard to remember sometimes, especially when you were still fairly new. Walking in, she smiled and studied the wall. "I like it. I like the red and I like the brown checked pattern. It's cool. Are you going to do the whole wall like this?"

[by137]

A.J. shook his head lightly, then wiped a little bit of sweat from his brow with the back of his arm, getting a little bit of paint smeared across from it where there was some on his skin. "Nah. Just this area until about....here. And maybe a little in the opposite corner."

[misshargrove]

"Do you want any help?" It was hot in the room, hotter than what it should be, but Annette assumed it was the force of hot air in from outside to help ventilate.

[by137]

"You good at doing squares?" A.J. asked, smiling, glad to have some help, but not having planned any further on the wall beyond the squares today, so it was all he had to offer.

[misshargrove]

"I can do squares," she's never done squares but how hard could it be, right? "I like to paint. When I was little I remember doing my handprint everywhere."

[by137]

"Handprints...?" A.J. repeated it the way one might when it strikes them a particular way and flairs up their inspiration. Slowly, a grin developed, and he handed Annette his paintbrush and the small bucket of brown paint. "Here. Hop on the bed and get the corner if you can reach it. If you can't, just get what you can; I have an idea!"

He hurried over to where he had dozens of other small paint buckets under his desk, lifting up the sheet that covered it, and went through them a little before finally pulling out a deep, forest-y green. With a screwdriver as a lever, he quickly got it opened, stirred it up with what used to be a ruler, and fetched a fatter paintbrush. "I'm gonna start on the base for this wall."

[misshargrove]

Taking the brush and the small bucket of paint, Annette grinned back, thankful to have something to do other than just go to her room and do...nothing. Kicking off her shoes, she carefully got up on the bed and moved towards the corner of the wall.

Carefully she started to paint brown squares, hopefully she wasn't going too slow but she didn't want to mess up his wall by hurrying. "Whatcha doing over there, A.J.?"

[by137]

"I'm going to paint this wall," A.J. said, clearly, because, hey, that's what he was doing, "and then it'll be a rule that anyone who comes to visit, has to leave their handprint on it at some point, preferably before they leave. That way, it'll be like everyone who stops by in 402 will have contributed to the whole picture." He beamed, thinking his idea pretty amazing.

[misshargrove]

She paused and turned to look at him, smiling bright, "That is a most excellent idea! I love it. Hopefully you will get lots of visitors and fill up that wall. That is just too cool." Annette went back to painting the squares, only getting a little paint on her hands now and then.

[by137]

"I'm glad you approve," A.J. beamed as he evenly spread the deep green paint over the wall. "After all, you inspired it."

[misshargrove]

"Me?" She asked, even while continuing to paint. "Oh, the whole handprint thing when I was a kid?" She laughed. "Everyone has done that; I bet you would have come up with your idea regardless of what I said."

[by137]

"Maybe," A.J. said, "but, because you said it, I came up with the idea indefinitely."

[misshargrove]

Looking over her shoulder, she asked, "Do I get to put my handprint there when you're finished?"

[by137]

"That's the whole point of me doing this now," A.J. told her, looking over his shoulder at her. "You'll get to be the first."