Protect Me, Love Me - Chapter 11 (Part 1)
Chapter 11
“Surprises at the Art Show”
“Talking”
‘Thinking’
#Telepathy#
^Flashback^ ^End Flashback^
** - Translations at beginning of chapter
Disclaimer - I do not own Four Brothers
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Dec agaan o aklal? - Why are you afraid?
A huur or Jack… maan’n khruur maagaan. - I got out Jack… he’s not here.
Ar’t osh khruul, rekhaan rhuukhaar, o’kaan taklaan - It’s ok now, little brother, you’re safe
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The week had passed unsurprisingly slow in Jack’s case. People stared and whispered but, as Bobby said, no one said anything… well one older boy teased him but Darius came and pulled him away to ‘their’ corner and smoked with him.
The next day the kid came to school with a broken wrist, arm, and a hell of a lot of bruises. Jack frowned when he saw him and his eyes went sad; he knew Bobby, Angel, and Jerry must’ve found out and no matter what, beating on other people would never sit well with him… even if the jerk deserved it.
As it got closer to Sunday Jack was getting nervous; the art show was on Sunday and he hadn’t told Evelyn or the guys about it. Jack knew that he had to go because his art was being shown but part of him was kinda afraid of the ‘Mercer clan’ going and seeing his art project.
He felt embarrassed about his project but at the same time he wanted the art to be his… like showing them would be giving them a power over him… it’d show them just how much they were beginning to mean to him.
He stayed up all night on Saturday organizing a plan that would let him slip away and they wouldn’t know or worry. He still had a tux from last year so he didn’t need to worry about that.
He talked to Miss Sara and she said she would drive him to and from the art show, of course that was after he pleaded with her. Now he just had to talk to Evelyn and get her to let him go without really knowing where he was going.
~~
Jack groaned as he fell back on the bed and looked at the calendar ‘January 8th’ it was Sunday and the day of the art show. Miss Sara told him there was even going to be graphic designing as well as painting, and even sculpting in the art show.
The show itself was being held in a huge two story building that was going to look very ‘adult’ and it was also going to have buyers, promoters, and people looking for ‘new talent’.
Jack didn’t necessarily want to be noticed like that because, to him, his art was private and although he liked entering contests he really didn’t want anyone to buy his art.
Taking a deep breath Jack sat up again and walked to his closet and took out a large black hanging bag, which held a suit that Miss Sara rented for him the day before.
When she found out that he had one from the year before she rolled her eyes at him and said she’d rent one for him, know matter how much he argued against it. Putting the black bag on the bed he grabbed a duffle bag and carefully put the black suit bag into the duffle then grabbed his sketch pad and pencils and put them on top.
After putting on jeans and a t-shirt, then his hoodie socks and shoes, Jack walked downstairs where the smells of breakfast were cooking. When he walked into the kitchen he got looks for the three guys and a smile-turned frown from Evelyn when she saw his bag.
“Are you goin’ somewhere Jack?” Evelyn asked softly, carefully, and Jack bit his cuticle and nodded “Darius wants me to go over for the day, can I?” he asked and saw a light in Evelyn’s eyes dim a little and frowned; it was like she was expecting him to say something else.
Whatever Evelyn was gonna say it was obvious she didn’t when she just smiled lightly and nodded, then kissed his cheek and gave him a small hug.
Slowly Jack walked to the school where Miss Sara had agreed to pick him up. When she asked him about the Mercers he had just shrugged and said nothing. She wasn’t happy but didn’t push the subject either. Sighing Jack looked around the school and sat on the steps, hugging his knees.
Part of him was excited about going to the art competition/show then there was another part of him that was nervous… ever since Miss Sara told him about the art show he’d had this… fluttering sensation in his stomach.
Maybe it was just because of sneaking behind Evelyn’s back after everything she’d done for him… but another part of him told him to be on watch, to be vigilant.
The sound of a car engine startled Jack out of his thoughts and he looked up to see a 2006 Silver Honda coming to him. Giving a small smile Jack shook off his fears and got up, grabbing his duffle as well, and jogged to the car.
“Hey! You aren’t in your suit?” Miss Sara rolled her eyes and gave him a smile, while shaking her head, “We’ll stop at a gas station on the way. So do you wanna talk or listen to the radio?” she asked.
“Radio, please.” He responded softly with a light smile. That was one of the things Jack liked about Miss Sara; she always asked and didn’t treat him like a baby… or like a fragile piece of glass most people did.
She was normal around him; didn’t judge him or look at him funny, she expected him to do his work and try his hardest but didn’t make him feel insignificant when he screwed up. She treated him like a child that he never got to be, but at the same time she treated him like an equal and didn’t make him do something he didn’t want to.
~~~~
They drove almost the whole way before Miss Sara pulled into a gas station and got Jack a key to the men’s room. “Ok be quick ok? I’m gonna go fill up the car.” She said before walking away and Jack walked into the dirty bathroom. Making a face at his surroundings he sighed and dropped the duffle on the sink and started getting undressed.
When he came out he was frowning at his shoelaces. “Oh my god! You look great, le’me get a picture!” he heard Miss Sara exclaim and rolled his eyes when he saw a flash go off. When he looked up at her he blinked; Miss Sara had her long blond hair up in curls and a long black dress with straps on her shoulders and crossed on her bare back.
“You look nice too Miss Sara.” He said softly, politely, and she smiled and lifted her chin “Why thank you darling…” she said in a imitation of a movie.
“Wait your hair… um ok come here.” She said as she hurried back to the car. Jack blew out a breath and walked behind her, lifting his bag from the ground. Walking to the car he saw Miss Sara get out a brush and comb and groaned, covering his head and dropping his bag. “Oh come on, Jack!” she laughed and pulled his hands from his head and slowly started working out the knots.
“Ok now you remember what you do right? And remember no talking to anyone that isn’t a judge or anything. And no wandering far from your table, I’m one of the judges this year so I’m not gonna be with you all the time, but I’ll check up on you.” Miss Sara sighed as she worked on his hair, putting hair gel in to make it stick.
“Are you sure your gonna be ok?” she asked again and Jack pulled away, spinning around to face her. “I’m not a baby, I’ll be fine, plus if anyone bothers me Darius is gonna be there so he can ‘protect me’.” He said doing hand quotation in the air to mark his sarcasm.
Miss Sara stared at him before laughing suddenly and shaking her head “Ok, ok, you know I think you being with the Mercers is good for you.” She said with a smile and Jack smiled softly and shrugged. They both got into the car and Miss Sara started driving again.
It was 10 minutes before they got to the large building and Jack closed his eyes and tried to breath; his stomach was bubbling and twisting. He was never really nervous when he came to the art show because 1. it was usually the same people, 2. it was always at the same building, and 3. even if he didn’t know the people that well he had the right barriers to protect his mind. Art people usually had quieter emotions then most so it was easy to ignore their emotions and such things.
Staring up at the building he paused and took a breath, closing his eyes, and centered himself like the book told him to.
“Jack, you ok? Are you sure you don’t want me to call Evelyn?” he heard his art teacher ask. Blowing out a slow breathe Jack shook his head lightly “No.. I don’t wan’ ‘em to know about my project…” he said softly looking up at her.
Miss Sara shook her head and smoothed back his hair “Jack getting close to people and being around people are different things…” she paused and squatted down infront of him.
“I know you’re afraid of letting them see you,…letting them in, but having a family, especially the Mercers, you have to give a little. But I can tell you one thing…” she paused and waited for him to look her in the eye
“When you give them an inch of you they’ll give you a foot of them. They won’t take what you’re not willing to give. I’ve learned that much from just being around Evelyn and the boys.” Miss Sara spoke softly and pulled his jacket together and smoothed it down.
Jack frowned and stared at her as she stood up straight “Do you think she’ll be mad if I call ‘n tell her… if I ask her to come?” he asked quietly. He saw the smile that broke out on his teachers face and gave a small smile.
“I think she’d be really happy to hear from you. Here go call.” She said, handing him her cell phone.
Walking a little way away from Miss Sara Jack dialed the Mercer number and put the phone to his ear and waited. Frowning Jack couldn’t help the disappointment that welled inside him when he got the answering machine.
When he walked back he handed her the phone and shrugged, “Guess they went out or sumtin’…” he mumbled before walking up the stairs and to the entrance.
When they got to the door a guy took a look at him and Jack gave the guy his entrance card, which showed that he was a contestant, and Miss Sara gave her card, showing she was a judge.
Looking around Jack’s eyes lit up with amazement and excitement; the entire first floor was filled with projects of drawings/paintings then to the right there was graphic designing.
“OK do you think you can find your project on your own? It’ll be in section 2 upstairs, ok?” Miss Sara asked then added, to his confused glance, “I have to go check in with the other judges… remember I’m not going to be judging the drawings. I’m going to be upstairs so if you need me that’s where I’ll be.” She said giving him a worried look.
Rolling his eyes Jack nodded “I’ll be fine I swear! I’ll find Darius soon, anyway he’ll wanna look around sooo…” he gave her an innocent smile. Miss Sara rolled her own eyes “Alright, but wait a few minutes for the judges to come see you then look around. There’ll be 6 judges to impress so best behavior.” She said giving him a smile.
Jack nodded and sighed when she smoothed back his hair and fixed his tie then smoothed his jacket. “I’ll be right upstairs if you need me…” she reminded him and he pushed her away lightly before jogging to the back of the left side of the building.
It took him about 5 minutes to find his project and he looked at it for a minute. He had his own table, all of the contestants did, it was a red table cloth then had a plastic holder, which held a white piece of paper that had his name and information in black curvy letters. His project though… it stood out from a lot of the others. It also stood out from anything he had ever done before…
He had gotten a larger piece of cardboard then what Miss Sara gave him. On the top had the words ‘My First Christmas’ in bold letters then there were four cubes that had drawings in them then, at the bottom, was the last one. The entire thing was so full of life and had happiness in it that it looked like it was done by someone who was a professional or with a digital camera. There was no color but you could feel the color as if it were really there. The details stood out and it was so vibrant in its own way, even though it was black and white, it was amazing.
~~
On the top left hand corner was a picture of three of the boys; Bobby had his arm thrown back, with a snowball in his hand, and was aiming at Jerry. Jerry was laughing and had his arm out, finger pointing at Bobby and was reaching for some snow on the ground. Angel was standing there, a little bit away from the older boys, laughing.
The next, the one on the top right, had Jack sitting ontop of Bobby’s shoulders and putting the angel on the top of the tree with the Angel and Jerry on his left and Evelyn on the right. Jack had one arm wrapped around Bobby’s neck and the other was reaching to put the angel ontop. The work he put into the drawing brought out ever line and detail; he put detail into every line and every curve of all the drawings.
On the bottom left was, again, of the living room; it looked as if it was drawn from the hallway. Bobby was on the couch, one leg up on the couch, and was slumped and rolling his eyes to the ceiling.
You could see Jerry in the armchair across from the TV and saw he was laughing and staring at Angel who was sitting in the other armchair next to the record player.
Angel had his arms crossed and was leaning back against the cushions and staring up at Evelyn Mercer, who was standing at the left and looking down at him with a raised eyebrow.
The detail he put into them… into to their faces and the lines he used to draw them told a lot about how much he really focused on them.
The one on the bottom right was a picture that had a so much detail and looked so … real. It was the living room with all of them in a circle and there was wrapping paper thrown all over the place.
What caught your attention was that everyone in the circle had a present and was laughing and had a present in their hands.
Jack himself had a his new leather jacket on with his science book and journal in his lap while he watched the TV that was on to Christmas cartoons. This one took a lot of time and patience because he had to do himself… and that ain’t easy.
The one at the bottom was the last one; it was centered but took up the entire space. It was simple and seemed out of contrast since the others were large and seemed fuller but this picture held life in it.
While the others showed life in little forms this one you could feel life coming from. There was the Mercer Christmas tree in the living room… it looked like it was night time because no one was around and the lights were on, you could tell by the shading of the pencil. It looked like a true work of art and held life that a lot of other artists didn’t seem to be able to capture in their art.
~~
He heard a gasp from behind him and tensed as he felt the Mercer clan behind him. “Oh, Jack…” he heard and slowly turned and saw Evelyn staring at his art with tears in her eyes, hand over her mouth. Bobby, Jerry, and Angel were at her side and were also staring at his art with wide eyes.
Jack looked back at Evelyn when she moved to him and was completely caught off guard when she pulled him into her stomach and hugged him; he was even more surprised to find himself responding to the hug.
Feeling Evelyn run her fingers through his hair he closed his eyes and let himself enjoy this. He felt comforted and safe in her arms and when she pulled back a little all he did was look up at her and saw a smile on her face.
She caressed his face softly and leaned down and kissed his forehead then straightened “This is very beautiful, Jack… I’m so proud of you.” She whispered as she, once again stared at his project.
There was a cough and Jack pulled away and turned to face a Flyer in a nice dark blue suite and a white button down shirt; he had bronze skin and chocolate brown eyes.
“Jack, it’s good to see you again this year… though I was actually surprised when I first saw you project.” The man said as he gestured to the Jack’s project.
“This is unlike anything you’ve ever done before. Especially during Christmas… you’ve captured it in a way that would make someone believe that this was someone’s first experience of the Christmas activities.” He said as he gestured to a few things as he talked.
Jack nodded softly but waited until he finished “This is very amazing work. You’ve seemed to grown as an artist since the last time I saw you. It says a lot in your art and soon… soon I hope that you’ll try some painting, I know, I know, you like the old fashion way, as do I, but if you used some color you could bring out your art even more. You should think about it.” He said and Jack shrugged before shaking the judge’s hand and giving him a smile.
~~~
Jack stayed, mostly, quiet as the other five judges came and expected his art, asking simple questions that seemed to go on and on. Between the judges Jack had his hands full with buyers, dealers, promoters, and people saying they wanted to help him ‘make it big’. Then he had the regular art show people who came to every art show and knew him by name.
They came over and talked to him about his art, about how he was doing and where he was living this time. It was those questions that got dark looks from not only the guys but Evelyn as well seemed to take offence to it.
It was a half hour later when the last judge, a woman, came and left 20 minutes later. A few minutes after she left Darius showed up and whistled in appreciation to his art, then looked at Bobby, Angel, and Jerry up and down with a smirk.
He looked back at Jack and shook his head “This is amazin’, man, really! I’ve seen your stuff but this is just.. so… I dunno different, but different in a really good way!” he said when Jack frowned.
Breathing out a breath Jack let himself relax a little since now people were just moving around quietly.
“The last judge just came by just before you came so now I can go walk around. I really wanna get to the computer graphic show ‘cause this is only the second year they’ve had it and I couldn’t see it last year. Can I go?” he asked Evelyn, who he was explaining to.
Evelyn smiled and looked around “Yes you may go, I actually just want to look around here for a while, then I’m going to go see Sara. Why don’t all you boys go.” She said pushing Angel, who looked incredible bored, lightly in the shoulder; which in turn made him nod and sigh.
Jerry rolled his eyes at his younger brother then smiled at Jack “I think it’s cool, better then I thought it would be… all these drawings and art projects are really good.” He said and Jack smiled brightly and held his head up a little higher.
Bobby chuckled and wrapped his arm around Jack’s shoulders and nodded “Ya, ya, I got two fairy sisters now… ok well lead the way.” He said squeezing Jack into a small embrace. Darius snorted in amusement as he watched them all from the other side of his friend.
Jack was pulling Bobby, Jerry, and Angel through the crowed of people to get to the right wing of the huge art building. Angel made them stop every time he saw a waiter and took a little something of whatever they were carrying; though the one waiter refused to let him take a glass of champagne.
They got completely through the people and stood at the entrance hall; between the two sections and in front of the staircase, which led to the upstairs sculpting to the left and the judging tables to the right.
Taking a deep breath Jack looked around then up and waved when he saw Miss Sara. She waved down at him and Darius then gave a confused smile to Bobby, Jerry, and Angel. “Let’s go!” Jack said and if the other guys weren’t mistaken, which they weren’t, there was a hint of whine in the youngest boys tone.
Bobby laughed but then jogged after Jack when the younger boy took off “Hey watch it, before you..” Bobby trailed off when Jack did exactly as Bobby predicted… he bumped into someone so hard both fell on the floor.
“Ow..” Jack muttered as he rubbed his head and tried to detangle himself from the other kid. “Sorry ‘bout that…” he heard and froze, face paling and he ripped himself away from the other boy and stared into the wide eyes that looked so much like his own, though with a greenish tint; the other boy’s hair was a little darker but his face was shaped just like Jack’s. “Seth…” Jack whispered, eyes wide and heart pounding.
End Part 1
OK… here's part one I hope you guys like it!! Sorry about having to split it up again
~shadow