Hello. I'm so sorry I took a while to update this, but I had a semi-writers block. I'm just writing the request in the order of when I get a decent idea for them. This is mild Petey/Angie. I couldn't see either plucking up the courage for a date, so hopefully this is OK. Concrit is very much appreciated. Flamers are welcome and indeed encouraged- if I need kicking, I need kicking.

Disclaimer: Not my photography class, I just like to airbrush.

Behind The Curtain

The paint glided along the canvas with the gentle guidance of a soft brush, going exactly where Petey wanted it to. With each touch of colour that graced the page, Peter "Petey" Kowalski slipped further into his own world, blissfully oblivious to anything else going on around him; the spitballs hitting Earnest's back, Dan's delighted expression, the girl beside him...
"What are you painting?"

The teenager blinked, replaying the girl's words in his head. She couldn't possibly be speaking to him... could she? No, no way. It was Jimmy who everyone leaned towards like pretty flowers shoved their faces into the sun, not him. The spotlight didn't suit Petey's frightened, awkward manner, so instead he stayed in the shadows, ready to pull strings and operate lights from behind the curtain. In the great pantomime of life, he was scarcely given a speaking part past a few mumbled lines before stronger, better looking, more popular young men began their dramatic monologues. He turned his head towards the girl, who he recognised as Angie Ng, the only person anywhere close to his level of awkwardness. The quiet student shrank from her questioning look, momentarilyforgetting how to speak.
"It's...It's..." he began, searching for words. Come on, Pete! You know how to talk. Listen, answer, listen, answer- it's not hard! In the time Petey had taken to give the mental pep talk, Angie tilted her head, brown eyes drinking in the details of the picture; the white froth floating on the sapphire water as it crashed against jagged rocks, the sun blazing through the delicate grey clouds, the white seagull's outstretched wings drawn which such care that she felt it might fly of the canvas and through the window.
"It's nice," Angie commented after almost a minute of observation, smiling softly at the teenage artist.
"Thanks," he half mumbled, a warmth spreading through his chest as he returned the smile. Maybe he wasn't totally useless with girls, or at least not all of them.

He lifted his paintbrush up, expecting to be ignored for the rest of the lesson. Instead, a few more pleasant words left Angie's lips.
"So... what artists do you like?" Petey looked around the room. Ms Phillips had recently redecorated with Picasso's bizarre creations, O'Keefe's abstract flowers and Toulouse-Lautrec's portraits.
"Van Gogh," he replied absent-mindedly, deciding that most people would have heard of him. Wait... was that too girly? A man who drew night skies and sunflowers wasn't exactly manly, even if the canvases were breathtaking. Great, now she'd think he was a dork, just like almost everyone else. Even now the pink shirts were gone- he'd burned them- the "Femme-boy" nickname he'd been branded with was stuck, present with each intake of breath, oozing from each pore like some weird illness. He waited for what seemed like forever for her response after the girl considered his answer briefly.
"Really? Starry Night is so beautiful." she commented, brown eyes sparkling with friendly interest.

The smaller-than-average boy gazed at the girl next to him, tracing each detail of her with his eyes. Perhaps she wasn't perfectly formed like Mandy or graceful like Pinky, but she possessed a sweet, girlish charm and an underated, unassuming sort of pretty that wasn't seen unless someone searched for it- well, he thought so, anyway.
"Yeah... Whatt are you painting, then?" he asked, leaning to see her canvas, a bright scene with various woodland creatures.

The conversation continued through the remainder of the lesson with the occasional pause of awkwardness or returning to work. He learned that she liked bunnies and giggled a lot, in exchange telling her about computer games and other random points of interest. All too soon, the bell rang, forcing each to cut the conversation short and dawdle out of the classroom, shooting each other a friendly wave before disappearing into the crowd. He'd talk to her more often, he decided. Perhaps they'd be friends- maybe more than friends, if he was very lucky. Was it possible that maybe the spotlight would eventually fall on them, or that he'd get a tiny taste of the affection thrown at Jimmy as though he was some fantastic celebrity as opposed to helping paint the backdrop or write the script?

He'd heard there was a good film on soon, so perhaps so. But for now, he'd just concentrate on talking to her.