insert painting reference here {jemissa}

[CLEO EVERETT]

Cleo was pretty sure she wasn’t an artist. She couldn’t sing and dancing came easily enough to her but it wasn’t her forte and she couldn’t do any sort of craft with needle and thread. Cleo could swim and she could pet sit and she could win in a pastry eating contest. Those were her skills. And she was actually okay with that. Not being an artist, though, meant she couldn’t paint. Or, she assumed she couldn’t paint. Cleo hadn’t tried or gone out of her way to do so since… well, she couldn’t even remember how young she’d been. But it’d been the school years where painting is mandatory. Those mediocre drawings were probably stuffed away in a big container labeled ‘Cleo’s School Stuff’ that hadn’t been opened since the last time she’d decided to take a trip down memory lane.

However, if painting meant being able to hang out with Jemissa, one of her absolute favorite freshman, then fine. She’d paint. Cleo had been entirely unaware that Jemissa enjoyed painting or even if she was any good. That didn’t matter much though because that’s what they’d be finding out today. If they were any good. Or… if Cleo was any good because for all Cleo knew, painting was Jemissa’s calling in life. Cleo knew that there were occasional painting classes held at Dans Dans La Paix. She was also pretty sure that those cost money. And she wasn’t looking to spend money. So, imagine her luck when she’d heard of an arts and crafts fair sort of deal at the mall!

She’d been beyond pleased and had notified Jemissa immediately. They were all signed up (which you didn’t need to be but Cleo wanted to play it safe) and while it had still cost some money, it was just a few bucks. How could she say no to that? Decked out in her best painting gear (aka not her super cute clothes), Cleo had picked Jemissa up and they were off to the mall. Cleo was surprised by how excited she was but not surprised that being excited made her incredibly talkative – she’d chattered incessantly the entire way to Grimm Avenue Mall. Finally, they made it and their timing couldn’t have been better. It seemed the lunch crowd was just leaving which left the mall at regular business as opposed to excuse-me-walk-slower-why-don’t-you business.

“Jemma, I am so looking forward to this, you don’t even know.

” Cleo said happily, bouncing a bit on her feet as they neared the arts and craft booth. It was almost a bit strange seeing it there; normally the space was empty. “I don’t even know if I can paint,[/color]” she laughed, shaking her head (which reminded her that she probably should tie her hair back before they started). “What about you? Are you any good?[/color]” Cleo asked teasingly, half sure Jemissa must be since she liked painting and also half unsure because just liking something didn’t mean you were good at it.
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[JEMISSA CROCKET]

Jemissa did in fact love to paint. It was one of her favorite things to do. If it weren't for her boring roommate who would totally shoot down rthe idea unles she were painting bad things, her walls would be covered in her glorious artwork that could give Michelangelo a run for his money.

...Yeah. No. Jemissa was terrible at painting. But that didn't mean she didn't like doing it. Often times, she would just look at the fine mess she had created and make up some obscure meaning just so she didn't look stupid. But not today. Today would just be fun. Because today, Jemissa was going to paint something that was obvious and had sense and was orderly.

Cleo telling her about the art fair at the mall had been a godsend. Jamie was going to be hanging out with Joey that day, anyways, and Jemissa really didn't have much life outside Jamie these days, and when she realized that, it didn't phase her like she thought it should have. So whatever. It was her job as official conscience anyways, and she was sure that Jamie was Pinocchio.

On the way to Grimm Avenue Mall (honestly, who had named that place? 'Grimm' made it sound like a horrible place. Of course, it was still her favorite mall, but whatever), she and Cleo talked the whole way. Which was another thing. Jemissa and Jiminy (who was absent, lurking somewhere deep in her mind) really thought that Cleo was... well, Cleo. Goldfish Cleo. It was kind of obvious. But that was okay, because Jemissa loved Cleo. She was her only favorite female friend. And painting with Cleo was going to be perfect!

"I'm so excited!" Jemissa replied, grinning. Then she shrugged, adding "Pfft, i know I can't paint. But I don't care. It's still fun, of course." Imagine Cleo's suprise when she would totally ROCK at painting today. Because that was going to happen.

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[CLEO EVERETT]

Cleo was beaming when they reached the booth. She was probably way too excited for this. Kind of like a kid about to get their face painted. Except five times more excited than that. She pulled her hair back into a bun, pushing the loose strands behind her ears. Of course, they fell back around her face and she wished she’d brought clips. This was definitely going to get annoying at some point. Oh, so Jemma couldn’t paint? Well, that was kind of weird. It wasn’t like she expected Jemma to be a pro at it. It was just proving that you weren’t good at something you liked doing. Cleo liked singing but that didn’t mean she knew how to.

The woman at the booth – a volunteer – handed them both paint smocks. Cleo pulled it on and tied it, moving it around until it covered her up just right. If she’d know they’d had these, Cleo would’ve dared putting on her cute clothes. “Totally rocking this look.

” Cleo said as seriously as she could before bursting into a fit of giggles. Who was she kidding? She looked ridiculous. Cleo thanked the woman for all her help (though, really, how difficult could this be?) before looking at Jemma with her eyebrows raised. “You ready to do this? Painting is serious business.[/color]”

Cleo was fighting every instinct to make a Disney reference. The whole situation was begging for a colors of the wind joke and how could she not want to burst into song having just used the word ‘business?’ She’d been on a weird Disney kick lately. Shrugging it all away, Cleo grabbed all the supplies they’d need and then she went to see what colors they had. Of course, Cleo had a few favorite colors: blues and reds and whatever reminded her of anything to do with the sun. “I remember painting on, like, plastic plates in elementary.[/color]” Cleo said, “I painted fruits like apples and bananas.[/color]”

Cleo laughed and shook her head. “Boy, I was creative.[/color]” Honestly, though, even when she was in elementary school, all that mattered to her was being at the beach. Those were the years her mom had been EXTRA worried about her daughter going alone. Then again, Cleo had rarely ever gone alone. She usually managed to convince Jacob to go with her. “Any ideas on what you’re going to paint?[/color]” Cleo asked, looking at her favorite freshman with a curious tilt of her head.

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[JEMISSA CROCKET]

Jemissa had brought everything she needed to pull her generally messy hair back. Not that she cared if she got paint on it- in fact, she was pretty sure she still had flour in it from her little cake war with Jamie- it's just that it got in the way and there was nothing more annoying than getting hair in your face when you were trying to see. Well... okay, there were a few things more annoying than that, but whatever. Pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she clipped her bangs back. It wasn't the most stylish look, but nyah, this was art, and artists didn't care how they looked, only how their work did.

"Here." Smiling, she handed some leftover bobby pins to Cleo after seeing her bangs mess up. After the volunteer handed it to her, she put the smock on, and realized she was wearing one of her favorite shirts. Well, hopefully, the smock did it's job, and her shirt would be untouched by the time they were finished painting. Unlikely, but Jemissa had ways of getting paint off of clothing.

"Of course I'm ready to do this. I'm always ready." She put on her best serious business face and wandered over to two empty easels or whatever they were called, claiming one for herself. Luckily, a table with a bunch of different colors of paint was in between the two, so they could share. Eventually, her serious-business face brightened into a smile as it always did.

"Haha, we had a whole art class thing and we pretty much painted 90% of the time and used other materials the other 10%." Elementary school, of course. She didn't really remember middle or high school. Like at all. Maybe a little bit of... no, nothing.

Well.

"I would always paint butterflies and leaves and crickets and other nature-like things." The funny thing was that she actually did like crickets before Jiminy came around. She painted them and caught them and listened to them chirping from the field behind her house. She remembered when some boy (maybe her cousin or something) came over to her house and caught a cricket and tried to kill it, but she stopped him in time and kicked him out as much as a little kid could kick another little kid out.

"I don't know. I'll probably use some wind colors, though," she said, grinning because she knew how much Cleo loved Disney and was probably planning on saying one of those puns herself. "Maybe I'll paint... a rainbow. Or Skittles. I could paint Skittles. Or... I don't know, just something colorful."

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[CLEO EVERETT]

Cleo thought it was perfectly okay to smile as widely as she did when Jemma offered her the remainder of her bobby pins. Cleo’s bangs would surely have been blue and green by the time they finished painting. It wasn’t that she was purposely messy. It was just that she sometimes kind of got into whatever she was doing at the time. Painting was one of those things. It was a bit weird, especially since her drawings never ended up that great despite all her focus. Still, it made her feel like a legit artist (at least for a little while) and that right there was pretty neat. Clipping her bangs back, Cleo double checked to make sure there weren’t any more loose strands before getting back to work.

Cleo grinned, “well, perfect.

” The area was set up so perfectly, it was as if they had been expected. It could also have been that lots of people had been here to paint so far. Whichever it was, Cleo was glad for it. Not only did they have lots of colors she liked, but they were between two easels so she and Jemma could share them easily. For a moment, she stared at the blank easel, as if it would give her ideas. She still wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to paint. “Ha ha, yeah! I remember when art and, like, music used to be mandatory.[/color]” Had all schools been like that? Or were schools in Los Angeles just weird and artsy?

Butterflies and leaves and… crickets? Raising her brows at Jemma, Cleo laughed a little. “I feel like crickets would be hard to draw.[/color]” Though, really, Cleo wasn’t much of an artist anyway. She had trouble drawing a lot of things. That’s why she’d stuck with fruit when she was younger. “Nature-like things are fun to draw, though. And so pretty.[/color]” She was leaning towards something nature-like now. It seemed easiest, anyway, and with all the colors she had… Cleo laughed, loudly, almost doubling over. After half a minute, she nudged Jemma in the side and snickered, “I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking of Disney.[/color]”

Sometimes Cleo thought she was the only college student who even liked Disney anymore. They all said it was for babies, that they were grown-up now. Boring, Cleo thought. “You could paint a rainbow and skittles.[/color]” Cleo suggested, picking up a brush and carefully dipping it into the red. “Since all those skittles commercials have to do with rainbows.[/color]”

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[JEMISSA CROCKET]

"Isn't it? It's like some higher power decided to shine down on us. Maybe our paintings will be famous someday. Like The Mona Lisa." Jemissa doubted it, but hey, you never knew when fate was going to step in. Not that she believed in fate, of course, she was more of a 'it's your decisions' kind of person, though sometimes she did think fate led you to those decisions, yeah? And then you had to make them, and the consequences are your fate.

Wow, this art stuff really brought out some deep thought.

"Yeah, my art teacher was mean," she said, her expression turning into one of disdain. She always had to have it quiet and would always sound like she was sneezing when she quieted the little kids. 'AH-shhhhhh'. It was annoying and as she grew, she hated it. It was a wonder how she didn't come to hate art in general, with that mascot. Oh, well. Elementary school was so long ago and she had to focus on the present.

"Oh, trust me, they were not perfect. They kind of looked like... well, I mean, I based them off of Jiminy Cricket so they always had nice clothes on and stood on two legs, but I found some of my old artwork and I think I smudged crayon on paper and called it something." She shuddered dramatically, grinning afterwards. "I love nature-things, but not today, haha."

She laughed along with Cleo, figuring that'd be what she do. "Of course you were thinking of Disney, Cleo. You're Cleo, gosh. One of the few who appreciates Disney anymore..." Yeah, a lot of people were disrespectful, but that's probably because of Disney Channel. Disney Channel was horrible, yes, but not all of Disney. Thank you.

Jiminy appeared, and Jemissa thought of how he chose to follow his Disney adaptation. Yeah, she read into the original Pinocchio, and it wasn't very nice at all. Pinocchio had steped on the talking cricket and killed it, and the cricket gave him advice as a ghost. Sometimes, when Jiminy was sad, he did seem a little transparent physically. Jiminy always liked the Disney version so Jemissa guessed that's why she always liked Disney.

Jemissa stroked an imaginary beard and pondered. Then Cleo gave her a fabulous idea! "Hmm, paint a rainbow made up of Skittles?" She looked at the colors, then the canvas, then back at Cleo. "Perfect." Thinking it would be rude to not ask, she asked, "What are you going to paint?"

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[CLEO EVERETT]

Cleo grinned, “I love that!

” Sure, she’d always thought someday she’d be famous. It was that crazy optimistic part of her. She couldn’t really do anything that would put her on top like that. It’d have to be something big, like winning in the Olympics for swimming (but, let’s be honest, she didn’t have to patience to work that hard), or maybe she’d get so good at baking that someone would actually notice her (but, let’s be honest, there were much better out there). Yeah, she didn’t have a chance at being famous, so maybe if she could somehow paint something on par with The Mona Lisa, she’d be in the spotlight. … Yeah, as if; smothering the dejected sigh before it could make itself known, Cleo let go any thoughts of fame.

She shuddered at the very thought of some of her elementary teachers. She’d been lucky when it came to electives like art and music, but history had been awful and it was thanks to Mr. Hosh that she hated math. It probably wasn’t fair that she spent more time thinking about that beach during their classes than she did about the current assignment. “That you drew Jiminy Cricket when you were little just adds to my love for you,[/color]” Cleo laughed, wondering how this bit of information had never been brought up before. “You’ve got to let me see them sometime, okay?[/color]” It was just too great, how Jemissa’s love for Disney had followed her to college. Why couldn’t everybody be like that?

Staring at the easel before her, Cleo wondered when she’d started painting. It seemed to have been a subconscious sort of thing, to just move the brush along while her thoughts were ridiculously depressing. “Oh… uh…[/color]” What was she painting? So far, it seemed to be a lot of red and orange and… “Why, it’s a sunrise. I’ll add the ocean later, I think.[/color]” That came out of nowhere, didn’t it? “Obviously,[/color]” she easily fell into the confidence that had abandoned her earlier. “What else would I draw?[/color]” If not a glittering sea and a colorful sky, then mermaids and fish and beaches. (Not that she had the talent for any of these, but one can always pretend).
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[JEMISSA CROCKET]

Jemissa wouldn't necessarily want to be famous - it seemed like too much pressure. But she could totally handle knowing someone who was famous, that seemed nice. Not everybody knew your business all the time. So if one of her few friends became famous, she'd be cool with it, since there was no way in hell she'd ever accomplish anything that would expose her to the world.

“That you drew Jiminy Cricket when you were little just adds to my love for you,”

She smiled widely with pink cheeks when Cleo said that. It made her really happy for some reason, knowing that Cleo really liked her. When she first started going to Barrie, she hadn't really expected to make many friends, but then she met Cleo and Jamie and here she was. Though, some of that happiness was probably contributed by Jiminy from wherever he was, and Jemissa hoped his ego wouldn't expand.

"Of course! They're in my closet I think..." Her smale faltered a little as she realized that she knew where they were. In her closet, yes, but more specifically in one of two boxes she had only opened once that had shipped from Trenton, Georgia after her parents died. They had saved the drawings and other things Jemissa had accomplished over the years, and when she went through it, she remembered them well. But it was all from elementary and middle school and nothing from high school, because all she accomplished then was eventually getting her parents killed in the first place.

So they sat in a box in her closet, collecting dust, while she tried to make up for those lost years by doing well at Barrie. She was doing quite well, but it wasn't really helping her feel better, it just took her mind off it.

"Oh - cool!" she said, looking over at Cleo's painting. She had been distracted by her thoughts and went back to her own canvas, beginning to draw the dots. It looked like a third grader's attempt at pointalism, but it wasn't turning out too bad so far. "I think you would rather leave the canvas blank than not draw the ocean," she said with a smile.

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[CLEO EVERETT]

The more she painted, the more it came together in her mind. First there would be the sunrise, and then the ocean, and then the beach. And after it all dried, she’d add little umbrellas and towels and sandcastles. And to top it all off, she’d put in a couple of loungers and swimmers. Unfortunately, that was exactly how drawing went. At least, that’s how she imagined drawing would go if she were an artist in any sense of the word. Her artsy friends were so good at whatever medium they excelled in that she couldn’t picture them ever having trouble. She guessed ideas came to them effortlessly and that they were able to paint and sketch them out just as easily.

For her, the drawings looked really nice in her head. In fact, they seemed worth a million dollars. But the minute she even tried to put it down on the canvas, it all fell apart and she couldn’t remember where she’d even started. Or where she’d even gotten the silly notion that she could do something so well. “Why do things look nice in your mind, but not on paper?

” She sounded whiny and annoyed, her head tilted as she stared at her canvas, wondering how she’d thought this would work out. Cleo left her own painting alone for a minute to watch as Jemissa painted. Watching her friend reminded her that they were there to have fun and that there wasn’t any competition. And that made her feel a whole lot better.

If she’d been paying attention, she would’ve noticed Jemissa’s smile wavering, and she likely would’ve said something about it. “Maybe I can come over afterwards!![/color]” With that simple suggestion came a ton of different other ideas, mostly things they could do to basically spend the rest of the day together and have a sleepover to end it. “We could order pizza and drink champagne and watch RomComs![/color]” She hoped it didn’t sound like she was inviting herself over, especially not if Jemma already had plans. Still, she hadn’t had a good sleepover in ages and one was long overdue. And what better person to have one with than her best friend?

Cleo laughed and blushed a little. “That might be one of the nicest things ever said to me![/color]” And she’d had a lot of mean things said to her. She’d very nearly started on her ocean by dipping the still red brush into the blue paint and she momentarily freaked out, dropping the brush onto the palette, splattering paint. After a quick inspection, she was relieved to see it’d missed both of their canvases. “My bad,[/color]” she muttered, picking the brush up again to wash it of the red paint and continue as if nothing had happened.
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