Star by Eliza Witte - HTML preview

27

‘YESSSS! I can have another face! Thank you, God!’ She rushed following her friend through the alley.

XVI

Almost an hour later, the same cast from the staircases in front of the College was playing the same scene but in a different set. The changing-room was full and the guys were even more excited from both the adrenaline they’d just had from the game and the subject they were discussing. Steve was bombarding anyone with the question who they were going to the ball with and in the end he reached Aaron.

‘I think I’ll invite Annie Godart from our class.’

All of a sudden the changing-room got quiet just to erupt in a stormy laughter only a moment afterwards.

‘Annie Godart?’ Steve growled. ‘The designer – Annie? Do you think she’ll be able to say yes or she’ll faint with embarrassment before that?’

‘She is a good girl.’ Aaron shouted out.

‘I just saw her,’ Stu said, ‘I thought she was from the music class. She helped me out with a song.’

Chris stood there, his mouth agape, ‘She did WHAT? Are you telling me you LET her tell YOU how to write YOUR songs? You never allow ANYONE to do that, Stu! What’s the matter with you?’

‘Yeah, Stu.’ Steve got also involved, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it! Better tell us who you are going to the ball with?’

‘With Julia Roberts,’ Pete shouted out. This caused another wave of laughter but Chris out-voiced them all, ‘She’s below him! On the Christmas party Stu was with three chicks and was not content AGAIN!’

‘Cut out this crap, will you?’ yelled Stu and hurried to leave the changing-room.

‘What a jerk!’ threw in Pete behind him and kept searching for his other sports shoe.

XVII

Ms. Johns was a young lady with an inspired face and long blond hair always plaited in a pony tail. The students loved her because she possessed the kind of disposition that made everybody feel special and appreciated no matter what their talents were. If you had a sense of humor, Ms. Johns would appreciate this quality of yours and would be rather forgiving of other shortcomings you might have such as talking in class all the time, 28

for instance. At the same time she was strict and knew her business without being too harsh on the others. It was a public secret that the bigger part of the male college community – be it the students or the professors were in fact in love with her, or at least she held a place in the fantasies of almost all of them.

‘Our today’s topic is the costumes of the Elizabethan Era. As you know, Elizabeth I ruled England from…’

Annie was definitely putting an effort trying to concentrate. She was participating in class actively for the very first time and she really wanted to be the good student she was expected to be but there were so many other things competing for her attention. She was fascinated watching the tip of the pen popping out and disappearing as she pressed the button. It wasn’t that she didn’t know what a pen was, but to have it in your own hands was a different story. She’d always taken for granted seeing this tiny little object in other humans’ hands when she observed them in the World Information Space. However, it was only now that she realized how simple the mechanics of the thing were and how way too brilliant everything in this little object was - a spring, a counterforce and a fill and it had been irreplaceable for ages now! Aaron was observing her silently from the other end of the room. He looked exactly like an enamored boy with a crush, which he was after all.

‘Aaron, you’re asleep again!’ Ms. Johns turned to him and he tried to get rid of his dreamy expression. Yet, he kept making eyes at Annie. She tried the pen on the paper and drew a line, then another one. All of a sudden she started drawing something – faster, and faster, and faster suddenly unable stop. The strange thing was that it seemed she was absolutely unaware of what she was doing. Ms. Johns’ voice snapped her out of it, ‘Anna, I asked you something. Which were the basic components of the Elizabethan costume?’

Annie was silent, of course. Ms. Johns continued, ‘You keep writing even as I’m not talking.’ She scolded her but being the nice person that she was, Ms. Johns continued without pursuing the matter further, ‘As I was saying, those ornaments were mainly made of gold and silver. Fake gems were worn only by women of the lower strata of the society.

Boris, do you need a pillow, too?’

Aaron took off his eyes from Annie to snicker like everybody else in class in fact, but when he secretly glanced at her again, he was not surprised at all to see her asleep for real – she would do that all the time. For the time being he had the opportunity to know her, however, Aaron noticed that it was not only the work at the bar that made Annie use the lectures to have a nap. He had figured out that she lost interest in whatsoever, got bored, and, in most of the cases would fall asleep right after someone criticized her. No –

not if they criticized her but rather if they questioned what she considered to be true. She might have been willing to exchange the world’s champion rugby team for the beggar who hung around the chapel sometimes with the argument that this very beggar was 29

‘more unique than other people’. But when you tried to have your own opinion on the matter, the best you could get would be a yawn, which clearly showed you it was going to be a one-man monologue. Now it was up to him to do what he usually would when Annie fell asleep in class – to back her up. Ms. Johns had the habit of walking around while she talked and it was just a matter of time that she noticed Annie. Well, Aaron caught her attention just in time by standing up, ‘Ms. Johns, I… I’ve prepared something on the subject. You know – it’s my favorite class and… May I take it from here?’

This was bootlicking in every way but Aaron was past caring now. Ms. Johns appreciated his initiative just like any other positive feature she’d discover in just about anyone. In order to draw her attention away from the class and more specifically from Annie, Aaron made her sit at the first desk, facing the flip-chart and kept her occupied with the books he’d brought with him.

‘Well, I’ve found some information in the library. As Ms. Chelsea Johns already mentioned gems were used for costume decoration. It took quite some skill to attach them to the cloth, considering that the glue was not popular in those times. This picture shows how it was done.’ And Aaron put the book on the overhead projector. ‘Only very rarely were glues used. As you know, the chemical industry got a development boost after the period, so…’

A noisy yawn interrupted him - needless to say Annie’s. ‘Well, easy come, easy go,’

thought Aaron as Ms. Johns got really annoyed this time, ‘Ms. Godart, maybe you would like to continue?’ she turned to Annie who had just opened her eyes. Luckily, this was one of her short naps. ‘Come, come here!’ Ms. Johns invited her. Annie stood up and walked up to her, clearly at a loss about what to do. Ms. Johns passed her one of Aaron’s books. ‘Have you read this? Aaron has. You could at least show some respect for your colleagues’ work!’

And while she lectured Annie something very strange happened. Annie had one of Aaron’s books in her hands, but placed her other hand on the top. Her eyes started to move from right to left ever faster as if she was reading what was inside the closed book at that very moment. Ms. Johns was just finishing reading the riot, when Annie ‘woke up’

completely. She returned the book to Ms. Johns and to everyone’s surprise, she went up to the flip-chart where she began to draw a sleeve.

‘The sleeves were narrowing from the elbow to the wrist, with small puffs on the shoulders,’ she recited.

‘Richly embroidered.’ Aaron added.

‘The ornaments were mostly floral. We can still see such patterns in the creations of today’s haute couture designers.’ She had just finished a sketch of the upper part of the dress emphasizing on her drawing of the floral elements.