-- caution: wet paint (Tzila)

[jonie]

The blues, the oranges, the reds: oh did Alice love paints and all of their spectacular colors. Unfortunately, paints did not reciprocate the feelings for the five foot nine, untalented brunette. Not that she realized that she lacked aptitude for the skill. Despite her failure to sell a painting to any willing patron, she thought her works were quite beautiful. She never really confronted the thought as to why her art did not sell well. She just knew that she owned a lot of her own work and she didn’t mind that, it never even crossed her mind to consider that less than a good thing.

“What the hell is that supposed to be?” Alice heard someone whisper to behind her.

Alice spun around on her heel to see who said it and inform them exactly what it was. It was a teenage girl and her boyfriend. The brunette put her hands on her hips and proceeded to scold them. “For your information it is an abstract of a woman giving birth! Do you hate babies or something?” Alice yelled at the shocked kids.

“N…no! I’m sorry. I didn’t…” the young girl stammered and grabbed her boyfriend’s hand and tried to turn away from the uncomfortable scene.

“Well, next time you should think. If it had been a less talented artist than I, they might have been crushed by your pubescent snickering.” Alice watched the boy’s face contort strangely and then ran away laughing with the girl.

She wasn’t sure what they found so funny but figured it was just a teenage thing. She used to laugh at a good deal of stupid things when she was younger. She turned back to her painting.

“Shit,” Alice sighed as she got a look at her work. The wet paint was completely smeared across the front. She looked around trying to figure out what happened, briefly feeling angry thinking that one of the kids messed it up while she was yelling at the other two. Her anger faded into irritation as she looked down at her clothing which matched her painting in color. Alice sighed noisily and felt her heart sink. She couldn’t believe she ruined one of her painting and especially one she worked so hard on.

[shadow]

Why in the hell was she bothering with the community center again? Tzila let out sigh, knowing that her hopes were probably a lost cause. She enjoyed art, yes, but she knew her drawings of animals were probably not special enough to be sold. Fact was, she needed a little extra cash. Why? Well, there was that concert at the end of the month but...

"No Tzi, you gotta save your cash. College is fucking expensive... now where the hell am I?" she spoke aloud. People of course would look at her funny, but she really didn't give a damn about them. If they thought she was crazy for talking to herself, then wait until she started talking about subjects like love and religion and the meaning of life. Oh yeah, she had some skewered views on those matters, but that wasn't what was important right now. What was important was the possibility to get some extra money which she was in desperate need for.

Though Tzila let out a groan. Somewhere in this community center she had to have taken a wrong turn... because she was in the studios, not the exhibits. Wonderful... and yet, her curiosity was getting the better of her: some of the paintings and drawings and other random pieces were interesting, but that wasn't actually what she was paying attention to. The two teenagers arguing with the woman about... a picture of a baby? Ew. Tzila was not a fan of kids... no, she was more interested in the person painting the... well... whatever the painting actually was. She honestly couldn't tell for the life of her.

Abstracts just confuse me.... she thought, approaching the artist at work. The other two teens seemed to have already made their leave, which was all as well for Tzi. She hated too many people at once....

"Shit," the girl before her muttered. Tzila couldn't help but smirk at the mistake. She'd smeared paint on her canvas with her own shirt. Regardless, she did feel a bit bad for whoever this uh... "artist" was. Who could count the amount of times she'd messed up her own sketches and drawings? Most of the sketchbook in her hand was a series of fuck ups in her opinion.

"Hey, it's not that bad. The good thing about paint is that you can go over it when it dries, right?" she tried, scratching behind her head nervously. Why even make herself known? She was supposed to be looking for some guy to sell her art to... if he'd take it. Eh, maybe this lady would know where she was supposed to go? "Have you possibly any idea where the guy who buys art is around here? Cuz.... well you know, I'm just a stupid eighteen year old looking for three dollars a sketch."

[jonie]

A voice, another new one, interrupted her thoughts. It was probably for the best, as Alice was beginning to feel like she was going to cry. Crying wasn’t really something that the woman was unfamiliar with, but she didn’t like it either. It made her face puffy and her nose ruin and that was very unattractive. She perked up a little and lifted her dark eyes to the stranger. “I suppose I could paint over it but it just really sucks, you know? Plus, I probably ruined this shirt.”

Alice glazed down at the blue and very plain cotton shirt she purchased from a thrift store. She hated ruining clothing, especially when she only owned few outfits. Maybe designing cards paid for a roof over her head, but it didn’t pay for much beyond that. Apparently though, Alice wasn’t alone in needing cash. The older brunette looked at the younger one a little more seriously.

Alice couldn’t help but notice the girl, while not typically the type she was into, was attractive. Something about the eighteen year old appealed to her and she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. Alice shifted her weight on to one leg and leaned forward innocently as if very interested in what the girl was asking and taking it into deep consideration; however, in reality, she was emphasizing her hips and breasts in a subtitle manner. “Hmm, well, I don’t know of anyone in particular who buys art around here or else I would be driving a Porsche, but maybe I could help you find him? If you like? I don’t really want to sit here and look at the mess I’ve made.”

A smile found its way onto her face. She liked meeting new people. She especially liked meeting new attractive people. Plus, if there really was someone who would buy her stuff, Alice wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to meet them. Alice clapped her hands together excitedly and took the younger woman by the arm, assuming that the girl in fact did want her help on the search. “So what does her look like? What’s his name? What kind of things to you sketch? What’s your name? I’m Alice by the way Alice Jamison, but Alice is just fine by its self.”

[shadow]

Tzila was observant... of well, everything when she felt like it. Usually, her mind would ignore the things she knew would rile her up in some way as a protection mechanism, but just this once, of all times, it really did nothing to help her. When Alice leaned over towards her, she noticed... well, everything. But her eyes didn't linger on the fellow artist for too long. No, Tzi rarely dwelled on things like good looks for long, especially around people she didn't know. She'd ignore any and all awkward emotion that would make conversation worse.... she was horrible at interacting with strangers anyway. Even worse with friends at times.

"Um, y-you could possibly use fabric paint to make the shirt a new color, then it'll just be dyed?" Tzila remarked. "Sorry, I can't say I'm a huge fan of paints. Maybe just cuz I'm horrible at them... or something. I don't know.... But I've never had that problem... she trailed off, letting out a sigh. Okay, so far she wasn't acting to horribly awkward. That was a relief. Confidence building a tiny bit, she listened to Alice more intently, but was quickly overwhelmed with questions. Bringing up a hand to scratch the back of her head, she tried to answer each question in order:

"I dunno what he looks like, we've never met... and his name is Bill... or was it Will.... and uh... um, I sketch animals. Lots of dogs, I kind of have an obsession with them but I do everything I guess. And uhh... oh fuck, too many questions--" she paused. "Jesus woman! Slow it down! Or no wait, I answered all your questions, I think.... oh no wait... I'm Tzila... Tzila Rakkman. Nice... to meet you, Alice? Yeah, that's what you said.... There... now I've answered all your questions...." she trailed off with a rather exasperated sigh.

After catching her breath, Tzila replayed all the gibberish she'd just blurted out moments before, and groaned in embarrassment. She'd probably sounded like a total moron, "Urgh... I'd actually appreciate if you came around with me. I really have no idea where the fuck I am. I just recently moved to Capeside and this town center is a clusterfuck of a building. I'd never be able to keep a studio here."

[jonie]

The girl was struggling to answer all of her questions. It was fun to see her trying to recall all of the things that had just been spewed at her. Alice wasn’t sure what it was that made confusing people so much fun but it was and if she had the opportunity then she would take it. She adored Tzila’s sweet confusion in response to her excited questioning. Surprisingly the girl managed to answer all of her everything with only a little mishaps.

A huge, pleased smile filled Alice’s face. The girl was just so cute it was hard not to want to sweep her up into her arms and carry the young girl away. It was just so charming. Alice laughed and nodded, “Welcome to Capeside, then. I’ve lived here since I was sixteen. It’s not so bad once you get used to it. I mean, I’m pretty sure that everything feels as if you’re never going to understand it when you first start out. I’m sure you’ll do fine. Besides now you have me and I know everything about this town. Hmm… Bill or Will doesn’t sound familiar at all.”

Alice stopped trying to drag the young girl along for a moment and turned to look at her, “Did you say you would do stretches of anything? Can I see what you have? I don’t have a ton of money or anything but maybe I can buy something from you? I’d love to help out a beautiful stranger. I mean, how much would you charge to sketch something that I had in mind?” Alice’s mind was already in motion on how to get this girl back to her apartment.

She took a step away from the girl in hopes of encouraging the young woman in sharing her work. Alice smiled and nodded encouragingly. “Oh, by the way, nice to meet you Tillza,” the older woman added. Again, she found herself shifting her weight into another suggestive pose. Alice loved her body and from the number of positive responses she received she assumed that most people enjoyed it too. If she could show it off, she rarely missed a chance to. It felt good to be appreciated and it felt good just to play at being sexy. Alice’s motto was, “If it feels good… do it.”