Etching Our Way (Broken Tracks 1)

Izzie puts her hand up right away and says, “Pink?” once Harmony signals her to talk.

I raise my brow at her color knowledge then realize she only said pink because it’s her favorite color.

“That’s right, Izzie, however, we’re not going to confuse you with so many colors. We’re going to stick with six today.” She smiles. “Okay... how about this.” She walks over to a shelf in the corner, picking up three bottles of paint and walking back over to where she was standing. She holds the palette up as she squirts yellow, blue, and red paint onto it, doing the same with several more before setting them in front of the kids on their tables. “I want you all to draw a triangle on the paper in front of you.”

They all look down at their paper and my eyes settle on Izzie as her tongue comes out of her mouth, concentrating on drawing the triangle. She looks up at me, smiling and waving. I lift my hand, waving back at her as she picks up the paper and shows me the wonky triangle that she’s drawn as she puts her thumb up to me.

I can’t help the grin that spread across my face at the sight of her and all the excitement that she exudes as I lift my thumb up in answer.

“Everyone finished?” Harmony asks, and they all nod. “Great. Now use three different paintbrushes—a new one for each color—and put a small amount of paint at each one at the points of the triangle.”

I watch her intently, taking note of her hair that is up in a ponytail and the coveralls that she’s wearing, splattered with paint as she walks around the room, checking to see that they’re doing what she said to do.

She walks past me on her way back to the front of the class, her eyes skirting to mine before bouncing back to the kids who are sitting silently, waiting for her next instruction.

“Now, in between the yellow and the blue, mix them together.” She waits a beat before saying, “What color have you made?”

“Green!” The same boy shouts out that said it earlier, standing up in his seat and throwing his hands up in the air, before he realizes what he did and sits back down, putting his hand up.

“Yes, Ben?”

“Green.” He smiles, his who

le face lighting up, proud of himself.

“Absolutely, green is our first secondary color. I want you to do the same with the blue and the red, and again with the yellow and the red. Let’s see what you can come up with.”

The kids go silent as they concentrate on what they’re doing and I lean forward, watching Clay and Izzie in turn. They both have big smiles on their faces, and when Izzie’s head flicks up, checking to see that I’m still here, she manages to lose grip of the paintbrush, splattering herself all over her face as it falls to the table.

She squeals and I stand up, ready to go and clean her face, but Harmony beats me to it, calling over to Tilly for a wet cloth.

“It’s cold,” Izzie moans, scrunching her eyes tight as she walks past me quickly while Harmony tries to tell Izzie that it’s only on her cheeks and not in her eyes.

I chuckle as she opens her eyes slowly before Tilly walks back past me, handing Harmony the wet cloth.

I watch as she wipes at Izzie’s face gently. “Annnd you’re all clean.”

I sit back down, knowing that she’s okay now that the paint is gone.

Izzie giggles, picking up her paintbrush and widening her eyes at it as if it’s going to attack her with paint at any second. She looks over at me, smiling and shaking her head at herself before pointing to the brush and rolling her eyes.

I cough, trying to cover up the bubbling laughter. The last thing I need is another one of those looks from Harmony.

She stops in the same place again and looks around before she says, “So, as you can see, yellow and blue make…” She holds up one finger and coerces all the kids to shout out this time.

“Green!” they all shout, giggling.

She holds up two fingers. “Yellow and red make…”

“Orange!”

She puts up a third finger. “And red and blue make…”

“Purple!”

She chuckles. “Absolutely, and all of these colors complement each other. So, who’s up for a challenge?”

They all nod their heads, jumping up and down in their seats as she tells them to paint a picture using only the secondary colors. She hands out fresh pieces of paper and claps her hands, telling them that they can start.