The World's Gonna Know My Name

Mika glanced down at the one Carter stopped on, quickly taking in the scene. The trees in the forest took the majority of the page, save the bottom two inches that showed small segments of the tree’s trunks embedded in the ground. “You kind of sound like my high school art teacher,” she murmured before looking at the girl, reminded of Ms. Wilcott, her personal safe haven for four years.

“Well, sounds like your high school art teacher had good taste.” Carter complimented before continuing to flip through her art book. “Hey, do you ever draw people?” She asked, looking back at Mika. Carter had always wanted to model, but being in front of a camera that she couldn’t control and edit was never a good idea. Still, if she could get someone to draw her, that would be a nice little ego boost.

He’d been in a place similar to Lakeside once before in his life, and he regarded both experiences with overwhelming hatred. He’d never imagined himself to be insane, and having the label slapped onto him by others in his life, while it hadn’t stung, had proven to infuriate him. Normalcy had been how he’d considered his existence – though he’d often think of himself as above others – and it was doubtful he’d ever consider things differently, regardless of how many therapist appointments he was given. He’d endured years of them previously and all they’d done in his benefit was aid in improving his ability to lie realistically; nothing more, nothing less. They’d been so obsessed with imaginary paranoia that they’d never bothered to consider whether his problems (though he’d remain adamant that he had none) ran along different, less obvious paths. Given his good behavior, something that he’d displayed only in the presence of particular staff members, he’d managed to win his release earlier than expected – he planned to practice a similar strategy in his current situation.

Carter didn’t let her disappointment with his bad attitude show. She was hoping that he would be happy to have someone to complain with, but she couldn’t say she was entirely surprised about his apparent complete lack of interest. She knew it meant she just had to try a little harder and be a little more clever. If she let every set back stop her from going after what she wanted, she would still be thirty pounds heavier with no hope of becoming a household name. “Not surprised, no. Just annoyed. If they want us to get better, whatever that means, it isn’t gonna help to coddle us. Then the people who are actually crazy go out into the real world and freak out the first time they see anything even a little racy.” Her tone matched his in annoyance, but she was directing her frustrations at the institution, not at home. She hoped he would follow suit.

Mika watched as Carter flipped through, critiquing each drawing as they came, and she bit her lip, preventing herself from commenting on each drawing. After Carter went through a few, Mika turned her attention to the girl to gauge her reaction.

Carter stopped at  a pencil sketch of a nature scene with a thick forest. Carter had always liked the aesthetics of the woods, and she also thought this drawing in particular might be one Mika would be proud of. “Oh, I love this one. You can totally feel the energy of the forest, it’s amazing. You have a lot of talent, you know that?”

“Guess I don’t. I usually don’t get a very good read on people… People are just kinda difficult.” Blake couldn’t help but laugh at the girl’s comment. He took a second to take in her appearance—- bold eyebrows matched with equally bold eyes. Blake came to the conclusion that it wasn’t her personality that scared him off, but rather her eyebrows. “Well perhaps it was the eyebrows,” he acknowledged as he crossed his arms over his chest. “When you think about it, they are kind of amazing. I mean, they’re like twenty shades darker than your hair color. Did you bleach your hair lighter or something?”

Carter laughed with Blake, feeling accomplished that he seemed to be at ease with her. Or at least more at ease than he had seemed five minutes ago, and she would make more progress as time went on, she was sure of it. “Amazing?” She said in playful disbelief. “I’ve heard lots of things about my eyebrows, but not amazing. Usually it’s like...distracting, or unique, or that I have two caterpillars crawling across my forehead.” She joked, but she did remember kids being mean about them in grade school. She had begged her dads to let her get them waxed, but they said she was too young. Now they were practically a calling card. “I can’t reveal all my secrets, can I? I don’t want you trying to steal my signature look.” She chuckled again, then lightly touched his arm to test his boundaries with her. 

Ethan slid away from Carter as soon as she sat down next to him, so that he was at the very edge. He didn’t notice her smell, the only thing he was aware of was how close she was to him. “I dunno.” Ethan remembered learning it years ago, but he didn’t remember the name of it.

Carter frowned, but regained her composure in a half a second. She didn’t like other people to see her disappointed, it wasn’t something she was comfortable being associated with. “I’m sorry, I’m kinda gross right now. I was just taking a jog. You know, cause it helps me sleep.” Working out did help her sleep, but not in the way she had implied. It was just much easier to sleep when she didn’t feel like a two ton whale. 

“No, thanks. I already feel full from breakfast.” She began to cut her grilled cheese into little squares with a fork and knife. Food was easier to consume when it was in tiny pieces, Carter always felt less heavy eating it that way. “I’m thinking about going vegan or something like that. Do you think the staff would go for that?” Carter knew that she could be convincing, but getting the staff who knew she was there for not wanting to eat a lot to let her totally skip dairy and meat. 

“Well I’d say you’re doing pretty well at the whole friend thing. Actually, you’re probably doing better than me and I’ve been here for a few years,” Blake assured as hew dipped his head in embarrassment and rubbed the back of his neck. “But I guess it’s good that I come across as sweet.” The very thought of people actually thinking of him in a positive manner made Blake’s face break out into a smile. “You come across as… intimidating. I don’t know why, but I think I actually avoided talking to you because of your proficient social skills.”

Carter laughed warmly. “Social skills? You must not know me very well.” She wanted to make him feel safe and not feel pressure to impress her in any way, so she had to hide her happiness in finding out her reputation for people who didn’t know her was that she was good at talking to people. She didn’t want to be intimidating, that was bad news, but she doubted that most people found friendliness off putting. “Trust me, you really don’t need to intimidated by me. The scariest thing about me is probably my eyebrows.”

Mika looked down at her sketchbook and back at Carter, wavering on showing them to her. “I wouldn’t necessarily call it showing off,” she finally said, “but you can look if you want.” She held the sketchbook out for Carter to take, “I don’t really have any favorites or anything, so…you can just…do whatever.”

Carter smiled broadly. She hoped that Mika letting her flip through it meant that some trust had been built between the two of them. She took it from Mika and opened up to the first page, making sure to angle it so Mika could also see. Carter didn’t want Mika to feel nervous, wondering if she was looking at something that make embarass her. 

A small smile appeared on the brunettes face. “Sure, I don’t have anything else really to do other then drawing and reading so go ahead.”

“Fantastic. Want to sit down?” Carter sat on a couch and put a pillow on the floor in front of her, that way she could get a good angle on her hair.  “And while I’m doing this, we should totally catch up. How have you been doing, Alexa?”