Dangerous Designs Page 3
During school the next day, Storey struggled against exhaustion. She'd slept badly, having awakened over a dozen times. Her eyelids drooped. The teacher spoke, startling her awake. She straightened, blinking several times, her gaze instinctively dropping to her backpack on the floor and the sketchbook tucked inside. With a slight shudder, she returned her attention to the blackboard and the lesson of the day. She could survive this class. It shouldn't be that hard. She dropped her head backwards and groaned. The next two years stretched before her in dismal eternity.
"What are you drawing?"
Startled, she twisted around to find Eric grinning at her from the seat behind hers.
"You're awake, I see."
She flushed and faced the front of the class. He wouldn't stop.
"I asked what you're drawing?"
"I'm not drawing anything," she muttered.
"Then what's that?" He nudged her right shoulder and pointed to the open page of the red binder in front of her.
Straightening in shock, she realized every inch of space crawled with pencil lines. She'd deliberately kept her sketchbook stuffed deep inside her backpack and still she'd found a way to keep at it - by filling up her notebook without knowing it.
Ice settled in her belly.
Did this drive...this need to draw have such a strong hold on her that she couldn't not draw? That she did it when not realizing? Even on her arm when there'd been no paper near? Was she so obsessed? If so, how had it happened? When? Had there been a specific point of no return?
"I like it. What is it?"
She had no idea. Storey studied the familiar looking scribbles. The markings had the same style, yet it in no way resembled the full page drawing she'd done last night. Or did they? Frowning, she realized this picture could represent an enlargement of one corner of that other picture, incorporating her geography class notes into the design. She slammed her book shut.
"Hey? Why'd you do that?"
The teacher ended class at that moment. Storey jumped to her feet, snagging her backpack in one hand and notebook in the other before racing out of the room.
"Wait up!"
Eric's voice became lost in the crowd. Good. She hadn't planned on listening to it anyway.