Chapter 33 – The New Art Club – Holly Hayfield

We left the library’s student council room without even finishing our lunches. Our conversation was so involved that we didn’t turn our attention away until the bell rang. We, for the most part, agreed with what Val was saying. What we couldn’t all agree on was her methodology. Her plan wasn’t some ordinary-student-council-shenanigans. Her plan was revolutionary and radical.

She wanted to equalize the students of the school by stripping the factions of their power. That wasn’t going to go over well with the people that held such power. One of whom was Naomi, our supposed ally. Val didn’t mention any of this hostile-takeover strategy in her student council assembly. Would Naomi let this fly? The answer to that question was likely dependent upon how Val’s plan would affect them.

For the first time Val had put all her cards on the table. I thought we really were just placeholders in her sham student council group. I was wrong. She actually had something planned for the future, something that came from the bottom of her heart. There was a good heart beneath her thorny exterior. That thorny exterior was her entire problem. I wasn’t eager to hear the details of her so-called ‘Student Corrections Authority’. It sounded like she wanted to summon a demon in the hopes of taming it.

The remainder of the school day was going well. I was at my locker putting away my text books before my final period, study hall. I was already done with my homework so there was no purpose in lugging them around in my book bag. While I was putting a book away, Sam came up beside me and leaned against the neighboring locker. I heard the same sound of someone leaning against a locker on my other side. It was Naomi.

“Why do I get the feeling that I’m about to be spirited away?” I asked.

“Because that’s exactly what we’re here to do.” Sam said bluntly.

Naomi playfully poked me in my side and smiled.

“Hey! At least we’re whisking you off during study hall instead of class! A smart girl like you doesn’t need to study.” Naomi said.

“Nonsense, I’m studying for college entrance exams. I’m thinking of doing them in early April. That’ll give me time to prepare.” I said.

Both Naomi and Sam laughed as though I had made a joke.

“You’re studying for that this early in the school year?” Naomi asked. “Geez you’re a brainiac. I’ll be happy just to graduate.”

“For real,” Sam said, “It’s not even a full month into the school year. Come with us instead, we’ve got something to show you.”

“I can’t say no to this, can I?” I asked.

“You could,” Naomi said, “But do you really want to sit in a boring study hall session studying for college exams like 8 months from now. Or do you want to come with us to see what we found?”

“What did you find?”

“That’s the surprise.” Sam said.

Once I finished putting my stuff away we left immediately. It was obvious that I wasn’t going to make it back for study hall. Skipping class was becoming more and more common for me these days. It was one of those things I would’ve never considered doing in the past. For what it was worth, study hall wasn’t exactly a traditional class anyways.

We weren’t headed in the direction of the Old Science Wing. Instead, we were headed in the same direction of the Discipline Hall. I began wondering if they found another way into the basement. That theory was killed as we changed directions. Now we were going into some random unused hallway that was riddled with bad lighting.

“It’s this door over here.” Sam said.

Sam took me by the hand so that I wouldn’t go the wrong way. Everything in this hallway looked similar. That was until she opened the door in mention. There was artwork all over the walls of this random room, mostly in the form of spray paint. This classroom was decorated with no spot on the wall being left bare. There were canvases and stands, paintbrushes and brush holders, clay sculptures and sculpting tools. This was an art room.

This was a populated art room. There were three girls in the classroom. Each of them was working on their own separate projects. They looked like a proper art club. They all looked at us in surprise when the door opened. Two of them I had never seen before, but one of them I recognized from Naomi’s group.

The girl had long black hair with silver streaks. She had short, flat bangs that sort of gave her this dolly look. To further that dolly look she was wearing thick black eyeliner that contrasted her spectral white color contacts. The moment she saw us she came running towards me specifically. When she reached me she threw her arms around me and pulled me into a hug. I was unsure how to react.

“Hello…?” I said.

“Holly! Thank you for helping us with our mystery!” The girl said.

“What did I do?” I asked.

“That’s why we brought you here.” Sam said. “It turns out that Silver read some of Malorie’s dairy after I linked it to Naomi’s group chat.”

“Silver…?” I asked.

The girl pulled away from me with an annoyed look on her face.

“That’s me, baby!” She said. “You don’t remember me? We met when you first came to the Old Science Wing, remember?”

Of course I wouldn’t remember. Naomi ‘introduced’ me to her entire group. That included each individual, their real name, and their alias. This girl was wearing a black mask that had an antique key on it. I wasn’t sure what that meant. Sam was calling her Silver. That seemed to be her theme. I tried to search my memory for the name that fit her description.

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“You’re Sylvie, right…? I think that was your name.” I said.

She smiled and went back to embracing me. This girl wasn’t hugging like a friend. She was pressing herself against me lovingly and sliding her hands down lower and lower. The way her finger tips rolled down my back made me begin to pull away from her. She refused to let go like a stubborn child.

“You do remember me! I’m so happy right now.”

Naomi pulled Silver away from me.

“Relax, give Holly some breathing space.” Naomi said.

“Thanks.” I said.

Then Naomi put her arm around me, countermanding her own words.

“Silver, can you show Holly what you showed us?” Sam said.

“Oh yeah,” Silver said, “Come here Holly.”

We all walked further into the art room. The other two members just went about their business as we came in. Silver led us to the center of the room. She pointed straight at a painting that was on the same wall as the door. With the noontime sunlight flooding in from the window behind us the painting lit up more brilliantly than anything else in the room. It was a painting of a white rose.

“It can’t be…” I said.

“It’s exactly what you’re thinking.” Sam said, “This is Malorie’s artwork.”

“That’s what I wanted to thank you for.” Silver said. “We’ve been wondering who the artist of this wall painting was. When we first started using this as our clubroom this painting was the only thing on the walls. We’ve been hoping to meet whoever made it. Do you know where Malorie is?”

This confirmed that nothing in the blog pointed to Malorie’s eventual demise. That fact was still exclusive at least.

“We’re still not entirely sure.” I said. “She was reported missing about ten years ago.”

“That’s such a shame.” Silver said solemnly. “Her painting has become the official symbol of the unofficial art club. I’ve wanted to give her my regards.”

“The unofficial art club…? Is that you three?” I asked.

“Yep! The three of us are the only ones. We usually come here during final period to work on our projects. We’re more like the official unofficial art club.” She said.

“What does that even mean?” I asked.

Naomi snickered.

“They’re sanctioned by the staff, but not supported. It’s ridiculous how this school treats extracurricular groups.” Naomi said.

“That’s right.” Silver said. “The staff lets us use this room freely. They let us cut class to come here. They even let us stay after school for up to an hour. They just won’t provide us with any funding or resources beyond what we find lying around. Luckily there was a lot of old art supplies in the closet that we can still make use of.”

Sam shook her head.

“It sounds to me like they just tolerate you rather than accept you.” Sam said.

“Welcome to our world.” One of the other art club members said while drawing.

“We’re not the only ones in this situation.” Silver said. “It turns out that most of the extracurricular clubs are given the cold shoulder. Only the big groups like the music club and the basketball club get official funding.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. It sounds rough.” I said. “I’m surprised you still have supplies from the old art club just lying around.”

“About that, it isn’t what it seems. The original art club was forced to fold when it couldn’t get enough members to keep the club funded. To continue getting funding they ended up merging with another dying club, the theater club.” Silver said.

“We learned about the Art and Theater club.” I said. “I had no idea it formed under those circumstances though. Tell me, how did you know it was Malorie that painted this white rose?”

“She wrote about it in the diary. There were even scans of the early white rose sketch uploaded to the Immortal Diary blog. It was a huge deal for me personally because I’ve practiced drawing the damn thing so many times. I even chose to use the design for Sam’s mask. It was the best thing I could make on such short notice.” Silver said.

“I’m grateful.” Sam said. “You did a great job.”

Silver performed a courteous bow.

“Wait…” I said, “You made the artwork for the surgical mask?”

“Yes, but not just that one either. The members of this club make the art for all of the surgical masks.” Silver said.

“That’s impressive.” I said.

“Oh! That reminds me! I have something I want to give you.” Silver said.

Silver skipped over to a closet door on the far wall. The door was so heavily painted that I didn’t even know it was a door until she opened it. She stepped in for a moment and then came back out carrying a black surgical mask. She brought the surgical mask over to me and laid it into my hands. The art on the mask was a white cat with the number 7 printed on its forehead.

“How…” I started to ask.

“Sam told me that your ChatCat username was ShiroNeko7. I thought that this would suit you. Be sure to add me by the way.” Silver said.

“We could just add her to our group chat also.” Naomi said.

“I haven’t taught her how to add other groups to her profile yet.” Sam said.

“I don’t know if I should anyways. I’m going to be student council vice president if things work out. I can’t join your group.” I said.

“Sure you can!” Naomi said. “It looks like we’re taking on irregular members now that Sam has joined up with Val’s student council group too. We’re accepting honorary members after all! I won’t take no for an answer. Welcome aboard part-timer!”

Silver slammed into me with another hug.

“Hooray! Congratulations Holly!” Silver said.

“Thanks…” I said flatly.

As long as nothing was expected of me then I didn’t care. It would at least help solidify things between us, and that might be a necessity now that I knew Val’s student council plans. Silver came around behind me and put the surgical mask on my face. The moment she had it covering me properly I had no idea how they lived with these things on almost constantly. It felt stuffy to wear.

I turned around to face Silver.

“Can I check out the old art club stuff? I’m not planning on going to study hall. I might as well check out the place.” I said.

It felt odd to speak with the mask on. My voice was going through a filter and coming out with a slightly deeper tone.

“With pleasure,” Silver said. “I’ll be your guide.”

“I’d like to see it too.” Sam said.

“Not I,” Naomi said, “I’m going to head back to the old science wing to see what the others are up to.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to you later boss.” Silver said.

Naomi left us to our tour. Silver led us into the walk-in closet she took my mask from. It turned out that there were other masks resting on a rack in a closet. She was putting them there to dry. The closet was so large that the flickering overhead light bulb just wasn’t enough. I pulled out my cellphone to use as a secondary light source. That was when I came across an album as I was scanning the bottom closet rack with my phone.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s just an old album that they were using to store sketches.” Silver said. “There aren’t many actual photographs in there. I guess they were short on camera supplies back then. The only pictures are on the last pages. It’s mostly just pictures of the school and stuff, nothing special.”

As she was speaking I was briefly skimming my way through the album. The artwork was good, although most of it was nothing to write home about. When I made my way near the end of the album I saw the photographs Silver was talking about. Whoever took these images was working hard to capture the eerie aspect of the school’s exterior. Then I turned the page and saw a picture of two girls.

“That’s Malorie!” I shouted as I recognized her.

She was smiling with her arm around the other girl in the picture. They were holding up a painting together. Sam and Silver came over to get a look at the picture as well. I handed it off to Sam so that I could use my phone to light up the image more clearly. Sam pointed out the other girl in the image.

“Who is the other girl?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s her friend?” I said.

“Really…? You don’t recognize her Holly? I know you have to be familiar with her by now.” Silver said.

“Huh…? Is it someone I should know?” I asked.

“That’s Ms. Logan.”