1.

The story begins as most stories do at the beginning. This story is about Jeremiah, a poor introverted boy who was picked on his entire childhood. He wasn’t stupid, in fact he was as smart as they come. He was in all the advanced classes and could keep the teachers on their toes, but he also had a dark side that no one had yet to see.

Jeremiah sat in the back of the art class. This was his first year with art, and his mother thought he would benefit from something other than math and science. He needed something to get the imagination flowing, and not just the numbers he seemed to be so enamored with.

“Jeremiah would you like to come up and grab your paints?” the teacher asked him. Jeremiah begrudgingly made his way up to the front of the class to grab the paint kit and canvas that the teacher had. He walked back to his seat and heard the other kids start to make fun of him.

He was a smaller than average boy for thirteen. He was only about sixty-five pounds and stood at four foot. His dark short bowl cut hair his mother had insisted cutting herself didn’t help. His family didn’t have much money so most of his clothes were hand me downs including his fake Chuck Taylors from Goodwill. He sat down at his desk with a grimace on his face that showed his disdain for his fellow class mates, and the hierarchal system that the school system seemed to promote.

The teacher told the other students to settle down and proceeded to hand out the rest of the kits to the other students, and then started class. She showed them the color pallet and how the colors worked together to create other colors. This instruction was basic helped to intrigue Jeremiah because he always like to start with the basics so he could advance faster than other students, it was something he prided himself with.

When Ms. Dabber finished with instructions she told the students to begin painting on their own to get use to how the paints and brushes worked together to create beautiful art.

Jeremiah took the brush looked down at his canvas, dipped his brush in every color and began to paint in black. He only used one other color and that was red. He vigorously ran his brush over the canvas in a whirl going back and forth from red to black until he felt as though his painting was complete. A smile appeared across his face as Ms. Dover approached his desk.

“Now what have we got here Jeremiah?” She asked as she approached. Jeremiah smiled up at her and said “A masterpiece.” The painting was beautiful if not a little dark. It was a bright rose surround by black petals with a black stem.

Ms. Dabbers stood in awe and patted him on the back, “This is beautiful Jeremiah. You seem to really have a knack for painting, but how about some other colors?”. Jeremiah looked up at her in disgust, “No, there is no other colors in my world.” And yanked the painting away.

Jeremiah had always been a strange boy, but this behavior seemed even out of the ordinary for him, and this was only the beginning of what would turn out to be a strange time in his life.

When Jeremiah was very young he was always an outcast from the rest of the children. At three while he was on the playground the other children seemed to avoid him and the ones who did decide to play with him always seemed to end up hurt somehow. There was this boy named Tommy who was playing the sandbox and while he was digging and playing a nailed became lodged in his hand. Jeremiah just sat and laughed, but everyone brushed it off because he probably didn’t understand. Then there was the time on the jungle gym at school where four children fell off at once and had a broken bone of some sort. Bad luck seemed to become anyone who came in contact with Jeremiah, but it couldn’t be him causing these issues because he was just a boy.

Mr. Dabbers decided to let the issue go with him this morning and chalk it up to him just being passionate about painting. It was nice to see that he was interested in something besides his math studies. This was something that would allow him to discover his creative side. The rest of the class she left him alone while he worked on several other projects, but she was glad when the class was over because she was starting to get the creeps, and she didn’t know why.

As the class filed out she told the children that she would like them to paint something for class tomorrow. It could be anything they wanted, but she wanted it to be colorful and cheerful. She watched as the students left and couldn’t help but notice the scowl on Jeremiah’s face. She knew she wasn’t going to get anything cheerful from him and went to her desk to get things ready for the next class.

The rest of the day Jeremiah was consumed with his paints and was despondent in his other classes. The teachers would call on him and we wouldn’t answer or would just give a grunt, but because he was usually such a good student they ignored it and chalked it up to him not feeling well. He was after all usually an ace student in his other classes and was normally focused on the task at hand. This continued on till the end of the day, and when the last bell rang he hurriedly made his way to the bus to go home.

Ms. Dabby looked out the art class window and watched him get on the bus. She had a bad feeling that today was just a sign of things to come with Jeremiah, but she didn’t know why she felt this way. She gave a sigh and turned to leave the classroom and that is when she saw the rose on her desk. The petals had turned a dark black, but the rose remained a bright red just like Jeremiah’s picture, she shuddered and left for home.

2.

Jeremiah’s mom watched as he departed the bus. He looked happier than he normally did, and that made her happy. He was clutching something in his hands, I wonder what he has there she thought to herself. He came bouncing in the door with a huge smile on his face, she hadn’t seen him this happy in a long time.

“What do have there honey?”, she asked. He looked at her and his smile disappeared, “Never mind.”, and he stomped off to his room. She was use to his mood swings, but this was even more extreme than usual so she decided to follow him to his room and find out what was going on. She went to his door and found it locked.

“Honey can you open up the door please. I want to know what’s wrong.”, but Jeremiah didn’t answer and just turned up his music. She stood there in frustration and shook her head. “I’ll let you be, but I want to talk about it during supper, ok?”, there was still no answer and she went in the kitchen to prepare supper.

It was just them since Jeremiah’s father and run off with his secretary right after he was born so she made small suppers, so macaroni and cheese with hot dogs it was, his favorite meal. She hoped that maybe this would cheer him up, and it was quick.

Jeremiah looked his paint set and set up the easel. He looked at the blank canvas Ms. Dabber had given him. He didn’t know what he would paint, but he knew it would be good. He thought back on the day and that is when it came to him, he would make this a tribute to Ms. Dabbers. He pulled out the brush closed his eyes and began painting. He already figured out that if he just let his mind focus on his subject things would just come naturally.

His brush moved across the canvas effortlessly, and just like before he just used black and red, they were quickly becoming his favorite colors. He first started with her face making sure to get every detail just right. He even made sure to add the little mole she had on her left cheek. He smiled as he worked through the other details like the dimples in her cheeks and lines near her eyes. When he finished with her face he stood back and smiled, but something was missing so dipped his brush in the red paint and added the final touch.

“Honey supper is ready.”, Jeremiah’s bedroom door unlocked and he came out with that big smile on his face again, “Well it looks like someone is in a better mood.” Jeremiah nodded and pulled his chair up to the table. “So, what how was school?”, Jeremiah shrugged his shoulders and said, “Art class was really good. Ms. Dabber thinks I’m really good at it.” This made her happy and she dug into and they had a pleasant supper, and he even volunteered to help clean up before he went back to his bedroom. She was very happy she had signed him up for the art classes.

3.

The next day at school there was a flurry of activity. When the first period of school started there was an announcement over the PA system:

Today there will be no art classes due to unforeseen circumstances, during this time we will have a free hour for everyone and an assembly at the end of the day, thank you.

All the children were talking amongst themselves when Mr. Pratt told everyone to calm down and open their books up. Mr. Pratt had an unhappy look on his face, and Jeremiah had a smile on his. To him this was going to be good day. Jeremiah couldn’t wait for the end of the day and the assembly.

All day Jeremiah was in tune to all his classes, and seemed to be happy. He was unusually happy, and his teachers noticed. He was on today. He was answering all the questions in his classes and participating even more than usual. His mood was especially good when he entered his last class of the day, biology. They were going to be dissecting frogs today and he couldn’t wait to open up and see the inside of the frog.

When he sat down with his lab partner Margaret he noticed right away that she wasn’t eager to be doing this, and had voiced her objections to cutting open the frog. Jeremiah was happy she didn’t want to because he wanted to be the one to cut it open and pull all of its parts out. He was use to it anyway because he had done it with the cat that he told his mom had gotten out and ran away. This would be easy compared to that, and he wouldn’t have to kill it first.

When they got the frog he took it and put it on the tray and began to pin it down when Margaret said, “This is gross and sick. I can’t believe anyone would want to do this. They have got to be sick.”. Jeremiah gave her a dirty look, pointed the scalpel at her, and jabbed it into the frog and began cutting it open, all the while whistling ‘It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

After all the parts were out of the frog he threw down the scalpel and said out loud “Done!”. He was proud he was the first one done. Mr. Jackson came over and said he did a very good job and gave them both an ‘A’. Margaret smiled and said “yay.”, “You didn’t do anything and don’t deserve the grade.” He slammed his hand down and glared at her for the rest of the class, freaking her out.

When the class ended all the students started making their way to the gym for the assembly. Jeremiah hung in the back and sat up in the back corner of the bleachers. he wanted to see the reaction of the whole school. This was going to be good and he didn’t want to miss any of it.

Principal Balders stepped up to the microphone. He had a look of pain on his face as he began to speak. “I’m sure you are all wondering why you are here. Yesterday after school there was a terrible accident. Ms. Dabbers was killed in a car accident. I know she was like by all the students and will truly be missed. I want to let you all know we are here for you and we have notified your parents that we will have counselors for all of you. If you need anything my door is always open. Again I’m sorry to have to tell you all this and hopefully we can get through this together, thank you.”

Children and teachers alike began to cry and weep. There was a cloud of sadness that came over the whole gymnasium. The view was so sad and you could feel it unless you looked at Jeremiah, then you would think something wonderful happening because there was that evil looking big smile that seemed to be on his face more and more. He slid off to the back of the bleachers and snuck out of the gym and decided to walk the two miles home. He had a lot of thinking to do and a list to create.