Athena gave a small sigh as she stood looking up at her new home, for how long? She really had no idea, but to be honest she felt that this would be a good fit for her. The air was clean and fresh and the whole town looked like a scene from a book or even one of her paintings.
Smiling to herself she fished out a ten dollar note from her pocket, she handed it to the driver with a smile. " Thanks so much..really. It means a lot to me that you actually got me here in one peice, even after you had to stop way to many times to count. I'll work on that "Up" Painting for your daughter. Free of charge it's the least I can do." Athena smiled and tapped the side of the truck picking up the last box under her arm.
Stepping through the threshold, Athena didn't really know where to begin. She had a vague idea of where to put things, but being an artist things changed all the time. She had an office, living room, small kitchen with a lot of storage space. A bedroom, bathroom and a little nook which would be good for all her canvas's. The garden was large, backing off into the forest she would plant some vegetables for the summer and put a nice bench for drawing outside or just watching the world go by.
"Right then Athena...don't stand around, get sorted now. Then explore the town" she muttered to herself as she got to work unpacking her office first, reference books, photos, an abundance of paints, pencils, charcoals. Sketchbooks labeled into categories. Animals, architecture, nature, trees and foliage, fantasy, originals. This room took the longest and after that the house was more or less a breeze.
It was about 1:00 in the afternoon, the curiosity in Athena had been growing since she had arrived. Picking up her back she put in her pencils and small sketchbook incase something had to be captured straight away. Her small camera, purse and a bottle of water. House keys..couldn't forget house keys. She looked around the house for her shoes having taken them off while putting things away, the feel of wooden floor on her feet was lovely. Funnily enough her keys were in her shoes. She was so odd sometimes.
It didn't take her long to start snapping pictures of the town, the sings around town were beautiful. Some burnt into wood, a skill she wished she could master. Everything was so picturesque the trees in the town blended into the Forrest like it was taking over the town slowly but surely. She paused at a large building that looked like a museum which drew her in, but at second glance it was a library. Even better she could have a look at the reference books incase there was something different which was always great. It was quiet silent in the library which was to be expected but Athena could hear small laughter and voices. Kids. Great Athena really liked kids, they calmed her down. Plus Kids just loved her drawings.
She looked around the library pausing to look at lettering on bookcases and the architecture of the library it had high ceilings and looked like a large chandelier used to hang there. Smiling to herself she stepped forward and bumped into someone, someone rather small.
She looked down at the little boy, he must have been about 6, with sandy blonde hair. He was holding a peice of paper with orange paint on it. Which unfortunately was now smudge all over his top. " You..you smudged my painting..it took me ages and now you've ruined it."[i] His voice broke Athena's heart, she crouched down to look at his eyes. " Well I'm very sorry sweetie. I bet we can make it even better with a pen and a few more colours" she smiled and stood. " Do you want to show me where your painting? And I'll sit with you and show you a trick to make smudges much better" she gestured for him to lead her and she saw an open area with tables and an abundance of colours and paper and kids of all ages, glueing and cutting. She felt a tugging at her arm and sat down. [i]" How are you going to fix it? You wrecked it, you should look where your going." The boy trailed of putting the paper down and sitting down next to Athena. " Well young man so should you, at least I have glasses for when I do my painting. Hand me that paintbrush please" she got out her glasses from her bag slipping them on her face and tying her hair into a messy bun.
She looked at the picture and nodded dipping the paintbrush in some white paint. " Right what we are going to do is, put some white paint here. Here, and there. Now get some brown and put it there and there. You can use my pencil to draw some eyes and a nose. There we go..what do you think?" She asked showing the boy.
His eyes lit up with shock and awe " Woah! That's so cool! I thought it was wrecked. But you changed it...thanks for showing me. I'm going to show Willow" Athena smiled taking off her glasses and undoing her hair. " Your very welcome young man." She patted his back and watched as he got up with his improved picture and showed some of the older children, then he went out of sight. Athena smiled to herself and sat for a while watching as the children looked at her, of course she was a stranger here, but a stranger who just made an impression. A little girl came over this time a bit younger " What else can you draw?" Athena sucked in a breath. " Ooh I don't know...what can you draw?" She asked " I can draw a cat..only sitting down ones" Athena laughed " That good cause Cats do spend a lot of time sitting down. Do you want to show me how you draw a cat and then I'll draw one?" She nodded and sat down once again Athena donned her glasses and tied her hair up her pencil in her mouth the little girl chatting away scribbling down furiously.
A voice pipped up " That one over there! She did it!" Athena was mid tie when she saw the little boy from earlier pointing at her. The way he spoke was in between accusation and admiration.