They Call Me Zero

They call me Zero, all the boys in third grade, ever since the incident in Art class last October. Barry thinks it’s funny. Thomas is just being mean. But Ginger still smiles her freckly smile and calls me Philip. Well, we’ll see who’s laughing next week.

It was a simple painting day in Art class that Friday. Not like the day we had to build a house out of lifesavers. It was sunny outside, and two weeks before Halloween. I remember because my Dad wouldn't let me make the jack-o-lantern earlier. So I was all excited to get home and start carving out the pumpkins we bought the night before at Farmer Bob’s.

Miss Korrine, our Art teacher, laid out big sheets of paper that she likes to call our canvas. She passed out the paints and brushes while we put on our painting T-shirts. Then she pushed back her kinky red hair, and using a brush as a pointer, she explained our project.

"I want you to choose something you like, either in the classroom, or outside the window. But I don't want you to paint what you see. I want you to paint what you feel. So your painting won't look like an object, but an emotion."

Now, I was confused. Paint a feeling? But I didn't want to waste time, and I thought maybe if I finished quickly I could leave early. So I looked out the window to see if something out there gave me a feeling.

And then it happened. I saw a tree, with beautiful red and gold and green leaves. I thought of the tree in my front yard, where I would sit to carve my pumpkin. Now I was really feeling something. I was feeling in a hurry to get home. I needed to paint that hurry feeling.

I grabbed the biggest brush we had, and looked at the paint colors in front of me. I had red and green, but no gold. The blue would have to do. I dunked my brush in the red paint and made a wide stroke all the way from one side of my canvas to the other. I wiped the brush on my shirt, then dunked it in the green and made another sweep. I did the same with the blue. Then since I really liked red, I made one final brush stroke with the red, this one catty-corner.

I stood back and looked at it. It didn't look like anything, just like Miss Korrine had said. But it looked like I felt. Like I was in a hurry to get home to my red and green and gold tree and carve a pumpkin. I felt proud. I painted an emotion. And I did it in less than a minute.

I looked around and saw most of the kids just starting. Ginger was carefully painting tiny pink clouds with a tiny little brush. I finished first. I won.

Excitedly I called to Miss Korrine. "I'm all done! I painted a hurry up feeling. Look!" I pointed to my four brushstrokes proudly.

But a strange thing happened. My teacher did not look happy. She walked over slowly, her lips pinched together like she did when Barry ate all his lifesavers instead of building a house.

"Philip, I'm disappointed. You didn't even try. An artist must put some soul into his work." Miss Korrine pulled out her red Sharpie, and right on my painting, in the top left corner, she put a big red zero. "Now sit down and wait till everyone else is done."

I was crushed. This was all wrong. I did what she asked, and she didn't like it. Worse, I didn't even get to go home early. Even worse, the other kids started snickering. Thomas pointed at the painting, whispered something to Barry, and they looked at me and smirked. Soon all the kids were looking at the painting, and at me, and giggling. Except Ginger, who smiled sweetly. Miss Korrine smacked her paint brush on her desk loudly, and everybody went back to work.

Twenty-five long minutes later, the bell rang and we all ran for the door. Just as we got to the hallway, Thomas stopped me. "Hey Zero, nice painting." Of course, everybody heard it. And everybody thought it was cool, because Thomas said it. From then on, I was Zero at school.

It was a long winter. All my Christmas cards at school were addressed to Zero, and my Valentine’s Day cards. Except for Ginger. She handed me a Valentine’s Day card with Philip written in cursive, and little hand-drawn hearts. She smiled like she had a secret and asked me to open it right away. Inside was the flyer that changed my life.

On bright red paper covered with snowflakes, the headline read:

Igloo Children’s Beautiful Winter (ICBW) Festival,
announces the featured artists for their
February exhibition.

Ginger leaned in excitedly and pointed to the item halfway down the page:

In the Elementary division of Abstract Art
we will feature a piece by Philip Bartholomew.
Philip is a student of Miss Korrine at
Rovenstine Elementary.

His piece entitled Hurry Up
was submitted by his friend

Ginger Peach.

I was speechless. Until Thomas walked past singing, “Zero has a girlfriend.”

I smirked at him, leaned over and kissed Ginger on the cheek. “Thank you for being nice to me.”

“I liked your painting, Philip. The Festival people really liked the bright red sun you put in the corner." She winked at me. "Should we ask Miss Korrine to drive us to the exhibition?”

I nodded, smiled, and said, “You can call me Zero.”


*This is the promised response to this very entertaining post.