My brows rose. Santos had seen Rider’s work before? And why in the heck wasn’t he reprimanding him?
Rider said nothing as Santos squeezed his shoulder. “But try working on your speech now and the sketch later? All right?”
“Sure,” Rider muttered, dropping his pen onto his desk.
Mr. Santos turned his attention to my paper and he scanned the page. “Interesting,” he murmured, and I cringed. His smile didn’t falter as he stepped closer to my desk.
I wetted my lower lip nervously and forced the words floating in my head to reach my tongue. “I...I am not...very good at writing speeches.” I paused, taking a deep breath. “Or at...giving them.”
There! I spoke to Mr. Santos all on my own, without anyone speaking on my behalf. I sat a little straighter.
“Public speaking is much like art. Being good at it is very subjective, Mallory.”
Pressing my lips together, I lifted my gaze to him, having no idea where he was going with this.
“But it’s all about trying.” Santos nodded at my paper, and suddenly I wondered if he was talking about my mad dash out of the classroom the first week of school and the subsequent call with Carl and Rosa. I hadn’t tried then. “It’s not about getting it right the first time and it’s most definitely not about perfection, but if you try, you succeed. Just like you would in art. Or in life, for that matter.” He then patted my shoulder. “And by the looks of it, you’re trying.”
I blinked slowly.
Santos roamed off, back to the front of the class.
“What in the actual hell,” murmured Paige.
I looked over at Rider, and his grin was slow, but the dimple in his right cheek appeared. “Deep thoughts,” he murmured.
My nod was just as slow. “How...did you not just get in trouble?”
“I’m gifted.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “And how...does he know about your artwork?”
Hector snorted as he looked up from his paper, responding before Rider could. “Because when Rider was a sophomore, he decided to do some exterior decorating on the outside of Lands High.”
Rider rolled his eyes.
“He tagged the entrance and got busted the next day, because the dumbass wore the same shirt he’d done the tagging in,” Paige jumped in, her lips curled up in a smirk as her gaze met mine. Something in her stare told me she was happy to point out that she knew all about this, and I didn’t. “Mr. Santos was probably the only staff member that appreciated it.”
My gaze swung back to Rider. His cheeks were a deeper pink again. “I didn’t get in too much trouble,” he said, not looking at me. “It was a misdemeanor. Had to help clean it off, which sucked.”
“A misdemeanor?” I stared at him. “How is that not trouble?”
Hector laughed, turning back to his notebook. “Misdemeanor isn’t a charge you catch that you really got to worry about.”
I did not understand that at all.
A moment passed and Rider’s gaze slid toward me. His grin was sheepish. “Okay. I was in trouble, but no big deal. Santos actually went to bat for me, so I didn’t have to actually find a way to pay for the damages. That’s why I had to clean it up.”
“I bet you don’t know that Santos had one of Rider’s sketches placed in a gallery in the city, do you?” Hector asked. “That was the part about Santos going to bat for him. Told him he needed to produce something that could be on display. You know, not on the side of a wall.”
My mouth dropped open for the second time. “What?”
“Cállate, bro.” Rider leaned forward, glaring at Hector. “Seriously.”
Hector tipped his head back and laughed.
“Where?” I asked.
A sigh rattled out of Paige. “It’s not a big deal. It was just graffiti on a canvas.”
“That is still a big deal,” I stated. No pauses there.
She rolled her eyes.
Rider shook his head as he focused on his sketch. “It doesn’t matter.”
I thought it did. “That sounds amazing.”
Something in my tone drew his gaze to mine, and another long moment passed before he responded. “It’s down at City Arts. Or it was. No idea if it’s still up.”
I wanted to see it if it was, because that was... That was extraordinary.
So much of Rider was the same from before. The kindness, that unshakable protective instinct. But there was so much I didn’t know about this older, newer Rider.
Shaking my head, I looked back at my speech without seeing the words. I thought about what Santos said. It made sense. Life was like doing this speech. It wasn’t necessarily about the end result, but more about trying.
I could...I could get behind that.
*
As class ended, Hector announced, “I’m hungry.”
“Okay,” Rider responded as I shoved my notebook into my bag. “What exactly do you want me to do about it?”
Hector grinned as he glanced over at me and winked. “I want you to take me out and feed me.”
Rider snorted.