The difference between a law student and a college student sounded better than the difference between a law student and a high school student. Poppy did not know why she was even thinking about all of this. It was not like Bennett was ever going to be interested in her. She doubted he even knew her name or that she existed.
Instead, she focused on her art. Each night after Gran would go to bed, Poppy would sit on her balcony and wait for Bennett to appear. Then, she would spend the next half hour sketching him.
Poppy worried she was becoming obsessed with him. She thought about him all day and most nights as he had taken up a starring role in her dreams. He was practically all she thought about. She had drawn him in the nude no less than ten times but did not feel like her sketches were doing him justice. It got so bad that she considered using the digital camera that Gran gave her for her birthday to take pictures of him so she could draw him more accurately, but she did not have the nerve.
She made sure only to draw him from the neck down. If Gran found them, she could say she was sketching from an art book. Even though it was unlikely Gran would ever see any of them, Poppy had become quite good at keeping her drawings hidden.
Three Weeks Later
August 1999
School was slated to start the next week, so Poppy and Gran went by the high school and got her registered. While there, the counselor told them about a few classes that Poppy could enroll in for free at the local community college in town, ASU Searcy. She registered for a college-level drawing class and a pottery class.
The following week, school started, and Poppy was not at all excited about it. If not for the art classes, she would have been miserable. Every day that first week, she rushed home, raced through her dinner prep with Gran, and then spent her nights sketching Bennett. All of that came to a screeching halt when he returned to Fayetteville on the Friday of her first week. After that, she had to rely on her memory and previous drawings to perfect her sketches and paintings of her Adonis. She greatly regretted not taking pictures when she had the chance and promised herself she would never make that mistake again.
For the most part, school was just something to be endured, with one notable exception. As it so happened, Gran had been right about one thing. The art department at Searcy High School was top-notch. Under the tutelage of Mr. Hickey, the art teacher, Poppy could pour everything into her art. The quality of her work and attention to detail showed marked improvement thanks to her classes at both SHS and ASU Searcy. Her college drawing class was focused on the human form. She was able to use what she learned in that to greatly improve her Adonis series.
Over the next few months, Poppy developed a sixth sense to detect whenever Bennett was home from school. During holidays and school breaks, she kept her eyes peeled for any glimpse of him. Whenever their paths crossed, he was polite and friendly, but she could tell he just saw her as the housekeeper’s kid. She could notblame him, but being invisible to someone who dominated so much of her thoughts was hard.
Sometimes, his friends Tatum and Taylor would drop by for dinner. Once, Poppy had to help serve dinner when they came for some big event. Taylor was not ugly to her. But Poppy felt like she was dismissive of her and saw her as nothing more important than a plate or a fork. Something to be used and then forgotten. It was as if Poppy only existed to serve them. She hated how that made her feel. After that dinner, Poppy begged Gran to let her just help in the kitchen when Taylor was there. She avoided seeing her if at all possible.
While her dislike of Taylor grew, so did her interest in Bennett. As the weeks passed, the pictures she drew felt stilted. They lacked definition. She had to find a way to get some photos of him. Over Thanksgiving break, she saw an opportunity.
Bennett would go for a run every morning. He would start off in a T-shirt and running shorts but would return in just the shorts. His shirt would be hanging around his neck and sweat would be glistening on his chest. He was glorious. Poppy had never felt more like a stalker, hiding in the hedges with her camera, taking pictures of him. With those pictures, she completed a project she had been working on since before the July holiday.
Poppy’s ASU art classes ended in early December. Her college professor praised her for her class drawing and encouraged her to apply to art schools as she had a natural gift. Poppy had no idea how to do that, and the only person she knew to ask was Mr. Hickey. Two weeks before Christmas break, Poppy got up the nerve to show her drawings from her ASU human form class and those of Bennett, minus his head to her teacher. Mr Hickey was convinced she had talent. He made some calls and got her several applications to various art schools. He helped her take photos of her portfolioof work with a focus on her drawings of Bennett. Lastly, he wrote her a glowing referral letter. Her college professor did as well.
She did not tell Gran that she was applying to the various schools. She did not want Gran to see her portfolio submissions. She did not relish trying to explain how a girl who had never so much kissed a boy had such intimate knowledge of a man’s body. To her teacher’s credit, neither teacher ever questioned it. She assumed they thought she used a school model, as if any of those people could hold a candle to Bennett.
A second reason she did not mention it to her grandmother was her chances of being accepted were slim. Even if she did get in by some miracle, she had no idea where they would find the money for tuition. Mr. Hickey had said money had a way of taking care of itself. That had not been Poppy’s experience, but she hoped he knew something she did not. From where she was standing, she had no idea how she could ever afford college. Any college. Without a scholarship, Poppy did not see it happening for her.
It had not happened for her mom, and she had been valedictorian of her class. She knew that her mom had been working and trying to save money for college when she had gotten pregnant with her. Well, they all knew how well that had worked out. Her mom died at twenty without ever having taken a single college course.
Poppy comforted herself with the thought that with the two college classes she took the first semester and the two she was planning to take in the spring, she would have twelve undergrad hours of art under her belt when she left high school. It was a start. Just as a backup, at the last minute, her college professor convinced her to apply to ASU Jonesboro. He promised that if she did not get accepted to any of the big art schools, he would try to help her get a partial scholarship at ASU.
She had to have at least one reference letter from an academic teacher. That one gave Poppy pause. Grades and school had so not been on her radar this year. She considered calling and asking one of her former teachers to write her letter of recommendation. But, in the end, she decided to go with her English teacher, Mrs. Dacus, who was always kind to her. She agreed and wrote Poppy an outstanding reference letter. Poppy realized that she was lucky to be at Searcy. Without the help of her teachers, she would have never gotten through the process. On the day she was to mail everything off, she got a nice surprise. Mr. Hickey had contacted Mrs. Roe, her previous art teacher. She drove to Searcy and hand-delivered her reference letter. It was wonderful to see her old teacher and catch up. She was relieved she did not have to show Mrs. Roe her portfolio. The photos were already sealed, and the actual pieces were safely hidden at home. It was silly, but she would have been embarrassed. Mrs Roe still saw her as a kid. Those drawings were anything but. It would have been too weird.
Chapter 4
Carrington Kitchen
Searcy, Arkansas
November 27, 2023
"So you're telling me you lived here on the property, and yet you and Mr. Carrington, Bennett, never personally interacted that first year?" asked Harvey Cox. He had been listening and taking notes as Poppy told him about how she and Bennett met.
"Not exactly. We saw each other in passing but did not actually meet until Christmas break. Bennett came home a few days before the big Carrington Christmas party. That is when things began to change," replied Poppy.
"Tell me all about that first meeting,"replied Harvey.
"Well…”
Carrington House
Searcy, Arkansas
Christmas 1999
