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Okay, this was kinda a rip off.

Alexa didn't know a ton about art art, but she knew enough that she knew what painting was supposed to be like. You had your paint and you had your brush and your canvas and you got to mix nice colors in satisfying swirls and then you got to do some fun strokes and you'd end up with anything your heart could imagine, or something.

At least some little flowers. Obviously getting really good took practice and dedication and all that, but Alexa was pretty sure that she could at least paint some cute little cartoon flowers. Instead, she had some black paint and some white paint mixed to create a couple of really boring shades of gray paint, and what she was painting was a stack of different shaped blocks that were in the middle of the table.

She couldn't exactly say it was going well. Hers was pretty smudgy, and somehow she'd gotten smears of paint all the way up to her elbows. Needing some distraction, she glanced over to the girl across the table from her. It wasn't someone she'd seen around before. A freshman, maybe?

"How long 'till we get to the fun stuff, do you think?" She asked. The art stuff would be fine if she at least got along with people.

Alexa added another blob of black paint, and then another blob of white paint, 'cause the solution was probably to add more paint, this was painting, except yeah, based on the smeary mess her piece had become and the raised eyebrow she was getting from the teacher, maybe more paint was not the answer.

"Yeah, you're probably right," she said with a huffy sigh. She really had been expecting better stuff to paint than blocks, and she didn't want to have to wait for it. Her annoyance was short lived, though, because even if her project wasn't going great, at least the other girl seemed cool with talking. Most classes were at least okay if you had a friend.

"But, uh, yeah, hi. I'm Alexa!" She grinned at the introduction, even as she sized up the other girl's painting, which was definitely better than hers. "Are you a freshman?" Probably. Meadowview was a big school and Alexa didn't know everyone, but she usually at least saw people around.

"Yeeeaah," Alexa said, the word drawn out and defeated as she looked down at her paper which was kinda a blobby mess. She bit her lip and tried smoothing it out with the brush, which kinda worked. There was way too much paint, that was for sure, but the texture was better and the different shadow blocks were starting to be there.

"You're probably right. I just wish we could at least practice with like teal or something." She gave a little sigh, but perked back up when Clementine mentioned pixels. "Oh, you do computer stuff? What kind?" Was her new friend secretly an amazing artist? That would be awesome!

"I can do crafty stuff," she said, showing off a wrist covered in a hodgepodge of charms, beads, and woven bracelets, "And like, now paint, yeah, but this is new."

"Wait, you like games?" Boring paint project momentarily completely forgotten, Alexa's smile went big and bright. "What kind? I like games!" The teacher might've been kinda judgy and not into letting her play with colors, but that was fine 'cause it seemed like she'd won the seating arrangement jackpot.

"I mean for me it's been pretty much just phone games and stuff so far," she said with the tiniest shrug, 'cause some people thought that didn't count or even that it was weird. "But there was just this con and I went and tried out some more, like, official games there, which were really fun, and I think I wanna branch out."

She nodded, feeling bubbly. "Also, yeah. That sounds really cool! Everything should totally be as pretty as possible!"

She took the chance to glare at her sloppy gray painting.

Alexa did not have to be asked twice about her interests.

"I played a lotta Candy Crush when I was younger. Then like, so many bad spin offs. So many." She stared into the distance for a second, like it had been super terrible, before she giggled. "Some were actually kinda fun. Yeah. So, puzzle games, I guess? Then, like, Pokemon Go, but I didn't get as into that one, and Pocket Camp. That one's really cute, you like run a camp?"

She nodded, clearly quite excited with the concept. "Multiplayer sounds cool though, I like stuff I can talk about with my friends, so actually playing with them can be the next step. I think the one at the con was called a MOBA?"

Alexa took advantage of the surprisingly interesting freshman in front of her to, for a little bit, at least, completely ignore the sadness that was her art project. "Oh, Pocket Camp? That one was really cute but yeah, mostly waiting, and I think it mostly got popular because it was based on some other games?"

Real video games were probably better, right? From what she'd seen of DSes, they looked pretty cute, but she wasn't sure that was a rabbit hole she wanted to go down when she was about to be a broke college student.

"I'm not always good at the ones where you have to check back all the time, either. I like the puzzle-ly ones, and the pretty ones." She grinned. Stuff being pretty was really important.

"And yeah, I went to the con. It was really cool." She leaned back a bit, all smug. Not to brag, but she was totally bragging. "Yeah, some people dressed up, and they were testing out games and stuff. Anyway, you said you did online gaming?" The bragging was short lived, and she leaned back in, interested. "How do you get into it?"

"I mean, I get it, I get it, the animals are really cute, and obviously friends are good, but, like, it takes forever to do anything. Literal days. Games are supposed to be for fun. Waiting around that long's boring."

She wasn't really all that interested in spending days on this art project, either, which was why she was still dragging her paintbrush in circles through the dripping wet paint, which, while it was definitely having an effect, it wasn't really a good one. Only the clock on the wall, ticking towards the end of class and getting pretty close now, had any chance of getting her to stop and actually let things dry.

"I get it about the money, though, and a lot of free games make you wait for stuff. Usually you can at least get a couple of levels in first, though, and then there's free games for the computer too, apparently? MMOs and MOBAs and stuff?" She didn't know much about the details, just that they were some kind of online game that people could get really, really into.

Alexa considered. "Yeah, I would probably spend a thousand bucks on video games if I could. Even the dumb ones where you can buy not having to wait. Like, maybe not now 'cause it's pretty dumb and I kinda know better but me a couple years ago? For sure."

She may or may not have gotten into fights with her parents nearly weekly on that exact topic for a while there.

"But it sounds like if I'm gonna go down that road, there's a lot of cooler stuff that I could spend lots of money on. Or not, hopefully, but y'know." Alexa's self control came in fits and spurts at best.

For example, it was a little easier to let her paint get a chance to dry when she was able to talk about something awesome like this. Still, her paper was notably soggy, her paint lumpy if finally in some kinda acceptable shade, and her arms flecked up to the elbows. She'd had fun, though, and that was the important part.

The bell finally rang.

"It sounds cool, though. I'll let you know what I find out," she said, on her way over to the drying racks.