The Art of Breaking Hearts ✓

Chapter 49 - The Strangest Duo

*NOT EDITED*

Chapter 49

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"So, why do you think the Mona Lisa was one of the most famous paintings in the world despite her bland smile and colors?" The AP history substitute teacher paced between the desks. She seemed to be around in her early thirties with pretty features—makes me wonder why she's here teaching a couple teenagers.

"Because Leonardo Da Vinci drew it?" someone offered from the back for the class.

Miss. Campbell stopped for a few seconds before pacing again. "Not exactly."

When no one else suggested and answer again, she took the chance to explain it herself. "What most of you don't know is that Da Vinci was a homosexual."

A couple shocked murmurs and gasp rose around the class when she stopped for a second.

"No wonder why he chose that Mona Lisa chick to make his best painting ever."

She laughed before shaking his head. "That's not the reason. Back in his days, Da Vinci was what you'd call now a feminist. He saw that women were supposed to be the greater power and not men. And that they could've been the priests and not men—that's a reason why Catholic Churches didn't really like him. Because the Catholic Church back then shunned the women. They were thought of as evil ever since Eve took the bite out of Adam's apple.

"The female were associated with left—the left side of everything and anything in general—and male of the right side. The word righteous is just one of the many examples of what I'm talking about.

"Now, Amon was the Egyptian god of men fertility and reproduction. Lisa was for the female fertility and reproduction."

She turned to the board and wrote down their names. Then under it, she wrote down Mona Lisa. She turned back to us and stepped aside to give us a better view of the words with an expectant, knowing smile; the same smile every teacher had when they showed their students something spectacular.

"The words were arranged to spell Mona Lisa," a girl said in amazement.

"Correct. Now, if you looked closer to the painting," Miss. Campbell said, her voice rising in excitement, "you'd see that the left side of the painting in the background where the grass was, was not leveled with the left side. It was slightly higher. And as I've mentioned earlier, the left side was associated with female. So, that was Da Vinci with showing the right side as the better side. He was known for that—amusing himself with symbolism in his paintings to tease people."

"But I still don't get it, why was the Mona Lisa one of the most famous paintings to this day?" I asked.

She turned to me and locked her ice blue eyes with mine. "It's because of her bland smile,"—the bell rang—"I'll leave that question for you to ponder over."

The class erupted into low chatter as they all discussed today's lesson and got ready for lunch. I don't think anyone has ever been this interested or attentive to the lesson as today. Even before the lesson started, the boys were all ears as soon as the hot teacher walked in.

I stepped of the class with the unused book in my hand as I walked to my locker. It has been a week and half since I last talked to Ryder and I didn't know how to feel about it. There was some peace and relief, but another emotion that I couldn't quite put my finger on was also evident.

I shut my locker's door and walked to the cafeteria, my eyes targeting the table Emma, Drake, Damon, and Ryder were sitting at. Yes, I haven't been talking to Ryder, but seeing him was unavoidable. I share three classes with him and during lunch, he'd have no option but to sit with us in order to avoid Bex. She was sitting at the 'popular' table with all of Ryder's jock friends and the cheerleaders.