20 Finding the hidden Graphic Designer
1793 Words
“How the hell are we gonna find Lina in this place?!” Trae yelled in exasperation.
“I don’t know man! Everything looks the same!” Max yelled back. “Paint, acting, despair! Paint, acting, acting, despair! It’s all the same all over the place!”
Jules and Charlie sighed, as being in this place were incredibly stressful for the both of them. One minute, they would be almost splattered in paint. The next they would be sucked into some weird social acting experiment. The Fine Arts department was kind of like a department store in the middle of black Friday. The group desperately looked for a place that was remotely quieter, before finally stumbling into an empty art room.
“Thank god! That was really scary!” Max exclaimed, as he nearly collapsed into a chair.
“Damn, no wonder y’all don’t like coming here,” Trae said to his equally tired sophomore companions.
“I told you I’d have rather passed up on this place,” Charlie said, complaining to Jules.
Jules shrugged and sat next to Max in another chair.
“We gotta do everything in solidarity, you know?”
“Oh, I’m sooooo glad to be doing all this in solidarity,” Charlie said, with a sarcasm laced in his words.
“Guys, focus. We gotta find Lina,” Max said, as he proceeded to come up with another game plan. “So did you guys spot any kind of maps somewhere?”
“There’s one near the stairwell, just past this classroom,” Jules said.
“Alright let’s go take a look!”
“You kidding me? I ain’t goin back there!” Trae said.
“Seconded,” replied Charlie.
Max looked at Jules hopefully, but she shook her head.
“Sorry hot stuff, you’re on your own,” Jules said, as she rubbed Max’s shoulder.
Max sighed, trying to accept his fate in having to run back out into the chaos of the Fine Arts area. With a final breath, he stepped toward the door.
“You can do it, Max!” Jules called out. “Don’t die!”
“Thanks… I guess.”
He swung the door open and ran out into a massive crowd of art students who kept doing their own respective things. The script reading, the music playing, and the painting were happening all at once, that to a science student used to the quiet of their labs, this was incredibly jarring. He battled through a crowd of people before finally reaching the end of the hallway where the stairs were. He caught a glimpse of the map, which was posted just above the heads of the people in front of him. After making it to the wall, he looked over the map.
“Alright… The graphic Design department, where are you...” he mumbled, trying not to be shaken away from the map by the other students. He finally found the floor they needed to be at. The fourth floor. With this information in mind, he battled back to the empty classroom and locked the door behind him. He heaved for a while, before sitting back down next to Jules, who looked as if she felt sorry for him. When he finally got his bearings together, Jules asked him about his trip to the map.
“So how did it go?” she said, trying to be playful, hoping to make Max feel better.
He looked at her with a stare that looked like he had the life sucked out of him.
“Right, I’m sorry. But did you get the information we need?”
“Yeah, we gotta go to the fourth floor. That’s where the Graphic Design classes are,” Max said, as he finally caught his breath. “Naturally, we are all going this time!”
The three looked at Max like he was crazy, but at this point, he did not care.
“Jules… didn’t you say something about solidarity?” Max said, not hiding the hostility behind his smile.
“Y-yes, ok we will all go,” Jules replied, intimidated by Max’s change in demeanor.
“You’re scaring me, Max, we will go ok?” Trae added.
“Alright, fine. But we have to hurry because classes will end soon,” said Charlie, who was looking at his watch impatiently.
“Alright… let’s go!” Max said.
With that, he swung the door open once more, and they were off to the fourth floor.
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The group finally made it to the fourth floor after what seemed like an eternity in a crowd of students.
“Things aren’t this hectic normally in the science and tech building huh?” Trae said, as he bent down and put his hands on his knees as he breathed heavily.
“Yeah, for real,” Max replied.
The four thanked the stars that the fourth floor was much more quiet compared to the other areas of the building. As a matter of fact, there was practically no one there. The group took their time walking along the hallway, as they eyed the different classrooms. Each classroom had a room schedule posted on the door. Prior to the visit, Max had prepared the schedules of all of the candidates that could be potential members of their company, so he knew exactly when Lina would come out of class. They waited outside of the classroom labeled “409”, sitting in the hallway just outside of the door.
“Alright, now all we gotta do, is wait,” Max said.
The seconds turned into minutes, and there was still no peep out of the door. The bell finally rang and led to a few classrooms opening up to release their students back to who knows where. However, not a peep came from this room. They waited nearly thirty minutes before standing up.
“Let’s check the inside?” Max said as he reached for the door.
Jules stopped him by grabbing his wrist.
“What’s the matter, Jules?”
“I just thought… I think only you should go in there,” she replied.
“Why’s that?”
“Think about it, Max. A single student is a lot less intimidating to another student as compared to four students.”
Max nodded his head in agreement.
“Alright, you guys can wait for me here,” Max said.
With that, Max opened the door and stepped inside. When he turned to face the room, he stood awestruck by the number of paintings and posters that hung on the walls. Nearly all of the open spaces that the classroom originally took up, was covered with some kind of artwork. The sun could barely come through the windows, as even they were subject to be framed to wonderful works of art. He looked around the room for a moment before he laid his eyes onto a student who was drawing vigorously on a large flat work table. He tried to be discreet in walking up to her, but she caught onto him before he knew it. Once she looked at him, she jumped and shrieked. Immediately, she pulled down her sleeves, as if on impulse.
“Oh my god! I-I’m sorry I screamed! I-I just I didn’t expect anyone to be here,” she said, trying to regain her composure.
“No, I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have been so quiet. I just kinda got kind of enamored by the artworks,”
“Oh really? These artworks aren’t new… oh, I see,” she said after catching a glimpse at Max’s ID. “You’re from the Sci-Tech building!”
“Sci-Tech?”
“Yeah! That’s just our jargon for the Science and Technology area.”
Max nodded his head in appreciation for the explanation. He was mildly surprised. This area of campus was almost entirely different from the other areas, but he did not know they had their own language.
The student looked at him for a little longer, as if waiting for a response, before she spoke again.
“S-so, what brings you here to the art building?” she asked, in a polite tone.
She dropped her pen onto the table and faced him. It was now that he was finally able to get a good look at her. It was just like in the picture that was taken of her from his initial research. Her hair was dyed a vibrant neon red, with some black roots peeking from her scalp. Her Japanese descent didn’t affect the fact that she had a slight tan. She had bright flashy earrings with outlandish designs, and yet her demeanor came off as just a normal if a more silent, girl. She did a lot of fiddling with her hands, and she couldn’t keep eye contact, as if she was easily nervous. She also had a habit of tugging on the sleeves of her long-sleeved shirt, bringing it down over her hands. It was clear that if Max wanted her on his side, he would have to avoid being too overbearing.
“Oh, I was just looking for a Lina... Kusonoki?”
“I am Lina,” she said meekly.
“Really?” Max said with a gentle smile, knowing full well who she was.
“Y-yes,” she replied nervously.
“Right, awesome! I actually wanted to ask you about something,” he said. “Do you think you can spare me a few minutes?”
“Sure. Want to sit down?” she said, offering him a small circular chair.
“Thank you,” he replied as he took a seat.
He did not know what this girl was about, but for some reason talking to her made him quiet down significantly. It was as if her mousy nature was rubbing off on him.
“So, hi! I’m Max Burner,” he said as he reached his hand over to her.
She met his hand and gave him a kind and gentle smile.
“So I hear you have some experience in graphic design, as well as marketing. Is this true?” he asked.
“Yes it is,” she said quietly.
“So you have quite the number of accolades under your name, right?”
“I-I guess?”
“So I and my associates were hoping to ask you if you would be interested in joining a project with us. We feel that you are one of the missing pieces that we need in order to succeed in this endeavor. Would you like to give it a shot with us?”
Max internally crossed his fingers.
“Oh! O-ok,” she said with a gentle smile.
“I promise it’s not as hard as it sounds- wait. Did you say yes?”
“Y-yes?”
“Really?!” Max yelped in excitement.
“Well experience is experience, right? I mean… It isn’t something brutally hard right? Like starting a company?”
Internally, Max’s emotion changed from something that was celebratory to something that resembled dread. He looked at the shy smiling girl, hoping that she would hear out what they had to say, even after he told her that that was exactly what they had planned.
- Writer
