19 Journey to the Fine Arts area
1795 Words
“Ok, so the first order of business has been accomplished!” Jules said, spinning herself around on her brand new swivel chair.
“You seem pleased with yourself, Jules,” replied Charlie as he was the newest member of both the group and the only member without a chair.
“That’s alright! We can get you one too, Charlie,” Jules replied.
Max and Trae had been working on their new POS program model, with the recommendations given by Charlie.
The new program they revamped came with new features, such as account logs, automatic saving, and a highly advanced dating system. These allowed the users to have complete control over their numbers, while not needing to worry about any kind of data loss. As far as Max was concerned, these were all ancient technology, but to the others, it was nothing short of a technological miracle. On top of that, the interface would be set on a touch screen monitor, which at that time, was state of the art, and new to anyone in the technology industry. The way Max worked on the computer was comparable to a wizard who’s mastered magic over centuries. After making a few more final clicks on his keyboard, Max turned his attention back to his three comrades, who at this point were bickering over what kind of chair to get Charlie. He cleared his throat to grab their attention, which happened relatively quickly.
“Alright, let’s officially welcome Charlie into our little group!” he said, as he gestured toward the new member.
Jules and Trae clapped happily, as Charlie sat on the bed, both happy and a little uncomfortable from all of the attention.
“Thanks, guys,” he said, looking over at Trae with a thankful look.
Trae nodded to the new member with the same look, before returning his attention back to Max.
“With that, we are ready to proceed,” Max said. “But first, how are we going to pitch this to the school?”
The group all sat in silence for a moment, almost surprised that they had even made it this far. They looked at each other with hopeful glances but were disappointed when no one could seem to come up with clear answers. With a sigh, Max tried to restart this conversation again.
“So, could we try and set an appointment with the school to pitch our design?” he asked, looking to Charlie, who seemed more knowledgeable about this kind of thing.
“Well, yes and no,” he said, shrugging with uncertainty.
“Why that answer?” Jules asked.
“Well… It’s not as simple as walking into the main office and demanding to see the President,” Charlie said, removing his glasses to clean them. “She is a very busy woman after all, and I’m sure she has been presented with many companies, all with more reputable names than our no-name company,”
“I see… But I’m sure she would be convinced by the technology,” Trae said, gesturing to the computer.
“That is true, but if we can’t get an appointment, then it wouldn’t be that simple would it?” he said, as he put his glasses on.
“If only there was a way that we could somehow showcase our tech on a really big stage… Because as far as i know, this kind of tech at this time would be groundbreaking,”
The three looked at Max as if he had said something wrong. He quickly jumped at his slip of words.
“Y-you know! Because of how futuristic our devices and programs seem!”
The group dismissed it quickly, as they already had more on their minds. Max let out a quiet sigh of relief. Soon after, Charlie’s eyes widened. He shot straight up out of the bed and looked at all of his friends with a shocked yet triumphant expression.
“I-I think I got it!”
A hopeful grin spread across Max’s face.
“What is it, Charlie?” Max asked, excited anticipation evident in his voice.
Quickly, Charlie rummaged through his bag and pulled out a pamphlet for a technological competition that would be happening a week from that day. He showed it to all of his friends. It was evident that all of them immediately got what Charlie’s idea was.
“You guys thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked, with a knowing smile on his face.
“I’m down with that man!” Trae said immediately.
“Oh! I could get my father to come and say nice things about it as well! It would make headlines!” Jules added.
“That would be perfect!” Max said, patting Jules on the back excitedly. “Then we have a plan! Charlie, can we ask you to handle that? Since it’s an individual competition, we need the one with the most notoriety to be our representative. That’d happen to be you!”
“Sure thing! Just let me call up the organizer. I know the guy and have presented in his contests before!”
“Awesome! Please get on that!”
Charlie nodded, as he dialed on his phone and stepped out of the room. Max smiled at the other two, before getting on with his other plan of getting the other two people on board with the company.
“Alright, so who should we get next to add to our team?” Max asked the two present members.
“Don’t you think we should get Ivan on board first? Considering he is our gameplan guy?” Trae asked.
“I disagree actually. Considering our main plan is to grab attention from the get-go, we will need Lina’s graphic design skills early on. Ivan will be more helpful once we are able to get past the initial stages of our company’s progression!” Jules replied.
Trae nodded in agreement.
“So, we're going to try to convince Lina next, right?” Max asked.
“Yeah that sounds good,” Jules replied.
“Seconded!” Trae added.
“Alright, so that being said, do either of you know where we can find her?”
“Well, we can be sure she is in the fine arts area of this school!”
Jules let out some uncertain groans, trying to start her sentences, but cut herself off as if lacking the words.
“What’s the matter, Jules?” Trae asked.
“Well… Uhh, you see… The FA department is… err god how do I say this?”
“No need to worry about anything Jules, I’m sure we will get it!” Max said, giving her a confident and assuring smile.
She tried to return it but shook her head.
“No you guys don’t get it! You’re freshmen in the School of Sciences and Technology. J-just… come with me!”
She led the two out the door. Charlie was still on the phone while Jules yanked him to tag along.
“I-I’m sorry! I really gotta go! But thank you so much for letting me in on short notice… Uhuh! Ok bye!”
He put the phone back in his pocket before turning his attention back to Jules.
“What’s going on?” Charlie asked, freeing himself from her grip.
“I’m taking them to the FA,” she said, still walking.
“The FA? A-as in… the FA area?” he said, starting to get a little uneasy.
“Yup!”
“I-I think I’m gonna pass...” Charlie said.
“No, you’re not! We are a team and you’re coming with us!”
Trae and Max started to get uneasy as the mystery surrounding the Fine Arts area was beginning to sound incredibly grim.
“What’s wrong with the FA area?” Max asked.
He was not met with an answer. Instead, Jules walked at a faster pace, determined to show him what the fine arts area really was, and why other schools were uneasy to walk there.
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The four looked over to the pathway that led to the Fine Arts area. Max thought that it could not be that bad. The pamphlet for the Fine Arts courses was filled with images of a kind looking people, who looked exceptionally passionate about paintings, digital art, graphic design and more. He tried to dismiss the looming sense of danger that filled him as they stepped closer and closer to the Fine Arts area, which had a large lawn that housed several buildings that housed different classes for the arts. With a final step, they walked over through to the other side of the high archway.
“Watch it!”
Instantly, Max ducked as a reflex, which was followed by a loud, stinging, audible splatting sound to the wall beside him. He looked over to the wall as it was drenched in purple paint, that formed the shapes that one would see in psychiatric tests. He turned back around to see a less than pleased set of students, who all looked different than any of the other students on campus. They had wildly colored hair, were covered head to toe in tattoos, and had many kinds of piercings adorned over their faces. One of them walked past Max and began painting wildly on the wall with different sets of colors, almost immediately forming the face of the president of the school. The others soon began to join him.
“You’re a long way from home science boy!” one of them called out, as the four walked away.
Max shook his head before his eyes settled on the very reason why the Fine Arts department was so feared by other students.
Everywhere one could look, there was nothing but pure chaos unfolding before their eyes. In the lawns, everything was covered in statues being built in paper mache. Paper and paints were littered all over the lawn, spilling over onto the flattened scraps of cardboard they used to keep the paint from making a mess. All of the students in this area were covered in paint, as they moved their arms wildly as if they were possessed. Along the hallways, many students would be loudly speaking lines and walking around, with their free arms gesturing wildly as they read their scripts. Others in the same hallway looked so incredibly tired and narcoleptic, that they would sleep even on the benches of the campus. Bands in the music clubs would be jamming away on their instruments, without care for anybody who would be passing by. Finally, the entire building was covered in all sorts of outlandish designs that would almost resemble graffiti.
As the group moved through the hallways, they could not help but know that they were getting curious stares from the students who were clearly different from them.
“This… my dear friends… is the Fine Arts area,” said Jules, as she led them deeper into the den of the most liberal and open-minded space of free thinkers, and artists.
- Writer
