The Inheritance Book 1

Ch 14 First Event: Hannah Frost [Monday Morning, Week Two]

The storm prevented the pickleball tournament that had been scheduled as the first event of the competition. Hannah was disappointed. As a volleyball player who knew her way around a court, she felt she had a pretty good chance of winning.

Instead, they had to create a picture of the castle.

The adults herded the kids into the craft room, which was next to the music room. It had two big work tables and lots of shelves and cupboards full of paints & brushes, colored pencils, clay, beads, paper, canvases, glue, and anything else that would inspire creativity in an artist. Which Hannah definitely was not.

Averi and Graehm waved her over to join them. Elizabeth, Sione, Jarrett and Bryce claimed the other table, so they were stuck with Mirabelle and Kellyn at theirs.

"Cupboards and drawers are labeled and meticulously organized so you can find the kind of paper or canvas that you want, along with the supplies you require," Miss Haversham said. "You have an hour and a half. You may draw, paint, do a mosaic, basically anything you choose. It just has to be a picture of the castle."

Miss Haversham placed a few photographs on each table. "Here are some pictures of the castle taken over the years to give you ideas for angles and such. Allora wants it to be judged blind, so we're leaving you to work by yourselves. Behave accordingly. Your time starts now."

After a stern finger-pointing at Bryce, Miss Haversham left the room at about the same time Janey Cat sauntered in.

The cat hopped up onto the top of a display cabinet and lounged there with both front paws hanging off the edge, surveying the room as if she owned the place. She reminded Hannah of those lion statues some people had in front of their house.

Before they got started, Mirabelle dumped a fistful of orange-mint Lifesavers on the table between herself and Kellyn. Without warning, Mirabelle threw one at Hannah and said, "Here!"

The candy hit Hannah on the forehead and bounced back onto the table.

Mirabelle cackled as though it was the most hilarious thing ever. "I can't believe you didn't catch that! I thought you were an athlete!"

Hannah's automatic reaction was to grab the Lifesaver and return the favor, but instead she kept herself in check and just tossed it back over to the pile. It was the first day of the competition, and getting into a battle with Mirabelle wasn't worth the risk.

While everyone else at her table went to find supplies, Hannah flipped through the photographs, hoping for inspiration.

The only thing Hannah could draw was stick figures. Hayden, her twin brother, was the artist of the family. If he were here, everything would be different. A wave of homesickness suddenly swept over her, and a burning knot started to form in her throat. Nope. She would not show emotion right now in front of all these people. She had to shake it off. Her job right now was to figure out how to put a castle on paper.

The area around the cabinets cleared out as the kids returned to the tables. Hannah still wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but she went over to look through the supplies anyway. On one of the shelves, she found containers of various colors of fine sand. A tray was stocked with construction paper. Finally, she had an idea about what to do. She grabbed the glue, some sand and a couple sheets of construction paper.

Hannah avoided interacting with Kellyn and Mirabelle, but she felt a little better when she saw that Kellyn was frustrated by the project too.

"I suck at art so bad!" Kellyn complained as she scrubbed the eraser on her paper, wiping away what was probably supposed to be castle stones.