An Artistic Duo

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Sunday, August 11

"Today's the day," Bianca said as she shoved more clothes into her suitcase.

I took a deep breath. Today was the day our paintings were judged, then tonight was the last ArtFire. After that we had until eight pm tomorrow to pack up our stuff and be picked up, or drive ourselves home.

"I just can't believe it's our last time coming to Harleen," I said. I might never see so many of these people ever again. It was a depressing thought.

"But we all promise to keep in touch, right?" Kelsey asked as she also packed some of her things.

"Promise," Alessa said, sitting on her bed, putting on makeup. "But while I do love you guys and this sentimental moment we're sharing, are none of you worried about who the judges are gonna be?"

I nodded. She was right. This year, there was going to be three judges and usually they told us who they would be, but they decided to make it a surprise this year, putting everyone on edge.

"Oh come on, Alessa, it's not like you wanna go to the college anyway," Bianca said and raised her eyebrow at her sister.

It was true. Alessa didn't want to be a full time artist when she grew up. While she did love art, she was more interested in becoming a teacher. Although it was hard to picture at first, when I did, I could really see it. Kelsey wanted to do something in the psychological field, which I could totally see her doing. She was the most understanding person in the world; she'd be a great shrink. Bianca was indecisive. She said that if she won she would continue in the arts, but if she didn't she would want to become a surgeon.

Alessa shrugged. "True, but I still wanna know who's judging my art," She said.

"You know what's been nagging at me," I said all of a sudden. When they all looked up at me, I continued. "You know how in the past years, if you didn't want the scholarship you just passed it down to the next runner up? Well what if only one of the partnership wants the scholarship? Would that one keep it and then the judges choose which other person gets it?"

There was a long silence before Bianca said, "That's a scary thought."

"I think they're just hoping that doesn't happen," Kelsey said.

I shrugged, then decided that maybe it was time for me to start packing like everyone else was doing. If I didn't start now, I would never get it done.

A few hours later, we made our way to the ArtFire site for the judging. This year, because it was our last year, we were separated from the lower years while they were all grouped together. It felt good to be older than everyone else.

There was a table set up in the middle of the campsite with three chairs behind them; the judges table. There was also a podium to the right of the judges table with a microphone attached. Around the entire campsite was all of our pieces, moved here earlier in the day. The majority of campers were around their own paintings, peeking under the covers and being generally jittery. The only adults that I saw at the moment were Marcus, Missy and Daniel.

"I'm so nervous," I said to Kelsey as we made our way through the crowd.

She raised her eyebrow at me. "According to everyone here you and Eli have been neck and neck for years, I think you're gonna be fine."

I took a deep breath. She was right. Not to be overly confident, but Eli and I are good artists. We had won all the other times, what made this time different?