collision // harry styles au

chapter nineteen

we wanna dedicate chapter nineteen to gemmaastyless who is the author of a really good fic called pretty please don't pinch me. i stayed up really late reading it last night bc i just had to figure out what was going to happen, hopefully that's how Collision is for some of you ;) love yall xo

I sat in the second row of my Art 101 class chewing on my finger nail as my teacher droned on about the importance of shading. We always went over something in a lot of detail before actually doing it, which was usually fine for me but today I was too antsy to focus on anything my professor was saying. Today was the day Professor Ling was going to announce the winner of the Children's Hospital contest we'd all entered. It seemed that the whole class was just as antsy as me as we awaited the last ten minutes of class for the announcement. The winner got their piece hung in the hospital, and also got to donate a $5,000 to any pediatric foundation they wanted. If I won, mine would be going to down syndrome awareness.

After what seemed like hours, Professor Ling dropped her clip board onto her desk and sighed. "Not that any of you are paying attention anymore, anyways, but I'm done. It's time for the announcement of our winners. Now, first place is the only one being hung and the only one that gets a prize, but second and third place get 100% for the actual grades in my class, which, if you ask me is pretty damn great."

She walked from her desk to her large office that she used as a supply closet and pulled out a cart followed by two others that were tied together by rope, reminding me of a train toy that George loved to play with. The carts had patterned cloth draped over each one. She parked them in the front of the class and turned to us.

"Beneath these God-awful drapes that my mother-in-law bought me for Christmas is our top three. Are you all ready?" she smirked at all our apprehensive faces. "Third place goes to.." she pulled off the ugly drape to a painting of a cow jumping over the moon. "Thomas Wilson and his impressive painting of the cow jumping over the moon!" Thomas stood and walked to the front of the room to take his red ribbon from Professor Ling.

"Now, second place goes to.." she paused, positioning her hand above the cloth before yanking it up. "Eliza Rhodes and her beautiful painting of Rapunzel!" Eliza stood, squealing. She was a peppy blonde with more talent in her pinky finger than in my whole body. I knew that if she'd gotten second place, I didn't stand a chance. So, I sighed and started to pack my things into my bag, not even really bothering to watch her unveil first place.

"And first prize goes out to one of the best painters I've had in this class in almost ten years," Professor Ling said, her hand pulling up the third and final drape. I'd been double-checking that I had everything in my backpack when I heard it. "Jenson Arlington and her phenomenal painting of Wilbur from Charlotte's Web!" I dropped my back pack and turned back around to see my painting sitting on the middle cart.

"Oh my god," I said in disbelief, covering my mouth with my hand. "I won?"

"You did, Ms. Arlington." Professor Ling beamed at me, and I grinned right back at her. I stepped up to the front to take my blue ribbon and certificate. I was given a lot of hugs from people I'd only been aqcuainted with during the first week when we did all those "get to know your classmates" activites and a lot of pats on the back. I was on cloud nine when I walked out of the Art building.

The first thing I did was call Harry. "Hello?" he answered, but he sounded a bit distracted. It had been a week since dinner with his father and we'd only grown closer.

"I won!" I squealed like a ten year old girl into the phone. "I got first place for my Wilbur painting, can you believe it?"

"You won? That's amazing, Jen! I'm so happy for you." His voice brightened, "I'm working on an English paper right now, but come on over. Violet and Niall are here and we can all go out for some celebratory ice cream or something," Harry said, and I could hear his smile through the phone.