Dreamchasers

Chapter 3 (3)

Just as Beth came home and started thinking about the project, she checked over her classes planner and found out that she had a lot of homework. 30 pages of reading, a math exercise sheet due the next day, and a physics investigation project due a couple of days later...only at the start of the semester. Every day she would fall asleep with her head buried in her homework pile, leaving her exhausted for the next day.

Fast forward to several days later, she and Julianna made very slow progress on their project. The two girls decided on an orange, red, and purple gradient dress with bird prints that have the length of the skirt to the floor. The upper part of the dress had semi-transparent puff sleeves adorned with thin ruffles at the cuff. At the bottom of the dress lay some cloud-like ruffles. A petticoat will be inside the dress to pump the 'clouds' up, while the LED lights will be planted just behind the 'clouds'. However, the actual dressmaking was once again, hard. There were a few bird prints to be purchased from the marketplace, but no one that has the scene of birds flying in the sunset. It was not easy to have only one piece of fabric made specifically, especially a silk one — most online shops required buyers to purchase at least a dozen of fabrics at one time. As for the LED lights — how would the batteries be implanted? Should they be sawn or simply glued to the interiors of the dress?

In the end, Beth had to settle on just using a piece of orange, pink, and purple gradient fabric she bought from an indie store online for the actual dressmaking.

Julianna looked a little bit fed up.

In the afternoon, Beth and Julianna were greeted with the gorgeous dress Simone and her friends were already making, which was placed right back near the storage in the art room. A pearl-colored A-line dress with a thin sawn layer of lace all over it, adorned with rows and rows of sunflower yellow, emerald green, and iridescent gemstones.

Julianna walked toward the dress and felt the texture. "This texture and quality seem fishy. It seems that they may have, in fact, asked someone else to help them do it..."

"Wait. What? Really?"

"That's just what I think. Anyways, if that is true, I don't think it's a good idea to attend this runway competition anymore."

"But how can you see that?" Beth hesitated, "I mean, it's still some days till the competition, and we may just suddenly make progress during these days...come on, let's just work on our project for a bit more time today."

"To be fair, it would be a waste of time if we compete with them bare-handedly. If Simone and her crew can cheat through this competition and get a top prize, it may foreshadow that the competition is not as authoritative as they had claimed to be."

"But we have already started this project for so long, and I feel like our process had already gone to waste if we just call it quits!"

Julianna seemed unfazed. "I will think about that later."

"Besides, I really enjoy collaborating with you, and you said that attending art competitions is important for a young art student. Maybe we should just try it out and see what happens!"

"I think this isn't gonna end well, and we should maybe sometimes look at other things that we can do well in the end together."

"What are the things that we can do well? Gosh, you have a research project already while I currently still have nothing!" Beth started getting impatient and raising her voice. Yet Julianna didn't say anything. She just stood up and checked over her phone instead.

"To be honest, I agreed to do this project with you because I could fit it into my schedule. I have a lot of things to handle as well. Here, I need to prepare for a club meeting for the innovation club tomorrow." As she finished her speech, she started heading out, "I am sorry, but I need to go now."