When In Doubt - Freshman Year

Chapter 30

Matt

It was a week later on Saturday, April September twenty-first, and that'd meant the day had arrived: The day of the Fashion-without-Fabric show.

Matt had forgotten about the fact that it was all a part of parent's weekend, and how the university had scheduled a bunch of special events for the families all visiting the campus: there was a free movie on campus in the lecture hall of the Applied Arts building, a live comedian performing in the MSC, and the Johnson field house had free trial runs with the rock climbing wall. Matt had also thought he'd heard all the local restaurants and bars along Main Street had special deals going on as well. His parents were only able to make it for the fashion show, but he'd supposed he was lucky enough; Madison had mentioned her family couldn't make the drive up from Chicago, plus other people's families couldn't have made it either.

Speaking of Madison, Matt yelped in pain as a needle poked him in his leg while she'd put some last-minute touches on their costume. They'd managed to snag a unisex bathroom in the MSC before they'd wait in the long line of students. The fashion show took place in the Great Hall, the building's largest banquet room that'd been transformed into a runway. Parents, other students, and faculty all crowded the upstairs; they'd all waited impatiently to find good seating.

"Sorry!" Madison winced underneath his cape and threw Matt an apologetic look.

Matt had mumbled he was okay as he'd looked at himself in the mirror. His usual beard had been trimmed to look like Seneca Crane's from The Hunger Games movie, dyed purple for added effect. His right eye rocked some majorly dramatic eyeliner with turquoise eyeshadow with glitter to accent the edges. He'd donned his powdered wig and top hat, blue military-style jacket made of blue plastic tablecloth. Along his back was his black cape that had silver painted from the bottom in an ombré fade, and He finally been able to fit into his garbage-bag pants with purple loofahs along the sides with long socks made from saran wrap, and wore gloves that elongated his fingers into elegant claws. He'd worn a lot of plastic for their costume, which meant he was almost boiling hot underneath it all.

Matt took a long swig of his mountain dew, which secretly had a few mixed in shots of vodka that he'd snuck in underneath his jacket. He'd told himself there would've been no way he'd get through those grueling hours without alcohol to calm his nerves. Plus, based on how he'd noticed other people had cringed after taking quick sips of their own drinks, he wasn't the only one with that idea.

Madison rose from her crouch and gave him another once over, checking to see if she'd missed anything. She'd looked so much more well rested, the color had returned into her dark skin, even her eyes had some life back into them, much to his relief.

"Are you ready for this?" Madison asked him with a grin.

"I already want to take a nap tomorrow, but I was fucking born ready," Matt replied. Madison laughed and opened the door to let him through as they'd gotten in line backstage with their classmates.

They'd stopped at a small window on one of the side doors and watched as the MC introduced the show, graciously accepted the audience's applause, and then read the lines the models had given them during their walks down the runway.

Some of the projects were really impressive actually, the theme "Tomorrow is History" had been taken many different ways: Two groups had accidentally chosen the same song, so "Blow Me Away" by Breaking Benjamin had repeated twice in a row, and everyone had seemed to notice by the way whispers had spread across the audience. One group had made some really impressive ninja-cyborg costume with smoke coming out from two holsters—Matt heard how there was always at least one group that'd loosely tied the theme to be able to fulfill some anime, fanboy fantasy—usually it was a group of Game Designers.