When In Doubt - Freshman Year

Chapter 31

Madison

It had become May, and that'd meant final exams were once again upon the horizon. The library went from a ghost town to barely being able to find a spot to actually sit, and the dorms had reinstated their twenty-four-hour quiet hours. Of course, as soon as the weather gets gorgeous, the campus had to hunker down for exams, but that hadn't stopped them from being outside, playing frisbee out on the grass, laying out blankets, and playing "Summer Hits of the 90's" on their Pandora station.

For art-students, finals worked a little differently than it did for everyone else: Their finals felt more like it was the week prior to the day of the actual exam day; their projects were due, but then the actual final was just a critique, which was actually a vast relief. Anyone else suffered the actual exams the day of.

Arquez had managed to squeeze in two more projects after the fashion show, much to everyone's disdain, so once again they'd all found themselves having late nights, but working together made it much more bearable, and even kind of fun on some nights. Instead of going down into her usual spot in the basement, Madison had begun to join Matt, Eden, and the others out in their study lounge between the girl's and boy's sides.

They were in their final critique with their last project for the semester: a simple appropriation project where they'd placed themselves within an already established piece of art. In the class before hers, Matt had drawn himself as the "Jolly Toper" by Judith Leyster except he'd had a Capri-Sun in his hands, Heather had done herself as "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" by Johannes Vermeer and modernized it with her hair wrapped up in a bath towel, Jenna had gone with Van Gogh's "The Blue Guitarist" and made it into a Quidditch broomstick, Zach had rendered himself similar to one of Van Gogh's self-portraits, and Eden really had gone all out and chose "Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli but changed it to her being in the iconic pose but at a college house party.

After her class had gone, Eden and Jenna both walked back into her dorm room looking so tired, but Madison had to hand it to her; she'd worked her ass off on their final project.

Madison smiled at Eden from her desk. "Don't worry girl, I'm sure you killed it."

Eden sighed. "I hope so, I feel like a part of my soul got ripped into that project."

Jenna collapsed into their armoire, and blew a strand of her dark hair out of her face and readjusted her baby-blue blouse. "Luckily you're not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and making horcruxes."

"But you are being a little minion of his because of how you smoothly slithered-into this conversation," Eden winked.

Jenna covered her mouth to control her laughter, and Madison fought the urge to roll her eyes.

Potterheads...

Madison considered going over to Mandy and Ali's room, where Lindsay was too. Madison was relieved when they girls had promised her they'd get rid of their secret stash for good. Honestly, she'd been embarrassed about the passing out at that St. Thomas meet, and how people like her coach had seen her in a less than stellar situation. She'd been able to get off the need to take more study drugs, it hadn't been easy, and it'd cost her a spot at state finals over summer break. She'd used her disappointment to do that much better next season come October.

"Tell me again what Arquez said about your project," Madison urged Eden to blab. Eden looked to be in absolute bliss despite the exhaustion.

"Oh alright," Eden sighed, ever the dramatic. "Here's how it went."

Eden and Jenna both told Madison how their critique had gone surprisingly well for both of them: They'd both received B+'s from Arquez, which for him, was pretty much an A because he literally never gave them out. He'd said that in order for someone to get a perfect grade, their work would've literally had to bring tears to his eyes, and for him to fall to his knees in awe.