The Mentor

Chapter 11

It was time to get critiqued after sitting in the loft for what felt like forever. I was really scared. I'm not a portrait artist. What would the judges think of my first real portrait opportunity? Kyle helped me up off the couch and took my hand, leading me into the main room. We all stood in our line formation and waited our turn. Thankfully, there were some rough ones. So I knew Kyle and I wouldn't be getting sent home. Jime took a totally different direction with his apprentice and the portrait and of course did new school. Why? It's portrait day, not googly eyed cartoon day. Aside from him, christian's apprentice really overworked the skin on his canvas and that destroyed the tattoo a little, but at least he did a realistic portrait and followed the rules, Jime's apprentice didn't. Finally, after a few critiques, it was my turn.

"Jamie, how did you feel about doing this tattoo?" Dave asked.

"I was really nervous because I'm not a portrait artist." I mumbled.

Oliver stared at the photo of my tattoo for a minute before speaking up.

"In terms of accuracy, I think you did a fine job, but at the same time you captured the parts of Kyle that maybe people don't want to focus on."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well, you did black and grey. I think this would've been better as a color portrait. The blonde part of his hair is more of a darker grey color. You should've used just straight up white to capture the blonde part, not light grey" Nunez nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, with that it looks like just grey hair, and from looking at him, Kyle doesn't have any of that yet. You should've done just white for the highlight in his hair. You aged him just by using a light wash grey instead of white. But overall, it looks like him, so I'm happy."

I thanked them and walked back to my designated spot. Kyle could tell I was a little disappointed, and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, giving me a side hug.

"You'll learn soon enough. Everyone has their weakness. Black and grey is the shit that I'm known for. I'll teach you and you'll be better at it in no time." He said softly.

I nodded in agreement but I was still upset. Sam of course got an amazing critique because he lucked out with Kelly, and he's overly talented in more ways than one. I was so jealous of how motivated and talented he was, especially since he was the stoner type. He had the long curly hair and the hemp headband and/or beanie and stayed slaying in jogging pants and hoodies but he could draw, tattoo, skate, and was an amazing musician. I can draw and I'm a theater kid that can play the piano and sing, that's it. It'd be great going up against him in the finale but it would also be bittersweet, as our alliance would disappear and we'd actually have to play the game like Josh always talked about. But there were a decent amount of us left, so we had some time before then.

We all headed back to the loft and waited. Christian, Jime, and Halo ended up getting called down along with their apprentices. Everyone hoped that Jime and Brandon, his apprentice, would be going home because they broke the rules and always whined about not being in the top. Kyle wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him on the couch. I looked at Sam and he looked really nervous and uncomfortable. I couldn't imagine why. He wasn't going home. He and Kelly were the biggest threat in this competition.

Around 15 minutes later, the door opened. Everyone jumped to the edge of their seats. Halo walked in with his apprentice, I think her name was Cheyenne, and sat down and sighed.

"How was it?'' I asked.

"It sucked man." He buried his face in his hands.

A few seconds later the door opened again. Sam was closest to the door out of everyone so he turned around right away and gasped. Jime fucking Litwalk and Brandon Hart entered the room.