Halfway Down There

Chapter 08

"What made you change your mind?"

Tumulong sa akin si Giulia sa pagkuha ng ilang mga naiwang gamit at ipasok lahat 'yun sa box. She caressed the thin silk cloth.

"A friend helped me," I smiled, remembering Cosimo's words.

I didn't ponder long on what he had told me. Alam kong tama siya. When he said I was thinking more about failing, I was ignoring my chance of winning. Hindi ba kasi nakakahiya na ikaw ang magiging rason kapag natalo ang buong team niyo? It's that pressuring and scary.

"I thank your friend for that," Giulia smirked. "You got this!"

Designs ang inaasikaso namin sa buong linggo. We cannot have meetings in class because whoever has the same designs presented on the day of the fashion show will incur deductions and I didn't want to mess it up, sa una pa lang. Anim kami sa bawat team. I assigned everyone based on their expertise. Tatlo ang bahala sa sewing. Sina Giulia at Noemi sa mga tela as well as descriptions habang ako'y tumutulong sa lahat.

I tied my hair up and began sketching any ideas thrown at me.

"A peplum?" tanong ng isa. "Basic silhouettes since this is less time-sensitive—"

Noemi interrupted. "Our scores rely on this. Basic will not help us unless we turn it into something else."

"Our time will be eaten up either way."

"What's our color?" I looked at them.

Tiningnan ako ni Delilah. "Pastel? Neutral?"

"Monochrome sounds good?" ngisi ni Giulia. "It'll go well with anything. It'll be easy for us to pair it with accessories if ever Signore Greco decides to make it all an ensemble."

I nodded. "Agree. But what if every team goes for monochrome..."

"Si! I thought of the same thing! I mean, monochrome is the best option everyone has here," Antonette chuckled.

"I guess we'll have to make it più perfettamente imperfetto del resto," (More perfectly imperfect than the rest) ngisi ni Noemi.

Sinimulan ko ang pagguhit ng empire dress pagkatapos ng halter. Gumuguhit din ang iba para mas mapabilis namin dahil kung magkamali kami, we'll have time to fix it. Chic, Artsy, or haute couture ang pinili naming theme. We're still deciding which one exactly. Kung hindi talaga mapagdedesisyunan, we'll think of putting them together and incorporate it both into our designs.

Signore Greco mentioned that he loves it when he is presented with unexpected results. The category options seem to complement one another kaya walang problema!

"Adriana, is the length fine, or do we need to make the sleeves fuller?"

Humarap ako kay Celestine. "Uhm... I'll check."

Napasinghap ako nang ibigay niya sa akin ang sketch. Oh god, this was what I was afraid of. I get to have the last word. We're still first-year fashion students. Do they trust me now? Oo nga pala, leader ako!

"Oh, I suggest shortening the length and replacing the wood stud buttons with either acrylic or glass rhinestones since it's an empire," I smiled after looking at her designs. "You can animate it first and do a double check to see if my suggestion will suit it, but you don't have to pour all of your time on the animation part! See what works for you."

"Si," pagtango niya.

"You can also not incorporate any, Celeste. Uhm, let's see how it'll turn out!" Bahagya akong pumalakpak.