ALL OR NOTHING~ Dalton Lambert

SUBCONSCIOUSLY NOT AWARE

First day of college for Shiloh and she was pretty excited, she'd already gone through the first few classes for today except for Miss Armagan's class. Even though she felt prepared for every class she felt on edge, almost like this class wasn't going to be the one.
She knew Armagans class was known to be difficult but she really didn't expect herself to feel this nervous. She had gotten a text early this morning from Chris, telling her good luck and to not feel nervous nerves because Dalton was too. Shiloh laughed at this because she actually felt better after reading it, so she scurried to her class and ignored the deep down, totally dark feeling in her gut.

Walking into the classroom, there were only about four people there, sitting on stools around the room, many easels were set up in a circle.
She sat down near one and looked up everytime the door opened and eventually Dalton entered, Shiloh straightened her posture and watched him rush to the easel on her left. Both realized what the time was and were quick to get ready to put out their art on display when the door opened for the last time.

"Hello, I'm Professor Armagan. Shut off your phones, open your portfolios, pull out something that will interest me." she stated sharply, every student in the room rushed to put something  in front of them.
Shiloh took out a large watercolor painting, it was abstract in her eyes but gory and brutal to the rest. It was a painting of a mutilated older man who was in the arms of his younger self, the picture was and painted to fit the theme.

"Pin it to your easel, stand beside your work, stand proud." She did as she was told and once her art was up she looked over to Dalton and his drawing of a woman. Everyone stood silently by their easel, the professor approached a boy only a few  people away from Shiloh, making her feel slightly nervous.

"Alec Anderson, your technique is obvious, it looks like a photograph." Armagan said, with her hands wrapped together, "thanks" the student replied with a genuine smile on his face. "That wasn't a compliment.'' Shiloh watched from afar as his expression dropped and the girl felt slightly bad for him but she kept her emotion pushed back, trying not to show her nervousness.

"Tear it up." she said calmly, "excuse me?" the boy bit back quickly. "The drawing, tear it up."she said without a care, Shiloh looked over to Dalton and watched his jaw tighten, students looking at one another in disbelief, scared.
"I worked my ass off on this piece." The boy named 'Alec' was clearly shocked at how unexpected this all was, most classmates bit their tongues and prayed they wouldn't be next.

"No one will miss it," she looked directly at him and waited for him to oblige. The boy looked back at his work, "no way" he shook his head, "alas our first casualty, usually i go through introduction before someone quits-"
"I didn't quit!" he barked back, "yes you did! You just haven't realized it yet, you can go.'' She urged him to leave and the boy looked around for some kind of help or reaction from his fears but they kept their eyes away from him.

He quickly grabbed his drawing and packed up his portfolio and headed out the door, "good luck," Armagan said as he exited the classroom.

Shiloh kept her chin trying to appear not affected by what just went down and to seem confident, her professor began slowly going around the circle.
"Any fool can learn technique, even master it. It doesn't mean anything if it doesn't come from inside." dalton and Shiloh looked at each other, "i am not intresting in the rules of art, we are going to break the rules, then i want you to break them again.
See how broken you can get." everyone's attention quickly turned to the sound of paper being torn, Shiloh looked with wide eyes up at Dalton who had just torn his sketch in half.

It was almost like he didn't realize what he had just done until he looked back up, "Dalton Lambert," she began. "Yes ma'am?" he said quickly, if this was any other situation Shiloh would have folded at his response, at his voice.

"Why in the hell would you destroy a beautifu;l drawing like that?" she strode toward him, smiling. "Once more for a good measure?" he laughed under his breath at her comment and tore the paper once more, feeling satisfied after what he'd just done. "Wasn't so hard, was it?" Shiloh watched silently as a smile appeared on Dalton's face as the teacher turned and walked away.

"Good. you must let go of your past, shed your skin in order to grow," the girl watched as he threw the now ripped up drawing on the side. "I'll count backwards from ten, with each number I want you to sink further and further into yourself." Shiloh movie back tower canvas paper was hung, she swallowed the lump in her throat and looked over at Dalton.
His eyes already closed and charcoal in between his finger tips, "do not lift the charcoal from the paper." Armagan stated, the girl let herself breathe out for a second and closed her eyes, letting her thoughts move in front of her.

"ten , nine, eight," she felt herself go deep into her memory, to what haunted her the most. "Seven, six, five, four," an image was in her mind, a memory of herself when she was just a child. "Three, two, one" her professor's voice now faded and Shiloh's breath became shallow and she let her hand draw.
"Draw whatever you saw you saw break forth, an experience that defines you. You've got to be willing to reach up to your most ugly inner thoughts." she let her student get to work.

Shiloh worked quickly, something that came to her mind she painted naturally, letting her thought rewind the events of her trauma again and again until her work was perfected enough.
She was painting the memory of her as a child, it was the summer she stayed at her aunt's lake house but the image was of Shiloh floating on her back in the foggy water, her small body was discolored and eyes shut.

She was in her own mind when she noticed Professor Armagan standing next to the boy to her left, they were staring down at his charcoal drawing. "Is it keeping you in or out," she questioned but he didn't answer.
Still looking down with a confused expression on his face, the rest of class Shiloh struggled to pay attention, still in awe over what she thought was her competition.