A Twist of Fate (Complete)

Ch. 3 - Rude Londoner & Annoying American

Everly's first class of the day was Introduction to Art Design and she took a seat towards the front, brought out her laptop and sketchbook and lined up her drawing pencils in a neat row.

A few minutes later a barefoot, short, middle-aged woman with curly red hair and glasses, wearing a long cape style shirt over a pair of black yoga pants emerged from the back room.

 "Good morning class! My name is Mrs. Keating as you probably already know from your schedule and this is Introduction to Art Design."

Everly noticed she had incense burning on her desk and a sign that said 'meditation corner' with a large round bohemian pillow chair and a hanging wall tapestry behind it.

"I had given you all an assignment before you came to email me a picture of your best artwork that you felt like you were the proudest of. I've got them in a slideshow here," she said, dimming the lights.

She went through slide after slide of beautiful paintings, drawings, and sculptures and Everly finally saw the one that she had submitted. It was a hyper-realistic pencil sketch of a newborn baby being held in the wrinkly hands of an old woman.

Mrs. Keating turned the lights back on and looked around the room before finally saying, "What I want you to take away from this is that every single one of you is extremely talented or you wouldn't be sitting in that seat, but what makes your art unique? What about your artistic voice is different than a million others around the world that are good at art too? How do you become the next Michelangelo, Davinci, Van Gogh?"

After seeing that slideshow Everly realized that standing out and getting noticed was going to be a lot harder than she had thought. Back home in Illinois she had won every art competition she ever entered, but here it was going to be a lot different. Everyone in this room was probably used to being the best and she'd have to work harder than she ever had before to stand out.

Mrs. Keating shared that she had studied at the Art Institute of Paris and showed a slideshow of her own work. She was amazing at painting, sculpting, drawing, sewing, pottery and even jewelry making. Hearing about her experiences studying in Paris and the famous artists she had trained with made Everly really excited to be here, taking her class and learning from her. She had never met anyone like Mrs. Keating before and she really was an inspiration to her. 

"Your assignment before our next class is to put together a slideshow of artwork that has inspired you throughout your lifetime. Art that stayed within your soul and never left and made you want to be an artist. Then I want you to sit back and look at all of it and figure out what it was about those particular works that made them so special to you. Write an essay on that and bring it next time."

Everly typed out the assignment on her laptop before packing everything up and heading to her next class. She had 5 classes in total this semester, so she had a pretty light schedule because each class didn't meet every day.

Today she only had 2 classes. After her lunch break she lost track of time and had to rush across campus to still make it to her English Literature class early. She could never be late. That wasn't even fathomable, especially not on the first day of class. 

She took a seat in the front row getting her notebook and laptop set up. As she lined up her pens she noticed the tall, handsome English guy from the coffee shop was in her class too, sitting across the room from her. She was fascinated by him and looked at his handsome face, feeling a chill go up her arm when she thought about the way his eyes had looked into hers so intensely earlier.

He was on his phone texting to someone when he looked up and his eyes met Everly's. She looked away quickly, with a gasp, embarrassed that he caught her looking at him. Her face flushed red and her heart pounded in her chest.