Mutual - A Thomas Brodie-Sangster fanfiction

Chapter Two

After uni the next day, I sit down and try to do some things for uni, but I can't concentrate, because I think about the contest the whole time and wonder about what I could submit. Deciding, that uni can wait until later, I take out my laptop again and start drafting out some poems and short stories. Time flies by when you do what you love. I only get out of the zone, when my mum comes in and calls me for dinner. What? Dinner already? I look out of my window and see, that it is pitch black outside. It is early December and the sun sets at around 4 pm, what sucks. You get up when it's still dark out and come back when it is dark again. I am pretty proud of my drafted short story and think, that I am going to complete it and use it for submission. During dinner, I tell my mum about the contest and she mocks me a bit, for being 21 and taking part in such a contest. Yeah, I mean I am quite old to like movies like that. They are directed to an audience of early teens and not young adults. But I don't care. The contest does not say, that there is an age requirement. Just because I am 21, does not mean I am not dreaming about meeting my favourite actors and talk about their upcoming movie.

I spend the whole Sunday working on my short story. It is about the lives of the remaining survivors in the safe heaven and what comes afterward. I touch on the death of many beloved characters and how the survivors cope with the grief and all. My strength in writing is, that I am able to express feelings and emotions and get the reader to be consumed by the story. I have always loved writing and always have a project going on to keep my creativity flowing. Though I never show anyone my work, so it will be quite the big step to submit it for that contest, for it being published, if I should win. But I am not wasting any thoughts on that yet, I mean I should not get my hopes up anyway. At the end of the day, I am finished with the story. It is roughly ten pages long and definitely needs some redrafting. I call Lisann and she agrees on coming over to my house tomorrow to finish it and do some final touches. On Mondays, we usually meet up at uni to work on our notes together or talk about the topics that are relevant for the exam at the end of the semester.

We spend hours and hours going over every single word and rephrasing some things and all that stuff. After approximately 15 printed versions and corrections of them, we finally hold the finished story in our hands. "This is it, Pia. It's great and I am so proud of you. Maybe we should put as much passion in our essays at uni as we do into this." I laugh out loud. Yeah, she is right, if I would make such an effort for my essays at uni they would all be exceptional. "Nah, that would be too much work." She chuckles and rolls her eyes. "Always keep your priorities sorted. What will you submit?" She shows me pictures of the fanart she has done. "It is not 100% done yet, but you get where it's going." I look at the picture in awe. She painted a collage of different characters, settings, and phrases on a large canvas. "Lisann, this is awesome. I wish I would be as artsy as you are." "But, Pia. You are artsy as well. Just in a different way. You express yourself through words on paper and I do it with a blank canvas and some paint." I nod. "If we don't win that damn contest with our work, I don't know what is wrong with the world!" We both chuckle, knowing, that we won't be the only ones submitting awesome works. "Lisann, you have to hurry with finishing. The deadline is on Wednesday." I saw the post quite late and this is why we had to rush things a bit. "Yeah, I know. I will finish my picture tomorrow after uni. But we should submit your story now. I know you well if we don't do it now you will read it over and over again and try to correct things that are already just how they are supposed to be." "You do know me well", I chuckle again and sit down at my desk. I open the website and type in the required information and add my file to it. My heart rate picks up and I can feel it hammering in my chest. "You really think, that this story is the best I can do? I should look it over once more and be sure that everything is perfect..." "Pia, shut up and press that damn button to submit it. Like I said, this story is perfect the way it is and you would just ruin it with your paranoia." With one deep breath, I press the button and send my work to them. "Now we just have to wait until next week's Wednesday to see if we won." After that Lisann and I cook some dinner and watch "The Maze Runner" on DVD. We shit chat about what kind of questions we would ask the cast and fantasize about meeting them all. That night I go to bed with a pounding heart. It sucks, that I have to wait so long for an answer.