Five Years

Chapter Nine: Great News

The next day in class, all of the paired groups sat together looking over their treatments, and chatting about various other things. I arrived to find Liam adding to our character sketches. I sat down beside him, and looked over his shoulder. He added a few simple background details to Adam's sketch.

"I was thinking," Liam said. "Do you think we should hand the sketches in? Like, as a part of our treatment?"

"Naw, I think we should keep them," I answered quickly. Liam gave me a questioning look. "Well, imagine if they were lost, or even stolen. Those are amazing, and someone could absolutely just claim to have done them on their own," I made my case. Really, I just wanted to keep them all, but I kept that thought to myself.

"Jeeze, alright!" Liam laughed. "We won't hand them in. But, hey- check this one out." He shuffled through the pages until he found the one he'd been looking for. it had an insane amount of detail, and in the center, in almost like a graffitti-esque font, was the title of our script. Once again, I was blown away by his talent.

"So...? What do you think?" he smiled, eagarly.

I turned to him, and put the paper down on the table, "I think you are way too talented to be my partner," I joked.

"Come on, now- the whole idea for our script came from you! I just followed your lead," Liam grinned. His braces were surprisingly adorable. He was an attractive guy, but once his braces came off, he would be so handsome. "You're brilliant!"

"Brilliant is a little much. And you were a huge help," I smiled. "There was no way either of us could have done it alone."

The professor walked in, and the class settled down. The way this class worked was that professor Griffin would assign us some kind of assignment, and it was due the next class; we met on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00-11:30. For the first half of class, we would go over and critique everyone's assignments. The second half of class was spent going over text from our books, and doing exercises to improve our skills.

Because everyone had been partnered up, there would be half the amount of presentations, but this was also the longest assignment we have had so far this semester, so it was going to take up some time to go over. There were four or five groups who volunteered, so naturally they were the first ones to present; each one of their treatments had kept their quotes in their original context, so they were all romance stories.

When the fifth group had finished presenting, we took a quick five minute break. Professor Griffin had come over to us and asked if we'd like to present next, and we accepted the opportunity. As everyone returned to the room, and settled down, Liam and I had our treatment pulled up on the projector. 

I began reading it, and Liam read the last half of the treatment. I watched people's reactions as he read, and people seemed a little uneasy and sort of in shock at the way we had twisted the quote, and I don't think they knew where we were going with it at all.

""I like your eyes, do you mind?" Charlie asks, as he caresses the side of Adam's face with the blade, his crooked, yellow teeth twisted into a smile. Cut to a bird's eye view shot of the scene, Adam and Charlie hidden from sight. As Adam lets out a blood-curdling cry, a coven of crows darts up into the air from a near-by rooftop," Liam finished reading.

None of our classmates said anything; they sat in their seats, staring at the projection of our treatment in silence. Professor Griffin stood up at the front of the class, and turned around to face us, "That... was shockingly brilliant." Liam shot me a look that said I-told-you-so and I smirked. "In ten years of teaching this assignment, I have never once seen it taken in this direction. It was refreshing, and it was innovative. Very nicely done, you two."