The Newcomer (SEMI-ON HOLD)

Chapter Twenty

Hello sweeties! Merry merry Christmas! I hope you all ate well at your Christmas feasts! I've been in a food coma since the 24th sooo meh.

Anyway, here's a little present from me to you; chapter 20!

20

"Don't think of this weirdly," I hear Jane say as she walks up to me. "But I miss shooting Jacky."

"Yeaah, that's not a weird thing to say at all." I joke. Jane laughs, rolling her eyes at me.

"I'm speaking in a professional sense. She's a photographer's dream to work with!"

"What's wrong with this group?" I ask her, "Don't all these girls do is pose for Instagram selfies?"

She looks up, dramatically tapping her chin. "I'm not aiming for selfies here, Kim! Plus, a lot of them are snobby and entitled. A lot of divas in one group!"

It's closing time at the Bowling Alley, it's closing time, I'm tidying up, and Jane just finished directing the shoot for the semestral school paper with the cheerleaders and the other athletes. Dual purpose actually; for the semestral paper and her portfolio. She's going to the NYFA open house in a week. She is excited, but frantic! She has a plan to 'woo' the head of the photography course.

"Kudos to you for getting through it. So," I put the tray down, trying not to laugh. "Who did you say you're rooming with when you get to New York?"

I already know this, but her reaction is always golden!

"Lindsey from the debate club," she says in a frustrated voice. "who is also Charlie's ex-girlfriend— did you know they dated?!"

I shake my head, sliding the tray through the kitchen window. That was the last one. "I didn't know Lindsey wants to go to NYFA." I say.

"No, that's not it. She's applying to NYU." she corrects, still sounding frustrated.

"That makes more sense."

"Can you actually believe we're going to college soon? It can go two ways, okay? You either make all your dreams come true—"

"Or they get crushed." I cut her off, laughing loudly. "And my dad is praying I get the latter."

Jane scoffs, "So you can do what he does? Spend 8 hours every day staring at numbers 7 days a week? That doesn't sound like you, and you hate math!"

"I know," I admit, "I scrape for extra marks on my exams just to pass. I'm not a white-collared kind of girl, Jane. That's why NYFA is a big factor for me to get into this industry"

"Then why didn't you just say 'yes' about going to the open house?!"Jane follows behind me like a dog's own tail to the counter. "You didn't even tell me why you're not going!"

Several reasons: I didn't tell Mrs Philips on time, my dad will disown me if I 'defy' him another time, mom doesn't even know about the open house and this will be like an atomic bomb for her... and I'm also scared of getting on a plane. Besides, I already made up my mind about applying to NYFA; open house or no open house, I'm applying.

Jacky did call me out on that reasoning sarcastically, saying that it's 'the same as adopting a child without a background check, and finding out it's a 33-year old disguised as a child'. But I'm convinced she said because we just watched the Orphan movie the night before, and she's just... traumatised. Mae said she kept the lights on in her bedroom until sunrise.

What a cutie.

"Jacky has a point, you know." Jane points out after I tell her what Jacky told me.