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chapter thirteen
august 25th, 2017

today was veronica's first day of class. she was excited, but she also didn't really know what college had in store for her, making her also a bit nervous. she woke up at nine o'clock, since her first class was at ten. she wasn't exactly excited for this class, though. it was interpretation of literature. she didn't always have the best grades while she was in high school, so the classes that had to do with academics made her a bit nervous.

daisy's first class wasn't until noon, so veronica didn't bother to wake up her sleeping roommate and hopped in the shower. once she was done, she dried her hair and put on her glasses, then got changed into a loose t-shirt and some shorts, before grabbing her lanyard and her phone then exiting the dorm room quietly.

the lecture hall wasn't far from her dorm, so she only had to walk five minutes to her next location. when she arrived, she took her place in the middle of the classroom and waited for the other students to arrive, since she had arrived five minutes early. she looked to the right of her and noticed a boy sitting there, who she learned was named michael. she and michael started talking and they ended up getting along quite well. veronica noticed that he had a very high voice for a man, and she could tell he was gay, but she didn't say anything about it. she, in no way, was homophobic and, actually, one of her old best friends from back home was gay. she found out that michael was also majoring in studio arts and that they probably had a decent amount of classes together.

after a few minutes, the professor came in and introduced himself as dr. andrews. right off the bat, he started giving a lecture on the interpretation of literature and homework, which was due in three weeks. a full written essay and explanation and interpretation on the book, 'hamlet'. after about an hour, the class was over and the two exchanged numbers and parted ways. since it was noon, she decided that she needed some lunch, so she walked down the street until she noticed an on-campus cafe called, 'marie's'. she decided this would be a nice place to get something to eat and start reading 'hamlet'.

when she walked in, she was greeted by the vintage vibe of the cafe's atmosphere. she smiled as she walked up to the counter, where a stunning african-american girl that looked about her age stood, waiting for an order. veronica read her nametag, and it said, 'sam'. 

"hi! what can i get for you?" sam asked her. veronica looked at the menu and just decided a small pastry was fine. sam rung it up, and veronica gave her five dollars. sam returned the change and gave her the pastry. afterwards, veronica went and sat down at one of the vintage-looking tables in the corner. she opened her book and started to read. the book was boring but interesting at the same time. like, she wanted to put the book away, but there was still the slightest bit of suspense that made her want to keep reading.

by the time she checked her watch, it was one forty-five, and she knew she had to head to her design class, which was three hours long, if i may add. on her way out, she said goobye to sam and headed out the door, walking the ten minutes to the building which held her design class.

when veronica arrived, she found that she was almost the last one there, so she quickly found herself a seat in the back and pulled out her macbook from her bag, knowing she'd have to use it. once the professor came in, she started teaching the class how to do digital arts, and she assigned a project for them to do. they were given three days to do their best digital art drawing of someone extremely important in their life. veronica's mind immediately went to jack. at the moment, he was one of the most important people to her. 

once class was dismissed, she went back to her dorm, since she didn't have anymore classes and she had homework to attend to. while at the cafe, she got seventy pages of 'hamlet' read, so she only had four hundred thirty more to read. since that assignment wasn't due for another couple of weeks, she decided to work on her digital art project.

she grabbed her macbook off of her desk and opened up her digital art app, then went on her phone to find a reference photo to use. once she found the perfect one, she started sketching the outlines of his face, then gradually adding more detail and shading with a few of her own special touches to make it her own. in that time, she hadn't even noticed that daisy had come back and she missed a facetime call from jack. by the time she was done, it was nine o'clock at night and it had taken her five hours to complete it, but once she was done, she was extremely proud of her work.

she checked her phone afterwards and saw the missed facetime call from jack, so she immediately called him back. after about three rings, he answered.

"sorry i didn't answer earlier. i was doing an assignment," veronica said, as soon as she saw his face pop up on the screen.

"it's fine," jack assured, smiling, "i just wanted to see how today went, since i know it was your first day of classes."

"today was fine. i have an interpretation of literature assignment that's due in a few weeks, and i just finished an assignment for one of my design classes," veronica explained to him.

jack looked like he was about to say something, but from across the room, daisy said, "who are you talking to, holmesy?" 

"holmesy?" jack questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"i'm talking to my boyfriend, daisy," veronica replied. jack smiled, liking the way that the word 'boyfriend' sounded coming out of her mouth.

"ooh, boyfriend. lemme see him," daisy said, walking away from her desk and over to veronica's desk.

"oh, that's the curly-haired guy you were drawing earlier!" daisy exclaimed as soon as she saw jack's noodles through the screen.

jack smirked and said, "you drew me?" then raised an eyebrow.

veronica blushed and nodded. "for our design assignment, we had to draw digital art of someone that's important to us, so i drew you," she explained, causing jack to smile.

daisy got bored and walked over to her desk, leaving the two teenagers to talk to each other alone. "can i see it?" jack asked, curious of how she portrayed him as in her artwork.

"of course," veronica replied, grabbing her macbook and setting it on her lap. she looked through her files until she found the drawing, then turned her camera around so jack could see it. jack couldn't help but grin when he saw the intricate photo of him that his girlfriend drew.

"that's- it's just so good," jack said, with loss of words. he knew veronica was extremely talented, and that's why she was going to art school, but this, it was just amazing beyond what words can describe. the way she portrayed him, the look in his eyes, the golden heart on the chest, this is just how veronica had always seen him. loving and caring, with a heart of gold. the drawing was so special that it was almost abstract, yet you could still see that it was him, jack avery.

"you drew this?" jack asked, wanting reassurance that his girlfriend, veronica holmes, had drawn this glorious piece of art.

"indeed i did, avery. it took me five hours to draw it," she told him, smiling at the expression he had on his face while looking at it.

"it's amazing, roni."

"you're amazing, roni."

☆

a/n: idk why, but i keep imagining that michael guy as james charles lol.

ciao ciao chickess

-storysailor