Beth secretly moved toward the girl more, attempting to get a more unobstructed view of her.

The girls' facial features and outfits appeared more and more clearly as the distance slowed down between Beth and her. Now, Beth could see that she had round metal and gold earrings on both of her ears. Her eyeshadow was golden-brown. Her body fit perfectly into that black dress and pointy shoes. The act of lifting her hands was graceful and composed.

"Hey, dear...are you one of the artists here?" The girl was standing in front of Beth, staring at her with light blue eyes.

"Ah, yes! I came with my friends. They are not here at the moment, though."

"Your flower crown looks pretty on you." The girl adjusted the tilted flower crown on Beth's head. "What's your name?"

"Beth Clementine."

"Oh...you are Beth. I have heard about you." The girl put her hands on Beth's shoulders. "You are at Laurel Prep, right?"

"Yea. To be honest, you make it sound like we met somewhere before. Have we?"

"Ah, no. I wanted to meet you, though. Nora and Owen told me about your life here at Laurel."

"How do you know about my host parents?" Beth was surprised. In a couple of seconds, she realized that this girl, who looks like a sister figure to her, could be the one person she had admired. "Wait...I have a question that I'm not sure whether to ask. It might be embarrassing..."

"Not at all. Go for it!"

"Okay. Phew...Are you by any chance Bianca?"

"Yes, I am."

Beth almost pushed herself forward as if there were thousands of butterflies flying in her stomach right now. Her instinct was right—this elegant girl standing in front of her was her inspiration and muse, embodying all the ideal traits that she had dreamed about. Yet she never had the courage to message her online or ask about her contact information from Nora and Owen. She never expected to meet Bianca one day. Yet Bianca was standing in front of her, looking at her work, and talking to her. Right now.

"OMG! So nice to meet you!" Beth stared away from Bianca, trying not to have herself feel embarrassed by her sharp yet tender stare. "I...I HAD ALWAYS BEEN A HUGE FAN OF YOUR WORK!! They are simply breathtaking!"

"Thank you. You are doing great as well."

Beth wasn't sure if Bianca said that as a true compliment or simply out of politeness. However, that didn't matter. For Beth, what mattered was that someone finally noticed her achievement just as those of Simone and Julianna; that 'someone' is exactly the person she looked up to.

"Bianca, why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be in school during this time?"

"Oh. This week is our fall break. As part of the fall break, I decided to be a student volunteer at this museum for me to decide if an internship in art history is right for me."

"Sounds horrific! Can I know more about how your Lisette life is going? Do you want to grab a meal with me, Nora, and Owen sometimes as well?"

"I would like to do that. However, my schedule is tight for this break. If you want to find out about college life for young artists, I will go to an artist gathering dinner next Wednesday. You are very welcome to come with your friends."

Without hesitation, Beth accepted Bianca's verbal invitation with a nod before they bid goodbye. As she watched Bianca walk away from her, her body shivered with anticipation, as if every cell in her body was screaming a capitalized YES.

✨

After the networking event, Beth, Simone, and Julianna rested on a bench together in the museum, debriefing about the day.

"Guys. I had this question linger in my mind for a morning. I don't know if my project with Paige and Jade deserves a spot in this museum. Paige and Jade worked so hard on my dress as well, but they were not recognized. I feel guilty about breaking my friendship with them since they did so much..." Simone nervously scratched her skirt.

"You shouldn't feel that way, Simone," Julianna said immediately. "Paige and Jade were using you as an object to achieve their personal goals. They were feeling good about their morals when they work hard on your behalf."

She then went to Beth and whispered to her. "Also, I highly doubt that Paige and Jade worked so hard on Simone's dress. What did they do besides finding someone else to make the dress and getting jewelry suppliers? I'm not saying that we should report Simone's project, but it feels very weird to me that no one's acknowledging the dishonesty behind the project."

"I know. Paige and Jade were the ones that suggested Simone cheat, and Simone did go along with their plan. However, it's hard for us to say anything about the situation for now. We got our material by leaked magic. Not by purchasing materials. Does that also count as cheating? Good thing is that Simone was bright enough to leave Paige and Jade; she hangs out with us now. Maybe as friends, we should just let this runway project thing go."

Julianna closed her eyes for a second and exhaled. Beth finished whispering back to Julianna and turned to Simone.

"I agree with Jules. Besides that, their effort was unasked from you. They didn't know what YOU wanted deep in your heart, Simone. You wanted emotional support, didn't you?"

"Yep."

"You are gonna have us here for that. Speaking of that, guess who I ran into today." Beth put a finger on her lips as if she was expecting the leak of a secret. "I ran into Bianca, a current freshman at my dream program, Lisette University Art Program!"

"That's such an amazing coincidence!"

"She even offered us to go to a dinner party on Wednesday. I think we should go together if we are free..."

A phone buzz interrupted Beth. It was a phone call from her parents.

"Sorry, guys, my parents are calling. I will come back soon."

✨

"How's it going, Beth?" Luke and Madison's voices could be heard inconsistently on the phone.

"Oh, you are going to have no idea how much I've changed! Things have started getting better for me at Laurel City. Nora and Owen had been taking good care of me; both Simone and Julianna are well. We have become a trio that hangs out a lot in and out of school. Did you know that I was a shortlisted contestant for the Annual Laurel Runway Competition? All the shortlisted contestants of the runway competition got invited to a networking event at the Laurel Museum. We just went to the event. It was so fun to meet other creatives in the city and ace my artistic journey!"

"Good to hear what you have been doing so far," Madison said.

"Thanks, mom! You know, we just came back from the networking event. I got to meet a student in my dream program, and she invited me to a dinner party this Wednesday to visit her friends. I think I might go."

"No, Bethany Ann. You are not going to the dinner on Wednesday."

"Why not? I earned this opportunity all by myself, and I am thriving here at Laurel with my own decisions!"

"Thriving? Look at you. I want you to succeed, to put your pride down at Laurel Prep. We are glad that you got your work exhibited. However, after the exhibition, you have to put your time into academics. Going to the dinner party will not help you get into the college you want; doing well in your academics will. This is not the first time you try to do so many pointless things at one time, and forget what's the most important thing to you. Don't make the same mistakes again!"

"Mom! Why are these activities pointless?" Beth was about to shout directly into her phone. "Were you even involved in my education that much? Do you understand how competitive students these days can be? I got into Laurel Prep with almost no guidance from our small town. I struggled to fit into the student body since I was never exposed to the opportunities that everyone else around me had. Now, all these things I have came from my hard work. These should at least say something about my abilities!"

"Yea? You call making a dress and walking around some people hard work?" Madison continued. "We have seen you grow up these years, and we can at least confidently say that you have poor judgment. Hard work never appealed to you; the idea of jumping through the hoop of hard work to get what you wanted was appealing to you."

"Mom! Listen to me! It's not just making a dress and walking around!" Beth anxiously clutched onto her phone more tightly. She could already feel her screaming voice bouncing around the lobby. Some visitors in the museum turned around with confused and slightly disproving faces toward her.

"Don't speak to me like that," Madison argued back sternly. "The reason I say this is not because I am your mom. Stop being so self-righteous; you never think through the consequences that you bring because of your impulsive behaviors!"

"You think that I am self-righteous, huh? Why did you always express disapproval of what I want to do, and even where I want to go in life. Have you really cared about who I am over the years, except have you done your homework or don't throw your stuff everywhere! You have no share of my current success here at Laurel City!"

"You know what? You are wrong. Your success was not built by yourself. Without us, you don't even have the possibility of going into the city and studying at Laurel Prep. For you to go to Laurel Prep, we took out loans to get your tuition fee covered. You definitely didn't notice these things. You just never have cared."

"No, I understand. I don't have a life as privileged as my friends, and I can't even have a chance to be jealous. Julianna lives in a rich neighborhood with her equally smart, well-educated parents. Simone was a child star running a popular singing vlog online."

"So what? Do you assume that their lives are flawless just based on what they have told you? People show what they desire to show. Please be more compassionate about the people around you! I can't talk to you anymore. I have got work to do!"

The conversation was abruptly truncated with Madison rashly getting off the phone. Beth was still holding her phone by her ears. She wanted to explain to Madison more about what she had been thinking, yet she just stood helplessly by the corner in the museum lobby. Everything looked so harmonious from the surface: before this event, there were so many updates from her to Luke and Madison about what was going on in her life, so many assurances to them that she had been doing well. Yet all those updates spoke about one undeniable fact—she felt the need to constantly prove to her parents that the choices she made were acceptable.

Beth's legs began to feel sour as if they were going to fall unto the ground like two wonky chopsticks. Financial crisis, financial crisis...the two words circled and circled in her mind like ghosts that couldn't go away. Madison thought that she never learned about the financial situation in the Clementine household.