Just as Beth came home and started thinking about the project, she checked over her classes planner and found out that she had a lot of homework. 30 pages of reading, a math exercise sheet due the next day, and a physics investigation project due a couple of days later...only at the start of the semester. Every day she would fall asleep with her head buried in her homework pile, leaving her exhausted for the next day.

Fast forward to several days later, she and Julianna made very slow progress on their project. The two girls decided on an orange, red, and purple gradient dress with bird prints that have the length of the skirt to the floor. The upper part of the dress had semi-transparent puff sleeves adorned with thin ruffles at the cuff. At the bottom of the dress lay some cloud-like ruffles. A petticoat will be inside the dress to pump the 'clouds' up, while the LED lights will be planted just behind the 'clouds'. However, the actual dressmaking was once again, hard. There were a few bird prints to be purchased from the marketplace, but no one that has the scene of birds flying in the sunset. It was not easy to have only one piece of fabric made specifically, especially a silk one — most online shops required buyers to purchase at least a dozen of fabrics at one time. As for the LED lights — how would the batteries be implanted? Should they be sawn or simply glued to the interiors of the dress?

In the end, Beth had to settle on just using a piece of orange, pink, and purple gradient fabric she bought from an indie store online for the actual dressmaking.

Julianna looked a little bit fed up.

In the afternoon, Beth and Julianna were greeted with the gorgeous dress Simone and her friends were already making, which was placed right back near the storage in the art room. A pearl-colored A-line dress with a thin sawn layer of lace all over it, adorned with rows and rows of sunflower yellow, emerald green, and iridescent gemstones.

Julianna walked toward the dress and felt the texture. "This texture and quality seem fishy. It seems that they may have, in fact, asked someone else to help them do it..."

"Wait. What? Really?"

"That's just what I think. Anyways, if that is true, I don't think it's a good idea to attend this runway competition anymore."

"But how can you see that?" Beth hesitated, "I mean, it's still some days till the competition, and we may just suddenly make progress during these days...come on, let's just work on our project for a bit more time today."

"To be fair, it would be a waste of time if we compete with them bare-handedly. If Simone and her crew can cheat through this competition and get a top prize, it may foreshadow that the competition is not as authoritative as they had claimed to be."

"But we have already started this project for so long, and I feel like our process had already gone to waste if we just call it quits!"

Julianna seemed unfazed. "I will think about that later."

"Besides, I really enjoy collaborating with you, and you said that attending art competitions is important for a young art student. Maybe we should just try it out and see what happens!"

"I think this isn't gonna end well, and we should maybe sometimes look at other things that we can do well in the end together."

"What are the things that we can do well? Gosh, you have a research project already while I currently still have nothing!" Beth started getting impatient and raising her voice. Yet Julianna didn't say anything. She just stood up and checked over her phone instead.

"To be honest, I agreed to do this project with you because I could fit it into my schedule. I have a lot of things to handle as well. Here, I need to prepare for a club meeting for the innovation club tomorrow." As she finished her speech, she started heading out, "I am sorry, but I need to go now."

She grabbed her backpack and went straight out of the art room.

"Wait, you can't just walk out abruptly like that!"

Now Beth was on her own. She sighed and looked around the empty room. There was nothing that she could do besides finishing up the project herself. After school time for her was supposed to be relaxing. The sun was already setting, and the hallway became quieter and quieter as people left the campus building. Yet there was a dejected look on her face. Simone's friends mocked her as an inside joke. Julianna decided to quit. Does anyone care about me at this point? She was about to cry. This is stupid. Why am I even staying here at this anymore?

She sat down and rested her head and arms on the table.

Maybe I am inconsiderate to Jules. This project is already taking her a lot of time. Jules...She is so smart. She goes to museums with all sorts of interesting shows, and she has already done independent research.

Simone...why can't I just be neat and pretty like her, and attract friends naturally like her? I envy all those cute clothes she has.

And Bianca. She draws so well and is a first-year at my dream program.

But I...

I...

There's no place for me. It was lucky that I got accepted here. Laurel Prep was the only school that gave me acceptance. No one else wanted me.

When I was younger, I seldom got an academic award. That made me very afraid when I received an exam back or was called out in class every time. I tried making friends, but people shunned me behind and talked within themselves without me. Every time I suggested "Let's all walk home together", all I found was people leaving me behind and not turning back.

Art was something that made me feel less alone. I doodled throughout school time and daydreamed by the window. However, when I first declared that I wanted to be a fashion designer, nobody believed in me, and my parents worried if I could even make a living with that.

Maybe they are right. No one has any hope in me.

Will there eventually be a place for me? When Laurel Prep accepted me, I thought so. How naive of me to even think of that now.

How naive...

✨

Beth suddenly woke up and found out that it was already very dark outside. She realized at once that she had been sleeping on the table.

"Oh, no! What time is it now?" She picked up her phone and saw many phone calls from her host parents popping up on the screen. "Gosh, it is already 8 PM? How did I manage to stay until this late?"

She tapped on one message. It read: Beth, where are you? We are so worried about you!

"They must be so worried now! What did I even do today to make myself into this situation? I am so bad, and my semester just started with all those messes!"

Beth picked up her backpack, run out of the art room, and headed to the building entrance. However, the door didn't open up, and there was a lock on the door. She felt herself dropping down to the ground and losing all her strength to climb up again. She leaned against the door and melted into a corner by the side.

A voice whispered in her ears.

"You are worth nothing, Beth."

"What? Who said that? Who?"

"Breakfast is ready! Hurry up! You don't want to miss your ticket to fix your LIFEEEEEEEE!" Another voice surrounded her just after the first voice.

Beth looked up and saw a giant distorted alarm clock flashing with small pieces of neon reflections. The alarm clock looked twisted and floated in the air, with weird color blobs by its side.

"What even is this? Am I seeing things?!" Beth closed her eyes and opened them again, hoping everything would disappear after she opened her eyes. But the alarm clock didn't go away. It was still there, just with more added noise and colors.

"What is happening?" She tried to run away, but the color blobs were chasing her. There, she was greeted by two human-shaped color blobs. One of them had blue hair and pastel blue, pink, and yellow stuck on her body. The other of them wore a pair of high heels and had her eyes pop out like giant hearts. It drank glitter from a bottle in her hands.

"Jules? Simone?"

"You think it's so easy to make friends at Laurel? My time is precious, and you are being unreasonable for wasting my time here! I have published a research paper while you did nothing productive during the holiday. It's a burden even to hang around you." The blue-haired blob said.

"Look at you, your ugly little duckling. Do you know why I don't speak to you? That's because you are NOT worth my time!" The other blob followed up.

"Hahaha, look at her...so clumsy, a lackluster for Laurel Prep. Why is she even here? Hahaha..."

More chatters and murmurs of distorted color blobs resembling other Laurel Prep freshmen came up to her.

"she locked herself on campus and has no way to get out!!"

Time seemed to have stopped at this moment for Beth. Her mind went blank. Everything about her memory was drowning. The smell of fresh grass in her quiet little town, the excitement and tears when she first received the acceptance from Laurel Prep, the anticipation when she immersed herself in the city lights of Laurel...everything seemed to be disappearing for her.