Page 96 of The Backup Plan

How’d I do?

Cameron

Impeccable.

Cory

He needs to apologize as much as you think you do, but he won’t unless you call first. He’s like that. Do it before you go to Knoxville.

I want the family selfie.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Cotton Candy and Bubblegum

AVERY

Avery paced the hall outside Mindy’s office and checked her watch before she knocked. This time, she requested her appointment through the correct channels. This time, Mindy smiled when she saw her.

“Avery, sit. I got your message about next semester. What’s up?”

“Since everything was pre-assigned this term, I haven’t registered for classes here before, ever, and I wondered if you can help me with some of that.”

“The registration website walks you right through it,” Mindy said. “You and I will make up the list of classes you want and sort of sketch out which sections will schedule best together, and you sign up.”

“But what if a class fills up before it’s my turn to register?”

“We always make sure to get you into the classes you need for your program. Sometimes it takes a little shuffling, but that’s why you have me. The other instructors and I always work together on those things.”

“It’s not really a class I need. Just one I want. I really, really want it.” Avery tapped a link on her tablet and pushed it across Mindy’s desk. “I know it’s a three-hundred level and maybe it will be too hard. Maybe they’ll offer it next year, right? But it caught my eye, and I didn’t want to miss out.”

Mindy scanned the webpage with the class details. French Neo-classical Art and Architecture, a three-hundred level art history survey course, was a new offering, and its enrollment and feedback would determine whether it would be offered again.

“I can see why this appeals to you,” Mindy said, handing back the tablet. “Charleston, the Winter Palace, Versailles. Your senior exhibition in high school was fantastic. What did you end up doing with all of those pieces? I only saw the photos in your portfolio.”

Avery fidgeted. “I don’t have them anymore.”

“What did you do with them?”

“All the senior shows were eligible for auction at the artist’s discretion, and it was set up through the gallery in Stamford where we presented them. The gallery owner asked if I’d go the auction route and I said yes, since I needed the money for school. He said he had some connections who he thought would be interested.”

She felt Mindy’s gaze on her and caught herself slumping. “I shouldn’t be sad about it,” she said, lifting her shoulders. “How many artists my age have sold a piece in a real gallery auction, right? I’ve sold eight. That’s a big accomplishment, and I’m proud of it.”

“You certainly should be proud. You just looked a little wistful.”

“It helped get me here. Creativity is its own currency. That’s all that matters.”

“How did you develop that series?” Mindy asked, narrowing her eyes as she recalled the photos. “Which was your favorite?”

Avery pushed her hair off her face and behind her ears, considering. “Versailles was the inspiration piece for the techniques and the layering. I did that one about ten times before I moved on, so it was not my favorite. The Winter Palace was special because we were learning about the early twentieth century in history class and so I sort of had a feeling about people and a story there. Then the Roman coliseum… did you notice my coliseum was pink?”

“It looked like strawberry taffy. That was hard to miss.”

“Bloodstains. That’s what you get when you try to wash out fresh blood. A lovely, light pink with a smidge of ochre. The silver leaf was for the weaponry and chains.”

Mindy’s jaw hung open for a moment, and she collected herself. “Do the other pieces have similar meanings?”

“Notre Dame Cathedral is centered around that cotton-candy blue and the metallic gold, for the Virgin Mary. The Palace at Versailles is lemony and sour, with a wash of pink in the front, and gold for the crown. I drew white bubblegum bubbles all around it because of how fragile happiness was there. The Winter Palace is that beautiful, bright mint with white and gold trim and almost perfect on its own, but it was stormed during the October Revolution in 1917, and that had me thinking about fall colors in pastels, so it’s got peach and pink and lemon worked in. A lot of pink, because the Bloody Sunday massacre happened right there only a few years before.”