Act 1 | Chapter 21

It took me a minute to process what Mr. Mcvay had said.

"Did I take my artwork off the display? No? Wait, what do you mean?" I asked, sitting up a bit in my seat.

"Did you take your artwork off the display on stage? It isn't there."

My heart skipped a beat, and I tilted my head. "My art isn't on stage? Where the hell is it then?" I wondered.

"What do you mean it's not there!?" Riley asked, standing from her seat and frowning. "Aren't you guys supposed to be looking after the artwork?"

"We look over them and talk about it with the other judges. We went out to eat after discussing the final results." He explained, looking back down to me once he did. I was frozen in my seat. "My painting was gone?" I kept thinking to myself.

"Zoey?" Mr. Mcvay said, trying to get my attention back. "Do you know what happened to it? You can't receive anything unless you have the artwork present. The college needs it."

"I- I... no..." I shook my head and stood up. Quickly, I walked past Mr. Mcvay and over towards the auditorium. Riley followed behind me and the two of us burst on stage. Thankfully, no one had come in here yet, but my painting was gone. The post-it was hung on was knocked over behind the curtains.

"Where...?" I quickly scanned the room.

"Come on, Zoe." Riley said, patting my shoulder, "We can find it." The two of us started looking everywhere. Backstage, in the storage locker, even out in the halls. Almost twenty minutes passed before I saw the back door behind stage a crack open. A cold draft was coming from it. Quickly, I made my way over to it and stepped outside into the snow. Footprints led from the door and around the side of the building. In a running dash, I followed them, and soon found what I was looking for. However, something had happened to it. The painting had been carelessly tossed into the open school dumpster. A corner of it was just barely sticking out. I reached in and pulled it out. The canvas fabric had been torn. A large ripped hole was punched through the middle of it. I held the painting up and just stared at it. My eyes watered and I fell to my knees, holding the painting out.

"No," I whispered, gripping the down frame tightly. "No. No." Tears rolled down my cheeks as I heard footsteps coming from behind me.

"Zoey, did you find it?" I heard Riley ask as she approached me from behind.

"N- No," I mumbled again. Riley bent down behind me and looked over my shoulder.

"What happened to it?" She asked, but I gave her no response. All I could do was sit there in the cold snow, and cry. There it went. I had an opportunity to get into my dream college, and now it was gone. They needed the painting, and I couldn't give it to them, even if I had won. Weeks of work was destroyed, and someone had purposefully done this. There wasn't any other explanation. Riley's arms wrapped around me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Zoey," she said, trying to comfort me, but it didn't work. I kept crying. The tears starting to sting as they froze against my cheeks.

"Come on, let's take it back to them. Maybe they'll still take it?" Riley suggested, helping me to my feet. All I could do was nod, and follow her, holding the ruined painting close to my chest. We tried showing it to the judges, and although they felt sorry for me, they said that they needed the painting to be intact to give to the university. The exact thing I was afraid to hear. Mr. Mcvay tried breaking it to me softly, that I would have to be disqualified, whether it was my fault or not.

"That's such bullshit!" Riley yelled at the judges. She started arguing with them, as I stood behind her, still and motionless. I kept crying and whipped the tears with the sleeve from my hoodie, before finally responding in a raspy and hoarse voice.

"I- I understand."

"What?" Riley said, turning to look at me, "No, this isn't fair, this is such shit!"

I shook my head, and looked down, turning to leave. There was no point in arguing against it. It was over.

"Zoey, wait!" Riley tried stopping me, but I didn't let her this time. I kept walking, and left the auditorium, taking the side exit out into the hall, sniffling and trying to hold back to feeling to keep crying.

"Thank's a lot, assholes!" I heard Riley say before following me out. She was able to catch up to me rather quickly, as I had only made it a few steps into the hall before fully breaking out into tears. The painting fell from my hands and thumped against the floor, as I curled up into a ball beside it. Again, Riley wrapped her arms around me to try and comfort me. "It's over." I thought, "There isn't any other way for me to get into that university. I can't afford that. My parents sure won't pay for it." I whimpered quietly and sniffled a few times. A few minutes later, we could hear faintly from the auditorium that Maria had won. There was clapping and cheering. She started a long cliche speech that echoed in my mind.

"Come on, Zoey." Riley said, "Let's get out of here. Her voice makes me sick."

"She did this." I thought. My hands clenched up into fists and I started to tear up more. "Maria did this. She did it. Who else would?" I tried to not let anger overwhelm me, and took a few deep breaths, before standing up with Riley. She grabbed the painting from the ground and helped lead me back to her car. I shuffled my feet across the floor, and through the snow, walking slowly back to the car. Tears wouldn't stop flowing from my eyes, and I had to constantly wipe them away with the sleeve of my hoodie, until the point where it was completely wet, and I couldn't use it anymore.

Riley helped me into the passenger's seat and put the painting in the back.

"Can you take me home," I said, my voice cracking. She gave me a nod and silently drove me back. It was a long and quiet drive. I kept sniffling and tearing up during the ride. My hand's where both clenched up into fists, my nails digging into my skin. When we finally got back, I climbed out of the car and looked back to Riley.

"I just... I just need some time alone." I mumbled, making my ruined painting from the backseat.

"T- Take care, Zoe." Riley nodded, and drove off, frowning. I'm sure she had cried too during the drive, as her eyes where a bit red like mine. The house was empty. No one was home. My parent's where off somewhere, and my brother was most likely at the art contest with Maria, though I didn't see him in the crowd. I leaned the painting up against the wall of my room and took another deep breath. I was all alone. The anger and frustration finally overwhelmed me, and I quickly kicked the side of my bed.

"FUCKING BITCH!!!" I scream. Grabbing my container of pencils, I furiously threw it at the wall, breaking it, and sending the wooden tools flying. Many things on my desk met the same fate. I had snapped. Smashing, and slamming everything I could. A pillow wouldn't have satisfied me. I yelled as I rammed my foot aggressively against the wall. My toe smashed against it, and I yelped as I fell over and grabbed at it. I laid them and waited for it to all go away. The pain, the anger, the frustration, Maria, all of it. Six years I have had to deal with her shit, and now she just ruined my chance to get into college. Judging on what Mr. Mcvay said, I was probably going to win, but no, not anymore. "It's all her fault. It's her fucking fault!" Every day, six years, she has bullied me, humiliated me. I've dealt with that shit for six years, and this was it. I couldn't take it anymore. Maria isn't the only problem though. There's still my family. How they only use me and pretend like I don't exist. My brother's dating Maria, my dad never notices me, and my mother only likes me for my body. Everything, I hated everything

As I started to calm down, I sat up and looked around at my trashed room. Some of my art supplies were broken, and my trunk full of it is been knocked over, spilling out its contents onto the ground. I stared at it, and an idea came to mind. You see it all the time in movies and TV. It was a way I could get rid of my problem. The idea felt more and more pleasing the more I thought about it. But I wanted to see Maria humiliated. I wanted to see her in pain, for her to know what it's like for once in her god damn life. I wanted her gone. And if I played it smart, I could pull this off. "Yes, I could do it. I'm going to fucking kill her."