Chapter 18: Mangaka

FieryKathy

After relaxing for a bit more in the hallway, I head towards my next class. There I meet Carol and Hailey who are already waiting in front of the art room.

“Hello again! Hope you had a nice lunch; we kinda forgot to invite you…” Carol apologizes.

“Don’t worry, I forgot to ask you two as well, and I had a very nice lunch anyway, so…” I lean against the wall next to them.

“That’s great! We could actually tell because you were beaming like crazy when you came into view.” Hailey giggles.

I cover my face, and now that I pay attention to it, I can feel my tail going wild as well too.

“Crazy cute, we won’t pry what happened though.” Carol reassures me.

“T-thanks, it’s not that it’s a secret or anything… I just met a very nice girl, that’s all.”

“Oh, I see.” Hailey smirks.

“So you’re gay then?” Carol questions.

“Carol, please! Unbelievable.” Hailey gives her a tap on the head.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” I giggle. “Yes, I think I am in fact, gay.”

“Sorry for being so direct. I’m bi, by the way.” Carol smiles, rubbing her sore spot on the top of her head.

“You still really should try to think before you open your mouth sometimes though.” Hailey lectures.

“Yeah, yeah.” She sticks out her tongue.

“So, are you two…?”

“Dating?” Hailey stops her lecture. “No, I’m straight.”

“Oh I see.”

“We actually met when I tried to flirt with her, sadly to no avail. But we ended up as very good friends, Hailey is very easy to talk to.” Carol takes Hailey in for a hug.

“And Carol isn’t always insufferable.” Hailey answers the hug.

“Well, I hope I can be your friend too!”

“Definitely!” They both take me in for a group hug. “You sound like an amazing girl, even though we just met.”

A couple of tears run down my cheeks.

“Oh, why are you crying Amicia?” Hailey notices my tears.

“I guess I’m just really happy!”

“Awh!” Carol, squeezes our hug even tighter. “No crying in the cuddle puddle!”

We all start laughing. 

This day is just great! 

A little while later it’s finally time for our lesson. The professor introduces himself to me at the door, just like the professor of art-history did earlier today.

“Miss Delafontaine, could you paint a picture in your own style, just so I know what we have to work with?”

“Sure!” This is actually the same thing we had to do at the beginning of this year.

“If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!”

“Yes sir!”

I go and sit beside Hailey and Carol, on the left side of the classroom, near the windows and start preparing my set-up.

“What are you planning to paint?” Carol asks while setting up her station.

“Hmm, maybe an anime version of our group hug or something, if you don’t mind.” I smile

“Really? That’d be so cool!” Hailey enthusiastically leans over my shoulder. “Let us see when it’s done!”

“Of course.” I laugh and get to work with a rough sketch.

Before my ‘change’ I never really was good at anything artistic - when I wanted to put some lines to paper, it was like my body never agreed with my movements, but now…every line goes exactly where it should, my thoughts getting transferred directly to the canvas.

“Wow, it looks like you’ve got some talent Miss Delafontaine.” I almost fall of my chair again, but luckily I did hear the professor coming up behind me. “You’d make for a very good manga illustrator.”

“T-thanks sir.”

He nods and moves on to supervise the other students.

“Woah, that does look great indeed.” Both Hailey and Carol look over and watch me draw.

“Your lines are so smooth, do you draw a lot?”

“Hmm, not really that often, but I think I’ll definitely start drawing more now.”

“You should, you definitely should.” Carol pats me on the shoulder. “Maybe you can make a cute yuri manga or something.”

“Oh, I like that idea actually!” We giggle and continue our respective artworks.

After colouring and letting the paint dry a bit, I call over the professor to show the finished product.

“Very good, very good indeed. I’d even ask to hang it up somewhere in class here, but since it covers your friends it might be more fun for you to take it home and hang it somewhere there.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that.” I smile. “Hey Sir, could I do a manga for our art-project this year?”

“Definitely! I think that’s a great idea with your skill, and who knows, if it ends up being good I might ask some connections to publish it.”

“Really, that’d be amazing!”

“Indeed, but don’t get too overconfident - it would still need to pass the publisher’s approval.”

“I’ll definitely try!”

“Oh, before you go - if your friends want a copy of your work, you can use the photocopy room next door once it’s completely dry.”

“Thanks, Sir!” I head back and tell my friends the news.

“I’d definitely want a copy!”  Hailey answers as soon as she hears the professor’s proposal.

“Me too!” Carol joins in.

I wait until they both complete their goals for the day and head over to the copy room.

“Damn, this is a high quality printer.” Carol exclaims.

“Yeah, luckily the faculty gets quite a lot of funding. Is this your first time seeing it, Carol?” Hailey looks over to her friend.

She scratches the back of her head. “Yeah… My work wasn’t really good enough to ever warrant copying it, so…”

“Awww, you poor sod.” Hailey takes Carol’s head onto her bosom.

“Don’t pity me! Hmmm… although I do like the position I’m in now though… Pity me more!”

Hailey laughs and after a couple more seconds releases her friend.

“Awh, but I wanted more.”

I start laughing at my friends, after which they soon start laughing too.

“How am I ever going to survive with you two?”

“We’ll find a way,” they smile.

After having made some copies, we head back to class.

“You three can leave already since you are done with your work; no point in just sitting around doing nothing.”

“And that’s why you are my favourite professor, Sir!” Carol says enthusiastically.

“Yes, yes, Miss Yäger, I know.” He waves us away with a smile.

“I’ll be heading home. I still need to get a replacement for my phone?”

“Okay.” Hailey takes out a piece of paper. “I might as well give you my phone number then.”

“Mine too!” Carol swings her arms around our necks.

“Easy, Carol, I can’t write like this.” She quickly scribbles her number down and hands the paper over to Carol who does the same.

“Thanks! I’ll text you when I get a phone. Bye bye!”

“See you next week!” they both wave me goodbye as I make my way to the tram stop.

The tram only has a small delay before it continues its journey to my sister’s part of town. A delivery hovermobile had unwisely parked on the tram tracks, but luckily the delivery man noticed immediately when the tram beeped its horn.

I get off at the stop and make my way towards the appartment. The moment I open the door Pocky almost jumps into my arms.

“I missed you too, princess.” I pick her up to give her a big hug.

“Oh, you are home already?” I hear Élise speak out from the kitchen.

“Yep, the professor let us go early because we were done with our work already.”

“We?” My sister smiles.

“Ah, I made a couple of friends during art-history, they are going to work together with me for the group task.”

“That’s nice to hear.”

I put the tube container with my painting on the table.

“And what’s that?”

“That’s the painting I made for practical arts. It’s a painting of me and my new friends.”

“Can I see?” Élise walks over.

“Sure!” I take it out of the container and show her.

“Damn sis, I didn’t know you had such talent.” Her mouth almost falls open wide.

I chuckle. “I didn’t either. Can I hang it in my room?”

“Of course! The delivery guys just left so your bed is here too. I probably have a frame approximately that size laying around somewhere too.” She goes off to rummage in their storage room.   

“Oh, uhm, sis?”

“What’s up?” She says while picking a frame from behind some boxes. “Gotcha!”

“Could you go buy a phone with me a bit later today?”

“Ah right, your phone got crushed, so sure. Any reason why you need it today?”

“Well… I kinda met this girl and…” I recount the entire story of seeing Granny and meeting Sam, together with her invitation for her match tomorrow.

“I got the feeling that Granny is trying to ship you two together.” Élise laughs. “I’ll get my jacket so we can go to the mobile phone store a bit down the street.”

“Thank you so much!”

“Don’t sweat it, sis, I’ll do everything for love.” She says with a dramatic voice. 

We leave shortly for the store which is only 300 meters down the road.

Entering the store I immediately start looking at all the different phone models.

“Hmm, I don’t really need anything new. An older model will do fine.”

“They’re all basically supercomputers anyway.” Élise starts looking around as well. “Oh, Amicia, look at this.” She drags me over to one of the displays. “What about this one?” Élise points at a YESKEA 560, a generation or two older than the current one, even though it just released a year ago.

“That looks good, but why specifically this one?”

“Because I found this!” She takes a case from behind her back, it’s a light pink case with several feline cat prints in hot pink, purple, orange and red shades dotted randomly around. My eyes go wide.

I need this in my life.

“So whatcha think?” Élise looks expectantly at my face.

“It’s… brilliant.”

“I know right!” She says with clear excitement in her voice. “We can get you this strap too.” And picks a strap with a little anime cat girl hanging from the accessory rack.

“Isn’t that going to be too much...you know... cat?”

“Who cares? Do you like it? Then you should go for it!”

Her excitement is extremely contagious.

“You’re right. I do love it.” I smile.

We quickly make our way to the register. Luckily it wasn’t too expensive - prices do drop off pretty quickly after the release of a new model.

We head back to the apartment, where we find Nikki looking at my painting.

“Oh hey you two lovelies!” She turns around with a smile “Did you make this Amicia?”

“Yep!”

“It’s great work! You should try making a manga or something like that.”

“That’s actually the plan for my art project, the prof even said he’d look for a publisher if it ends up being good.”

“Wow, going to become a mangaka?”

I raise my shoulders and smile “Why not.”

“Oh Nikki, our little kitten has a date tomorrow.” Élise hugs me from behind.

“Does she now?”

I tell Nikki what happened today as well.

“If she is as nice as you described her to be she might even be a better catch than your sister.” Nikki jokes.

“Hey, I’m a great catch.” She pouts.

Nikki gives her lover a kiss.

“I’ll forgive you for now.”

“Thanks sweetie.” Nikki moves back to the kitchen to unpack today’s groceries. “Want to play some more Turn of Destiny today Amicia? Since your bed is here and all.”

“Oh! That’d be amazing!”

“Thought so too, with all that’s happened lately it might be time for some good ol’ escapism.” Élise joins in the unpacking. “Oh, by the way, we just went out to buy Amicia a phone.”

“I figured as much.”

Élise makes a shocked impression “How did you know? Do you have psychic powers you never mentioned.”

“No, I just saw you walking towards the store as I came into the building...Or did I.” Nikki giggles.

I show Nikki the phone we bought together with the case and strap.

“Oh, that’s very cute.” She says after a short inspection. “It suits you a lot.”

“Thanks! Do you want some help with dinner, Nikki?”

“That’d be very helpful, as long as you’re a better cook than your sister.”

“Hey, I heard that!”

We all start laughing.

After a nice dinner with my family I set up my new phone and send messages to Hailey and Carol. And last but not least, to Sam.

“Hey Sam, this is my number, see you tomorrow! Amicia.”

“Thanks, Amicia! I’ll do my best!”

“You better :) I’ll be off playing Turn of Destiny in a bit so I won’t be able to respond to your advances for a while.”

“Awh, shoot, I had so many cheesy lines waiting for you too! I guess I’ll have to send them all later ;) Have fun!”

“Thanks!”

“Sending texts to your girlfriend?” Élise teases.

“Maybe.” I stick out my tongue.

Élise laughs. “Anyway, we’ll be going to bed and get ready for the game.”

“Okay!”

“Could you give Pocky another can of food and water before you do the same?” Nikki asks, heading towards her room.

“Definitely!” I head over to the cupboard and select a can labelled “salmon”. “Will this do, or would you rather something else?”

Pocky meows.

“Okay, I’ll just get your water and go to bed. I’ll leave the door open so you can sleep with me.” Pocky mews once more.

I give her the water and head to bed to install myself. Pocky almost immediately joining me and settling on my stomach.

“Goodnight Pocky.”

She meows me goodnight as I press the VR button.

Ready for yet another adventure in the world of Haurchefaud!