The Mosaic by Nina Berkhout

Author:Nina Berkhout
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
Published: 2017-08-08T20:51:59+00:00

21

I completed the artist questionnaire as best as I could. I loaded up my pictures and submitted the entry package just before the deadline.

Billy was back from Chicago but we hadn’t seen each other much outside of school. I’d picked up extra shifts at Taco John’s, and Martin Goodwin had locked him away at Affinity to work on college applications.

He came by when he first got home, full of apologies for telling Jolene about the mosaic. I was still furious with him. But then he kept saying how sorry he was and he looked broken up about it. When he kissed me I couldn’t stay mad.

The big school trip was happening soon, so he was being extra attentive. He even grabbed me in the hall a few times and pressed me up against the lockers, which made my head spin.

Since the contest submission was done, Gabriel said he wanted to take a break and recharge. I still stopped by so we could sort through casings and clean stuff up, but like Nan and Mom, he pushed me to get studying and deal with university deadlines. So during the weeks before leaving for Yellowstone I focused on my own applications for college to shut Gabriel and my family up. I didn’t plan on going but applied to the liberal arts programs at California State, UCLA and UC Berkeley.

I also told Dad I wouldn’t be going anywhere in-state, and I told him about my plans with Billy. He barely reacted. “I guess it’s your life,” he said on the phone.

I got my recommendation letter from Dodge, who wrote the same things for all his students. My essay talked about Grandpa Wallace and how his photography inspired me. I also threw in a few pictures of the mosaic to show that I worked as an art assistant. But my test scores weren’t high enough and I had no extracurriculars. I wasn’t college material and I knew it.

The day we left town I texted Gabriel. Headed to Yellowstone, back Friday. I wasn’t sure what else to say. He knew about the annual trip. He would have taken it himself as a student.

Bon voyage, was all he wrote back.

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