Maybe?
Gangle took her foot of the brake after she heard the gentle *click* of the gearshift being placed into park. She sat there for a second, listening to the Tokyo Ghoul OST as she stared at the clock. It proudly displayed ‘7:14’ and Spudsys opened to the public at 7:30, meaning she had a little bit of time. She waited for the song to begin to fade out, letting the silence swallow her up. She turned her key slowly, turning off the ignition, and stepped out. She'd already changed in her car. She'd stopped to grab an energy drink, but realized she would be late if she changed anywhere else. She had already gotten herself lost in this ass backwards town once, and she didn't trust herself to not do it again. She clicked the lock button on her car keys twice, anxiety leaving her body as she heard the beep, indicating it was in fact locked and that she hadn't forgotten, a fact she knew would ease her mind later if she started to spiral. She twisted the key and unlocked the store, clicking the caribenner back onto her belt loop before she started turning everything on.
—----------------------
Gangle dropped the cardstock esque paper and dropped into the other side of the wooden frame, indicating she was clocking out. The next shift manager had come in around 10 minutes ago, so Gangle had spent the time cleaning up her station and getting ready to go. It wasn't the worst shift ever, the workers were surprisingly nice, same can't be said for the customers. She had to tell 5 different people the ice cream machine was broken, and they all yelled and asked to see the manager, as if she wasn't wearing a name tag that said ‘Manager’. She had her first day of work out of the way and now she had a class at 3 and it was currently 2:15, so as long as she didn't get lost again, she'd make the lecture.
“What can they even lecture about freehand art, it's literally a ‘draw whatever you want’ class.” Gangle spoke to herself as she began driving back towards her new school. She didn't mean to sound so disinterested, because she wasn't, she was very excited for her first lecture, she just didn't understand why it was covering this specific subset of art. Especially given the magnitude of this school in terms of art. She remembered how she felt when she got the acceptance letter from The Digital University, one of the most competitive art programs in the country, and her dream school. It was a feeling of pure bliss, like finding your favorite food for the first time while floating on a cloud, pure serendipity. They usually had an average class size of 30 at the school, except their art program, which ranged from 10-15 students due to its highly selective nature and the fact that this academy prized itself on the connections students built with the teachers, mainly because they hired world renowned artists to teach for them. Gangle's professor would be Mr.Kinger, an abstract artist. He was known for taking chess boards and turning them into art, using a variety of wood stains, board models, and paint to create his art. Though he hasn't created anything new in a long time, and no one knows why.
Nevertheless, Gangle stepped out of her car with more enthusiasm than she's had all day, threw on her hoodie, and grabbed her sketchbook, and locked her car three times, before she headed inside the building.
She pushed the door open to reveal a very chess themed room. The walls had been painted and there were 3D chess pieces in every direction, some of them being taller than Gangle herself, which isn't a high bar but is still quite absurd in this case. The clock on the wall was a giant timer, the kind they used in official chess matches, and seemed to go at a different speed than any analog clock she'd seen before. The final thing she noticed was the lack of students in the room. There were a few students sitting in the front, some scattered around in the middle, and the back was almost completely empty, except for a girl with long brown hair and bangs; they were mostly covered by the blue and red beanie she wore atop her head. Gangle decided that if she was going to survive, she needed a friend, but she also didn't want tk be weird, so she sat two rows in front of the colorful character, without a word.
Eventually professor Kinger entered the room. Gangle was unsure of whether he was late or she was early, the clock made no sense, and she didn't have the will to try and figure it out, nor did she have the will to argue with someone about the no phone policy this school had.
“Hello new students!” He spoke excitedly, his voice didn't match his face, he seemed a lot scarier than he sounded, something that relieved Gangle. “Welcome to the Digital University for highly gifted individuals, and congratulations on getting in! I am so happy to have you here. I am professor Kinger, some of you may know me or my work, others may not, I don't care regardless!” a smile danced on his face as he spoke. “I am here to teach you all how to hone your skills, and that's exactly what I'll do! First things first, everyone find a partner, we're gonna do a peer review and get far too familiar with one another!”
Gangle felt her heart drop into her stomach. She never showed anyone her sketchbook, it was like her version of a diary, extremely private. And now she had to show it to a complete stranger.
Maybe there's an odd number of kids, and I'll be left alone. Gangle thought to herself hopefully. Unfortunately all that hope was crushed when she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see the brunette in the beanie standing next to her.
“Hey” She spoke softly, her voice high and sweet.
“Hey.” Gangle responded wearily, exhaustion tracing the singular syllable.
“Do you want to be partners? I'm new here and don't really know anyone.” She said, scratching the back of her head nervously.
“Oh really? Me too, I just moved here, so I don't know anyone either.” Gangle replied with a chuckle.
“Well hey whaddya know.” The girl laughed. ”looks like things worked out then, gotta make a friend somewhere yaknow?”
“Yeah.” Gangle smiled. “You do.”
“Then let's start here, I'm Pomni, I'm a digital artist, but I dabble in ceramics. I'm majoring in accounting and economics, but this is my passion so I'm minoring in it.” She smiled as she spoke, extending her hand for Gangle to shale, which she did.
“Woah that's a lot, I could never do accounting as a major, I think my brain would explode.”
“It is definitely not for the weak.” She laughed. “ Now how about you?”
“Oh right.” Gangle flushed out of embarrassment. “I'm Gangle. I do freehand Drawing, charcoal drawing, digital art, and realism, but my specialty is Painting. Art is my passion, so it's my major.”
“Daaaaannng girl, you said I do a lot, you're like the master of art.” Gangle smiled at the joke. “Now let's compare sketchbooks, shall we?” Pomni said as she held up a leatherbound book adorned with stickers.
Maybe this town won't be as mundane as I thought, maybe I'll like it here