Sparrow Truman March 30th, 20XX

The classroom was uncharacteristically empty and quiet. There was about half an hour till class started so it wasn’t too surprising, but as a proud member of the just-made-it-to-class club, it was an unfamiliar sight.

As a usual not-latecomer, my seat was usually at the back of the class. There I could ignore the teacher’s annoyed glares and work on my projects when the class content was too boring.

The only reason I was early was that Will had needed the car today and mine was still at the shop. He’d dropped me off on the way to work.

Since today was a day of rarities, I took a seat closer to the front than usual and looked forward to the surprised look on my teacher’s face.

After chuckling to myself for a few seconds. I brought out my sketchpad and flipped open the planning page for the showcase that would happen in a few months.

The showcase was a schoolwide event that had senior students form small groups or mock agencies. The idea was to have each group represent a company and the school would represent the market.

Each group would come up with a presentation to showcase in one of the many competitions or would come up with an event all on their own and try to get as many people as possible to attend and help them turn a profit.

Our school was among one of the top schools in the country, so our showcase usually turned out to be bigger in scale than those of other schools.

It ran for about half a month, starting in June, and participants outside of active students would have to reserve tickets in advance. It was an exciting event not just because we got to show our talents to the world and take part in something of such a large scale but also because of the scouts from the various agencies that would attend.

Throughout this half-month-long event, representatives from the various companies would come to scout out talents from each group and possibly sign them into the company.

Unlike other countries which had strengths of military or superior medical technology, our country had made its name on being the Mecca of entertainment. From actors to idols to singers to athletes and everything in between, everyone that sought a career in the entertainment industry would eventually make their way over here.

Over the many years, our society had put a spotlight on jobs in and supporting the industry, which made up a large part of the country’s revenue.

It had even impacted the schooling system where the talented and the nontalented would be segregated by what high schools they went to. For the talented, they would wrap up their main academic content by their late years of middle school and would fully focus on their talents from highschool.

There were regular high schools that went by the general worldwide curriculum, but they were few and usually out of the capital. One would have to go out of the country if they wanted any worthwhile education in fields outside of the industry.

Although the showcase focused on the senior students, it was a common practice for the younger students to take part.

I hadn’t taken part in the showcase in my first year since my sudden appointment as the student representative had overwhelmed me. My second year had been much of the same, so this year would be the first and last year I would contribute meaningfully to the showcase.

Alice’s group had won the grand prize at the showcase for the past two years. This was because she’d had the budget and support from her uncle, who was a representative at Volui. Because of this, and her friends with similar connections, the most talented students aggregated around her.

Alice was talented in her own right as a starlet, but her true talents lied in her ability to surround herself with influential people. From her family connections to her current boyfriend, the school’s star athlete, to her friends. She also had people like Vanessa, who ran one of the most popular celebrity gossip blogs and had a personal connection to one anchor of a news channel on Squire.

She likely planned to make this year her third win in a row to commemorate her graduation and planned debut in the entertainment industry.

I had a big connection to Volui as well, through my older brother, but unlike her, I never felt the need to show it off to the school. I already had enough influence to get my way on what mattered to me, and I already had a growing portfolio since my work with Squire.

Destia, an old friend of mine I’d met at a camp, and a current c-list celebrity, had reached out to me not too long ago and had asked if I was interested in working on a movie with her. It had been surprising to run into her after she had ghosted me for half a year, but I was looking forward to working with her.

Honestly, I had little motivation to do anything large scale for the school’s showcase, but I would put forth my best and work with my friends and the other students in my department.

Right now I was working on a set for a few friends who were doing a fashion runway. The school’s theme for this year’s showcase was that of romance or partnership, so I’d come up with a few ideas to make them stand out.

As a proud single for the past 2 years I was less than enthusiastic but the earnest looks of my followers- *cough* I mean my schoolmates, had convinced me to do my best.

Time flew as I planned and thought, and soon the class filled up. I felt the chair beside me being occupied and reflexively looked up, expecting to see Melissa. Instead of her soft and chubby cheeks and the rounded out frames, Finn’s sharp side profile greeted me and caught me off guard.

I nearly broke my neck as I located Melissa and wondered why she had migrated to the back of the room, instead of coming to sit by me. We made eye contact, and she pulled down her frames, pointed at Finn’s back and sent me a charming but out-of-character wink.

Finn focused on pulling his materials out of his bag and didn’t look me in the eyes but from the focused look Melissa had trained on his back I knew he was the motivation for the sudden seat change. I wondered how he had turned my best friend into someone so… frivolous.

Before I could ask, he suddenly looked back and sent her an awkward smile before he settled down into the seat and got to work on what looked like a spreadsheet.

I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but it looked a bit too complicated and detailed for a student. Even if he was a part of the business department.

I waited for him to tell me what was going on but he determinedly stayed focused on his screen and only looked up to cross-reference something on his phone.

Time passed by slowly and awkwardly before I finally cracked and asked him as nicely as I could.

“This is rare. Did you need something from Will?”

We weren’t strangers, but the only time he’d ever talked to me at school was when he’d needed me to pass something to Will, or vice versa.

He was silent for a few minutes before he finally turned to me and made eye contact.

Although we didn’t talk often, he was at my house a lot and I was familiar with his features.

Or so I’d thought.

Although he wore the same thick frames and had his hair in that same obnoxious hairstyle, he almost looked like he had a filter on. His eyes were brighter and larger than I remembered, and the rest of his features seemed to have adjusted in kind.

He looked slightly more mature but somehow prettier than before, but not so much that I could say he looked like a different person altogether.

“Ah… not really.”

His voice, which was rare to hear, completely threw me off and a weird dream I’d had last night surfaced in my mind.

I shook it off and ignored the comparison. There was no way I had that type of dream about someone I saw as a younger brother.

Even though I wasn’t trying to look at his work, the screen was so bright and I was curious about what he did in his free time. He suddenly clicked out of the intimidating spreadsheet and went to the school’s announcement site, where he opened up a virtual version of the showcase’s flier.

The teacher finally walked into the room and set up the technology for the lesson. She had a satisfyingly surprised expression on her face, but my interest had been called somewhere else.