Page 27 of Something to Believe In

“So?” I finally ask, taking a seat as Mr Porter leaves the room to go and get his afternoon coffee. “What does it have to do with me?”

“You’re a threat.”

My brow furrows. “Why?”

“Because.” Tiana sighs. “Sarah thinks he’s her ticket to a fancy high life after finishing school – going to the hottest A-list parties, living off his footy cred, and hopefully becoming an influencer like Bec Judd or Nadia Bartel.” She rolls her eyes. “But everyone knows how close you and Oliver are, and Sarah thinks you’ll get in her way.”

I shake my head. “Doesn’t she have a boyfriend?” I ask, recalling Ashley making the same comment on the first day of school.

“Yeah, Joel. He also goes to St. Christopher’s.”

“Wait, you don’t mean Joel West?”

Tiana nods. “You know him?” Worry lines appear on her forehead when I confirm the fact. “You can’t say anything! She’d literally kill me if she found out I told you.”

“But Joel’s a great footballer himself.” I’ve heard Oliver talk about him with Jake. Joel plays for the rival team - the Bridgeport Bears - but Oliver respects him and has said on more than one occasion that he has real draft potential.

Tiana shrugs again. “Apparently she thinks Oliver is a better prospect.”

My stomach churns.What a cruel and vindictive bitch to do that to her own boyfriend.“So, what? It still doesn’t make sense as to why she’s being so mean to me.”

“I guess she thinks if she can get you out of the way, then Oliver will be fair game.”

“I’m his friend, not his girlfriend,” I assert, though my lips tingle with the memory of the kiss in his kitchen. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to be nice to me and use me as her in with him?”

Tiana shakes her head. “I have no idea how that girl’s mind works, but I can promise you I won’t be getting involved.”

I groan.Having this information does absolutely nothing to help me figure out what to do about Sarah.“Let’s just try and get this front cover sorted before Mr Porter gets back.”

Opening her folder on the table in front of us, Tiana starts flipping through some amazing drawings. There are intricate doodles with detailed lines and patterns, watercolour landscapes that appear to float off the pages, and realistic portraits of animals and people. She’s used a variety of different mediums: oil pastels and paint, charcoal, pencil, graphite, watercolours, and acrylic paints.

“You did these?” I ask, putting my hand out to stop on an incredible lifelike drawing of singer and actor Kevin Quinn.

Her cheeks tinge pink. “Yeah, I’m, like, totally obsessed with him.”

“This is really good.” I’m not exaggerating. She’s an extremely talented artist. The shading and attention to detail is so precise.

“Thanks.”

She continues to flick through until she finds what she was looking for. “I was thinking we could use something like this,” she says as she puts forward a powerful image of a young girl with crosses on her closed eyes and lips. Drawn in charcoal, it’s bold and demanding of the eye. “And juxtapose it with a colourful word cloud using words such as ‘respect, kindness, encouragement, speak up’, and anything else you might think of that conveys whatever important messages we’re trying to get across in the issue. It can be the same for each issue, or we can change it up. Same with the picture, I can work in whatever image works for your articles.”

I stare at the page in front of me.This is perfect!

The image is so powerful. It works so well with what I’m trying to promote: lifting the stigma of mental health issues, starting conversations, helping one another. It’s like she’s read my mind.

Watching me closely for my reaction, Tiana’s face falls. “You hate it. I get it. It’s stupid.” She tries to close the folder, but I place my hand over the page.

“No,” I manage to choke out. “No, it’s, uh, it’s kinda perfect for the articles I was going to write.”

“Really?”

I nod, smiling.

“I guess this means we’ll be working together then?”

“I guess so.”

“And we can keep this between us?” Tiana looks around the empty room.

---