Pencils & Polaroids

33: sorting and building

Swipe to see a very poorly constructed e-board →

. . .

I love theory classes. So when we spent the last two days making notes and writing worksheets about Sets, Lighting, Cinematography, Graphics, and Scripts, all I did was fall in love with each puzzle that fits together to curate a movie. And as well as the topics, the Skippers did a mind-blowing job at teaching. I won't be biased with my soft corner towards Collin Hunt, so I will admit that the zest with which Jackson Cain grooved while explaining the finer aspects of the film made me drool for him a little. Very little. 

This is the afternoon of Day Two and we're preparing for our first field activity. Rory Williams spearheaded this activity, and I can't wait to bag the first four points to my chart. Speaking of charts, I glance up at the e-board to see the scattered points that we attained from class interaction. 

This was by far the most interactive set of theory classes that I'd been a part of in the last five years of high school. If we were to show this kind of behavior in Cross, I'm confident that Headmistress Barcross would give us private scholarships herself. 

The number three under my name is mirrored with Elias Klein, Samantha Welch, Clara Jose, and Rainer Barcross. Next up, a bunch of people has two and single points. 

The only people who are still at zero are Zach Fell and Maddison Devon--the boy I picked and Selena Hodan's sidekick. Talk about irony. 

I analyze the e-board again and realize that Sparrows are the only team where none of them have zero points till now. Although the team score of Sparrows is tied with ours and we're both leading the points table, I don't like how they have a slightly upper hand with all of their birds performing. 

"Mellon, eyes on the nail. Otherwise, you're going to lose your fingers one by one in the next five strikes." Sadie kneels beside me with a hammer in her hand. 

I garner my attention away from the points table and pin it back to the wooden board I'm working on. Rory Williams is making all the teams create their mood boards today. When Captain Rory said Mood Board, I didn't think she meant we have to build it from scratch. Even the wooden board. So that is what we are all working on right now in the fields of the Redwood Campus--hammering nails onto four equal slabs of wood. 

"Doesn't the industry have people designated for this carpentry work?" Sadie just chuckles at my whine. "Imagine if the entire movie crew, including the directors, actors, and producers sat down to build the sets before shooting in them--what a waste of time." 

"Imagine the amount of time wasted if one wooden piece falls off and none of the crew members know how to fix it." Archer interrupts from behind us. "Imagine if a bunch of brilliant filmmakers with fiction scripts and billions of dollars had to wait for carpenters to come to the rescue for a simple backdrop malfunction. Imagine--" 

"We get your point." Sadie and I cut our Captain off in unison. 

"Good," Archer responds.

Because I'm facing him with my back, I dare to roll my eyes. It's no sooner than I do it, a hammer comes flying into the pit of our wooden frame. Sadie and I almost fall back with the force it landed. We glance at Rainer standing up dusting his hands, clearly finished building his side of the frame. 

"If the royalties can chit-chat after they're done working on this, it will be highly convenient. I'll go get the board." He speaks to no one in particular. 

I feel Archer kneel behind me and a second later, I hear him whisper, "Fix this. Now." 

Rainer Barcross has been cold with the entire team for two days now. He's not spared a glance, much less a word of strategy or discussion. I'm sure his behavior is a clear indication to the other teams that we're already having an internal fallout. When my dear Captain told me to fix this yesterday, I casually procrastinated because there were no group activities in theory classes. But today, I don't think I can take that risk. Having a weakness that is known to all thy enemies is a clear indication of losing.