Angelina and Ashton wandered around the sprawling school campus, lost in their own thoughts. They had just finished their art contest, but they didn’t feel any sense of relief or accomplishment. Instead, they felt a strange tension between them, as if they were both waiting for something to happen. They had been rivals for so long, but now they were forced to work together as a team. They didn’t know how to act around each other, or what to say. Angie broke the silence first, feeling restless. “Wait… what are we even doing?” she asked him, looking at him with curiosity.
Ash snapped out of his trance, startled by her voice. He had been humming a random tune to himself, trying to ignore the awkwardness. “Huh? Sorry, I wasn’t listening.” he apologized, rubbing his temple nervously.
“No, no. I thought you’d be with your friends. They came, didn’t they?”she asked him, wondering why he was still with her.
“They did, but I just thought… uh… never mind.” he mumbled, avoiding her gaze. He realized he had a chance to tease her back, and he took it. “Why aren’t you with your friends?” he asked her, smirking.
“Uh… I just thought, maybe you’d want to tell me, uh… tell me something about the… the artwork… or talk to me? " she stammered, feeling flustered. She really didn’t have any better excuse to give him, and so she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Of course not, why would I want to talk to you ?” he scoffed.
“Hmm, fair point.” she shrugged, playing along. She spotted her friends in the distance, and decided to make an excuse to leave. As she was about to slip away, she heard a feminine voice call out to them.
“Hey, you two!” the voice said cheerfully. She turned back and saw two people approaching them, a girl and a boy who looked remarkably alike from a distance. They both had jet-black hair and chocolate brown eyes, and they wore matching white t-shirts that said. She didn’t recognize them, but Ash did.
As they got closer, he recognized them as the competitors. “Oh, hey Quin(n)s!” he greeted them warmly.
“Hey, how was the contest?”Quinn asked him eagerly. She was the girl of the pair, and she had short hair that reached her shoulder.
“It went pretty well. We already beat you.” he bragged confidently. He glanced at Angie and smiled at her.
“I… I heard so much bickering…” Quin whispered softly to Quinn. He was the boy of the pair, and he had medium length, wavy black hair, falling in his face. He looked shy and timid compared to his teammate.
“Pardon?” Angie asked politely. She didn’t hear what he said clearly.
Quinn laughed lightly and explained to him, “I told you, they’re the most famous rivals here, apparently.” She turned around to look at the others. “I was telling him about you guys like five minutes ago!”
Quin blushed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. The famous rivals giggled at his reaction. Ash replied casually, “It’s okay, man. I guess it’s expected when you’re working with your polar opposite.”
“If you were truly polar opposites, you’d actually get along. Like poles repel, after all. Maybe you’re more similar than you think.” Quinn pointed out wisely, raising an eyebrow suggestively at them.
“No way! Never in a million billion years!” they exclaimed in unison, horrified by the idea of being alike in any way.
The Golden Oak students smiled knowingly at each other and then turned to their competitors.”Okay then, if you say so.” Quinn said playfully.
“I heard about you two from Ash. Same name but with two different variants?” Angie said.
“Yeah.” Quinn nodded proudly.”It’s strange but I like it.”
Ash and Angie exchanged puzzled looks. “Weird…”the brown-haired boy commented. They leaned closer to each other and whispered for a bit,making fun of how weird their lives must have been. They stopped whispering when they noticed the Quin(n)s looking at them with curiosity.” What are you two talking about?” Quinn asked curiously.
Oh nothing. Just how weird it is that you have the same name.”Ash said nonchalantly.
“Really?That’s it?”she asked skeptically.
“Yeah why? Do you think we were talking about something else?” Angie said defensively.
“No no. Of course not.It’s just that you two seem to have a lot of chemistry that’s all.” she replied innocently.
“Chemistry? What chemistry?” Ash and Angie said in unison, their cheeks turning as red as tomatoes.
“See? You even say things at the same time. That’s cute.” Quinn teased,brushing her dark brown, nearly black bangs out of her face.
“It’s not cute!It’s annoying!” they protested,their cheeks growing redder and redder by the second.
“Whatever you say.” Quinn shrugged. “Anyway we’d better get going.The results will be announced soon and Clumsy here seems so freaked out.” She gestured to her teammate who was biting his nails nervously.
“Yeah sure. See you later.” Ash said.
”Bye.”Angie said.
The Quin(n)s waved goodbye and walked away, leaving Ash and Angie alone again.They looked at each other awkwardly,not knowing what to say.
”So…” Ash started.
”So…” Angie echoed. ”I’ll meet you at the auditorium then…bye.”
They both sighed and parted ways, confused by Quinn’s words.
——-
The auditorium was buzzing with excitement as the finalists of the annual art contest waited for the announcement of the winners. The contest, organized by the staff of Sunny Coast and Golden Oak, had attracted hundreds of entries from students of both schools. After the rigorous selection process, the pairs were picked.
The theme of the final round was “Opposites Attract”, and the judges had a hard time selecting the best one.
There was Ash and Angie’s, the dragon and the princess. It was a last-minute idea, but you had to admit, it was fairly well executed. The two of them even tried new things, outside their comfort zones, working together being the biggest obstacle. There were a few stray paintbrush strokes here and there, but it didn’t matter all that much. The drawing looked good at the end, and that was what mattered. Well, unless you’re either Ashton Winters or Angelina Wylde, well, in which case, winning is the name of the game.
And on the other hand, there was the Quin(n)s’ self-portrait. It was one person, but a beautiful blend of Quinn and Quin’s faces. The job didn’t prove too difficult for the duo. They were both skilled at art. Being a few years older — in their senior year — and more experienced than their competitors gave them a slight competitive edge over the freshmen. Though the colors clashed with their real live color scheme, they didn’t mind. It was still beautiful, and according to them, had a very good chance. 
The judges finally came to a decision and walked up to the stage. The audience held their breath as the principal opened the envelope and read out the name of the winning pair.
“And the first prize goes to… Golden Oak High!”
The auditorium erupted in cheers and applause as Quinn and Quin looked at each other in joy. They had won! They had beaten Ash and Angie! They high-fived each other and ran up to the stage to receive their trophy and certificates.
The other pair clapped politely, but they couldn’t hide their frustration. They had worked so hard on their dragon and princess, and they thought it was original. Heck — they even worked together! How could they lose to a self-portrait? It was so boring!
They tried to smile as they congratulated the Quin(n)s, but they felt a pang of regret. They wondered what made their painting so inferior. Was it the lack of realism in their dragon and princess? Was it the way they failed to convey their personalities and feelings? Was it the fact that they had argued a lot and compromised on their vision? Was it the lack of planning? Although it held much sentiment to them, no denying it, but somehow, somewhere, it wasn’t enough.
They didn’t know, but they knew one thing: they wanted a rematch. And they would not give up until they proved themselves as the best artists in town.
(A.N. All pics for art contest AI generated, except that keep calm thing)
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