It was, of course, striking. I’d made a minimalistic lily, while Rowan had made an extravagant iris. It had Rowan’s signature sculptural look, with twigs and lots of long grasses for balance. Filled with purple, white, and magenta begonias and primroses, and even some white hyacinths. At the time I’d preferred my sculpture, but now? I was glad we were doing the iris instead.
“That’s what you designed for the contest?” Samaya asked.
I shook my head. “No, this is Rowan’s. We each made a design, but we’re using his.”
Samaya shook her head, looking impressed. “Wow. You’re dating someone who is a better artist than you?”
I snorted. “Supportive sisters are really the best.”
She put her hands up, laughing. “Kidding, kidding. I personally like to surround myself with people at my level of genius at all times. Let me see your design.”
I brought up my flower on the screen.
“Ooh, I like that, too. I like how it’s kinda hourglass-y, but not. It looks like a dress.”
“A dress?”
“Yeah, look, turn it upside down.”
I did. And yeah, I could see what she meant. The lily blossom did kind of look like an upside-down abstract-ish minidress, with the petal tips at the hem.
“Always designing clothes,” Samaya said with a grin.
I laughed, but my mind was swirling with another image. I went back to Rowan’s design and turned it upside down. It sort of looked like a skirt. Moving quickly, I did a little bit of cut-and-pasting on the graphics app, splicing my upside-down lily over his upside-down iris.
It was a stunning gown. My slim, white flower was the bodice, and Rowan’s huge bloom was the skirt, with the longer iris petal as a train. I added some vertical striping to the bodice to simulate the stamen and pistil of the lily.
“Ooh,that,” Samaya said. “Can you make me that dress for prom? Except out of fabric, not flowers.”
It wasgorgeous. With my stylus moving quickly over the iPad screen, I added more long grasses to give the impression of movement in the skirt, and some yellow primroses to the bodice.
“I like that better than both the other designs,” Samaya said, watching me work.
“So do I,” I said. It was strange—this was nothing like my, or Rowan’s, original design, but somehow it evoked the feel of both. “It’s too bad we can’t really make this for the competition.”
“Why not?”
I shrugged but kept adding details. “A little late to change the design. The competition is tomorrow.”
Samaya studied the screen, head tilted.
“What are you girls talking about back there?” Mom asked.
“Tahira drew this really cool flower sculpture that looks like a dress. It’s way better than the design they are actually doing for the competition.”
“Then why don’t you make it instead? You should be putting your best foot forward at all times!”
I sighed, shaking my head. “I know, Mom,” I said.
Samaya shrugged. “You could at least try. I think this is a winner.” She mouthed the words “Janmohammads always succeed,” eyes twinkling.
I exhaled, looking at the design. Samaya might have been right.
But of course, I couldn’t ask Rowan to change the Bloom design now. Not after everything that had happened for the last few days. I was lucky he was letting me back on the team at all. Still, I opened a new page on my iPad to redraw this dress-sculpture design from scratch. I couldn’t help it. Even if this sculpture was never built, I couldn’t get the image out of my head.
28
RUBY TO THE RESCUE
