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Rory looked over at her neighbor, noticing a mock-up of what would be the crew team’s page. She’d drawn a skinny boat at the bottom with oars on either side and added a few frames above for team pictures. Simple, elegant, clean. She looked back at her sheet, noting that her design was the polar opposite.
Oh no.
Penelope roamed the desks, admiring each person’s designs. Rory thought Penelope almost looked bored, until she came to her desk and froze.
She watched Penelope’s eyes go wide. “Now that’s…something.”
Vanessa popped out from behind Penelope and leaned in, taking a closer look at the design. Vanessa’s mouth curled into a wicked grin.
She flushed. “It’s okay if you hate it, I know it’s different—”
“No, no,” Penelope said, lifting Rory’s design off her desk. The first design she’d touched so far. “This is good.”
It was a design bursting in color. Bright bold bubble letters and a page covered in psychedelic colors, with frames for images in all different shapes and designs. A page with personality, something that matched well with the Instagram, TikTok, friendship-bracelet-loving age they were all currently living in.
“I know it doesn’t match the school’s typical designs,” she said. “But in my mind, a yearbook is meant to be a time capsule back to that period in your life, and I think the pages should reflect that.”
Penelope turned to Vanessa. “What do you think, Vee?”
Vanessa grinned and nodded, the two of them having some sort of silent exchange.
She whirled around, striding back to the front. “We will send our editor’s picks tonight, so please be on the lookout for the email. Our first official meeting will be next Wednesday, and we meet every day after school except Fridays, up until our deadline on May 18.”
Rory coughed. “Every day?”
“Is that a problem?” Penelope asked.
She would have to rearrange her schedule with Ron when Scoops reopened in March. She might be able to convince him to only give her night shifts during the week instead of after-school ones. But it was something to do—every day. It was going to get her out of the house. It was going to keep her busy this winter.
Rory flashed her teeth in a grin. “Not at all.”
Penelope smirked. “Good, check your inboxes tonight.”
Everyone started to pack up their things to leave. Rory lifted the colored pencil case to Vanessa, who was still standing next to her desk. “Thanks,” she said.
“Anytime, Rory,” Vanessa said, her voice bright and sweet like sugar. “Tell me, have you ever worked with digital design programs? Made graphics or anything?”
Rory blanched. “No, will that be a problem?”
Vanessa grinned, those two little crystals twinkling under the lights above them. “Nope, I was just curious.”
She felt a heavy pit in her stomach as she watched Vanessa walk away, wondering what in the world she just got herself into.
* * *
The email came at 10:59 p.m.
The list included everyone from the meeting, which made sense—there weren’t many of them to begin with. But it was where Rory sat on the list that had her gasping into her pillow.
Penelope Fairweather, Editor-in-Chief
Vanessa Ramirez, Creative Director
Sean Channing, Photography Director
Rory Michaels, Lead Designer
The rest of the group was listed as generic staff editors, including Gina. But not Rory, who was now in charge of the design for the entire yearbook.
