Nicole squinted, biting at the inside of her lips as she aligned the stick-on laminate over the bookmark-in-the-making. The drawing that was a translated version of one of the Collective’s book covers already sketched, colored, and shaded. She was not going to mess up now. She did not have time or the want to have to do this whole thing over. Art couldn’t be replicated perfectly in any volume or amount. She’d never be able to draw it the exact same way again!

She took in a breath and pinned the end of the stick-on laminate to the desk right under the bookmark, then grabbed the roller and slowly flattened the remaining of the strip onto the drawing. It was over! And there was no specks or air bubbles under the laminate—

Wait, was that a streak of improperly shaded art? Oh. Oh, it was. It was shaded terribly! It needed at least one more layer!

Nicole cried out and slapped her hands onto her face, great! Great! How was she to give this now! She leaned back in her seat and slip down until her feet had pushed the sleeping bag under her desk up into the wall of the desk. A knock at the door snapped Nicole from her welling sobs. She sat upright, tossed the book she’d been using for reference onto the bookmark and wiped her watering eyes with the inside of her shirt. “Yeah?!”

“Nickie!” Megan cheered, opening up the door smiling wide. “Good morning!”

“It’s morning?” Nicole croaked before looking to the clock on her desk. She frowned and slapped the top of it. Then checked and smacked eit again. Why was it saying 0:00?

“That’s your timer, Nickie,” Megan pointed out, shoving the pink box away and replacing it with the swirled pink and purple cased clock. “See? 5:10 sharp!”

“It’s 5:13.”

“SHHH!” Megan snarled then smiled again. “5:10 am.”

Nicole blinked. “Okay,” she copied the smile.

“Good, now. How much did you do last night since you got locked in again?”

“Well, I tried to sprint.”

Megan’s eyes widened and she lifted her hands to clap—then paused and her smile dropped. She raised a brow. “Tried?”

“I set a twenty minute timer, opened up the doc, and stared at it for twenty minutes.”

“That’s not sprinting Nickie!”

“No, I know. So I set another timer—” Nicole took a deep breath and lightly rolled her seat back, “And then I saw this book cover and really wanted to make it into a bookmark. It looks very bookmarkable! So I worked on that for a while.”

“And?” Megan squinted.

“And I worked on it for a while.” Nicole nodded.

.

Megan’s eyes didn’t blink.

.

“Nickie.”

“Yes?”

“Write. Edit. Do some real sprinting. Now.”

“But— But I am this,” Nicole pinched the air, “close to finishing the bookmark!”

“Fine, finish it and then write!”

Nicole nodded and took the book off the bookmark and picked up her crafting knife.

“Got it, finish the bookmark, nap, and then work.”

“Exactly— NICKIE NO NAPPING AFTER!”

“WHYYYY?!”

Nicole Soto "Do it for the Fame!" A Contemporary/Semi-Dystopian novel touching on revenge and Corruption. Following Emeric through his fight with the Game Show Empire of Fame! Written Californian Author, Nicole Soto, we all are sad because it is... NOT YET RELEASED! Click ​HERE​ to read more about Nicole!

​