Conflict

Arriving at school early in the morning, Jasmine had enough time to fill out the necessary paperwork for her submission to the art contest. Placing the sticker with the entry number carefully over her signature was mandatory as no piece for the contest was supposed to have identifying marks from the artist.

The rules of the contest stated that all submissions had to be made no later than Tuesday afternoon, for they would be put on display in a small gallery held on school property on Wednesday. The judges would arrive on Thursday and the results of the contest would be announced the following Friday morning.

The first, second and third places would receive minor awards, but the submission that placed first was to go on to the city-wide contest. The top winner of the city-wide competition would then get to go to the regional art contest where monetary prizes in the form of bonds could be won.

Those that were lucky enough to place in the regional contest would get to be entered into the state-wide competition where scholarship money was among the awards other than recognition.

Jasmine's prior artistic successes had only been able to get her the honorable mention or fourth place at the regional contest. For even at that level, she would be competing against hundreds, if not thousands, of other students from various grades.

The taste of each of the judges at the different levels also frequently changed, which made it more difficult for any single artist to continuously win the contests as they advanced. As no two people would assess the same piece in the exact same way.

The direction that an artist takes in their interpretation of a theme would widely vary. Sometimes, it was like trying to compare Van Gogh's Starry Night against Picasso's Weeping Woman. Both were considered masterpieces but trying to decide which was superior would open a forum of heated discussion.

Jasmine lingered at the contest's submission table a little longer than she had intended as she thought how to best phrase her the description that was to accompany her piece. The table was near the one of the main entry ways of the school, so a disturbance at the door rapidly pulled her from her thoughts.

Liliana had just arrived on campus and had been walking towards the entrance when Alan Johnson found her to cause trouble. "Well if it isn't the little princess, Miss Kane?" he sneered.

While his elder brother had vented about the breakup with his ex-girlfriend over the weekend, he had also mentioned something about Liliana's mother running into some trouble with recruiting talents for her company. She had held a job fair at some of the more notable college campuses in the state and one of them had been Texas A&M, which Aaron was attending.

Aaron's ex-girlfriend had been majoring in marketing and been keeping track of some changes in the various industries she had been hoping to work for. The design company that Mrs. Kane formed had been facing a drop in sales due to some poor marketing strategies and his ex-girlfriend saw a chance for landing an internship that could lead to more opportunities.

Thus, she had given up on the idea of relying on Aaron, Alan's older brother. Breaking up with him, she had visited the stand for Mrs. Kane's company at the job fair to pursue paving her own way in the world.

Carrying his brother's frustration, Alan didn't pass on the chance to take a verbal swing at Liliana. His reasoning was that if her mother was facing issues, then she shouldn't be so haughty and involve herself in other's matters.

"Shouldn't you be filial and more supportive of your mother rather than get involved in other's business?" he hatefully remarked.

Liliana's eyes narrowed with obvious disgust and annoyance. "Do you think this is a good time to let your mouth run? We're both going to be late if you insist on holding me up with your babbling like an idiot out here."

She didn't see any basis for bringing up her or her mother's relationship into a discussion currently. As she hadn't said or done anything to him other than pass by. It was nonsense, but the tone she used in replying was enough to send Alan over the edge.

He closed the distance in an instant and roughly grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her into the door with a bang. This escalation to physical violence caught Liliana by surprise and the impact left her momentarily stunned.

'How brazen!' she thought, but this was just the beginning as the crisp sound of slap followed the sound of the door shaking on its hinges. Her eye's flung wide open as she cradled her cheek ad looked at Alan as if he had lost his mind.

"How bold of you to call me an idiot!" he hollered and raised his hand to strike again, "You are nothing more than a stupid slut!"

Liliana hastily closed her eyes and braced for the blow only to hear a familiar voice break in. "What the hell is this, Alan!"

Cautiously opening an eye, Liliana saw where Jasmine had caught Alan's wrist to intervene. "Have you lost your mind!?" Jasmine continued and voiced Liliana's thoughts, "To start a fight right at the school's entrance, have you no fear of consequences?"

Rage erupted from Alan as he pulled himself free of Jasmine and turned to throw a punch at her lower side, which she nimbly dodged with a small step back before it landed.

Missing his mark, he threw another punch with his freed hand towards Jasmine's head, which she dodged again by opening space between them. To have the shout of a teacher divert her attention long enough to miss the sweeping kick Alan made that landed on the back of her knee and led her to fall.

"MR. JOHNSON!!!" screamed a teacher who recognized Alan and reached him in time to pull him back from landing another hit.

Alan struggled against the teacher and the assistant that came to join them in breaking up the scuffle. They tore him away while some of the other students whispered and a few bolder one's offered up testimony to the events they witnessed.

Jasmine recovered quickly from the fall and went over to her friend, who was still in a daze. "Liliana...." she looked imploringly to the blonde girl with a swollen cheek, "Liliana, what happened?"

It took her friend a bit to recover from the daze to answer, "Umm... I'm not sure," she started and then looked confused as to how to respond. She was puzzled as to how such a situation turned from a nonsensical outburst from Alan into a fight.

Seeing how lost her friend seemed, Jasmine offered to go with her to the school's clinic to get some ice for her swollen cheek. It wasn't until they were there that Liliana shared how it started.

While getting treatment, they could overhear the scolding that Alan was getting in the office down the hall. Jasmine lamented privately that even though he had started a fight, Alan would probably not get sent home for the day. It was still up in the air if he would receive any punishment other than a scolding and possible phone call to one of his parents.

"He really went too far, but your comment wasn't good either," Jasmine commented. "Though I don't get why he lost his cool in the first place. Your remark wasn't exactly any more biting than usual."

"Beats me," Liliana replied and fell silent for a moment as she scrutinized the events, then gave up with a sigh. "Well, whatever... at least we have a valid excuse to be tardy to class."

Jasmine nodded in agreement. "True."

Remembering the contest, Liliana then looked up, "By the way, the contest... have you done your submission?"

Grinning, Jasmine answered, "Yep! Although we won't know the results until the end of the week, you will be able to see it in the gallery the school will open later this week. I think you should be able to figure out which submission is mine."

Liliana smiled brightly, "If I can't pick out which one is yours, then I wouldn't be that good of a friend!" she replied.