))Beatrice Madrigal floated through the hallways – not literally, of course, but at Saint Joe's one has to be explicit about such things. As she wiped her hands on her paint smock she looked up into the glass case, admiring the work she had done.
A series of twelve drawings in charcoal on light tan paper, matted crisply, stood out in contrast the black strip of fabric she had laid out on the corkboard backing. She complimented herself as she closed and locked the glass case intended for displaying the best among recent student work. The whole thing looked professional – well, at least as professional as she could get it to look, given the school's less-than-ideal “gallery space.”
Several students congregated around the drawings throughout the course of the day. Some admired them. Some grinned as they walked by, as though something had clicked in their heads. Some immediately burst out into giggles. The reason became clear enough: the figure was easily recognizable as Eric Copper and, while his less-than-presentable-bits were artfully obscured for modesty's sake, it was abundantly clear that the figure was drawn from the nude.
A piece of paper was taped to the wall nearby, reading, “Congratulations to Alex Waters, winner of the Paragon City Young Artists' Annual Competition in the category of Figure Drawing!”
