4. Tryouts

Anne was late. Somehow, she rushed to the school. Today were the selections, she couldn't possibly afford to be late today! She rushed her car and reached her destination. Getting out, Anne had to almost make a run for the staff-room to mark her presence. Then she took a few moment to breathe and saw her wrist watch, she had just made it in time. She walked towards her class.

"So students, the judges, rather instructors will be here now. They will be here all the time so I want you all to behave."

"Anne?" A young man appeared on the door a few moments after Anne had briefed the class about the trails (for the hundredth time), he was accompanied with two other people.

"Good morning, Mr. Lou, Mr. Paige and Ms. Rider. This is my class." Anne threw the students a stern look and the students immediately stood up and chorused, "Good morning sirs, ma'am."

"Lovely class." Mr. Lou said and Anne smiled.

"Good morning everyone," Mr. Paige, who looked the oldest among the three judges, said, " I hope that you know why we are here." Most of the students nodded.

"Twenty-three? Is that the strength of this class Anne?" Ms. Rider asked.

"No, there must be twenty-four..."

Then Anne counted the students herself and realized that Mike was not in the class. Just as she was thinking this, a student, Kevin, said, "Ma'am Mike isn't in the class."

"Yes, I know..." Anne frowned. She was highly disappointed, "So is he not present in the school or is he absent just here?"

"We don't really know, I haven't seen him as we were suppose to assemble in the art room today, before we go to our classroom." Kevin said.

"Anne, I am afraid we don't have time to wait for another student. The students present here will only get limited time, so we must start now." Mr. Lou said.

"Yes, of course. I am sorry for the inconvenience." Anne was somewhat embarrassed, so she apologized.

"It's alright."

The students were then asked to start their drawings.

"You will be given the results on Monday, then the next round will be held shortly. Good luck everyone!"

*

Sofia was sitting alone in a class. She had left the staff-room because she was carefully checking the notebooks of her students and the teachers there were feeling rather talkative.

Suddenly, someone peeped into the class and then ran away. Sofia got up from her seat and rushed to see who it was.

"Mike?" Sofia was shocked, "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing." He replied.

"You had the selections today, didn't you? Are they done?"

Mike nodded in answer.

"How did it go?"

"Good." He lied again.

"Oh, excited for the results then?"

"Yeah."

*

"Thank you everyone. Give your sheets here, time is up!" Mr. Lou asked for the sheets, very enthusiastically.

"Anne," Ms. Rider came to her, "We won't be able to retake the selections for the kid who was absent."

"I know... I am sorry again. I told the whole class to come, I don't know why he didn't come."

"Its fine. We'll go now. You have got a lovely class, all their drawings are very impressive."

"Thank you."

*

"While checking the notebooks, Sofia came across mike's.

"Empty! Not a single page is filled." She said to herself. She decided to give him a big note at the back of his copy. She opened the last page and saw bridges drawn roughly, of all the shapes and sizes.

"Oh my God! Are these really the bridges Anne told me about? This guy really has something with the bridge.... He has filled the last few pages of his copy with these. I must tell Anne." She wondered.