"Shrinking Under Pressure"
by Sonicfan287
Chapter 4: Family, friends and more
"So, you a freshmen here?" Jake asked, dipping into his small cup of fries from the grill. While he ate, Ashley stayed fixated on him most of the time, her eyes barely moving despite the myriad of distractions around her.
"Y-Yeah, I mean I just started here... well actually I mean, I graduated high school in... well, I mean you know that because..." she stammered.
"Heh, it's cool" Jake said, "Must be a bit overwhelming to come here for the first time. What school did you go to?"
"Ledyard High" she said
"You like it?" he asked.
"Yeah... I mean, it was fun but psh... yeah" she said, unable to answer the question with certainty.
There was a brief pause before Jake resumed conversation.
"Y'know, you didn't have to buy me more food" he said.
"I know... but I mean, I made you fall" she sighed, her eye contact fluttering between his face and the plate of food just below him
"Technically..." he said, with a stern voice that was soon going to be broken, "...the pickle made me fall"
At that point, they both laughed, overcome by the absurdity of it all. Ashley glanced down and noticed an overloaded backpack of things at the leg of his chair. Sticking out were a couple of spiral bound notebooks, which jut out at the corners, appearing ready to burst free at any moment.
"You... taking a lot of classes?" Ashley asked.
"Yeah... well I mean, I take four" Jake explained, "but I have a couple art classes which..."
"You're an art student?" Ashley asked, completely interuppting him.
"Y-Yeah, y'know, it's what I do, it's what I like" Jake asked, "I've been here a couple years, I started as a science major actually... Biology... my dad thought it would be a great path for me"
After a moment's pause, Ashley jumped back into the discussion.
"But... you didn't think it was for you?" she assumed.
"Yeah, pretty much" he shrugged, "I mean, I could handle the work load.. it got tough and it didn't give me much time for friends or anything... and I mean, I've always loved art. I'm just not sure what I'm going to do with it"
"You could go into graphic art maybe?" Ashley suggested.
"I was thinking of that but I don't know... it's all too commercial... I'm looking for something more real, yknow? Something ... something where I can truly express myself" Jake rambled, "You probably don't know what I mean"
"No... No, I do" Ashley stated, her voice sounding confident at first but slowly drifting as she thought more about his statement. She gazed briefly back at Alicia who was shuffling out of the food court, taking a glance back at Ashley and flashing a short smile. Ashley acknowledged her with a nod and then went back to thinking.
....something more real....
Back in Norwich, a small household was cluttered with the noise of dishes hitting an open sink, as Diana Austin engaged in her usual regimen of cleaning in the kitchen and dining room, where her exhausted husband sat before his emptied plates.
"Busy day at work, hon?" Diana asked, taking a brief moment to sit down next to him. Zack's mother, Diana was almost always going, seemingly endowed with limitless energy and a perky personality that was sometimes seen as a facade to hide her overworked and stressed emotional state. Through it all, she loved her son to death but couldn't help but feel irritated by the stress he had been putting on their once happy family.
"You don't know the half of it" Frank grumbled, "The committee behind the fall festival wants to see what we're working on and particularly, they want to buy the rights to Zack's logo"
"The leaf pattern with the girl?" she asked. Frank nodded, "so what's the problem?"
"The problem is, they pretty much want Zack's involvement on the project, almost exclusively. They want him to modify the logo and make it into something that they can use year after year" Frank explained, "and legally, I can't negotiate on a price since I don't own the art, and of course Zack is never around to talk to them himself..."
"I thought he was supposed to be working with you tonight?" Diana asked.
"Oh yeah. About that" Frank scoffed, ending his earlier point, "he called me about an hour before he was supposed to get in... supposedly starting feeling sick while lifting weights in the gym... said the school doctor told him to lay down and take it easy, so he wouldn't be able to make..."
After that, Frank threw a hand up in disbelief, eliciting a frown from Diana, who stood up to continue her busy work.
"You think he's making it up?" she asked, fading into the kitchen briefly to gather the plates into the sink.
"It wouldn't be the first time" he sighed, "I just don't know where that kid's head is... he's an art student for crying out loud! He should take this as an opportunity... I never had this when I was a kid... I had to work hard to start my business... my family couldn't afford to send me to school"
"Yes, we know hon" Diana said, a half smile on her face as she came back into the dining room, nearly done with her job, except to wipe the table down. She spread a dampened cloth across the surface many times rigurously, prompting Frank to move his elbow and some of his papers from the table.
He picked up the large brown expandable file that had been leaning on the table and set it on the chair next to him. He took out some of the logo designs and other graphics from recent projects.
"I just don't get it." Frank said, "He's not depressed anymore... I mean, right?"
There was a brief moment of silence between both of them, where they gazed into one another's eyes, unsure of the answer to that question.
"I mean... yeah, he seems better" she nodded. Frank gave a brief nod of approval as well, cracking a grin as he looked down at Zack's designs in his hands.
"Yeah, and I mean look at his art work..." he said, his smile widening as he shuffled through the papers. Out of them all he took a small crumply piece of yellow notebook paper. On it were several crudely drawn symbols, mostly stars in black marker ink. At the center of it was a jagged comic book character, his body constructed of a couple differently sizes triangles and his head an oval who wore outrageous sunglasses, depicted as an outstretched polygon with jagged corners. "Remember this crazy guy?"
"Heh, yeah, who could forget?" she laughed, "Poly-man..."
"Yeah, what the hell happened to Polyman? What happened to all of his... I don't know, all of his passion, all of his energy?" Frank asked.
"School happened, you know that" Diana sighed, "it's all part of growing up"
She walked over towards Frank's chair and sat down next to him, looking over his shoulder as they both viewed Zack's previous art. He flipped to a more current page that was computer rendered, rather than hand drawn.
"What are these?" she asked.
"Zack's newwer works... well, both of us actually" Frank explained, and showed her some logos for local companies, including trucking companies, a local grocery store and a special logo for the girls scout lodge. The logos weren't terrible but they lacked the same creative freedom. "I did most of the work on the girls scout logo, and they've been using it since '98. I'm friends with the scout leader over there, Rodney as you know. He's been begging me for years to have Zack work on something new... he always loved Zack's crazy designs"
"Yeah, well I'm sure Zack would do it, have you brought it up?" Diana asked.
"A couple times, but between everything else we've been doing, there just hasn't been time... I mean, look at these other logos though, they're mostly Zack's doing and they're just... I... don't know" Frank stammered, frowning as he paused to point to every logo on the page.
"They're boring" Diana chuckled, "let's face it... a red sqaure that says 'Meyer's Deli'? Not exactly cutting edge"
"Right" Frank said, smiling, "Still, they seemed to like the work, but that's just it. I don't want people to just like our work, I want them to LOVE it. I want Austin Graphics to really take off so that Zack can comandeer it when he's older"
"True, but I mean... maybe that's not what he wants" Diana said, throwing her eyebrows up in sympathy, "he's just a bit stressed right now"
"I'd believe you, except he's been so non chalant lately" Frank said, "That's why I don't know why we still have him seeing Nancy... he seems fine. I mean, relatively speaking"
"He seems fine, but you know Zack" his mom reminded, "he comes off as a 'silent' soldier ... he never lets anyone see or know his pain"
Both parents remained quiet in the dining room to reflect on the somber statement, as Frank turned the page to Zack's designs from the prior Fall festival. There were many prototype drawings of the girl with autumn hair before he came up with the simplified design for the fall festival logo. Almost instantly, Diana's eyebrow raised.
"Hey, Frank..." she said, "You ever think Zack had an inspiration for this logo...?"
They both paused and glanced over at a picture on the piano, then revisited Zack's drawing.
"Heh... what? No, that's nonsense" Frank said. "I mean... yeah, maybe, but hey... every artist needs inspiration, I'm sure it's just..."
"But maybe it's more than that" Diana said, sounding stern in her approach, stoping Frank from exiting the table. "I think you need to talk to him, Frank. I'm serious. You 2 used to be a lot closer and I think he needs his dad now more than ever"
"Diana..." Frank groaned, "I agree that some father and son time may be in order, but does it really help if I dredge up the past?"
His wife sat tensively, biting her lip and unable to answer.
In the meantime, the picture on the piano still stood, a small 4X6 in a dusty frame. Taken a couple Christmases ago, it was Zack with a goofy smile, his arm wrapped around a younger girl with messed up auburn hair. At the point in time where the picture was taken, one of her eyes was closed, while the other remained open and her teeth showed as she was in mid-smile, looking up at Zack, surrounded by Christmas decorations and a large Christmas tree. The girl in the picture had unforgettable blue eyes and autumn hair.
Giantess World
