"Yeah…it's me." The words Bou spoke creeped up like insects out her throat. The hair on her skin raised with every syllable she spoke. 

But the world felt like it bent its way exactly for this moment and even with her brain telling her not to, she called the name of the girl she used to know. "It's been a while…Autumn." Her heart almost beat itself out of her chest.

The people around them suddenly started whispering, surprised at the sudden development. They were asking amongst themselves if they knew who Boudicca was or if she was someone famous but all of these sounded like mindless noise to the women currently staring at each other.

"It's really you huh?" Autumn said, her face unreadable. "What are you doing here?"

"Passing by." Bou tried to smile but she felt her gut twist. "You look like you're doing well."

Autumn's face turned sour at that comment and she sighed. "What does that mean?" She stepped off from her seat and walked over to Boudicca. The crowd behind Bou backed away as the painter approached.

"U-uh, exactly what I said?" The college student panicked as Autumn's question teemed with hostility.

"I mean what are you doing here?" Her voice was sharp.

A nervous laugh broke away from Bou's control. Maybe she shouldn't have called out to Autumn after all…

"I literally just said, I was passing by." Bou's palms sweated and she clenched them.

Autumn then stared at Boudicca up and down and looked at her normal clothes, the books in her hand, and Bou's orange hair nearly tied into a knot. In a sudden burst of frustration, Autumn slapped Bou out of nowhere.

The crowd gasped as they started feeling uncomfortable, some even started taking out their phones to film what's happening.

After recovering from the shock, Bou stood appalled, palming her cheek. "What the hell?!" She yelled.

"Are you kidding me?" Autumn grit her teeth. "All this time you were nowhere to be found and it's because you're out here in the middle of nowhere." She then grabbed the engineering, science, and history books out of Bou's hands and threw it on the ground. "What are you doing with all these useless books?"

"That's mine! You can't just throw them away?" Bou yelled.

"What's with those clothes? Where's the paint stains in your shirt? Where have you been all these years?"

Bou rushed inside the barricades to pick up her littered books and glared at Autumn. "I've been studying and quietly living my life."

"Hah?" Autumn ran up to her and pulled her by the collar. "Living your life??? Rotting in this small town instead of using your talent?"

"What's with you!? Get off me!" Bou tried to push her away but Autumn did not budge.

"Why are you staying here doing god knows what when you could be off there using what you have?" Autumn gritted her teeth and pushed Bou away. 

"SHUT UP!" Bou screamed. "I am done with painting! I hate it! So stop telling me what I need to do cause I don't care! Look at you!"

"Me!?"

"You finally got what you wanted all these years right?" Bou scoffed. "You're the popular artist now that you always wanted to be! Why do you have to take your shit out on me?!"

"What!?"

"I've changed, Autumn. I'm not the same primrose brained idiot that I was years ago, who thought that painting is everything." Bou stomped her foot down. "I'm not good enough anymore, I grew up. You got your dream and I didn't get mine and that's that!"

"You…" She glared back. "You don't get to say that. You don't get to call yourself not good enough." She took off her apron and flung it somewhere. "Cause if you're not good enough, then what about me who's below you."

"Below?! You're the one looking like a world renowned artist, Ms. Autumn Day." Boudicca said the last part extremely sarcastically. "The last time I beat you was 8 years ago, move the fuck on!"

"Not once." Autumn grit her teeth. "Not once did I ever beat you, in my entire life. Who cares even if I'm at the top when I know deep down there's someone better than me."

"So it's just pride then?" 

"That's not it."

"That's literally it. You can't help but feel hurt at the fact that you haven't beaten me." Bou smirked. "You want to make sure you're the best and not think twice about it."

"Thats…"

"Give it up, Autumn." Bou snapped. "Don't drag me into your stupid games of trying to bloat your ego. I told you, I don't ever want to paint anymore. I shouldn't have called out to you."

"Boudicca." Autumn grabbed her arm and pulled her close. "One more time then."

"What?"

"At the next art contest. Join." Autumn dared.

Boudicca snapped her arm away and started walking away without saying a word. She didn't even want to answer her ex best friend's challenge. She grabbed her books and slipped through and out the crowd watching them.

"Boudicca." The woman continued and Bou hesitated for second. "Is this really the life you want to live?"

She clicked her tongue and walked off as the people continued taking videos of this entire interaction and she knew that this may well be the end of her silent life as a nobody. 

Even still, she'll try her best to just live her life normally and quietly. She doesn't want anything to do with Autumn anymore. All these years and she's still spiteful about losing 8 years ago. Boudicca refuses to think about it.

The ripping of paper, the tears, and the screaming. Bou took large strides through the streets until she ended up in the safety of her apartment. 

Unfortunately, her roommate sat at the end of the room on a sofa with their boyfriend. "Hi Bou!" She greeted, without noticing Bou's quite distraught expression.

"Hey, Jo." Bou waved back and went to her own room in a hurry. She placed down her things on her table and stared in anger at the pillows on her bed.

"AHHHHH!" She screamed and started beating the ever living hell out of her innocent pillows. "I SHOULDN'T HAVE CALLED OUT TO HER!" She cried out as her pillows were punched and thrown around the room.

She then jumped on her bed and wailed while flailing around like a mad man as a way to express her anger. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" She said as she held one of her pillows in a chokehold and put three good punches to its body.

After a little more pillow abuse, she settled down on her bed, tired and frustrated. She recalls what Autumn said regarding the next competition…

A month from now there'll be entries available for an incoming art competition sponsored by none other than Bayward University with a bunch of cash attached to it and a free scholarship for the podium placers.

There'd be multiple different competitions depending on the type of art but the most popular and most difficult of all is the painting competition. 

Bayward is known for strictly graduating many world renowned artists and designers and has made themselves a titan in this field. No other school has produced more great artists from different disciplines than Bayward.

As a child and up until she was a young teenager, she had wanted to take part in this spectacle and bring home a prize and scholarship.

Of course, that never came into fruition. Boudicca gave up on art long before she reached the end of her highschool days. She hasn't picked up a brush since.

Or rather, she couldn't even if she wanted to. 

Truth be told, Boudicca, many times, has tried to paint again.

But every time she picked up the brush and put it near the canvas, her fingers would shake uncontrollably and her breathing would turn difficult and her mind just went blank.

She would then stumble out of her chair with her materials dropped on the floor. She can't think of anything to paint nor could she even paint it if she did.

Fortunately, that problem didn't extend to pencil sketches and she's relied on that for all her art projects in school since. Crude, uncolored, and messy sketches that still end with her getting A's on them.

Bou looked off to the side from her bed. Tucked away discreetly in one corner of her room was her painting kit, especially her brushes. This was a gift from Autumn all those years ago and she couldn't find it in herself to throw them away, even after they stopped being friends.

She sighed and sat on her bed as she took everything in for a moment. That slight pause to calm herself down was the perfect chance for a distant memory to slide itself back into her mind.

This took place 12 years ago when she was only 10 years old. Boudicca sat in front of a canvas as she and Autumn used their hands to finger paint whatever was on their mind at the time.

"Hehehe, what's that!" Autumn giggled pointing off to a yellow smudge Bou created. "It looks weird!"

"Heyyy! It's not done yet, Otty!" Bou complained with a grin. "Wait a bit~" She dipped her fingers in the brown paint and into the black then mixed them up a bit. She tapped her thumb a few times in the center, then dipped her finger in paint again, this time white and dark blue and created a rim around the brown center.

She then took her pointer finger and tapped lightly on it with pure black paint and what came out was a fantastically shaded beautiful sunflower.

"WHOAH!" Autumn marveled at what Boudicca just made. "How did you do that, Bou!?" Autumn squealed excitedly and tried to copy what Bou did.

"I just remembered what a sunflower looked like and made my own version." Bou tilted her head in a slight confusion before smiling again. She mischievously rubbed her fingers, still wet with paint, onto Autumn cheeks.

The girl gasped as she felt the cold chill of the paint swipe against her skin. She looked back at Boudicca who was trying to hold her laughter. "You meanie." Autumn smirked and fought back and flicked some paint on Bou's face.

"GAH!"

"HAHAHA PAYBACK!" Autumn cackled. "KYAH!"

Boudicca flicked some paint back again and the two engaged in a messy battle where they wiped each other's faces with different colors and forgot all about the canvas they were supposed to actually put the paint on.

Boudicca blinked and she was back in her room. That memory being one of the many memories she had with Autumn, all of which she kept under lock and key in her brain.

However, like Pandora's Box, they broke out and are now endlessly spilling over to her current self and bringing about so much noise to her peaceful life.

"I…I won't do it." She hesitated as she stared at the brushes in the corner. She took a glance at her clean hands.

It's been clean for around 8 years now.

She sighed and laid flat on her bed staring blankly at the ceiling. She thought about the videos people took of the fight. It shouldn't be that bad, it'll probably blow over in a day or two

After reasoning with herself, she closed her eyes and relaxed.

Before she knew it, she drifted away from the world of the living and entered the realm of dreaming.

…

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Budicca groaned as her eyes struggled to open. She looked at the alarm clock and a day had clearly passed. There was also a constant flurry of heavy knocks on the door and someone yelling her name. 

"BOU!"

It was Jodie, her roommate. 

"Jo?" Her voice was raspy and groggy as she stood up and headed over to twist the handle open and a terrifying blood curdling scream came from the other end of it.

"GYAAAAAAH!"

"WHAT!?"

"Boudicca Chamberlain…" Jo started and grabbed her shoulders. "What have you done!?"

"What do you mean?" The newly awakened lady stepped out of her room and saw the TV blaring with breaking news regarding what happened yesterday.

"--found out, famous artist, Laliette's real name after an encounter with an old acquaintance from the past." The reporter announced. "News broke out regarding the fact that world renowned artist Laliette's real name, according to footage leaked, is Autumn Day…"

The rest of the report turned into mindless noise in Bou's ears as her heart began to pump out of her chest. Her palms sweat and her breathing struggled.

"That's you in the video right?" Jo pointed out. "Didn't know you were close friends with Laliette. She's an extremely famous artist, especially since I heard she's one of the top students of Bayward right now."

"I see."

"Oh but Bou, you didn't know that she kept her identity a secret?"

"No."

"Aren't you friends?"

"No."

"Huh?" Jo seemed confused.

Bou found herself dwindling down to the floor as she realized what she had done.

"--Autumn Day speaking and fighting with witness reports to be a woman named Boudicca Chamberlain…"

Bou started to shiver and her body felt really cold all of a sudden. Jo realizing this, gave her a cup of water.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Jo looked concerned as she rubbed Bou's back in an attempt to help her calm down.

"No…I fucked up real bad." Bou pursed her lips and looked towards her worried roommate. "I am so so so fucked."