Checkmate - Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Althea brushed another light stroke of wet paint over the white canvas. Her hand started trembling again as it always did when she thought of her mother. Every time Althea tried to finish the portrait, emotions would come rushing through her veins like the black ink over the whiteness of a thin paper.
Overwhelmed by memories, her mind lost its focus. She dropped the paintbrush on the polished floor with a frustrated sigh. Her mother's gorgeous blue eyes were too vivid in her mind, yet she couldn't bring all her skills to craft them to life.
Althea winced. She couldn't bring to paint her mother no matter how many times she tries to. Her therapy for herself was to express the sadness of her mother's death through art. Seeing that all her negative emotions were repressed during her childhood, she thought that painting would serve her therapeutically. Her aunt even hired the famous Tosca Esposito to train her personally. If her old Professor would see her now, the Italian woman would be sourly disappointed with her inability to paint.
Perhaps her frustration of being unable to paint stems from her childhood desire, for she has always preferred photography but kept quiet. She was always fascinated with preserving emotions and memories into a single portrait, but her family was always medicine inclined and any interest in art should be of high standards too.
Photography was looked down upon by high posh artists who prefer the renaissance, claiming it to be untalented and a work of pure laziness.
But they do not know any better.
That Japanese girl, Hanako Yoshida, became a reminder of what joy is like when looking through a photography exhibit. When she browsed upon her photos, Althea's heart leaped to her throat.
Althea didn't see herself. She saw her mother.
For years, Althea had been trying to reconnect with her mother's old pictures and portraits. Trying to feel the same emotion she felt as if she was just next to her all these years. But no spark came from her creativity or the emotion that dwelled on her heart during her childhood days.
"Althea?" familiar voices called her in unison snapping her out of her memory lane.
Althea composed herself as she reached for a tissue on the nearby table and dabbed the little tears away. She took in a few deep breaths before speaking. "Come in."
The door of her room opened slowly. Her focus dwindled off the unfinished painting towards her female childhood friends.
"Hello, Althea!" Both girls greeted her. They weren't twins or related but the fact that they have synchronized minds whenever they are conversing with people had Althea wondering about the bonds of their closeness.
"Madeline, Heather," she greeted them back, donning a pleasant smile. "How nice of you girls to visit."
The girls' faces lit up in pleasant adoration towards her. There was not a time that Althea could remember when the girls didn't look up to her. It was like an ingrained thought or innate behavior. It only lasted a few seconds before their eyes' flickered to her painting materials scattered around.
"Oh!" Madeline gasped. "Were you studying?"
"Is it a bad time?" Heather's general direction leaned towards the door. "We could totally come back."
Despite being three years older than them, Madeline and Heather knew her too well in the sides of a diamond they can only see.
Instead of extra book reading before her surgical exams tomorrow, Althea opted to paint to practice her handiwork. Althea had meticulously surgical hands that were practiced ever since she was young. Delicate strokes she learned from painting helped her become better.
"I was." Althea halted from over-sharing her thoughts.
"Oh, we're sorry Althea!" Madeline said. They clasped their hands together, worried about their unwanted presence.
"Yeah," Heather said. "Sorry for interrupting you!"
"I guarantee you were no interruption, girls," Althea said. "I inadvertently resorted to daydreaming and failed to focus on my productivity."
Her words made Madeline and Heather hesitate, but they said. "What's wrong?"
An itch in her throat surfaced. Althea debated internally if she would ever open up about the earlier morning events that transpired, but since the girls merely looked up to her because of their family relations, she figured she wouldn't.
After all, if they were that close, they would know that she prefers girls after all. Althea, like her gemstone, was a diamond. She's a complex lady with numerous sides. One can overlook this hidden side of her, except for Joshua. It was only her oldest childhood companion who noticed her preference.
"Nothing, I might just be tired. What did you girls need today?"
"We just visited to support you, Althea!" Madeline squealed.
"Yeah!" Heather chimed in. "The youngest ever to conduct a surgery exam in the History of Neos Athens is totally worth the support! You're living up to your mother's name!"
Althea's throat felt dry like she hasn't spoken in hours. "Thank you, girls, but it's not really to brag about. I'll only be performing on a surgery mannequin."
And besides, the thought dried on her lips, her mother's best achievement in life wasn't that she's the youngest surgeon, but because she has saved countless lives.
"Soon you'll be assisting a real surgery with a qualified surgeon!" The girls both jumped and clapped their hands like a bunch of schoolgirls, "Positive things, Althea! Positive!"
Althea stopped her sigh, thinking that a long one would send the wrong impression. "Yes, indeed."
When morning came, some boisterous undergrad was running in the halls of the Medical school building of Neos Athens, yelling with such fervent passion every time she would open a door.
"Excuse me," she would knock, but oftentimes kick the door open. "ALTHEA LANCASTER?"
Her voice echoed around the room, students and teachers alike were stunned at the sight of Hana. She would check the faces of everyone present in the class with an air of confidence and eyes shining brightly.
Then Hana saw movement out of the corner of her eye of a blonde so she looked to the left, hopeful, but it was not Althea.
"No, she's not here. Sorry." Hana apologized for the inconvenience.
Hana got the adrenaline going inside her. And as if on cue, she slammed the door shut and went to the next room, her face also changed into a curious frown. "ALTHEA LANCASTER!"
Hana would do the same thing, repeating the process until she would finally be lucky.
Passing through empty corridors, Hana's eyes were scanning every corner of the building looking for the only person who should model for her photoshoot. Occasionally Hana saw a few both undergrad and grad students walking, but no sight of Althea.
"Hey, you!"
A voice called out from behind her before she could open the next door.
Hana turned around to see two furious girls and suddenly she thought she was in the Mean Girls college edition. One girl's straight black hair brushed against her shoulders like fine Chinese silk while the other had a wavy auburn hair tied into a ponytail.
"What the hell is your problem?" The redhead asked as she placed her hands on her hips and she was the firmer one between the two.
Hana was not one to get easily intimidated. So with the same tone and body language, she mirrored, "I have no time to bicker, I need Althea Lancaster. Where is she?"
"Like we'll tell you where she is," the redhead taunted.
"Yeah," the other girl said, raising the back of her hand to her face. "Why would we tell you that Althea's at the operating room performing a complex surgery right now for her exams to an unmannered girl like you."
"Operating room?" Hana repeated.
"Heather!" The redhead gasped, making the black-haired girl realize her slip of the tongue.
Like a flash of lightning, Hana dashed towards the building's directory, memorizing a few directions, and scrambled towards her destination—to the west part of the building where the laboratories were.
"Wait! Stop there!" The still-unnamed redhead yelled. The duo followed after her.
"She's fast!" Heather wheezed. "How come she's fast?"
As she dashed past another hall, Hana managed to lose the girls who were following her and arrived at the door place, halting. But since the tiles of the floor were waxed, she slid off, nearly tumbling down if it weren't for her fast reflexes that she managed to find her footing.
Her eyes caught sight of recognizable hair. As soon as Hana saw her, she pinched her face flat on the glass that separates the operating room to where she is. Then she spotted that Althea in the middle of the room, hovering over a patient mannequin, dressed in a standard surgeon uniform while holding a load of science instruments Hana knew nothing of and Professors behind tensely watching her.
"ARUTEIA!" she yelled, but the fact that no one made a move must mean the glass is soundproof.
Althea's brow furrowed so intensely like something was nagging her and out of place. She knew she was being watched after all but there was something else. Althea's eyes flickered towards the glass and warmth spread over her skin.
The blonde's entire face turned beet red when she spotted Hana outside the glass. She prompted to ignore her which irked Hana more, inspiring her to make more ludicrous faces through the glass.
"How dare you ignore me?" Hana huffed. She pleaded for Liezel and Fallon to come with her to ask Althea a favor but they had classes where they should be and Hana couldn't really blame them for not wanting to cut a class.
To keep her from being bored, she walked in circles, even trying to pry the door open to barge in but to no avail. Hana's an impatient girl.
A painful hour later, Althea managed to finish her exam. She did excellent, of course, but she maintained a neutral face as she removed her gloves and mask. Still clad in her green scrubs, she removed her ponytail and went out the doors.
Hana wasted no time to tread towards her. "Sheesh, you took years inside there!"
Althea's face darkened. Anger rose inside her—she would not let this girl get the best of her—and the glared she aimed at Hana could cut a bone like a scalpel. All in all, it an intimidating sight.
Hana sensed Althea's ferocity with a clarity she had never experienced before. Beneath that, she felt the heady rush of the British girl's power, as if her veins ran with fire. It filled her body with awe.
"Hana!" she snapped her hands on her hips. With haughtiness, she asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Do you know how hard it was to find you?" Hana snapped back.
"You have the nerve to be the one distressed when you're the one who barged in, almost disrupting me during my exam."
Hana blew a raspberry. "Your exam is dissecting a mannequin?"
Althea crossed her arms. "Standard procedure and practice, something you wouldn't understand."
"You haven't changed a bit since yesterday! You're still so full of yourself and stubborn!" Hana could feel the blood in her veins throbbed in irritation.
"That's my line." She crossed her arms, and then clasps a fiery hand on Hana's shoulder, squeezing it. "Before I lose my temper, I must ask you to leave."
"Not until you say yes!" Hana wrenched herself from the blonde girl's grip. "I came all this way to ask you to be my model!"
"What on earth gave you the idea I'd agree on that?"
"Because you're the one my Photography Professor insisted."
Hana didn't need to explain for Althea understood it all too well. She sighed deeply, a part of her regretting she did what she did. "I should've deleted the last photo."
"Anyways I'm thankful." Hana bowed at the waist with her hands clasped in the lap and her eyes down. It made Althea a little bit uncomfortable for the Japanese girl to demonstrate the etiquette of stronger emotion and deep respect. "And I beg you to be my model; I'd do anything you ask of me in return—anything!"
Althea arched a perfect eyebrow, "Anything, huh?"
"Hai! I mean—yes!" she said, slipping in Japanese, "Anything!"
"Well—" Althea stopped mid-word when she saw someone approaching.
Hana, who kept an excited puppy face, did not hear the strict-looking Professor arrive to stand disapprovingly behind her. Althea opted to stay quiet, but Hana did feel the cold air behind her, making her shiver a bit and when she looked around, a sight of a middle-aged authoritative woman with brown hair tied into a bun met her. And she was livid.
"Is this the undergrad interrupting classes by being so irresponsibly loud?" Professor Faulkner asked Madeline and Heather who stood behind her and sporting a mocking smile, eager to watch the Professor scolding the Japanese student.