Life Full of Colors 

Short Stories English I 2022-23

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Mia’s heartthrobs now, knowing her father does not care about what she wants at all. They stare at each other for minutes, and their tension cannot be cut by a knife. Finally, Mia stands up for herself by grabbing Miguel’s drink and violently throwing it on the ground. Miguel restrains himself from hitting Mia as he used to in the past because he remembers the time their neighbors called the cops on him after hearing a loud cry come from the house. Mia tells her vicious father that she is applying to art colleges and does not care how he feels about it.

She sprints to her room and finds her laptop on the top of her king-sized bed. Her fingers fly around the keyboard as she researches the best colleges with amazing art programs. Her eyes move quickly while reading everything about the schools. Mia spends hours filling out each application but does not submit any because she wants to proofread them the next morning. Mia wakes up with a smile on her face. She looks up in shock to see her laptop not next to her. She quickly sprints out of her room, hoping her father has not done anything to her applications. Her feet quietly creep into Miguel’s room. Hundreds of business books fill his room, and pictures of Mia’s deceased mother are framed across the walls.

Tears flow down Mia’s face while she sprints out of the room, trying to hold her emotions in. She finds herself heading straight to a place of happiness and freedom, her art room. Miguel noticing she left to go to the garage, gets up from the couch and walks over to her. After seeing that Mia went back to painting, Miguel angrily takes a massive drink of his whiskey and thinks of how to stop Mia from continuing her silly hobby.

The next day Mia returns from school and walks straight to her garage to paint how she felt school went today. 

The feeling of joy flows throughout her body, knowing she has aced her math test, and she excitedly opens the door to have another great night of painting. She sits down on her wooden chair and practices different painting techniques to heighten her chances of being accepted into an art college. Confusion strikes Mia when she sees her father enter the room and grab all of her paintbrushes. Mia begs her father to put them down, but she knows he has made up his mind. One by one, Miguel snaps them while Mia begs him to stop. Every break feels like a blade to the heart. Once Miguel breaks all the paintbrushes, he turns toward the canvases and punches a hole into each one. Mia can hear the canvases crying out for help. Mia asked, “Why?” Miguel tells her angrily that she will receive consequences for not listening to him.

Mia spots her computer on her father’s desk and frantically grabs it. Fortunately, Miguel had not deleted any of Mia’s applications. Mia quietly tries to walk out of her father’s room without waking him, but Miguel awakens from his sleep. He immediately sees Mia with her laptop and urgently hops out of bed. Mia attempts to run away; however, her father snatches the computer away like a hawk. Miguel quickly deletes Mia’s applications before she can do anything about it. Having no hope of ever having a chance to attend an art college, Mia goes and sits on the dark wooden chair in her art studio.

She pulls out her phone and scrolls on social media, trying to find a way to distract herself from the emotional pain she feels. After looking for ten minutes, she sees an ad for an art competition. Interested in the event, she clicks on the ad and notices the winner receives a free scholarship to an art college. Her eyes light up, knowing this could be her final chance of ever attending an art school. The competition takes place in an art gallery a couple of blocks from her house and starts tomorrow morning.

Mia wakes up to her loud alarm and sneakily heads out of the house. She walks for a couple of minutes until she finally arrives at her destination.

Instantly, Mia notices the unique paintings from around the world when she walks into the gallery. For the first time in her life, Mia feels at home. She nervously steps up to the painting area and greets her skilled opponents. When the competition begins, Mia sees her hands shaking; however, when her brush makes contact with the canvas, all of her nerves disappear. She paints a picture of her family. She draws a crack in the middle of her canvas, conveying how she feels about her parents. After an hour passes, Mia spots her furious dad opening the entrance door of the gallery. 	“How could he have known I would be here?” thought Mia as she continued to paint. Miguel rushes over to the competition after seeing Mia over the heads of all the fans. Almost finished with her painting, Mia sees her father pick up a bucket of paint. Her hand trembles in fear when noticing the malicious look on her father’s face as he approaches her.

Now entirely in front of Mia and her painting, Miguel raises the silver bucket and prepares to throw it. 

Out of nowhere, a security guard knocks the paint bucket out of Miguel’s hands and escorts him out of the building. Minutes later, the judge walks in front of all the painters and tells them to drop their brushes. He walks around for a couple of minutes, inspecting the beautiful paintings each of the contestants have constructed, and realizes the clear winner of the competition. Mia’s face lights up with a smile after hearing her name called by the judge. Tears of happiness roll down her face when she receives her full-ride scholarship to one of the most prestigious art colleges in America. Mia’s dream of being admitted into an art school has finally become a reality.

Mia Angelo, a young teenage girl, sits in her peaceful garage, staring at a blank canvas. Her mind races back and forth, thinking about her next piece. The math and art books in the back of her room scattered; Mia has read every single page of them. Her room blocks the noisy Downtown Los Angeles traffic that surrounds her house. Mia looks out her window for inspiration, but the rain covers it up. &nbsp;Her gold necklace sways as Mia gently places the soft brush against the painting, letting all of her thoughts and feelings out onto one singular piece of paper. Her face lights up like the sun while seeing the colors juxtapose in the painting. After painting for hours, she holds the canvas up like a newborn son. Mia realizes that her favorite hobby could turn into something special in the future.

Mia runs out of her room, thinking about the endless possibilities painting could allow her to have later on in life. Eager to tell her father about her dream, Mia rushes towards him. Miguel, Mia’s father, sits on the couch, almost passed out. He turns the television off, showing a game of poker, and sets down his glass cup filled with whiskey. Mia’s mouth talks like a high-speed car while her dad stares blankly at her. Mia takes a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down. She tells her father that she thinks her wonderful painting skills will be enough for her to get accepted into some top art colleges. Mia can practically see the steam coming out of her father’s head. Miguel yells at Mia, telling her that he did not work hard his whole life and started a million-dollar company just for her to join some silly art school.

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