Locking In With My Life System

Chapter 37: Scammed

"Huh?" Megan confusedly remarked.

"This is a travesty of the highest order, and I absolutely refuse it." Aiden doubled down with an audible mutter as he kept given the banner a thoughtful yet concerned stare.

For someone whom had been drawing, writing and making fonts for the past couple months, the wiggly-looking whatever it was on the banner was poking his artistic view in all the wrong places.

Megan, on the other hand, was looking rather baffled at the moment.

Briefly, she looked between the youth and the banner that seemed to have piqued his interest.

Then she asked;

"Refuse what?"

"To let Comic San’s distant cousin look like it and dyslexia had a baby while parading the halls come spirit week, that’s what." Aiden replied without so much as a change in his expression.

Clearly, he was being serious about this.

Not that it stopped Megan from chuckling a bit, her perplexity morphing into amusement.

Finally, she understood what had him so concerned.

"Ain’t that Helvetica though?" she then asked curiously as she studied the font style.

"That is, not, Helvetica." Aiden shot it down.

"That so? How’d you figure--" the lady curiously remarked, only to immediately ask when she saw him walking away;

"Wait, where are you going?"

"It’ll just be a minute." Aiden assured her instead, his expression casual as he moved over to the far end of the stage, greeting Daisy and Clarissa alongside the other girls as he did.

"Ladies," he equally greeted Lizzie and her friend, Anna, upon arrival, both of them startled by his sudden appearance.

"Excuse me." he apologized before they could say anything, his hands already dipping into the storage box.

Casually, he picked out all the colored calligraphy markers, and left just as quickly as he came, leaving not just them, but the girls weaving the faux ivy onto the wooden porch as curious as they were intrigued.

By the time he was back to Megan and the board, it had been barely over a minute.

Casually, he lifted and flipped over the banner, adjusting it gently until it balanced properly on the easels.

Through it all, Megan had remained quiet, a skeptic squint gracing her features. Then she asked, her tone much the same;

"Um... what do you think you’re doing?"

Watching as he rolled up his sleeves, his olive-green irises glinting with passion as he stared at the banner while uncorking the black marker, Aiden replied;

"Just watch."

No sooner had he said that, his focus snapped into place, his hands already moving across the banner as he rewrote the ’Character Day’ text.

This time though, Aiden ditched all the popular, easily recognizable font styles and went straight for an original comic book typeface he’d used for one of his commissions.

The only difference however, was that he was tweaking each individual letter on the fly whilst pulling on his drawing skills, all in an effort to fit into one creative vision that he had.

To that effect...

-

[Ding!]

[Skills Updated!]

-

Ignoring the notification, Aiden continued on, his demeanor reflecting how deeply immersed he already was.

Speaking of the font style itself, it had that golden-age comic book feel, a certain imperfection to it that only seemed to proportionally space it evenly while adding a bouncy, playful and energetic element.

At the same time, the letters seemed to jump out of the banner in a 3D format, each individual letter floating along a set baseline that Aiden was consciously maintaining as he kept drawing the words.

Soon enough, he was done writing it, only for him to uncork one of the colored markers, the stationery twirling between his fingers as he began coloring the words appropriately.

Through it all, Megan’s features gradually morphed from skeptic, to impressed, and then to a visible awe, her forest-green irises gleaming.

At the same time, Clarissa, Lizzie, Daisy and Anna alongside a few other girls whom he’d greeted a couple minutes ago had crowded him, their expressions much the same.

It also didn’t take long for a few students and volunteers in the theatre to come around, each and everyone of them curious as to what was going on.

And though several others were just as interested, they couldn’t exactly leave what they were doing at the moment so they opted to watch from afar, believing that whatever it was happening would eventually be relayed to them.

Despite all that, Aiden remained completely unaware as he’d long slipped into the zone.

For as much as he had wanted to use his skills in a less professional outlet, all in an effort to embrace his mother’s apparent love for painting, he had never been chanced enough to do so thus far given how tight his schedule was.

Now though... he was taking that opportunity and that moment to do something in that vein, hence the deep, passionate smile currently plastered on his lips.

Having colored the letters, Aiden then retrieved another marker and began coloring the background, one he soon swapped out to a yellow pen for a starburst splash behind the main words.

Without pause, he swiftly began swapping out marker after marker to make chibi versions of several pop-culture characters, each of them seemingly bursting out of the starburst splash art.

Seemingly satisfied with the work, Aiden then corked his pen after adding a few highlights here and there a few minutes after.

Only then, did he take a step back to admire his handiwork, the marker skillfully twirling his hands.

It was also at that moment, that he bumped into Megan... only to look back in an effort to apologize but instead, realize the little audience he had garnered the attention of.

Literally each and every one of them was stunned beyond measure, their eyes flicking from time to time between Aiden himself and his frankly amazing piece.

Everything he had done... all of it... had been finalized in a little under fifteen minutes. To them, all they had been seeing was his hand blitzing across the banner, stopping only from time to time to switch markers.

More than that, they couldn’t help get around the fact that Aiden was... well... all this. Throughout the previous years, they’d assumed him to be an average joe like everyone, drifting through high school as was required.

Now though, not even a month into their final year, he had seemingly chosen to bust out all the stops. It was all very impressive, to say the least.

Enough that their interest in him only seemed to be ballooning day by day, and slipping into the level of intrigue.

That said, before anyone of them could audibly react, Casper--whom was finally done messing with the glue gun--popped into frame, his gaze impressed as he slung an arm around Aiden while amusedly remarking;

"Man, I knew you were a beast at this, but did you really have to go that hard on a single banner?"

"Hard?" Aiden raised his brow in amusement.

"I was just having fun." he honestly replied.

Then he turned to Megan, a thin smile on his face as he finally replied to her very first question;

"I do lettering. That’s how I figured."

"So," he then tossed the marker into the air, only to effortlessly catch it a second after.

"What did you want me to carry?"

By now, the lady’s awestruck expression had long morphed into a dangerous saccharine smile, her hands already flipping through her clipboard as she erased a few things here and there scribbled something down.

Witnessing her reaction, Aiden could swear he felt a chill run down his spine.

A few minutes later, he was certain he had, his eyes blinking as he stared at the different blank banners stretched across different easels placed on the stage.

Each one was meant for other events across the upcoming Spirit Week from ’Park Decor’, ’Talent Show’, ’Photo Booth’, ’Fundraisers’ and ’Homecoming’.

Megan on the other hand looked visibly glad, that very same dangerously sweet smile on her lips as she winked at him;

"Alright, Picasso. Work your magic."

Letting out a resigned sigh, Aiden voiced out in response;

"You’re lucky I don’t charge theatre and student council rates."

"Eh, you’ll be compensated." she remarked in response.

"With what?" Aiden curiously asked.

"That." the lady pointed towards the refreshment table at the back of the auditorium to which Aiden remarked a few seconds later, clearly bemused;

"A juice box?"

"Two juice boxes." the president shamelessly corrected, her hand slightly adjusting her glasses as she walked away to attend to other duties, a thinly veiled affiliative smile on her side-frame.

In response, Aiden stared at her a while, clearly unsure of how to react to such shamelessness.

Then he let out another resigned sigh as he uncorked the marker and got down to work;

"I’ve been scammed."

In any case, it only took him a little over forty-five minutes before he was done designing all the banners.

Currently leaning on the table at the back of the auditorium, his hands tucked into his pockets as he casually sipped from one the little juice boxes he was promised, he proceeded to pull up his system to check his updated skills.

-

[Aiden North] – Life Points – [1.36]

⸢Stats

› Mind — B-

› Strength — E

› Stamina — D

› Agility — F+

› Charm — B-

⸢Skills

› {Type Designing - A}, {Digital Illustration - I}, {Drawing - I}, {Cooking - I}, {Brewing - I}, {Singing - N}, {Dancing - N}, {Writing - N}, {Lettering - I}.

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-

Aiden wasn’t the least bit surprised to see the new skill.

Type designing was a subdivision of lettering after all.

The only major difference, however, was that lettering often required a hand drawn approach or sketch to create a unique style or illustration, while type facing often utilized set styles that can be used interchangeably and repeatedly.

As for why he’d been assigned the intermediate grade, well that went without saying.

Both his {Type Designing} and {Drawing} skills had fed so well into one other, it was only natural his knowledge of both of them would elevate the new skill to that very grade.

Softly nodding to himself in approval, Aiden casually dismissed the panel.

No sooner had he done that though, Clarissa slid next to him as she hoisted herself up and onto the table.

Unperturbed by it, Aiden turned his head in her direction, the lady already looking down at him in intrigue as she asked without her usual flirtatious approach;

"You know, I never got around to asking, but why?"