V is for Veronica

This was written to participate in a contest started by mctiller https://steemit.com/twentyfourhourshortstory/@mctiller/writers-win-5-steem-twenty-four-hour-short-story-contest-for-may-2-a-comic-book-writer-s-creation-comes-to-life
It might not fall exactly in line with the competition but I had a lot of fun putting some spin on the prompt. Please enjoy and tell me what you think of it.

Winston found his niche in life quickly. He enjoyed the doodles he'd make and the fantastical stories told about people with impossible powers. The summer before he started high school the attic became his room. Him and his friends made short work of decorating it in their own geeky way. Characters on posters watched over Winston while he slept, while he played games, and while he read their stories. He enjoyed the titular heroes the most, how they could do anything and think of ways to outsmart a nemeses. He tried to imitate the ways they were drawn.

Winston began tracing over every panel making his own bootleg versions. Slowly his lines would always shake and fall away from the path already set for him to follow. In school his mind would still be stuck on drawing. Years of doodling during math class morphed into a style, one which incorporated his unsteady hand. Nothing ever looked quite like what it was supposed to mostly because there was no such thing as a straight line. From the plants to the animals to the buildings to the people. Everything had atleast one bit of jitter. Winston had affectionately referred to it as static.

Winston met Tei in art school while working as a pizza delivery man. She had requested doodles on the box every time she ordered, specifically super heroines. Captain Marvel, Super Girl, Starfire, Catwoman, Batgirl, Phoenix, Psylock, any and all of them she would want. Even having read every comic he could get his hands on, Winston struggled to find a new character for each pizza. Eventually his well had run dry, so he made his own. She wasn't special, she had no power, she was just a woman with a suit and mask. Tei stopped him when he brought her weekly pie. “Who's this? I don't recognize her.”
“I don't know. You've been asking for so many of them that I ran out of ones I knew. I just made something up.”

They were inseparable after that. Tei changed classes just to be with Winston more often. Together they grew the doodle into a full character. She was young, not even out of school. She had lost her family. She had been the target of a plot to make a person so smart they couldn't deal with the reality of the world being so dumb. She was literal, observant, and always factually right. She brought solutions to the table that always worked. Winston had named her after his mother, Veronica, because his mother always knew what to do for him.

Winston's grades were falling. Projects were pushed aside to draw more of Veronica. She shattered the realities of business tycoons by helping a mom and pop store become an international company, drove scientists to the brink with ground breaking theories of the universe and cures for diseases, and sent the police into frenzies solving cold cases from decades past. Winston failed all but one of his classes, but everyone passed that class regardless of what they did in it.

His parents were shocked when he moved back home happy as a clam with more boxes of drawings than clothes for his closet. His father tried to comfort him but it slid off of Winston. He didn't need it. He continued his job, seeing Tei and drawing with her. He simply lived as he had been.

One day Tei came into the attic smiling with a flier. “Look at this. A guy came on campus and posted a few of these around. It's like a open call for new comics! We absolutely have to make something with Veronica for it.” They spent all that night making quick storyboards and dialogue. They only stopped when they smelled sweet pancakes and bacon.

Winston's mother was silent that morning as Winston and Tei bounced ideas across the table. This same scenario played out another half dozen times, until they were finished. The First issue of “V is for Veronica” was as clean as could be. Winston's father was proud that his son had made something on par with a professional. He was hopeful and encouraging. When Veronica came across the publisher's table they asked to speak with Winston and Tei.

They looked over Winston and spoke to Tei mostly. “What are your inspirations?” “Who are your favorite writers?” She was polite answering their questions, but she was looking to Winston for help often. The woman who seemed to be the head of the panel interrupted the question answer session. “We'll cut to the chase now I suppose. We are very interested in Veronica, however we'd like to make some things clear about her. She's pretty ethnically ambiguous, which is good, but what exactly is she?” Winston thought it over but looked to Tei when he came up blank.
“We hadn't really thought about it, but I suppose she's part African, part something else.” A scribble was made on a note pad.
“That's nice. A love interest would be fun don't you think? Is she straight or is she something else?” The two hopefuls looked to the other for a life preserver.
“Again that's not something we'd ever talked about before. I don't see why she couldn't be any orientation right?” Another tick in a box.

“Excellent. I do believe we've found a new super hero today.” Tei and Winston couldn't believe their ears. Veronica would be published, marketed, and sold. A trial run of four issues was signed for, and Winston quit his old job by delivering a pizza right into his boss's face. They spent the next month working alongside veterans in an industry they'd dreamed of penetrating since they'd first seen Superman. Thousands of copies were printed and shipped off with others in a marketing scheme centering around diversity. A special point was made to send free copies of V is for Veronica to the store Winston frequented in his adolescence.

As days turned into weeks and congratulations faded away the comics saw little success. Every time Winston came into the shop he could see the pile refusing to shrink. Winston took it much harder than Tei had. She had still made it through her schooling. Winston had poured his life into this burning every bridge he had. In his dreary attic he spent less and less time out of bed at his desk. His parents gave him his space and turned away Tei for him when he didn't have the courage to face her. Everyday he'd force himself to check the mail though.

When the first payment for his work arrived he was asleep for the whole day. It sat there on the kitchen table waiting for him until the early morning. He'd hit rock bottom. It wasn't even a check, just an explanation that V is for Veronica had done so poorly that until a certain amount of sales were made he would not receive anything. He barged into his parents' room, sobbing and wailing for his mother. His father tried to help but Winston only wanted to talk with his the woman he'd tried to bring to the world.

She spoke softly, still reclined in her bed with a sleeping mask on. “It's not good is it honey?”After blubbering Winston was able to moan out a few words.
“What did a do wrong? They seemed so happy to work with me, th-they thought it was great.” He threw himself into the blankets, dribbling into her lap.
“Winston, I've read the comic. I've read a lot of your favorites, and what was wrong was you. You didn't let Veronica lose, she never even broke a sweat. You don't know how happy I am that you thought I was so invincible, but I'm not. I stumble, I make bad decisions too. I don't know everything.” She removed her mask, hugging her son her tears rolled onto his neck. “And I hurt. I hurt so so so much. Your baby failed because you didn't know better, but mine failed because I let him. I hoped it wouldn't be this bad. It always made you so happy to work on a new drawing. I wish I had swooped in to save you, but I thought this was for the best.”