But the fact that I’d have to do a shoot—three shoots with people from school did not just sound appealing to me. I shot with objects, non-living things. Things that would stay just as I put them. But humans… just no.

❦︎

~[VICTORIA]~

I sauntered past the D class and there it was. The sleek, mahogany door with a small, bronze coated metal sign that had ‘Library’ inscribed on it. I twisted the bronze coated knob, peeking in first.

Nobody was in sight, save for the librarian who was too engrossed in a book to even notice the door open, comfortably balanced behind her polished, brown desk.

Stepping in fully, I looked around, taking in the vintage theme of the library.

Dark brown shelves lined the majority of the space before me with little pieces of paper pasted on them to indicate their genres. The pieces of paper looked like they had been torn out from a book with eggshell pages and then the various genres were scribbled on them wittily. It added to the feel of it… the feeling of being in an old library, somewhat like being in a used bookstore.

Vellichor, that was the word to describe the feeling.

The dusty rose colour of the walls and the yellow lights radiated by the bulbs in the brown board ceiling also added to the whole vibe.

It took me a while to realize that the left portion of the large room was dedicated to text books and the right for pieces of literature, only separated by an aisle of the dark, wooden floor. It was everything I needed. Textbooks and quality pieces of literature, I could already tell that the place would be my safe haven.

With the insistent want to see more, I walked down the aisle, slowly but surely taking in the contents of the shelves that were mounted on either side, reading one book title after the other. Until I got to the end of the huge shelves.

Tables and chairs made of dark wood were arranged on either side of the space, leaving the aisle to continue all the way down to the end of the large room. My gaze roamed, taking in the serene environment, white noise was produced by the cream ceiling fans. I continued looking around… around, around, until my eyes found a familiar pair of grey ones that were already looking at me.

Goodness…

I swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in my throat. Hard. The bizarre thing was that we maintained the little stare down we were having and I, for some sick reason, could not look away.

My senses rushed back into me and I recovered from my entrancement, blinking and clearing my throat. Making the smart decision to leave, I turned around but paused when I heard his raspy voice.

“Oh no, don’t leave,”  I turned around to look at him, low-key to be sure that he was the one that spoke. “This place doesn’t belong to me. Just sit as far away from me as possible. Surely, that’s not too much to ask.”

“No, I'm—”

“You have come here to actually use the library, haven’t you?” he placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his fist. “I'm not a problem. I won’t be problem if we stay as far as possible from each other.”

“Look…” I took some few steps forward, lessening the distance between us. “I don’t know wh—”

“And she does the exact opposite!” he shook his head. “What a bright kid you are,” he let out a bitter chuckle alongside his sarcastic remark.

“I really don’t understand why you hate me this much,” I just had to let him know. Only he has had issues with me since I arrived that school. Surely, there must be a definite reason for him to dislike me as much as he did.

“I don’t hate you,” He dryly replied. “I really don’t have the strength to…” he sat upright, relaxed his back on the chair and folded his arms. “Your presence just always seems to upset me.”

“Same difference.” I huffed. “I’ll just leave.”

“Hold on,” He called out. I turned back yet again when I heard his approaching footsteps. “You really think I hate you? Hate is a strong word.”

“Well, you haven’t given me too many reasons to believe otherwise.” I balanced my weight on one leg, crossing my arms.

“I don’t hate you,” He shook his head. “I just don’t like you. And I'm allowed to do that because humans cannot possibly like everyone they meet.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I was struggling to understand the point of all that.

“I would be willing to harm someone I hate… extreme harm. Because I hate them. But I can’t harm you because I only simply don’t like you.”

“I still don’t unders—”

“So, don’t go around saying ‘Jason hates me’” I almost laughed at the high-pitched voice he made, which was supposed to be mine. “Because if anything happens to you, I’ll be the first suspect. And heading to juvenile prison is really not at the top of my list at the moment.” For someone spewing out such nonsense, he looked too damn serious.

“Wow. You have really sat down to think of all these, haven’t you?” I puckered my lips, narrowing my eyes. Trying hard to hold back my laughter.

“I– I– No, I have not!” he got all defensive and I could no longer hold in the brewing laughter inside me. “Oh, I'm now comical?” his face pinched as he glared at me. “Stop it! Stop laughing!”

“Okay, okay.” I panted, trying to calm down. “You’d be pretty entertaining if you weren’t always so gloomy.”

He shook his head and looked away. “I will not continue with this dialog.”

“Then goodbye.” I made to leave but paused to say, “And I still know that you hate me.”

What I did not know was the reason a smile was lingering on my lips as I walked away.

                                    °°°°°

                                                 
      ~[JASON]~

Never in my life did I see myself as a comedian, I never imagined myself as one and I was not beginning to. But that one, that evil spirit, managed to turn me into one apparently. Because she was laughing at a simple statement that I was not sure what was funny about.

The strange thing was that there was a part of me that wanted to make her laugh again when she stopped laughing and I did not like it at all. Was it because her laughter sounded pleasant to the ears? It had to be that. Anyone would want to hear a nice laughter again. Completely normal…right?

“We have photography now,” Jude’s annoying voice sliced through my internal banter, causing me to look up at him from my seated position.

“And how did you find me?”

“Everyone knows it. If you can’t find Jason, just check the library.” He placed a hand on his hip, looked around and frowned. “It’s like you’ve married this place or something.”

I sighed tiredly. “Let’s just go to class.”

“I hope you don’t come here to cry though.” His eyes followed me as I got up and I frowned at his stupid question. “I wouldn't like that.”

“I obviously read here. Y’know, because it’s a library.” I just had to clear things up. “Now, let’s get to class.”

°°°°°

“As I said last week…” Mr. Ben was yelling for some reason. “This week is your project week and you all would be grouped into fours. Themes have been randomly selected for each group and you guys would have to shoot three pictures that portray that theme.” He looked around, waiting for someone to protest. When no one did, he continued, “Everything must be perfect. The costume, editing, background and even the model. Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir!” Everyone chorused. I did not bother to, though.

The teacher was about to say something when the door clicked open and Chris nonchalantly strolled into class like he was completely unaware that he was late and he was interrupting something.

He grinned as he sat beside me, abandoning his red bag on the floor.

Mr. Ben shook his head and continued what he was saying. “The list has been written on the board as you can see…” he pointed behind him with his thumb. “Check for your partners and get to work as soon as possible.”

And then, he left the class, giving the rest of the class the chance to go crazy. They all lurched towards the board, shrieking and giggling as they went through the list on the board.

“What are they so excited about?” Chris was glaring at them with irritation. “Who gets excited over school work?”

“Them,” I chuckled. “Must be pretty exciting for them.”

Photography was something I enjoyed doing. I was passionate about it, it was like my second oxygen. It was an easy way to escape reality, express myself and bring my creativity to life.

But the fact that I’d have to do a shoot—three shoots with people from school did not just sound appealing to me. I shot with objects, non-living things. Things that would stay just as I put them. But humans… just no.

I had not shot with humans since she left.

Definitely, we could not pick a model from photography class, since they would also be busy with their projects. Maybe I could ask Tracy to be our model? Sounded like a good idea. And I was pretty sure she would gladly do it.

“Let’s check the stupid list,” Chris said when majority of the crowd had dissipated. His voice carried absolutely no interest. “Maybe we’d get excited too.”

I laughed. Chris and his sarcasm.

We walked over to the board, side by side. Checked each group for our names.

Not there. Not there. Not there. And I found my name in the fourth group.

Jason Ugonna,

Christian Ayuba,

Jude Akinola,

Jemima Andrews.

I sighed in relief, satisfied with my partners. Jude could be crazy sometimes but he was pretty easy to work with. Jemima was Jude's classmate. They were both in the C class – the class for commercial students. She was pretty reserved, alone most of the time. Only saw her with people a few times. But at that moment, she was nowhere in sight.

“The dude was wise enough to put us in the same group.” By dude, he meant our teacher – Mr. Ben.

“I am elated to work with you, Mr. Ugonna, Mr. Ayuba.”

If that wasn’t Jude who else could it be?

“And look!” he cheerily said. “Our theme is SUPERNATURAL.” He pronounced the last word dramatically.

“Well, that would be hard.” Chris muttered and pursed his lips.

“No negativity, guys.” Jude still managed to be cheerful. “We can do this!”

“Whatever.” Chris brushed him off. “Let’s just meet tomorrow. Third period. It’s free for everyone. So, Jude, make sure to bring your classmate along with you.”

“Where?”

“The garden.”

Without any other word, he walked out of the class knowing I would follow him.

°°°°°
                                                     

                                                        ~[VICTORIA]~

“So, your project is a very simple one.” Mr. Goyit sat on his table and crossed his legs at the ankles. “You simply have to make a PowerPoint presentation on a topic outside this subject. Easy, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir.” We replied.

"You are six in total, so pair yourselves. Pick a partner of your choice.” He hopped off the table. “You’ll be presenting next week. Goodluck with your project. Now, you all can get out of my laboratory.”

Yep. We did not need anyone to tell us that he did not like our presence. How he became a teacher was still a question I could not come up with an answer to. We left his laboratory, all six of us filling into the hallway, making our ways to our classes which were just downstairs.

And it made me wonder why the school went all the way to provide every necessity in all six academic blocks. Each block had their own library, laboratories, studios and language rooms. For them, it was to enhance the convenience of their students.

Back in SLI, we had a block dedicated to all of those things, not spread throughout each building. But here, we did not need to leave the building unless for lunch or sports.

“You know you're my partner, right? Bubbles?” a voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

Fidel. Only he called me that horrific nickname. But thinking of it, he was my only option, since I did not talk to any other person in that class. Not like I talked to him though. Plus, the other four students had paired themselves already.

“I don’t like being ignored, Bubbles.” He held on to my shoulder to stop me from moving and spun me around. “You’re always so rude.”

“I'm not.” I rolled my eyes. “You just always appear at the wrong time.”

“Oh, so it’s a crime for wanting to be your partner?” he grimaced. “My bad.”

Guilt was now what I felt. He really was just doing as the teacher said. Pairing up.

“Sorry,” I sighed. “And yes, we’re partners.”

“So, we can go to my house tomorrow?” he asked and I frowned. “To begin with the project.”

“We can’t do it here in school?”

“It’d be more comfortable to work from home,” He shrugged. “I can come to yours if you want… or you can come with someone to mine?”

“No, it’s fine.” I shook my head. “We’ll go to yours after school.”

He gave a full-on smile, the dimple on his right cheek making it's appearance. He adjusted the straps of his bag on his shoulders and said, “See you tomorrow, Bubbles.”

We waded our goodbyes and I stood there alone in the hallway, not able to help but wonder if I should really go to his house.

•
•
•

A/N

Jason and Victoria actually talked. If that ain't a miracle, I don't know what is 😌. Although, it wasn't much of a nice one, but it's an improvement, right?🙂

Meanwhile, their project... Lemme not talk😗.

And answer Vicky. Should she really go to Fidel's house?👀

Honestly, thinking of the future of this book gives me anxiety. And it's even scarier than I'll have to write it😑. But what's worth doing is worth doing well, so I'll write it the best way I can.

I don't know when the next update is coming though. But I can promise it won't be delayed too much.♥️

Please vote, okay? It takes nothing, really.🙂

Stay safe, I love you. 😗♥️