Chance Encounters

Through the first hour of the day I couldn’t concentrate. No that I really cared all that much about focusing now. Luke was right next to me. I couldn’t help shooting little glances at him as we sat there and our English teacher was talking about things that I’m sure were important but that my brain wasn’t registering.

When the bell rang Luke Booked it out of the classroom. I tried to catch up with him on his way out. But I felt a tug on my Camera bag. I whipped back around and looked to my strap freaking out. It turned out that my strap had caught on the edge of the chair. I paused and untangled my strap. When I looked back to the door he was already gone. I hadn’t expected to know anyone in this school. I knew Luke though… and he didn’t want to be around me. What did that say for me? What did that say for my chances of making new friends here?

Finally untangled and in the hallway I looked at my schedule. I had History, next. I didn’t like history at my old school but no one did. The teacher was horrible. He just shoved us in front of a book and expected us to learn everything. Then yelled at us for failing the tests that were too hard for anyone in their right mind to pass. I didn’t really expect much for my new history teacher. They seemed to have a specific breed of people. The ones that were way too into history or the ones who didn’t really care. This history teacher didn’t disappoint. He fell into the category of didn’t really care. My guess is he was two or three years away from his retirement and wasn’t going to bother.

The hour was extremely drawn out and boring. I’m not even sure it was a full hour, it was the first day so usually the classes are shorter. It just felt like a reaaally long time. He read over the syllabus, the class fell asleep, I was bored to tears. You know the usual for a history class. When the bell rang I made sure my camera bag was untangled before I got up. I looked at my schedule again and tried really hard not to smile like a total maniac. I had a photography class next!

The class near the back of the school. There were paintings of muscial notes, that mask you see in theaters, piano keys, and paint brushes, all sorts of Artsy stuff. I felt instantly at home. I found the classroom ment for the photography class and smiled. The setup wasn’t like the other two classrooms that I was at today. The desks were in groups of four and pushed off to the sides of the classroom. A good portion of the classroom was occupied by large jet black curtains. Darkrooms. The smell of chemicals was as familiar to me as my own mother.

“Hello there!” I looked over to the direction of a voice. I looked over to see a man sitting cross legged on a desk surrounded b a group of five or six students. He was waving me over and for once I didn’t feel nervous walking up to him. I got to the group and trying to be polite I waved at him. “Hi again, my name is Mr. Rider but you can call me Alec. And you are?” I smiled. He was one of those teachers. Pretty new and artsy too so he let his students call him by his first name.

“Ellie Glades.” I said smiling. He held out his hand and I took it and we shook.

By the time class started everyone had already met, Mr. Call me Alec, and We all sat on or at our desks. The class was buzzing with conversation and I was even part of one.

“Hello students!” Alec said clapping his hands for our attention. “Welcome to your first day of photography class. Now I hope since you joined the club you have a genuine love for photography and weren’t just looking for an easy class. Because this will not be easy for some of you.” Alec turned around with his back to the class. And grabbed a stack of paper. “Pass this around will you?” He asked handing the huge stack to the girl closest to him. “Now, raise your hand if you already own a camera that uses film.” he said raising his own hand as if we didn’t know what we were supposed to do. I, and about 13 other students raised their hands. “that’s good,” He said smiling. “For those of you who don’t, don’t feel left out, you will be able to rent one from the school by taking home and getting a contract signed by your parents. Another advantage that these guys,” He gestured towards me and 4 others that owned cameras that used film, “will have is that some of them will already know how to develop their film.”

I did know how. In fact the first thing I did when I moved in with aunt Mary was convert one of her extra spare rooms into a darkroom.

“That is the first lesson that we will be teaching in this class so those of you who do know how will have to come up here before class ends and collect your alternative assignment. The rest of you come up and collect the information you will be needing on darkrooms and developer. Half the class moved up to the front and got in a line. The girl who was sitting next to me who I had been casually chatting with had gone up too. When she sat down she started talking with me again and asking me questions about film and Cameras. The bell rang and the class dispersed. I wasn’t invited to sit with the girl for lunch, I didn’t really expect to be though. She Waved goodbye to me and I made my way to the lunchroom still in a state of bliss from photography class. I had looked at my alternative assignment and tilted my head it was vague. But I had two weeks to figure out what it meant.

I was in the cafeteria, my guess was that the school had a school wide lunch break since the cafeteria was packed almost to bursting. Only two or three tables remained that still had free seating. There was an outside area open for students too, but it was the middle of summer so going outside wasn’t a very smart idea if you liked not having heatstroke. I went towards the back of the lunch area and hen I saw him. I wasn’t sure why he was alone. I know he had had friends during the summer, unless he was new too I didn’t see why he wouldn’t be with them. Maybe he was new? Maybe like me he didn’t know anyone else in the school. I’m not going to say I wanted that to be the case, because being new sucks as anyone will tell you, but I wouldn’t have minded either.

I approached the table and unwrapped my camera bag from around my shoulders and smiled and I began to sit down. By then every table had filled up besides the one that he was at. He looked upp at me as I sat and I smiled at him.

“What do you want?” He snapped. I flinched and was momentarily taken aback.

“Don’t you remember me?” I asked, he didn’t recognize me? Had I built up the entire thing between him and I in my head? That day we hung out at the fair had been one of the best in the entire summer for me, but maybe it was just a typical day for him. Maybe he randomly hung out with total strangers every day of his life. I hadn’t dressed up for the first day of school. I had stopped doing that in the fourth grade when my mom had stopped making me. And that morning I couldn’t straighten my hair because I was so gittery that I had just decided to throw it into a braid that fell over one of my shoulders. In my Cami, shorts and messy braid I felt woefully unimportant and a bit unattractive.

“Yes, but now is not the time,” he answered. I frowned. I didn’t like to frown. Sarah said I always looked like I was pouting more than anything and she always said it was cute more than serious. I pulled my Camera bag close to my chest, unconsciously. Reaching for my security blanket I guess. I adjusted myself in my seat.

“What’s up with you?” I asked it came out without my knowledge. It was kind of a rude thing to ask but it happened. He seemed like a totally different person than the Luke I had met.

“People Change.” Was all he said. I wanted to say, Yeah you sure did. and storm off angrily. But I guess it wasn’t his fault he didn’t live up to my memory of him. Maybe he had been a jerk all along and I just thought he was such an amazing guy because he had helped me out and I was really vulnerable from getting dumped.

I bit my lip and just sat there for a moment. Fighting him on this wouldn’t get me anywhere. I stood up and muttered something about food grabbing my Camera bag. Before I got too far away, without his noticing I snapped a picture f him. I wasn’t exactly sure why. Maybe it was so I’d have an Image of the Luke that was real now to compare to the Luke I remembered. Through my Camera Lense I saw a look in his eyes that was so sad and so deep that I didn’t know what could do that to anyone.

The rest of my classes after lnch really weren’t that eventful. When school ended I went to my locker and took down the picture. Leaving the magnet there. I didn’t need it there anymore. I had spur of the moment, decided that I wasn’t going to think about Luke Jeysen anymore. If he was going to be an Ass I didn’t need to deal with that stuff right now. I had forgotten by the end of the day, that I shared classes with him. The first and last hours of the day, English and Science. Chemistry of all things. Ironic huh? I had spent that entire hour trying to pretend I had no idea he was in the class. He was near the back row and I was near the front. We were in the same column but I managed somehow.

I had walked home and was greeted with the smell of fake chocolate chip sugar, gluten, and artificial flavoring free cookies. My aunts version of comfort food. I was too upset to care. I plopped down at a barstool and Grabbed two cookies and my aunt poured me an ice cold glass of soy milk. I dwned half a cookie in a few seconds. They weren’t the greatest but they were warm. Then she asked a question that I didn’t have an answer for.

“How was your day Ellie?”