Chapter 26

I was sitting on the floor in my studio, my legs crossed, holding the infamous picture of Laura under the tree. I had just finished putting it in one of the black frames Mom and I had picked up as my mind remembered that day, and how everything that had happened to me this year was almost solely because of this picture.

A smile spread across my face; it was all so ridiculous, honesty. But as much as it turned my life upside down, I wouldn’t go back and change any of it for a moment ... well, except for the whole photoshoot with the cheerleaders and how that all went down afterwards. That was bad, really bad.

I looked at the wall where the other pictures I had framed were hanging. I loved those ones, but this one didn’t fit. Honestly, I didn’t want this one next to those. I didn’t even want it in the studio. Dana’s plan for the hallway might turn out to be a great idea, just not how she envisioned it.

The hallway wasn’t all that long, maybe ten feet in total, but it was broken up on both sides by doors, with one at the end of the hall leading to the garage. On the left were two doors: one led upstairs, while another door concealed storage under the staircase. On the other side of the hallway was the door to the laundry room and furnace stuff. There was a small bathroom in there too. Next to that door was about five feet of old ugly wood paneling.

This would be the best place to hang it. There was a basic light on the ceiling there too, which could help to show it off. I grabbed my dad’s tape measure and got to work finding the center of the wall.

It was now the last week of April, and everything started to get a bit crazy. There was only a month or so left of my freshman year and it seemed every teacher from every class was suddenly trying to cram in every bit of schooling they could or were supposed to before the official start of summer.

I had so much to do before the school year ended. I was supposed to take pictures of my mom, and I was still worried about how that was going to go. Then I had April’s photoshoot, which for the first time there was a real meaning, and reason behind it for me. She had a dream and was relying on me to help her make it come true. We hadn’t hashed out all the details on exactly when yet, but we were supposed to talk about it this coming weekend, which reminded me that I needed to check on the progress of my surprise for her.

I had the final project for Professor Zarnick’s class. I still didn’t have any clue what I was going to do for that. I had tried to come up with a few ideas, but nothing really came to me. One of the biggest or most important things he had told us over and over all semester was not to force it, let it come naturally. That’s exactly what I was doing, just nothing was coming. I still had time, but it was growing shorter by the day, literally.

One thing was for sure though, I was going to have to take a step back from the Thursday photoshoots with my club, at least for now. It sucked because those shoots were a lot of fun.

When April called to talk to me about her shoot, I wasn’t home. I wish I had been, but I was over at Laura’s house for another dinner and a movie. It wasn’t just me and Laura, though. Dana had come too, with some urging from Laura. Those two had come up with the plan that if Dana were there with us, Mrs. Satori wouldn’t have to be with us the entire time.

The night started out weird right from the get-go. Laura’s mom actually welcomed me when we got there. That was not at all normal. Laura and Dana were both smiling proudly like a pair of young peacocks at how their plan was falling perfectly into place.

In theory, it was as sound of a plan as there could possibly be. The only problem was that Laura’s mom didn’t truly fit into any mold the two girls had dreamed up prior to Dana and me showing up.

So, it was the four of us sitting in the living room watching a movie: Dana, Laura, me, and of course, Mrs. Satori. Dana sat on the loveseat, just off to our right while I sat on the end of the couch, with Laura in the middle and her mom on the other end. Needless to say, there was little, if any, contact beyond hand holding between me and Laura.

The girls were still pleased with how things were going, even with Mrs. Satori sitting on the couch with us. They thought she wouldn’t stay throughout the whole movie, even when it was Laura’s mom who picked the movie.

There was no confusing the attitudes of the girls, including Laura’s mom after the first hour. Both Laura and Dana were glowering throughout the whole movie. Mrs. Satori, however, was smirking. The thing was, she never once turned to look at me and Laura. She didn’t have to, and she knew it. Her presence alone was more than enough to put a stop to any shenanigans that could potentially happen.

The other side effect I was sure Mrs. Satori was aware of before the movie was that with her constantly around us, keeping us in line of sight, our desire to keep hanging out on the couch was thoroughly and completely destroyed.

So, when the movie ended, Dana was already on her feet, making excuses for why she and I needed to leave. All the while, Laura was nodding gravely along with everything Dana said. Mrs. Satori, just to rub a bit of salt in the open wound, pleaded her case that we didn’t need to leave.

“Come on Dana, it’s the weekend. Surely you don’t really need to go quite this soon,” Mrs. Satori said.

The way she said it made you think she was being genuine, and she might very well have been, but Dana and Laura had seen enough, not even taking a nibble of the crumbs Laura’s mom was laying out for them.

“I would love to, but unfortunately I have some, uh, homework to do,” Dana managed to stammer out with only a slight pause as she made up the flimsiest excuse possible.

“It’s only a little after nine. I know you stay up until after midnight on the weekends all the time.” Mrs. Satori grinned like a predator, convincing its prey that it wasn’t hungry ... yet.

“I have homework too!” Laura said a little too quickly, trying to jump on the same train Dana was getting on.

“Weren’t you doing that while I was making the casserole in the kitchen earlier?” her mom asked, her eyebrow raised in question.

“Yeah, umm, that was just my math homework. I still have chemistry to do.” Laura’s face was red from nervousness.

It was clear to a blind man she was lying, but her mom didn’t call her on it. She was getting exactly what she wanted and there was no reason to ruin that.

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