Pinhole
Copyright© 2022 by Fanlon
Chapter 7
When I walked into school, I headed straight for Mr. Watts’ classroom hoping I would see or run into Dana if I were lucky. I also needed to put the sealed box of Kodak photopaper that I had in my backpack into the darkroom for safe keeping. When I made it to Mr. Watts’ classroom, Dana was nowhere to be seen. I waited for a minute or two, but she wasn’t there. I didn’t have a whole lot of time before the bell for first period, so I rushed into the Photography classroom, which was empty, and then into the darkroom where Mr. Watts was working on developing some pictures.
“Did you bring some photopaper for your side projects?” Mr. Watts asked me without looking away from what he was doing.
“Yeah,” I answered happily, slinging my backpack off of my shoulders and onto the table I the middle of the darkroom. “My dad and I got some Kodak photopaper last night.”
“Did you remember to put your name on the box?” he asked, looking over at the box I was pulling from my backpack and seeing my name written on it in huge letters, he nodded. “Good, just put it in one of those work rooms, it should be fine in there. Next time, you don’t need to print your name quite so big.”
Mr. Watts was chuckling and shaking his head and I gave him a cheesy grin.
“Thanks.” I rolled my eyes.
After storing my stuff in the little work room that was just big enough for one person to use, I shut the door, thinking that was good enough to keep my photopaper safe. Mr. Watts was still working on developing photos when I rejoined him in the main area of the dark room.
“I gotta get going to Social Studies. I will see you after lunch!” I said excitedly and left Mr. Watts to finish working on his project.
I headed back out into the main hallway and to my surprise, Dana was there. She was standing in the hallway with her arms crossed around a textbook, smiling as I stepped out of the classroom.
“So, can you take my picture?” Dana asked almost the moment I left Mr. Watts’ classroom.
“Yeah,” I smiled, but suddenly felt nervous for reasons I didn’t understand. “I can probably do it during lunch or after school. If uhh ... that is okay ... with umm, you?”
“Cool,” she said and fell in step as I started walking to Mrs. Petersons’ class. “How about Friday at lunch, is that cool with you?” she asked as I ducked and moved to the side to avoid a large group of seniors who walked down the middle of the hallway like they owned the place.
“I think ... Yeah, that should be fine.”
“Great!” She hurried to keep up with me. “So, Friday. Meet me on the hill?”
“The hill?”
“Yeah, where you saw me yesterday.”
“Oh.” She meant Smokers Hill, ugh. “Umm, sure.”
“Can we take more than one picture?” she asked.
She seemed nervous all of a sudden and I didn’t understand why right at that moment.
“I can try to get two, if that’s what you want.”
“That would be amazing!” She smiled brightly and I could sense the relief in her posture. “Would three be too many, do you think?”
“Probably,” I answered and looked at her trying to figure out what she was thinking, but that was no use. She was a girl; I was an idiot freshman guy. “I have to change out the photopaper on every picture, so it really depends on how fast we figure out the pictures you want.”
“Okay, okay. We can see how much time we have on Friday.” I was suddenly embraced in a tight hug, and I could easily feel the curves of her body as she did so.
She didn’t feel like a freshman. Not even a little bit, but I wasn’t going to complain about having a hot girl two years older than me pressing her body against mine.
“Sounds good, see you then ... I guess.”
She had already released me and was going the opposite way before I replied to her. I guess I would have to wait until Friday to see what she had in mind for her pictures. I hoped it wasn’t what I did for Laura, but if it were, I would still take it. I made it to Mrs. Petersons’ class just as the bell rang and she gave me a look that told me I had just avoided a potential disaster. I didn’t really care to be honest; I was still riding high on the fact I was going to take Dana’s pictures Friday and I still needed to develop Alyssa’s today in class.
The day raced by and before I knew it, it was time for lunch. The debate I was having in my head was do I get some pizza, or do I go to photography class? It seemed Adam was bringing his own lunch now and would most likely be eating it at his desk in the classroom. The other question I had was, would there be anyone else in the room as well?
It’s not that it mattered if anyone else was there, well besides Laura. I didn’t want to have to deal with her. There was no telling how she was going to react to seeing me from day to day. Yesterday she had avoided me without saying a word but watched me like a hawk at the same time. A very different reaction than what she had when I first developed the picture and then Mr. Watts displayed it for everyone to see. Laura was an enigma, no matter what I thought about her, I was wrong.
I decided then and there to quit getting into my own head and overthinking situations like this. Who cares who is in Mr. Watts’ classroom? If Laura was still mad, fine. There was nothing I could do about it now that the damage was done. As my dad liked to say, “it’s time to get on living, or get on dying.” Dying didn’t sound like a good idea as a highschool freshmen so that left me with one option, living.
I went to Mr. Watts’ class early and hung out with Adam until the bell rang. Since it was Thursday, it was our turn to be in the darkroom and I was anxious to develop the picture I had taken of Alyssa. Mr. Watts was the last one in the room, and that was a good minute or two after the bell rang. He looked like he had run the entire length of the school to get there but he needn’t have. Everyone was seated and waiting when he showed up, much to his surprise.
“Sorry I am late,” he announced as he placed a thick manilla folder down on his desk that looked to be filled with photographs. It wasn’t ours, they were still up on the wall, with mine of Laura still displayed in the hallway. “Thursday crew, you have the darkroom to develop the pictures you took yesterday. Those of you about to complain about the rotation, you Monday-Wednesday folks will get to use it tomorrow. That way everyone is done before Monday next week.”
“Okay, those of you on rotation, get up and head into the darkroom. The rest of you are stuck out here with me.” Mr. Watts made a goofy face and hand gesture that got the class giggling.
Those of us due in the darkroom, made our way in and got to work immediately developing the pictures from the day before. Adam went to retrieve our cameras from where they were piled up in the small work room opposite where I put my box of Kodak that morning.
“Do you want to go first?” Adam asked when we both had the photopaper removed from out cameras.
“Nah, you can go,” I replied right away. I was genuinely curious to see how his photo would turn out today, not to mention the subject of his choice.
“Sweet, thanks!” Adam replied. He was obviously excited, and it made me excited along with him. “This one is going to be better; I know it.”
“Right on, let’s see it. Who did you take the picture of?”
“You will have to wait and see.”
I grinned, not that Adam could see it in the dark room. Or the fact that he was completely focused on the task at hand, developing his picture. I liked this little contest he was starting with me. If his pictures turned out well, it would only drive me to create something that much better.
I had taken a chance with the picture of Alyssa. Using the lower perspective, in my mind, made sense. Now it was time to find out if that was really how it worked or not. The amount of sunlight affected the image, and the picture of Laura hadn’t utilized direct light. This one of Alyssa, did. Realizing that fact, the use of the light hit me like a ton of bricks. There was a high likelihood that I had overexposed the picture—a really high likelihood.
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