Hello!
Hala: Hey there! It's okay if you don't review, as long as you keep reading! I've already posted chapter ten of that, and here's the next chapter to this story. Hope you like it, and thanks too!
Caelestis-wolf: Hello! You can think of Mira as you, since you two are so alike! And I won't make Sendoh too OOC, at least I hope I'm not. Tell me if I am okay? Thanks for reading, and review this one too!
On to the story!
Photograph
Chapter Two
The reason Sendoh hadn't noticed the blue-streaked-hair girl before was because she was sitting at the far corner of the closer, and she looked oblivious to the ruckuss that was going on in the classroom.
Sendoh was sitting by the window, in the middle of the classroom, and he cupped his chin on his palm as he stared around the classroom. A few girls were looking at him and giggling girlishly at him, but his eyes lingered on the camera girl – by now he had many nicknames for her – on the corner, looking down and studying something intently. Sendoh thought that she was studying photographs, naturally.
He still hadn't broken his look when she looked up and stared directly at him. He thought that she looked nice, she didn't have a lot of makeup on, from what he could see, it was just eye liner sorrounding her eyes. She was fair, with thin lips, and icy blue eyes, the kind of cool blue that was one usually sees in a pristine and untouched beach.
She stared directly at her, without a hint of a smile, as if demanding why he was staring at her. He just smiled at her, a smile that she didn't return. She didn't look coldly at him though, he guessed that she thought there was no need to smile back. This he found refreshing, all the rest of the female population in the school would just fall over laughing if he stared at them.
He couldn't spare another thought on the subject anymore, as the teacher came in. He saw at the corner of his eye the girl keepher stack of paper and focus her attention in front of the room.
Sendoh couldn't care less, and was fighting the tempting urge to fall asleep.
Mira wondered why he stared at her like that. She wondered if he even knew her name. As she looked at the photographs that she got, those that passed her test, which out of 56, only 6, she felt a pair of eyes staring at the side of her face. She looked up, and sure enough, Sendoh Akira was staring at her, for reasons unbeknown to her. She really couldn't care less, there was no need to smile back at him, to show any emotion. She didn't need people after all, just her camera.
Well, there's Divo, too, she thought, smiling a little, as a picture of her large Saint Bernard popped in her mind.
"Is there something funny?" the teacher asked her, looking pointedly at her.
Mira flustered, and looked around. Some girls ere giggling at her, pointing. Sendoh wa taking the opportunity to look at her again, a smile in his face. "Erm," she said, "no, nothing's funny."
"Well, now that we have started to act our age," the teacher said to Mira's indignation. She only smiled, for goodness sake, "let's begin."
By the end of the day, her head was swimming with new information, of complex theories and models. She went to her locker and got out her camera, and headed once again to the gym. On the way, she photographed a few trees and flowers, since it was a windy day and it was causing the plants to have a dramatic effect that she liked seeing in her pictures.
She left the gym before practice ended, eager to have some of her pictures printed. She already deleted those that weren't good enough, and found that she had twelve beautiful pictures to print.
The school paper's office was still open, and provided that she had her own photo paper, she can use the photo printer any time she wanted. She printed them out quickly, and grinned at the results. It was some of her best work yet, her subjects included a blood red rose, an apple tree, and Sendoh Akira.
With her camera in one hand and the photographs on the other, she made her way to the front doors of the school. She was walking in the second floor hallway, not looking in front of her, her attention focused on the photographs she was flipping through. One of the pictures was clamped in her mouth, and she was studying the picture of the rose particularly hard.
If she would have been looking at where she was going, then maybe she could have avoided what had happened next.
She collided head on to someone. She was so shocked that both her hands went over her head and she threw the object she was holding up and away from her.
Mira closed her eyes as she heard her camera land on the floor with a sickening thud.
"Oh god, I am so sorry," said Sendoh, his eyes wide. He dropped his bag on the floor. He was observing the murals on the wall as he walked towards his locker at the end of the hall. He didn't realize that he had hit someone until he had hit that someone. He was even more surprised when he saw that he had hit camera girl.
He bent down and started to pick up the photographs. There were a dozen of them in all, and it didn't take long for him to see that she knew what she was doing. The pictures were beautifully captured, especially the one of the rose. He raised his eyebrows when he picked the last one up and saw that it was him, hanging in mid air with the ball in his hand, poised for a slam dunk.
He was deeply impressed.
Of the girl, not of himself. He wasn't Sakuragi Hanamichi, after all.
He stood up and stacked the pictures one on top of the other, expecting to see the girl staring at her, with her hand out to accept them.
She was still on the ground.
Sendoh moved closer to her, and saw that her head was bowed low, and she was looking at something. When he saw what she was looking at, his stomach flopped inside him.
The camera, the expensive looking camera, had flown out of her hands, and landed on the cold hard floor, leaving it in a number of large pieces. The display was cracked everywhere, and so were the lens. Scattered around the big pieces were smaller black plastic ones. One of those pieces looked very much like the shutter, and the buttons near the display screen.
Sendoh gulped. This was partly his fault, if not entirely. It looked like such an expensive camera.
"Erm, miss?" he asked tentatively.
She didn't seem to hear him.
"Excuse me," he said, a little louder, tapping her on the shoulder. Sendoh went down on her level, and when he saw down she turned to him. Her cool blue eyes were shining, on the verge of tears, and the pained expression on her face couldn't be described well enough to match what she was feeling right now. "I'm really sorry," he said, handing over the pictures. She didn't take them. "I'll gladly pay for that," he pointed at the broken camera.
This seemed to shake the girl out of her stupor. She suddenly blinked away tears and immediately collected all the broken pieces of her camera. "There's no need for that," she said sternly, "I don't need your money."
Sendoh raised his eyebrows. "No, this is partially my fault, -"
"Well, since it's just partially your fault then you shouldn't take the full blame," she said, looking at him. She managed a small weak smile, but it didn't hide the sorrow in her eyes. "I'm sorry for hitting you," she said softly, "I wasn't looking at where I was going."
"I wasn't looking either," said Sendoh, "here are your pictures."
She took them gratefully. "Thanks," she said, putting them in a folder in her bag, then collected all the camera pieces.
"They're beautiful photographs," he said honestly, trying to lighten the situation.
This made the girl smile, but it was still weak. Sendoh felt a little frustrated as he looked at the camera. They were both on their feet now. "Look, I really wouldn't mind paying- "
The girl shook her head. "Please," she said in a pained voice, "I don't want to burden you, and truth be told, I don't want your money."
"Oh," was all Sendoh could say.
She picked up the pieces of the camera, with a pained look in her face.
"If you don't mind," she said, not looking at him, "I really have to go. I'm sorry again."
With that, she walked past him quickly.
Sendoh wasn't quite sure what had just happened. He began slowly walking in the original direction he was going, then turned around again.
The girl had stopped in front of her locker, and placed the broken camera pieces gingerly inside. She then placed her arm on the door of the locker and buried her face in it, shaking slightly.