The old rustic barn stood several acres away from the house, the deep red color it was once painted in nearly faded after the years it had been left unoccupied. The building's history on the family farm went back almost four generations, and had once been used to stow away grain back in the day. It was kept where it had been constructed in memory of the one who had built it, even though it remained unused now that the family had a much larger barn built on the property.

The sun was shining in just the right place in the sky, casting adequate lighting around the side of the barn. This particular hour was pretty much the perfect photography opportunity, and it was going to be taken advantage of to get an amazing picture of the family.

Bonnie and the children of the Hopps Family gathered to the right side of the aged barn, all of them getting themselves ready for the picture to be taken. The brown-furred doe a short distance away from them.

"Thanks for offering to take the family picture on such short notice, Charlotte," Bonnie said to her. "I haven't had a new picture with them all together in awhile, and when Judy said she was coming over I thought now would be a good time to get one."

"No problem, Mom," Charlotte replied while she adjusted the lens on her camera so it would be completely focused. "To be honest, this month's schedule has been kinda empty. Haven't had any new appointments for quite some time now."

After she left the family farm, Charlotte pursued a career in photography, the art form that she was the most passionate about. Though she tended to be quite busy at times with this job, she never forgot the importance of family and lived not too far away from hers. In fact, the previous few photos taken of the Hopps children were all done by her.

"You know," Bonnie said with a sigh, "it feels just like yesterday that you just picked up a camera for the first time. The way you took that photo of the sun setting over the fields told me and your father right away you had quite a knack for this."

"And I'm glad I took your advice on pursuing something that makes me happy," Charlotte responded with a smile. "Glad to be able to say that I'm doing something that I love to do almost everyday." She clicked a few buttons on the side of her camera and looked over at the children, who were all ready for their picture. "All set!"

"Alright, everyone," Bonnie said to the children. "Smile like you love each other!"

The camera started to beep and blink a small white light, indicating that it was now on a timer. Everybody stood closely together and put on a smile, the wall of the barn behind them making for the perfect backdrop. One smile among the bunch, however, wasn't exactly the most natural. This one came from Adam, the youngest buck in the group; his smile wider than the average one and his eyes bugging out like he was putting effort into it.

"Adam," Bonnie said from where she was standing, "smile nicely."

"But I am smiling nicely, Mom," the little buck said back through his teeth as he maintained his not-so-natural smile.

Adam had recently developed this stance smile for when it came to time to take a picture, the reason behind it most likely being that he was definitely the most overenthusiastic one in the family, always a bit hyper and not really a fan of photos.

His brother Aiden, just then, looked at him and assumed he was making a silly face for the camera, and decided widen his eyes and stick out his tongue. It was in these moments that the photo started to gradually become less perfect.

On the right side of the group of children were an eight-year-old doe and her younger brother. She looked away from everyone and glared over at her sibling with a competitive expression on her muzzle.

"Staring contest?" she said to him.

The buck, younger than her by only a year, grinned back at her. "Let's do this," he said happily.

The two young bunnies proceeded to look away from who was trying to take their picture and stare at one another, both of them trying not to be the loser of the contest by being the first to blink. Behind them, meanwhile, another two little bucks in the Hopps family started to run around, chasing one another as they encircled the rest of their siblings that hadn't moved.

Judy stood among the older children, unable to do anything else but laugh to herself at the antics of her much younger siblings. Whenever the time came for a family photo to be taken, whether it was for a holiday or something else, it was difficult for them remain still.

To the right of her was her brother James, who, still being the joker that he was back when they were younger, started to grin himself. While Judy smiled for the camera and wasn't paying attention to him, he did what he referred to as one of the older tricks in the book. Just as the camera beeped on its timer, he placed his hand behind her head with two fingers up, giving the impression of ears above her actual ones.

Click!

Author's Note: Hey there, everyone! Haven't done a short story like this in awhile. This one was written rather quickly but I hope y'all enjoyed it anyway. I've got some much better ones that I plan on sharing.

As always, let me know what your thoughts were on this. Your thoughts, whether good and bad, are always gladly appreciated.

'Til next time! :)