Anastasia *on hold*

Chapter 5-Partners

ANASTASIA:

The classroom was extremely mucky, the wood paneling that was considered a floor creaked underneath each foot that pressed against it. The room itself smelled like cinnamon as always, Mr. Hood was always obsessed with the smell of cinnamon because it brought "an indescribable sensation."

We all thought that Mr. Hood was always high on something, because he always seemed to be happy. "What's wrong with being happy?" you may ask yourself, and the answer to that is nothing. However, Mr. Hood was always too happy, which made us all assume that he took injections.

When he walked in the room with his usual cheery skip-in-his-self, I realized that the whole class had let out a breath of fresh air, including myself. It was weird knowing him to be upset, it wasn't in his nature which made us all morbidly concerned. Lucky for us however, he craved attention which he would soon be getting because of his "family problems." I always supposed that growing up for him was a difficult time period, because he was always kept to himself around the other teachers, but when someone would compliment him for taking a good photo, he would blush a thousand roses and thank the person for their kind words, but you could tell that when the attention fell off him after just being on him, that it hurt him. I don't think this made him conceided in himself, but I think it made him lonely. He wasn't married, no kids. He had a cat though, although she was fat and had diabetes.

Mr. Hood took his usual place sitting on his wooden desk and smiled at all of us warmly, "I'm assuming you all want the story about what exactly happened?" he sighed out, slumping. The class all nodded their heads, and it was evident that Mr. Hood was a tad reluctant to tell his story. Neither of us pressed him on, knowing that he was a grown man and that if he needed or wanted to change his mind, then he very well could. We weren't going to stop him.

Mr. Hood looked down at his feet before glancing back up at the rest of us, "Tell ya what...if you all give me incredible work with this photo assignment, I'll tell you every bit of what happened." He smirked, knowing that we were all looking forward to 'Keeping Up With The Hood's.' Nonetheless, he jumped off of his desk quickly before running to the classroom door to invite the seniors in. The seniors stood infront of the class as they were instructed, and looked slightly annoyed that they had to do this assignment with us.

The seniors went to sit next to their designated partner. After the last of the seniors had been called and one still remained, Mr. Hood's cheeks burned a bright red before turning to find someone for him to work with. When he saw that I had been hiding in the back of the room, he slapped the kid on the back and said, "John Smith, you'll work with Ms. Anastasia Lorne!" with a proud smile before promptly pointing John in my direction.

What the fuck of a name is John Smith?

I pulled out a wooden chair that was next to mine out for this Smith guy which he slid into rather carefully. I exaimined his features carefully, he had brown moppy hair which fell over to one side, brown eyes, but holy hell his cheekbones! I swear to God you could cut yourself on them if you were ever in that position...

what the fuck am I thinking?

He was awfully pale on the contrary, and he carried a dark essence with him. His face seemed rather sulky, like he was in some depressive state. He resembled a handsome grim reeper if that made any sense. Dispite the glorious heights of his cheekbones, it looked to me like he'd never eaten, he was extremely thin and his cheeks themselves seemed to have collapsed. He didn't carry around the dress of the reeper, which was a plus on my part. He did wear a ridiculous tweed jacket and bowtie, maybe trying to go for a more hipster look? He also had on black slacks with black socks and shoes to match, and I think I got a peek of red suspenders hiding under the jacket.

My thoughts were soon diminished by Mr. Hood's hands clapping together. "Now that you've all got a partner..." he paused to wave his hands around to show that we all did, indeed, have partners, "I will give you the list of what I want out of you lot for this project." Mr. Hood paused once more as his dress shoes clanked against the wood paneling towards his chalk board. He refused to trade it for a white board, and he refused to 'upgrade' his classroom to the twenty-first century style. He liked the eighteen-hundreds theme and he would be damned otherwise. I, personally, enjoyed it. I liked how it always smelled of a mix of dust and cinnamon, I liked the windows which had to be opened on hot days, I liked how everything was true to its originality. Call me Grandma, but it was simple things like this which made me happy.

The chalk glided easily against the chalkboard, leaving white dust to trickle down making a small pile on the floor. After he had finished writing, Mr. Hood stood erect in front of his writing so that he was blocking our view. I watched as his lips pulled themselves off to a corner, smirking at us while the sun rays illuminated all around him, hugging his slim figure into a halo.

"The theme for this assignment..." he began, stifling back a laugh while everyone craned their neck to write down the notes on the board. "Is the twentieth century." He looked around trying to find someone who wasn't infatuated with that era, but all of us being born on its outskirts hadn't aroused any conflict. "What I want from you for this assignment..." he continued on, "Are photos taken in the style you'll see on the board, but they must carry the twentieth century vibe. Bonus points for using actual twentieth century 'artifacts'.

Mr. Hood stepped away from the board, revealing the list:
•Angle
•Texture
•Message
•Picture of child/pet/animal
•Action
•Portrait
•Still Life
•3 Candids
•Shadow

From the corner of my eye, I saw John wink at me. At least, I'm pretty sure he did. Such a flirt.

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So wow, I think this story got featured or something? First it was 419 in Science Fiction and now it's 915. Let's try and get those reads back up, hmm? (Someone please explain the # thing to me please)

Sorry for the short chapter, it's more of a filler, I know. But it holds very important key evidence for the next few chapters.

-El