Like A Camera

Chapter 4

Authors Note:
I'm currently driving to Minneapolis, then Florida! Up above is a picture of Ms. Mullins, the witch (or matchmaker, you decide). I'm so fucking excited yasssss❤️
xoxo

"Amanda, you have no clue how much drama went down this morning."

"I'm listening" She said through the speakers of my iPhone.

Ironically, around 5 minutes after she texted me this morning saying she could give me a ride, she was spilling her guts into a toilet bowl. Yup, she had the flu.

"That jackass Jason Helfrich started trying to make Adam mad, saying stuff like how he was 'dating me' and crap like that."

Que her astonished gasp.

"Then, they got in a fistfight, which I had to break up."

"You're serious?" She questioned cautiously.

"Dead serious." I responded.

"Oh my fuc-" she started, but ended up retching in a coughing fit.

"Anyways." She said, regaining herself.
"Then what?"

"I went all Regina George on his ass, so me and Adam are good now."

"Good job N" she praised.

Ringggggggggg!

"I gotta go Mandy, talk to you after class." I told her.

"Kay, bye loser."

"Adios retard."

I giggled and hung up.
Now, off to Film Class.
Ugh.

I adjusted my purse and started walking to Film, dodging freshmans and juniors crowding the hallway.

Finally, I reached the door to Classroom 301, where my class took place. And just in time for the second bell, too.

"Excuse me-" I mumbled, shoving past the kid blocking the door.

"You're excused." I heard a boy say, obviously smirking.

I looked back in disgust. I did not have time for this today.

It was Cory Beau, that snobby kid in my physics and film classes. Although he's probably the only other person at this school on the same popularity level as me, I despised him. He was my competition.

I flashed him the middle finger as I took my seat.

I heard a round of 'Oooooooooh's, and a couple 'Shots fired!' and 'Take a seat!' High schoolers. You think they'd be mature.

"Oh, a feisty one are we?" Cory questioned, obviously enjoying this.

I ignored him and flipped through my binder until I found the Film section.

"Okay, class! Take your seats please." I heard Ms. Mullin's voice call out.

After a brief shuffling of papers and squeaking of chairs, the classroom fell silent.

I assumed we were about to start our lesson.

Unfortunately, I was right.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

"So since we've been focusing on the fictional masterpieces of the author John Green, I've decided we should all pick our favourite of his books.
Once you've all completed that, create and direct a short trailer advertising it's contents."

I sighed.

I've only ever read two of his books, and although they were both fantastic, I would rather not go through that again.

They took me 2 weeks per book.

"Oh, and the trailer is due in 1 month."

"Fuck" I mumbled.

John Green had a total of roughly 7 books, which would take me 14 weeks to read.
Fuck that, I'm picking out of the two I've already read.
Which narrowed it down to 'The Fault In Our Stars' and 'Paper Towns'. And considering the drastic overrating of TFIOS, I'm going with Paper Towns.

Since I assumed we couldn't plagiarize the official trailer, I decided to re-read the book and jot down notes.

I looked up from the blank paper sitting patiently on my desk, awaiting the sharp scratch of my pencil gliding on the surface.

Damnit Nova, snap out of it.

Whenever I have to write an essay, direct a short movie, or anything that requires me to go remotely deep, I turn into fucking Shakespeare.
It's instinct.
And also how I maintain an A+ average.

I scanned the room, observing all the frustrated teens in my film class. They were all either running their fingers through their hair, or attempting to write down notes based off memory.

This was going to be interesting, watching the end results.

Just as I thought it couldn't get any worse, the devil spoke up.

"And to get more comfortable in this class, I will assign you to partners." Ms. Mullins spoke up.

I groaned and banged my head against my desk repeatedly.

The others weren't exactly jumping for joy either.

My teacher rolled her eyes and started pairing students up.

I shut my eyes and crossed my fingers.
Please, please, not Cory or any of his minions.

"Ash and Amanda," she called.

Shit.
Sorry Mandy, you're on your own.

"Mike and Jessica,"

Jess, my other best friend, averted her gaze of the teacher and smiled at her desk. She's been crushing on Mike for a month now.

"And finally, Cory and-"

Pause.
She squinted at the paper.
I swear, that woman had worse eyesight than Isaac from TFIOS.

"- Nova. So, those are your partners. You have one month. You may begin!"

My jaw was still dropped from utter surprise, mixed with pure hatred of Ms. Mullins.

I heard a groan from across the class and turned my head.
Sitting there was Cory Beau, the jackass that I'd be spending all my time with for the next month.
I sighed and attempted to hide my annoyance with the world.

So I plastered a fake smile onto my face and walked over.

"We're partners." I said.

"No shit Sherlock." he said sarcastically.

Okay, that's it. I'm switching to bitch mode.

"Listen here, Dimwit. We have to work together, because I have to pass this class. I'm not screwing up my scholarship for you."

He grinned.

"There's the girl I know and hate." he exclaimed.

I huffed and slammed my notebook onto the shiny surface of his desk.
He winced.

I smiled mischievously.

"We're doing Paper Towns." I demanded.

"What's that?" he asked, clearly not caring about the answer.

"A book, written by John Green." I stated the obvious.

He mumbled an 'Okay' then got distracted by some slut bending over to "get her pencil".
Yeah, right.

I punched his shoulder and he yelped quietly, surprised.

"Focus!" I hissed.

He rolled his eyes and hesitantly opened his notebook.

This was going to be a very long month.