Through the Lens

(Not) Getting Along

Engfa stood by herself in the dark room watching as the chemicals lifted the photo from the paper. Seemingly like magic, a picture started to form, starting like a blotch of ink, bleeding across the page, slowly revealing lines and shapes.

It was her favorite part of the whole process. Watching something appear from nothing. An idea of what was supposed to appear, but you could never really be sure until the solution did its job and bled the picture to life.

Engfa loved being surprised by the unexpected. She also loved when the vision she had as she took the photo appeared exactly like she had imagined it would.

She let her photos dry on the line hung across the room as she swirled the chemical mixture mindlessly.

'With her attitude, it's a surprise she hasn't gotten in more trouble with teachers already. She so has it coming.'

Why had it bothered her so much? It was true. Probably. It's not like Engfa had made any effort to be anything other than her usual grumpy self around Charlotte. Plus, why did she even care what Charlotte thought? She didn't even like Charlotte. She was cheerful and bubbly and always had too much energy. Like a puppy.

She shook her head and went through the motions of collecting her photos and sliding them into the plastic pages of her folder gently, ready to show her professor. She had tried to take the criticism she had received from her professor and put more emotions into her photos. She hoped they would live up to expectations this time.

—

"What's the emotion you're trying to express here?" Jung questioned, gesturing to the photo sitting on the open page in front of them.

Engfa stared down at the page silently.

Jung sighed, "This is a fantastic photo. The framing, line of focus, everything is perfect."

Engfa smiled. Finally, she hadn't fucked it up.

"But it's boring." Jung continued.

Not again...

"Make me feel something, Engfa." Her voice was encouraging, not degrading.

Something Engfa was grateful for.

"Make it impossible for me to look away." She gripped Engfa's shoulder gently. "You have to feel something before I will."

Engfa left the classroom not angry but disappointed. She had really thought she had done better this time.

Engfa was lost in her thoughts, hands gripping her backpack straps tightly, her head down as she watched her feet make their way down the hall. She didn't notice the brunette chasing her down the hallway until a hand was gripping her arm.

"Headed to the library?" Sarah said with a flirty smile.

Engfa nodded, instantly remembering Charlotte's words that had been stuck in her head all day for some reason.

"Yeah." She said flatly as she let her arm slip from Sarah's grip and kept walking.

—

After her little talk with Heidi about Engfa, Charlotte decided she should probably take her advice before running off to complain to her professor. She was an adult after all. Maybe she had to act like it, even if she didn't want to. So she made her way to the library to meet Engfa for their usual Thursday tutoring session, ready to lay down some rules.

Charlotte rounded the corner and dropped her head low as she brought a hand up to cover her eyes, "I swear, if I open my eyes and someone is attacked to your face I'm gonna start throwing my books... at you." Her hand lowered mid-sentence to find Engfa sitting alone on the couch.