Destined to be?

Chapter 17

Sarah

"Ok im not sure what you said to amara but whatever it was definitely put her butt in gear because she just told me that Luke Abrams is taking her to the dance."
Bumping into his side as we walk into our fourth period taking our unassigned assigned seats at the back table.
Getting only a shrug as he took his seat.
I'm not sure what was said at the shoe store between the two of them but it had to be something major. Noticing how they had been huddled up in conversation while I was browsing the options.
When i came to join them then they tried to act as if everything was good but i could feel the strain in the group.
I decided to ignore it and play along.
Since then neither one of them were willingly giving up any information as to why Amara's reluctance to agree to a date had suddenly changed.
I wanted to pry more, to catch them in the car on the way home so that they couldn't avoid the conversation but something deeper told me to leave this alone.
I've known amara my whole life basically and no one makes her do something that she doesn't want to do. So the fact that she now has a date.
Well…
Let's just say that I don't think that our little plan was the main thing that persuaded her to change her mind.
"Alright class lets get onto the presentations shall we." Mr. Harrington said as he stepped to the front of the class. "Who would like to go first?"
Seeing a few people raise their hands as I sat back in an attempt to hide myself. How could I have forgotten that there was an assignment due today.
With all the events of this weekend, pretending to be the best girlfriend ever which, granted, wasn't a hard task with brayden just would be a lot easier if I actually felt that way with him and going to the mall with everything that went on there.
Answering my own question. Along with that fact that this was the only homework that I had.
What even was the assigmentent?
Racking my brain, trying to go back to the last class when Mr. Harrington had explained the project. Though it was hard because he never really was too specific on the actual outline.
"Miss.Wilson . Why don't you present first."
Looking directly at me, along with everyone else in the class. that turned in my direction as all of the people who did have their hands raised put them back down.
Seriously.
All those ready participants and he wants to pick on me.
Leaning closer to Brayden as I asked him what I'm supposed to be talking about.
"The assignment was to take."
"Miss. Wilson?" Mr. Harrington calls out again as I look up to find that everyone's interest was on us as he cut off any hopes of not looking like a complete idiot.
Standing tall, I walk up to the front of the room where Mr. Harrington is smiling almost knowingly in my direction.
"Well Miss. Wilson, I can not wait to see what picture you chose."
"Picture." Of course, but what kind of picture? "Just give me one sec to find that." Bring the phone up to my face just as soon as I feel the vibration of a text message. I Wanted to send my boyfriend a Thankyou with my eyes but I was too focused on making this look legit.
'A picture that mixes old with new.'
Old with new.
Old with new.
Scrolling though the album dismissing most of the pictures automatically.
Come on.
Something old with something new.
Thinking of one picture in particular, scrolling all the way to the bottom. A Farley recent picture that I had just taken at one of the malls a day before.
Welp.
That's going to have to work, not like this would be the first time I bullshitted my way through something.
Nodding my head as I walked over the projector connecting the cord to my phone so that I could display the image for everyone to see.
Taking my time, seeming to give everyone a moment to look over the details while I was in a panic about what exactly I was going to say.
"Old and new." I begin. "There's so many different ways those two words can be interpreted. That all just depends on the person's point of view. Like this photograph or picture. Both the same word, each meaning the same thing and yet each of those words had a unique time period as to which one was used more." Knowing that I was getting off track, trying to steer back to the actual image. "Like this image here. Two people, a man and a young girl. Some of you might be thinking the old and new would be the age difference between the two of them. How one has more life experience and the child is only just beginning. Of course that is only one aspect of the photo. Another is that I chose to shoot this in black and white. Going back to the original way the film had been when the camera was first invented and the photographs had been processed." Again I was rambling and I took a step to the side as I took in the image myself. Recalling the reason why I had felt like snapping the moment at all. "In all honesty, I believe that what really spoke to me was their attire. How the father figure was in a suite and the girls a pretty flowery dress. They looked completely separate from everyone else in the photo. To me they seemed out of date, looking as if they had almost time traveled there. Old modern dress in a modern day mall. Which also goes to show just how much the attire has changed as well. I guess in all actuality there are many different points of old and new in this photo. It really just depends on what you are looking at."
Finally pausing on my words as I was still admiring the details within the shot when I heard clapping. Turning to find that the teacher himself was the one making the noise, then even more as my classmates joined in. Heat rushed to my face feeling slightly embarrassed by the situation while also not sure why.
"You never cease to amaze me Miss. Wilson. I will say that I do thoroughly enjoy your work. This picture is something else, you really do have an eye for catching something special." Then he leaned in closer to me. "Artists are alway better when they are put on the spot, not time for overthinking."
Giving me a wink as I unplugged my phone and re-took my seat.
So he did know that I had been unprepared.
"That was amazing Sarah. When did you even take that picture because it's really something."
"At the mall yesterday."
"Really i never even saw you take any, shows how much i was paying attention."
"You were tricked into going on a shopping trip. I'm just surprised that you haven't been on your phone the entire time or gotten lost."
"Touché."
Sitting through three more presentations before the finale bell rang.
One was of course a rotten orange sitting next to a fresh one, like we hadn't already talked enough about oranges throughout this year. Another was of an old tattered dress next to a designer, no doubt in my mind that she wanted her future to be all labels and designer items. Could luck with that one of course she could always just follow through with her plan of marrying rich. Shaking my head. The last one was of a racetrack where all he could talk about was how much the engines have changed and the horsepower of the cars over the years.
What these people chose really showed so much to their character which only made me wonder.
"Hey. What picture did you choose?" Asking Brayden as i slung my bag over my shoulder as I walked up and grabbed onto his waiting hand before we headed out.
"Well I guess you will just have to wait and see."
"No." I whined, unable to help needing to know this information. His invading the question only added more spark to an already unstable engine. Stupid car metaphor getting stuck in my head. "Come on. Pleeeeaaaaaassssseeee." Drawing out the word, making my tone super high pitched and annoying so that he would be more likely to spill the information just to get me to shut up.
"That's not going to work."
"What isn't?" Pretending as if I didn't already know. "Tell me. What did you choose to do the assignment on?"
"Nope."
"Fine then I won't kiss you at all until you tell me."
Smirking as I let go of his hand about to skip away on a power trip when I felt my body being pulled backwards.
Spinning mid way trying to catch my balance but falling directly into his chest. Breath catching from disorientation that came from the uninvited movement.
His hand still wrapped around my arm down at my side looking up just slightly so that I could see that wide smile that matched nicely with the mischievous glint in his eye.
"Oh yeah." He says in a whisper.
Knowing even before I saw that look that he was going to lean down and try to plant a kiss on my lips. As his eyes looked down to my mouth, watching as his neck started to bend, his head leaning down.
All this was, was a kiss.
Just like so many I have given him before.
So why was it this time that I could literally feel the contents of my stomach slowly working up my esophagus.
This was a totally cute boyfriend, girlfriend, playful banter to kiss interaction.
All I wanted to do was rip my hand away and run.
Run, without stopping.
Until I couldn't breathe and my lungs were on fire.
Fire.
Shaking my head, using my free hand to push hard against his chest as I backed away.
Of course he only assumed that I was still holding my word and that we were just playing around because he began to step closer and try again.
About to open my mouth and tell him no when my best friend with almost perfect timing showed up.
"Hey you two. You know this school does have a policy on pda."
"That only works when it's actually within school hours." Brayden iterated as he wrapped his arms around me from behind, rocking us both back and forth as he nuzzled into my neck.
Again. A cute boyfriend, girlfriend interaction.
One that I should love and cherish, only instead I'm swallowing the baby barf that just entered my mouth.
My stance was stiff until he finally let go and we all walked to his car.
Thinking back to what Mr. Harrington had said in class.
Calling me an artist.
Was that what I was? I mean all I did was take pictures of stuff that I liked or thought was interesting.
Though hearing that title given to me did make me feel more connected to my mom in a way. All of my artistic abilities would definitely have come from, well maybe not all. Dad was pretty creative when he wanted to be. On all the projects that he works on with his team plus with what he can do with food.
Face it. I was born to two artistic people, some of that was bound to pass down not me at some point.
Smiling as I hopped in after Amara.