Camera Shy

Part 1

Chapter 1

Washing his face before rubbing in some moisturizing cream Ari tilted his face this way and that to see if he had any blemishes. His pale skin was smooth and blemish free, but after bad acne as a teenager he was always paranoid of such things returning, despite his regiment. Running both hands through his too long ginger hair he smiled and gave himself a wink. "Looking good." He said hyping himself up, much like he did everyday. He didn't truly feel like he was looking good or even confident in looking okay, but the key to success was faking it or so his father told him.

He had an average height of five foot nine, shorter than his little sister two years his junior. Who stood two inches taller than him, and even though he knew for a fact she hated being tall she loved to tell him how he may be two years older, but she was taller making her the big sister and him the little brother.

He liked his baby blue eyes, but even that was just average. Pure blue, sapphire blue, sky blue those are eye colors that could get girls to notice him more. He did have one thing that was rare, his red hair. His mother told him how back in Italy less than one percent of people had his hair color and that even in America it was only around two percent. His hair was not his pride in joy, he was teased for it constantly as a child and while he tried to embrace it by growing it out and having it styled before his freshman year of college it had now long lost its style and had grown much longer than he would have liked. If money wasn't so tight he would consider having it cut, but a luxury like that could mean no groceries for a week to have it cut and styled like it was. He considered just having it all cut off for ten bucks at a barber, but thought that would lessen his chances with the fairer sex more than he had now. With a sigh he put on his black framed glasses and gave himself a nod for encouragement.

Today was one of the hottest days of summer, but in California that meant it was only in the mid eighties and a nice breeze kept even that from being an issue. Soon summer would be over and his sophomore year of classes would start up again. Then he would get back to work on his fine arts degree. When he decided to stay near campus for the summer, rather than go home and be back under the micromanaging control of his parents. They had told him how proud they were that he could stand on his own feet. It was their way of saying they wouldn't be paying for his stay over the summer. It made him kick himself for not taking a few summer courses to stay in their good graces and continue their patronage.

He was forced to get a job and ended up taking one at a clothing store that fancies itself as trendy with the name "The Hanger" in the local mall of all places. It was close enough to walk to and he could save a little time with the bus on days he felt lazy. Each day was the same, fold this, restock that, listening to women complain about how the sizes were wrong. By the end of each shift he wished more of his friends had stayed for the summer so he could have friendly faces to go party with, or even just spend time with, considering his luck with party invitations.. Most days ended up with him watching another movie in his tiny overpriced apartment..

He would often rewatch old movies, good ones and bad ones with a notebook in his lap as he took notes on what he would do differently if he directed it. Ari didn't just write notes on what he would change to make the movie better, he wrote down things he loved that worked just right. One day he would be the next Stanley Kubrick, a name that meant something in Hollywood. Though he often thought about changing his name before that, he was never a fan of his name.

Ariel Serra was no name for anyone masculine. He appreciated the idea of his name, it meant Lion of God and his mother said it was the name of an angel, but to him and anyone he knew it would just be associated with a red haired mermaid. His sister joked with his red hair he could dress up as her for halloween, he had told her to dress up as a rock because that was what she was as pretty as. A comment that got him in more than a little trouble. So he often went by Ari and had to make sure he spoke to any teachers before they did roll call to keep embarrassment at bay.