We're Seniors, Baby!

Snap! Piper pulled her face back from the camera, brown eyes looking at the picture that appeared on the screen of her DSLR. Okay, not a bad shot.  

Sighing, she sat back down in her seat at the back of the hall after making another round around it. Being the extremely 'enthusiastic' and 'socially active' person that she was, of course she'd 'volunteered' to be the photographer of this seminar that the schooled had planned to discuss international economic and environmental issues. She was SO going to kill Juliet for blackmailing her into doing this for the school newsletter.  

It wasn't so much so that Piper had no interest for world issues and current affairs, but more so that she could imagine herself doing much more fun and relaxing things with her time. Summer vacation was coming to an end! School started in a week and as much as she enjoyed spending time in school with her friends, she wasn't looking forward to the hardcore studying and the stress of senior year that would definitely wear her out. This was her last holiday to have fun, and she wanted to maximise that fun. And her idea of fun didn't really involve sitting in a stuffy hall with a hundred other people listening to talks and presentations.  

But she was roped in, so she'd have to deal with it. Her main photographing duties had already been fulfilled in the morning when the Guest Speaker had arrived. She'd obediently stood right at the edge of the stage and snapped pictures of the very pink-faced old man as he gave his agonisingly long and boring speech. She'd been so thankful when they'd finally moved on to group activities. Walking around and snapping pictures of groups having discussions was easy.  

During lunch, Piper pulled up a seat at an empty table in the canteen and sat alone, going through her photos as she ate. She'd long since figured out that this seminar was only for the insanely intelligent by witnessing every single student taking notes diligently as the speaker droned on and on. She'd officially dubbed them the Insanely Intelligents. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like the Insanely Intelligent were very attractive. She'd at least get to stare at some eye candy when covering sports activities, but this seminar was, to her, a slight disappointment. The Intelligents didn't seem very nice either. No one had thanked her when she had taken their group shots for them. Some had looked her her in such a condescending way that made her feel like a piece of lint on their shirts or something. Some guy had even demanded that she throw away his cup and bring him another cup of punch. I mean, hello dude, do I look like your servant to you? She'd had the strong urge to flip him off but she knew she had to 'maintain the school's reputation' so she just walked away instead.  

Sighing again, she turned off her camera and replaced her lens cap, focusing on her food.  

Something heavy landed on the seat across from her, causing the table to shake. Piper raised her eyes and met the eyes of a boy who seemed to be her age grinning curiously at her. Lowering her eyes back to her food, she continued chewing, making no other indication that she was aware of his presence.  

'Hi.' 

She raised her eyebrow at him.  

He looked back at her expectantly.  

She picked up her juice box and drank some juice, watching him watch her.  

'What's your name? I'm Gabriel.'  

She stuffed another forkfull of chicken into her mouth, still not responding.  

'You can call me Gabe.' He smiled, looking slightly unsure but confident nonetheless.  

Mentally sighing, she swallowed. 'Okay.' She said pointedly.  

'You didn't answer my question.' His grin widened at her response.