Take My Picture

Chapter four

This week of school went smoothly, like a lot more so than I expected. Brinley and I have actually become pretty good friends, and the group I sat with a lunch on Monday, they have also become pretty good friends. I sit with them every lunch. There is Eddie, he plays the guitar. Then there is Kate, she plays softball and she's dating Eddie. Next is Will, he's on the track team. There is also Gretta, she's a bit of a brainiac, she's on so many committees and in so many clubs that I forget them all. And lastly, there is Annabel, she's absolutely obsessed with music and knows everything there is to know about the celebrities that she likes. I think one of her favourites at the moment is Demi Lovato, I know some of her songs but I don't really know anything about her. I don't pay that much attention to many celebrities.

I've been pretty busy this week which I am grateful for, the more I have to do, the less time I can sit and think. I got all the images for those two companies edited and I delivered them both on Tuesday after school, even though one company didn't want them for another week, I wanted to get them done. And with dancing on Wednesday and Thursday night I didn't want to end up being late with the photos.

It's Friday today, I'm really excited for the weekend. Aggie woke me up this morning jumping on me yelling at me happy birthday. She gave me this massive 'I'm so proud of you, you're all grown up, 16 is so exciting' speech. You know the one that most people get from their parents. I hugged her so tight I think she stopped breathing for a minute.

I am surprisingly in a good mood today, my terrible mood and lack of energy that I was stuck in since last week kind of just disappeared overnight. I don't know why but I'm not complaining.

In homeroom, Brinley engulfed me in a giant bear hug and squealed happy birthday. She had bought me a present, this girl is precious. I opened it up to see that it was a book, I opened up the book and saw one of my photos. I looked over at her, confused. She just smiled and told me to keep looking. I flipped through the whole book, it's all photos of mine, from my Instagram. On the last page, there was a message typed from Brinley that read, 'Happy Birthday Harriet! You are an incredible photographer so here are some of my favourites of yours. If you ever feel like you're no good you can look through this and see that you are in fact amazing. Stick with it and you will go places. Love Brinley, your favourite person :P'

"Brinley this is amazing! When did you even start this it would have taken ages?" I asked looking over at Brinley amazed and so thankful that I met her and that she's become my friend. She just shrugged and said she thought of it on Monday after our conversation on the bus, and because her dad is an author, getting it printed was really easy, that she could do it at home.

At lunch, I was sitting with Eddie, Will, Kate, Gretta and Annabel. They all said happy birthday but none of them knew it was my birthday until today, but I preferred it that way. I don't really celebrate my birthday because at the group home no one gets parties, we can't afford it but I don't mind, I don't really feel like I'm missing out on anything that important.

We were at lunch when Kate, Will and Annabel got a message at pretty much the same time. They looked up at each other and giggled, picking up their phones and seeing what the message is. "It's from Melanie, my friend on the cheerleading squad," Kate states unlocking her phone. Will and Annabel both also commented that their message is also from someone on the cheerleading squad. "It's a video, Melanie said to watch it," Kate stated. She pressed on the video and held her phone out so everyone can watch.

My heart dropped, my throat closed up and I just could tell the colour drained from my face. I feel sick. As soon as I saw the first screen load, I knew what this video was. I was in shock, I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I couldn't do anything. I didn't even know that someone had filmed this.