Forever

Chapter 1 _ Primer Encuentro

It's midterm season for the fall semester. Valentina is busy editing away at her computer in her favorite café. On this particular Monday the café is completely full. Valentina got there early since she has Mondays off. She wasn't too worried about not finding a table because her table is always free, almost as if everyone who goes to that café knows THAT is HER table and off limits. The table is all the way to the back near the old mine entrance with no windows - the perfect table to edit with no light interference. This is actually why Val fell in love with the small coffee shop, it's perfect.

Juliana. Life hasn't been so easy on her or her parents. She was born in San Antonio, Texas but right before her senior year of high school after losing almost everything they made the decision to move to California. Sacramento to be exact. They wanted to start over and her parents believed the Golden State was the best place for that. Safe to say, she hates it here. The only thing keeping her afloat is the fact that when she finishes her portfolio she can finally begin applying for schools out of the city. Juliana has been struggling to find her place in this city that she hates, in the only neighborhood her parents could afford. If there is one thing she is thankful for it's her 1964 Mustang her parents gifted her on her 15th birthday, she's able to get away when she needs to. This Monday Juliana just so happened to stumble upon a small café after driving down US-50 until reaching Placerville. She had been driving without a destinations in mind but the small town caught her eye and she took a right on the first light and a left when she came to the stop sign. She was driving down Main St when she saw Cozmic Café. The mermaid on the building caught her eye so she decided to park across the street and make her way inside, find a place to sit and sketch.

Once she had made it inside she noticed just how full the small place actually was. She ordered a mango smoothie. When the smoothie was ready she went to find a seat but every table was taken with little to no room. She went a little further in and found a girl completely lost in whatever she was working on. There were 3 open chairs at this table so she took the chance of asking if she could sit so she too could work.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt you, I was wondering if I could grab a seat here. I promise not to bother you, this is the only table with any seats available." Said Juliana.

"Uh, yeah go for it." Valentina said in her usual friendly manner.

They sat there in silence for about ten minutes, each working on their own stuff. Valentina was editing her midterm portfolio for her Digital Imaging class but she had one more image she had to create and all her brainstorming was not helping her get any closer to what she wanted to do for it. She has been assigned to create a Dérive and after weeks of planning she still had no clue. After pondering for a bit she decided to seek help from the pretty girl sitting across from her.

"Hey, sorry to bother you, I need your help. I'm Valentina by the way."

Juliana looked up at Valentina and shyly said, "Juliana. No problem, what's up?"

"It's just I have an assignment I've been trying to do and it's been weeks and I still don't know how to approach it. It's called a dérive, meaning I have to take a few photographs and combine them in an interesting way to create a completely new image. So our assignment is to go on a walk on a different route than we usually would and rediscover or discover interesting vantage points. It's due in 2 weeks." Valentina explained in the simplest way she could.

"Okay, so how do I fit into this?" Juliana said raising her eyebrow.

"Okay so I know this entire town backwards and forwards but that's through my eyes and I would love to have your take on this. How long have you been living here for?"