BORN TO DIE, stefan salvatore [1]

30 - THE DESCENT

BORN TO DIE
THE DESCENT

MADELEINE WAS PROUD OF HERSELF FOR BEING ABLE TO MAKE IT TO SCHOOL FOR ONCE. Weeks of absences hadn't gone unnoticed by her principal and was now forced to take up extracurriculars to cover the credits she was missing. Madeleine cursed. While it was part of the human, normal experience she once wanted, that wasn't who she was anymore. School and homework and even dating was one big inconvenience when it meant battling for her life.  

Madeleine lacked many skills. She was a good student but she had no creativity or passion for virtually anything. The options include cheerleading (Madeleine didn't have a single athletic bone in her body), the debate team (she was a cowering people pleaser), and yearbook, which seemed the easiest. Caroline was the head of the yearbook committee so Madeleine knew that she had someone to turn to if there was a problem. However, today Caroline was focused on rebuilding her relationship with Matt. Madeleine had already apologised to her for the way she reacted with Tyler but she had yet to meet the football player himself.

The yearbook committee spent nearly every waking hour in the computer room and only left for classes where they still sketched ideas for layouts.

"Hey. It's you." Madeleine wasn't surprised to find Theo when she entered the room but he was more than surprised to see her.

"Hey."

"What are you doing here?"

"I have credits to make up."

Theo sucked in a breath. "Damn. Well you could've picked something worse."

"Just tell me what to do and I'll do it."

Theo looked around the room for any vacancies. "You any good with a computer? editing?" Madeleine's lips curled inwards as she shook her head. "Cameras?" She shook her head again. Maybe there was still room in the debate club. "Okay, that's fine. I can teach you."

Theo threw his laptop bag over his shoulder. He dug through a large drawer, pulling out all different types of cameras that Madeleine had never seen before settling on one. "Here. It's a spare."

It was a pretty standard looking camera. Madeleine turned it over in her hands. "Just point and shoot, right?"

"If you want to take a picture, yes, if you want to take a good picture, it's a bit more complicated." Theo breezed past the blonde and lead her to the green outside. It was about mid afternoon and everyone was outside for lunch.

"You see those cheerleaders? Take a picture. Just go for it." Madeleine's hesitated. She needed more instructions than that. Theo encouraged her anyway. She looked through the little window of the camera and pressed the top button. She pulled back and showed the picture to Theo. It wasn't the worst but it certainly wasn't good. "Okay. Now turn this to change your exposure. And this for your aperture. Zoom in a little. Now take the picture." Madeleine looked through the window and snapped the photo. She almost gasped. "See the difference?"