Picture Perfect

Chapter 2

In a matter of weeks Alice's small part-time job of taking Instagram-worthy photos nearly put her up there with the list of popular students. Only, she really wasn't. Business was business and a nobody was a nobody.

People only approached her when they needed her services, which she didn't mind. More money for her college fund and hangouts with Simone.

"Hey look, look here's another one," Simone piped up, her mouth stuffed with the sandwich she packed herself for lunch. She nudged her mobile phone with her elbow, another Instagram photo on the screen.

"349 likes. Not bad. But Daniel's got a lot of followers in the first place," Alice shrugged, remembering the struggle of working with the jock. He wanted his Instagram photo to be "Sporty and cool, but not too cool, like mysterious cool. Like, let's get outta here kinda cool," he said while wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

Alice shook her head at the memory. Half of the people in high school were just out here to try and become popular. What a waste of their parents' money. She did admit that sometimes, when she had extra time in the shower, she daydreamed about what it would be like to get fawned over by a handsome guy.

She was pretty ordinary looking. Not the best, but her Chinese blood gave her monolid cat-like eyes and sharp facial features, just not the perfect ones. "You saving up for anything?" Simone asked, goofy smile on her face,

"If I were you, I'd get the whole series of illustrated Harry Potter books. Illustrated Alice! Just imagine the magic," Simone disappeared into a far-off land of wizardry, Alice followed suit.

"Fantastic Beasts and magical creatures all drawn and coloured in every page," Alice sighed, imagining the collection in her library—more like a small ass shelf—at home.

"Oop, I gotta go early today Aly, promised Mr. Grant I'd help with something," Simone snapped back to reality and devoured the rest of her sandwich.

"See you later," Alice peeped out through her mouthful of food. She was nearly done here too and just as she was packing up, someone else joined her on the cafeteria table.

At first she didn't think much of it, he was probably just sitting for a second, tying a loose shoelace or something but when said person didn't budge from Alice's peripheral vision for a whole minute, she looked up.

She nearly choked. Ben Gross was sitting in front of her and she was pretty sure that he was looking straight at her. She was in four classes with Ben Gross. AP Literature, AP History, Biology and Algebra II. Not once in those classes did he spare her a glance, not once did they utter a word to each other.

Ben Gross was smart. Nearly everyone on campus knew that. Smart and rich. An automatic ticket to a comfortable life. He and Devi Vishwakumar were always at each other's throats to see who was the better overachiever. In Alice's opinion, it was entertaining to watch. What she would never admit to anyone though, was that she thought Ben Gross was actually good eye candy.

Eye candy. Nothing more. Her daydreams didn't really consist of Ben Gross, those were reserved for the real cute ones. Ben Gross was... He was endearing. Like a fawn. Not daydream material.

"...Can I help you...?" Alice drawled out, scrunching up the rest of her plastics and wrappers into one ball, picking up her tray, ready to bolt.

Ben Gross cleared his throat and smiled at her, rather blindingly "I heard from the grapevine that you're a remarkable photo-taker."

Alice had a lightbulb moment. She couldn't hide her disappointment when she replied "My rates have changed. $10 for 5 photos, additional $10 for every 100 likes you get, if you don't pay then you'll be banned from my services for life," she'd said it automatically. Very robotic and monotone.