An Accidental Midriff

Try-Out Trouble - Part 3

Out of all of the extracurriculars that she had taken, (which wasn't a lot) Yearbook stood out. She wasn't a fan of interviewing other students; though luckily there were enough people in the class where she never had to worry about that. No, what she liked was that it hardly involved any work at all. Many journalism nerds took the class and they carried most of the burden and real hard work. Their proactivity allowed her to coast through the class without a worry in the world.

Well, there was one worry. On the first day of the school year Stephanie had walked in a bit late. All of the desks had been taken except for one.—and it was right next to Josh. She had been left with no choice, and when she sat down an awful stench invaded her nose. As Josh turned his neckless body to look at her, another vicious, merciless stench erupted from god-knows-where. Stephanie covered her nose and mouth as she winced at him. And he winked back at her.

The entire experience had made her extremely uncomfortable. Luckily for her, there was no assigned seating so she made sure to be one of the first to arrive in that class and snag a seat as far away from him as possible.

Today's class consisted of a photo shoot. Valentine's Day was coming up, and with it, thoughts about prom. The Yearbook class prided themselves in their strict timeline. They wanted to knock out the prom pictures and print them out to create massive posters all over the school in order to hype up the event. Naturally, pairs were preferred for the shoot. There were quite a few couples already in class waiting for their shoot.

Stephanie paid them no mind and fiddled with a spare Nikon camera. She wasn't too savvy in matters of technology but enjoyed pushing the little buttons nonetheless. Aperture? Iso? She had no clue what any of it meant. Feeling a bit frustrated, she felt the need for a stretch. But in this shirt? The last thing I want to do is to flash my chubby tummy. She did a quick survey of the room. Everyone was occupied with the photoshoot. She wasn't surprised; people hardly ever paid her any mind. Feeling sure that there weren't any prying eyes, she put the camera down, raised her arms up high, and stretched. Her back bent over the backrest of the wooden chair and caused her little shirt to rocket upwards. The bottom hem rose higher and higher until it was just beneath her breasts. She maintained the pose for a couple of seconds, feeling the soft flow of the air conditioned air on her silky smooth belly. Then, just as quickly as it had begun, her stretch was over. She brought back down her arms and accommodated her small shirt so that it covered her belly again. Then, as soon as she looked back up, her eyes locked with something.

Sitting, or perhaps more accurately, reclining on a desk at the other corner of the room was a giant blob of flesh. Its small beady eyes were magnified by its eyeglasses, creating giant black observant holes. Its mouth was open. Not gaping, but open—as if it breathed through its mouth and not through its pig nose. Its globby and mushy body enveloped the chair and most of the desk too. The space that remained on the desk was occupied by one thing: a camera. A little red light was blinking on the front. Stephanie had just begun to put two and two together when she saw a sly smile plaster itself on his red round face.

"Stephanie!" someone called. Her head quickly turned away from the blubbery abomination and toward Ms. Reel, the teacher.

"Yes ma'am?" Stephanie called, charmingly.

"We need you over here, c'mon," Ms. Reel waved her over.

Stephanie got up and pulled up her jeans. They didn't rise much, but it was enough to cover up her belly. "What's up?"

"So I know I said we were gonna take care of the couples first. I mean, jeez they're already here! But look, we ran into some technical difficulties. To spare you the details, our wide lens camera is malfunctioning, so to save time we're gonna boot up the portrait. You ready to do this thing?" Ms. Reel looked at her as if she expected an answer as soon as the last syllable escaped her mouth. "Well?!"

"Y..Yes! I'm ready!" Stephanie blurted out.

"Atta girl. Alright, excuse me everyone! We're gonna continue the photoshoot in about fifteen minutes!" Ms. Reel announced. The line of couples grumbled and shuffled out the door. "Don't wander too far! fifteen minutes!" Then, to Stephanie: "Ok, get in position."

Stephanie walked over to the giant canvas of seamless white paper that was propped up to create a background. She centered herself and turned toward the camera. While Ms. Reel fiddled with the portrait camera, Stephanie fiddled with the bottom hem of her shirt. She didn't want her lower belly to make an appearance in the yearbook for the whole school to see.

Then, out of nowhere, one of the yearbook nerds exclaimed, "Got it! The wide lens camera works now!"

"Perfect. Call the others in!" She turned to look at Stephanie, "Since you're already up there, pick someone to be with you in the picture. It could be anyone, let's do this quick."

The air became thick and humid in an heartbeat. Before she knew it, the giant lumbering blob known as Josh was upon her. "I'm gonna be in the picture with her," he asserted with a kind of brittle confidence. Ms. Reel slowly looked up from her camera. It could very have well been the look of disgust that she normally expressed on her face, or maybe the smell really was that bad that not even Ms. Reel could poker-face through it. But she waved him on just as she had Stephanie.

Josh waddled excitedly over to his position. The closer he got to her, the worse the smell became. Unbearable! "Ready?" Ms. Reel asked. Stephanie couldn't decide where she wanted her hair. "One mome—" "Set," Ms. Reel ignored her. The stench was burning her nose. I can't take this. No way. Not with him. And not in the yearbook. "HOLD IT!" she shouted loud enough for even Ms. Reel to pause and look up from the scope. The whole class was looking at her now. Crap. Words Steph! Words! She struggled to formulate a sentence but finally said, "Well, I.. uh.. wanted to do something special for my picture. You see, there's a boy.. that I wanted to ask to prom. He has no idea, so I wanted to take the picture with him."

Ms. Reel scratched her head. "Where is he?"

"Well, he's not here. It's supposed to be a surprise, I guess." Stephanie said coyly.

"So how the hell are you gonna take the picture with him right now? Stephanie you're wasting my time, c'mon." She waved again, this time signaling for her to get closer to Josh. Never in a million years.

"Wait! He's not here right now but I can make him!" Stephanie exclaimed. Ms. Reel, once again, leaned out from her scope. There was that look of... disgust? Disappointment? They're both just as bad.

Stephanie ran to her desk, grabbed a piece of decorative paper and a marker, and began writing on it. Then, she used a pair of scissors to cut it into the shape of a heart. She grabbed a stool and bounced back in front of the camera. "See?" she showed Ms. Reel. The heart-shaped paper had the word "Prom?" scribbled on it.

"So, this is supposed to be your prince charming?" Ms. Reel scoffed unimpressed.

"The heart represents my date." She tried to hold her breath and keep from breathing in any more of Josh's noxious fumes. "It's poetic," her voice strained to say.

"If you say so. Josh get out of frame." Ms. Reel already had her eye in the scope. Stephanie was right. His confidence was nothing but a facade. Brittle and frail. It shattered as he waddled off sadly to his seat. But that did not stop his eyes from tracing her seductive body. Nor did it stop the little red light on his camera from beaming brightly right in her direction.

Ms. Reel adjusted the camera. "Give me a pose! Aaaaaand done."