Picture Perfect

Chapter 6

The whole month passed by without any interesting school events. For a whole month, Alice's schedule was not as crazy as she thought it would be. It was a big sigh of relief.

Of course, it only lasted a month. Dreadful things were coming her way and despite Ben Gross' effort on keeping her grades up and her pocket full, she was slowly struggling. Stress started to creep up on her.

On her desk at home, she would sit and ruminate over a pile of books and stack of papers. When she finally forced herself to bed, she would toss and turn and it would feel like she closed her eyes, but the next minute, it was time to wake up and prepare for school.

The reason?

The midterm exams were coming up, and she had been conditioned not to pay attention in class because, hell, Ben Gross was doing her homework. Why did she have to listen?

It was only a month later when she realized during one of the pop quizzes, she didn't learn jack the past few weeks and let Ben freaking Gross carry her grade. Now she was in trouble.

Something snapped in her head.

She was trying to figure out a math equation, trying to mentally make sense of it in her head. Using smaller numbers to substitute the x and y of the problem.

Again, something snapped in her head.

Ahhh, right, so if h(t) = 24 + 4t – 5t then t would equal to—

SNAP. SNAP. SNAP.

Alice took a sharp breath of fresh air. Someone was snapping their fingers in front of her face.

"Alice, what is wrong with you?" She then realized it was Ben Gross slightly glaring at her dumbfounded face. "Our school team just won the Science Week Regionals. Did. you. take. a. photo?" His words dripped with venom.

Alice cursed under her breath and started flashing away for some photos. Thankfully she still caught some group hugs and bright smiles from their school team.

Ben Gross shook his head and watched as the girl continued taking photos. She was increasingly distracted, Ben noted, and he wasn't sure why and again, he didn't care for much about it, except that her picture quality could be deteriorating too.

When the event was over they'd ended up back at the Yearbook Club Room. Her doing the usual: extracting the memory card from the camera and handing it over so that he could sort through the photos and pick the right ones.

"Thanks," he muttered and pocketed the memory card.

Alice started to pack up quietly, starting to go back to the math equation in her head. She had been trying to figure it out since yesterday. This was probably the simplest equation and she still couldn't get a grasp on it.

"I'm not paying you today,"

Her head turned so fast that her hair whiplashed on her face, "What?" She replied him with the same venom that he had earlier.

"I'm not paying you today," Ben said. It being the most normal thing in the world.

Alice stared him down. Funny enough he didn't break her gaze.

"I took the photos. I got the job done." She was trying to be calm but the stress of the past few weeks was starting to creep up on her. "And truth be told that was the most boring school event I've been to so far and a total waste of my time, so I actually think I should be paid double," she finished.

Ben scoffed and looked at her incredulously. "You wouldn't have taken any pictures if I didn't literally snap you out of it," he countered.

Alice let out an exasperated sigh and was about to give him all the attitude she had when he cut her off, "I'll pay you after, you tell me what's going on," with a light shrug, he made it seem like it was no big deal.