Pick Me. Choose Me. Love Me. 003

OH LOOK ANOTHER UPDATE! (: Tee hee.

Chapter three-

If only “Hi, I’m impressed with your face” wasn’t on my Awkward List of Greetings.

“Hi, um, can I help you?” I asked politely. The boy, Adam, just smiled. Um, maybe I’d thought wrong about this guy. Creeper.

“Nope. Now, I’m just guessing here, but do you like photography?” He said. I smiled back at him and gave a sort of half laugh.

“You could say that. My name’s Emily, by the way.” I replied, putting my hand out to shake, which he took. “Well, Emily, It’s nice to meet you. I hope you’re going to take a photography class at Sampson High?”

“If there’s one available, there’s no second guessing it.” I said, holding my smile, trying to keep from blushing.

“Well, maybe we’ll be in the same class. See you around.”

And with a wave of his hand, he walked off.

 Just like that.

“Well…That was strange, and awkward.” Jaylee nodded.

“He was cute, though.” She commented, standing up and brushing the autumn leaves off of her dress.

“Yeah, he was. You know him?” I asked, side-ways glancing at her.

“I’ve seen him around, nothing major.” She said.

She was lying.

“Who is he, Jaylee?” I asked, walking back with her towards our bikes. She sighed.

“I dated his younger brother last summer. We, um, didn’t have a great relationship. I hope his brother’s different, if you were interested…” I nodded my head. Jaylee seemed uneasy about the subject, so I let it drop.

“Hey, wanna go do a quick shoot?” I asked.

“Sure. I like being a model. You’re a cool sister.” I smiled at her.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” I told her, grabbing her wrist and leading her over to the abandoned jungle gym. The game of tag had turned into a massive game of kick ball.

The score was four to three, the inning was unknown, and the teams were uneven. But that was the fun of being a kid; it didn’t matter if it was fun.

I sat Jaylee on a swing and told her just to act natural. She had some surprisingly good poses.

“You’re good at this. You’re coming with me on all of my bike rides.” She laughed and I snapped a quick shot of her.

“Okay, I’m freaking hungry. Wanna go home?” I asked, my stomach growling in agreement. She nodded and got up off the swing.  As I turned around to get to my bike, I accidentally ran into a little girl.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t- Hey, are you okay? Why are you crying?” I asked, bending over to the little girl’s height, who had tears streaming down her face. She sucked in air, her breath stuttering, and shook her head.

“What’s the matter, are you hurt?” She shook her head again.

“Th-they w-won’t let me p-p-play with them.” She choked.

“Well…Um, do you like pictures?” I asked hopefully. She nodded, still stuttering a little. I patted her back. “Maybe if I go ask your mommy, I can take some pictures of you!”  She wiped her tears.

“You’d do that…for me?” She asked, looking up at me.

“Sure! Will you take me to your mommy?” And she grabbed my hand and I grabbed Jaylee’s and we ran to find her mom.

The little girl lead us to a woman who looked a little over thirty, reading a book on a bench.

“Hi ma’am, sorry to bother you, but I saw that your daughter was sad because the other kids wouldn’t let her play with them, and I just finished photographing my step-sister and I was wondering if we could take a few pictures of her? She’s adorable.”

The lady smiled.

“Well, you two don’t look like potential pedophiles, so sure. Mind if I tag along?”

“Haha, of course you can.” I said, smiling. The little girl grabbed my hand again.

“I’m Kristie, what’s your name?”

“I’m Emily, and that’s Jaylee.” I said, and Jaylee waved. Kristie grabbed Jaylee’s hand as well. I led Kristie and Jaylee to the monkey bars, Kristie’s mom walking behind us.

“Alright, Kristie, when I count to three, Jaylee’s going to lift you up and hold you on the monkey bars okay?” Kristie nodded enthusiastically and I stood back to get a good view of the lighting.

“Okay…One…Two…THREE!” I called, and Jaylee lifted the tiny girl onto the yellow monkey bars, and I quickly snapped some pictures as Kristie wiggled and writhed. It was so cute. I saw Kristie’s mom laughing out of the corner of my eyes, and I couldn’t help but smile as well.

“Alright, let’s go to the slide!” I called. Kristie’s hands opened and Jaylee set her down gently, and Kristie grabbed her hands and ran up the stairs. Jaylee sat at the start of the slide with Kristie in her lap.

“Make a funny face!” I called to the two girls. Jaylee made a monkey face and Kristie stuck her tongue out. “Now slide! One, two, three!” and the two slid down. I snapped five pictures of the duo sliding down the blue twisty slide.

We took pictures by the sand box, by the swings, on the pirate ship, on the fire-house pole, in the flower field, and on the tire swing. I’d never been so happy in my life.

When we finished, Kristie’s mom approached me and said,

“Thank you so much. I’ve never seen her as happy as this for a while. Please, come over whenever you like. And do you think you could email me copies of those pictures? You’re amazing with kids. Oh, and I’m Sarah.” She said, handing me a slip of paper that consisted of a phone number, an address, and an email. I smiled back at her and nodded my head.

“It was no problem. Kristie’s a sweet kid, and I know how it feels to be excluded in the reindeer games. Here, let me give you my number as well.” I said, tearing a sticky note off of the purple pad in my back pack. I wrote down my cell and the new home phone. “Call any time.” She smiled at me and nodded.

“It was nice meeting you both. Kristie! Let’s go sweetheart. Tell Jaylee and Emily bye-bye!”

Kristie gave Jaylee an enormous hug and then ran over to me and hugged me at my knees.

“Bye Kristie! I’ll see you again, soon, okay?”

“Okay, Emily! Bye!”

I looked toward Jaylee, the biggest smile on my face that I’d had in a while, and motioned for her and I to head to the bikes.

 

Author's Note

This was kinda long, but some character development was extremely needed here.