Finding London

Chapter 1

"So, I know you take creative writing...And photography, obviously. Any other hidden talents I should know about?" Fiona, my current portfolio partner, asked me as we wandered through the streets of London.

"Well, let's see...Oh, there's music." I told her, staring down at the camera dangling around my neck. "That's it, though."

"Music? Dang, girl, you do everything." She laughed, stopping to take a picture. After she took it, she continued to talk. "And you like it?"

I nodded my head. "It's great. But, back to the portfolio, I seriously can't think of any good ideas." 

"Well, we have a day to do it. I think we can get it done in time." She shrugged her shoulders. "I have hope in us."

I looked around the place where we were at. It kind of reminded me of Times Square back home. 

"Well, I have to use the restroom. Meet me here in five?" Fiona suddenly asked.

I looked up, nodding my head once again. "Oh, yeah. Sure."

She made her way to the restrooms, and so I sat on the nearest bench. There was a fountain in the middle of everything, and little kids were throwing coins into it. I smiled to myself as I looked through the pictures on my camera. I had taken twenty for the day. And I didn't like any of them, sadly enough. I couldn't believe it either. I was in London, England. And I still didn't have any inspiration for this whole portfolio thing. Mr. Esther just had to make this one of our projects. Well, actually, yeah, it was a good idea. But me? I was an amateur. I knew I probably couldn't do it in time. We had till Thursday to do it, so another day. But this fine day of Tuesday wasn't doing much for the whole thing.

We were in this program where high schools students could go to a different country for four weeks of the summer, and take classes. We had four choices of countries: New York, where I lived anyways; London, England; Paris, France; and, finally, China. I chose London, of course. And, when it came to classes, I chose the three that best suited my interests: creative writing, music, and photography. I'd been there for a week. And, so far, it was pretty amazing.

"Hey, Mum, what are those men doing?" I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard a little girl's voice. I looked around to find the source of the noise, and what I found was a little girl tugging on her mother's dress. "Why aren't they talking?"

The little girl continued to bug her mother, and, also, the guard. She waved her hands around, jumping up and down to try to get closer to his face. I smiled, and, as if it were an instinct, I pulled out my camera and took a picture. I didn't have a very good view, so I stood up, picked my camera up from around my neck, and got another picture. And that's when I had an idea. For the portfolio, of course. "The Life of London." Or something somewhat relevant to that topic. And, just like that, I had found a portfolio topic. 

I looked down at the photo on my camera. Yes, I would have to make some edits later. But the photo was perfect. Or it at least seemed to be to me. I caught it at such an angle where you could see the girl tugging on her mother's dress, an expression of want on her face. But you could also see the mother, who was smiling down at her daughter in such a way...I could possibly blur the background, as if to get a point across. Like, possibly the fact that although the world is moving so rapidly around them, there is always a moment when time just seems to freeze. Something special happens. And, for this one picture, it would just be something like the mother is realizing that she shouldn't take this moment for granted. Her daughter will be out and older in the blink of an eye. I turned my camera off and was just about to hang it back around my neck when I heard a shout. 

"Head's up!" I looked up, but it was too late. At that exact moment, a group of guys burst passed me, almost knocking me over. One of the guys literally ran into me, dropping both my camera and something of his in the process. He picked whatever it was up off the ground and started running again, and I could hear him screaming "Sorry" as he ran. What was up with that, anyways? I looked after them as they ran off.