Normal. A very plain word with many different meanings. For Red Monroe, normal means living a simple life with her grandmother, taking pictures, and laughing with her friends. But one day, an attack at her school changes all that. Red is thrust into...
The picture mentioned - taken by Dan Hamill on Pexels⬆️➡️ Song: Once Upon a Paradise - Daniel Thrasher (Daniel Thrasher) Mentioned Necklace⬇️
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Word Count: 1269
Breathe in. Breath out.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Blink.
Breathe out.
My hands were shaking from the cold as I held my camera. Continuing to steady my breathing, I tried to still my body enough to peer through the view finder, adjusting the focus until I could clearly see the picture I wanted.
It had snowed last night, I could feel how it altered the already cold temperature into an even chillier one. I shivered as I quickly snapped the photo, standing from my crouch and looking at the LCD display.
I managed to capture a graceful picture of ice-covered branches from one of the bare bushes scattered throughout the forest. The water had completely frozen around the brown base as the sun rose through the trees in the background, providing a rather serene and peaceful picture to add to my collection.
I set the camera down against my chest, the star-covered strap around my neck holding it in place as I dusted any snow off of myself. I looked around the snow-covered Forest, seeing if there was anything else I could take a picture of. I took a few steps back towards my house, looking all around as my constellation-patterned combat boots crunched against the white fluff on the ground.
I smiled slightly as I spotted a blue jay by her nest. I knew that these birds didn't hibernate for the winter, so I was hoping to get a picture of them once the temperature started dropping. I raised my camera and looked through the view finder again, adjusting the focus and waiting for the perfect moment to press the shutter button.
"Red? Red Monroe, where are you? Get back here!"
I groaned and dropped my arms as the blue jay flew off, startled by my grandmother's loud voice. "Alright, Nonna! I'm coming!" I shouted, glaring in the direction of my house. I angrily dug around in the pocket of my red leather jacket and pulled out my camera's lens cap, twisting it on before I stomped through the woods, annoyed that I couldn't get my picture.
"Don't you give me that face, nipotina." Nonna pointed her finger at me as I made my way over the old wooden bridge. I glared down at the partially frozen water as I walked over it, following the indent in the ground to the other houses that were built in my sparse neighborhood. I'll admit it, I live in a large house, one too large for just my grandmother and I, but I love the fact that the forest is just beyond our backyard.
Nonna told me that Nonno built the bridge a few years before I was born so I wouldn't go sliding into the river like my father apparently did. She said that my parents were planning on living with them for a while so I could grow up with my family and with a good life, but that never really happened. My father died a month or so before I was born in a car accident, my mother in childbirth, and my grandfather from cancer a couple years after I turned three. I never met my parents and I don't really remember Nonno, but I do remember him giving me something that belonged to them.
I received two necklaces, the kind that two good friends wear, but for a couple. The one my father wore was the right half of a sun, with six rays extending off of the golden curve. My mother wore a crescent moon that magnetized to the sun, the silver surface slightly discolored with lighter and darker shades. The two shapes both had half of a face that joined together to make the classic image that I'm sure many have seen.
"Red!" I looked over at Nonna, confused when I saw her irritated face. "Will you finish getting ready for school? You have to be there in a half hour!"
"Alright, Nonna." I trudged towards the back door of my house, stopping when my grandmother spoke again.
"Oh, Red, by the way, what's you're camera called again?"
I looked back at Nonna in confusion, raising a brow as if to ask a simple why?
"My friend's grandson is starting to get into photography and she wants to get him a camera. She knows that you like photography, and she knows that you're my nipotina, so she asked me what kind of camera you have."
"...a black Kamin Tikon DSLR Digital Camera."
"Er...could you perhaps write that down for me?"
I chuckled and shook my head. "Sure, Nonna, I'll leave it on the kitchen counter."
I walked through the back door and made my way up the steps, walking around the balcony to my corner of the upstairs, which consisted of three rooms: my bedroom, developing room, and bathroom.
I walked into my bedroom, which was fairly plain, seeing as the only decoration were my own pictures. Walking towards my bed, I pulled my camera off my neck and set it on my black comforter, before pulling off my fingerless knitted gloves that Nonna had made for me. She gave me a pair every month and out of all the ones she's made for me, these were my favorites. I took of my leather jacket, leaving me in a black v-neck, slightly ripped black jeans, and my combat boots.
I turned and walked over to my bathroom, sitting down in front of my white vanity. Quickly, I applied some concealer all over my face, followed by light brown eyeshadow all over my lids and a cat-eye wing. With some mascara and a coat of brownish-nude matte lipstick, my makeup was finished. I braided my fire-truck red hair down my back, tying the locks together as I walked back to my bedroom, pulling the door to my developing room closed as I walked past.
Pulling my jacket and grey gloves back on, I picked up my camera and buckled the strap around my neck, pulling my hair out of the layers of fabric. Grabbing my black backpack, I left my bedroom and closed the door, closing my bathroom's as well as I walked towards the stairs.
Making my way to the kitchen, I grabbed an breakfast roll, putting it in my mouth as I took a magnetized notepad and pen off of the fridge. I quickly wrote down the name of my camera, resisting the urge to bite into my bread too much as I ripped the paper off and put the pen and pad back. Placing the paper on the counter, I hiked my backpack up my shoulder and walked outside.
"Bye, Nonna!" I shouted, finally biting off that piece of the roll as I walked down to the bus stop.
"Have a good day today, Red!" I heard my grandmother shout after me
I only had to wait for a few minutes before the bus pulled up to the stop. I quickly climbed the steps, nodding to the bus driver as I took another bite of my bread. I sighed as I sat down, sending a close-lipped smile to some of the other people on the bus, before I looked out the window, watching the scenery as the bus pulled away.
Today doesn't feel normal, for some reason. Though I don't really know how, I just know that it's going to be different.
