Picture Perfect

Chapter 1

History. Alice hated that class and she was pretty sure that everyone did too. She just couldn't wrap her mind around what there was to learn from the past. Was Abraham Lincoln going to help her navigate the rest of her high school life? Was World War 2 going to prepare her for World War 3? The world had changed a lot since then, but, she understood. Math was not particularly useful to her either, it was one of those things that she just had to, like many other things in life.

But the arts. She reveled in the arts. Illustrations and pictures spoke to her better than words did. It was a window out of her dreary, grey world.

It didn't help though, that the only thing she was confident in drawing was stick men and stick houses. She sighed a little to herself, half paying attention to Mr. Shapiro and half doodling on her History notebook.

It'd be lunch time after this. The battle of popularity hit an all time high every lunch break. Everyone had their own table, their own circle of friends. Tables ranged from jocks, wannabe influencers, gossipers, tattletales, singers, Indians, Jews and a hundred more different categories. Alice didn't blame them, it was easier to stick with your own kind. You'd have a better chance of surviving high school unscathed from bullying and name-calling.

When the bell rang for lunch Alice found her comfortable place next to Simone, walking together to the cafeteria. It was almost automatic. They were two magnets that clicked together whenever they were in close proximity. Simone was a "stock image" as Alice would call it. Both of them were.

Simone was Vietnamese-American. Standard straight, long black hair, gracefully slanted eyes, curved, almost round looking nose. Alice on the other hand, she was--

"Yo, Alice Lee!"

Alice turned in surprise, Simone stopping a step ahead of her. Curious, they both scanned the crowded hallways for the nearly speaker-loud mention of her name. In fact, the whole hall seemed to turn their head towards the voice, only for a moment, before they went back to their own chores.

There was a handsome looking teenager fast walking towards them. Alice shot a look towards Simone who returned her shocked expression.

"You're Alice Lee?" The teen was looking straight at Simone, his chestnut hair messy in places, but framed his face just at the right places. Alice put her hand up gingerly, "Uh, actually, that's me." The guy pointed a finger at her "Right, you," and put both his hands on his hips.

"Listen, I hear you take great pictures." The teen took out his phone and started to scroll at something. A second later he showed the screen of the latest Samsung to Alice. Simone, being considerably taller, peered behind Alice's shoulder.

"You took this photo right here," handsome guy said, with more excitement than Alice understood. Alice pressed her glasses upwards, taking a closer look at the photo. She immediately recognized it, "Yeah, that was for the school newspaper... There was an article about prom last year," she didn't get what the big deal was.

"Siiiick." The guy nodded his head in a way that surfboards rode waves "This photo got 289 likes on Instagram!"

Alice took an even closer look. The Instagram account belonged to none other than prom queen last year, a girl who had already graduated: alyssaxxlove. The caption read:

"Thanks to everyone for an amazing last year in Sherman Oaks High. Special thanks to my friends who stuck with me through it all, the newspaper club, and my wonderful teachers. I'll never forget high school! Will miss you all! On to the next chapter!
Photo credits: Alice Lee (Newspaper Club photographer)"

Fair to say that the photo really showcased Alyssa's vibrant yellow dress and her face was framed beautifully within the square of the half-body shot. Her smirk was tantalizing and her eyes peered straight through the camera, knocking whoever scrolled past the picture with a slap of reality that made them scroll right back up.

"Right... Okay... Look, she's a popular girl, I don't think this has anything to do with the way I took the photo..." Alice started, glancing at her watch, it was 5 minutes past lunch time.

"Nooo! Look, look, hear me out," The handsome guy went into an explanation of how Alyssa's other photos had an average of around 178 likes, implying that the photo Alice took a was deviation from the normal. Alice didn't know whether this guy was just good at math or he was that desperate.

"Okay, well, thanks for telling me, I guess? Uhh... Me and Simone really gotta get to lunch." Simone furiously nodded next to her. Frankly she had no idea why they had even been stopped to talk about this.

"Take my photo," handsome guy said. Alice's mouth gaped at the sudden statement, Simone couldn't help be let out a "Huh?" at the guy.

"Excuse me?" Alice repeated, shaking her head a little, her ponytailed raven hair swaying.

"Take my photo for instagram, get me a couple of likes,"

"I kind of have a lot of things to do,"

"I'll pay you!"

Alice stopped at that. Turning to Simone who raised her eyebrows in curiosity. They both looked at each other for a couple of seconds, a silent kind of communication passing between them.

"$10 for 5 photos," Alice quickly countered, seeing an opportunity to actually get paid for this.

"What if it doesn't get a 100 likes?" Alice nearly rolled her eyes at the question.

"If it doesn't get at least a 100 likes, I'll give you $5 back,"

The guy's face lit up and his head bobbed up and down yet again, "Siiiiick, let's do this tomorrow, deal?"

"Deal."

and that was how she became the girl behind the pictures.