I was a photographer and books were a part of who I was. Those two things had nothing to do with each other, and yet here I was. Not exactly a walking contradiction, but close enough. And this semi-oxymoron was not ready to go to school.

In my morning daze, I stumbled down the stairs with a hairbrush in my hand instead of my backpack. My sister took one look at me and sent me back up, giggling while she gently turned me toward the bathroom.

With my glasses perched on my head, I called, "Mom, where did you put my glasses?" I hopped over the last two steps fully prepared this time.

"On your head, honey," she said without looking up from her pan. I felt the top of my head for a full five minutes before my fingers came across the circular frames. "Also, I still don't understand why you feel the need to find an 'aesthetic'." She made it sound like some foreign concept.

"Please," Eris scoffed from where she was pouring syrup on her pancakes, "Being artistic means you're under the stereotype of being visually pleasing. Thisbe just wants to follow the crowd."

"Please," I mocked. "That's only a trend in Korea. I just happen to like these glasses, thank you very much." I blew a raspberry and received my own pancake from our mom. Quickly scarfing it down, I darted back to my room, where I carefully picked my way through the piles of clothes and books on the floor.

My end goal was my bed, where my backpack lay in between what everyone who knew me liked to call the "Pillars of Books". These two massive stacks of books consisted mainly of old classics that I had newer editions of but couldn't bear to part with. My father was in a constant state of worry whenever he considered how close the books were to tipping onto my bed. What I never told him was that the Pillars were supported so that they wouldn't fall over even if someone tried on purpose.

"Five minutes til Pax gets here," Mom yelled. I was lucky to have a friend willing to tote me to school every morning. Pax Greene had been by my side since I'd yelled at Charlie Tran for stealing her sketchbook in first grade. I double checked my room to make sure nothing was missing and tugged at my skirt one last time.

"Have a good day, darlings!" From the way her voice was already drifting, I could tell she was prepping for one of her therapy sessions. Mom was a therapist for, for lack of a better term, pregnant ladies. She helped them with relaxation and preparation for new life, not to mention the trauma that could follow.

Eris was already out the door, through which I could see the already raising heat waves. As I struggled to stumble out the door while pulling my sandals on. What I couldn't understand was how it could be so hot when it was barely the end of May. I dashed from the safety of the cool house to the car that was sure to be blasting AC.

"The struggles of a first class citizen, huh?" Eris grinned.

"Shut up," I responded, giving her a light shove as she inserted her earbuds.

"Good morning," Pax trilled with her way too happy morning voice. "We're one day closer to having completed another year!"

"I swear," Mrs. Greene laughed, "Pax is more of a mom than I am sometimes." She turned down the road leading to the high school.

"Ri," Pax twisted her body in the front seat, "You're finishing your first year of high school, right?"

I stole an earbud from Eris to make sure she heard Pax. "Hm? Yeah. It's been tough."

I scoffed. "Wait 'til you get to be a junior." With that, Pax and her mom began to chatter about the latest tragedy on national television and how funny some comedian was. I occasionally threw in my own opinion and the debate about just how terrible our current president was was left open ended.

"This isn't over," Mrs. Greene called over the hum of her car. "Just you wait until this afternoon!" I laughed and Pax waved to her mom. Quickly, I lifted my camera and snapped Pax in her vulnerability.

"Invasion of privacy!" She cried, throwing her hands over her head. "Delete it, Thissy!" I checked the shot; not bad for a surprise candid.

Eris just laughed at us. "Please don't do anything that'll ruin me," she said as she usually did before she left for her class.

"When do we ever?"

"Even your bare existence is slowly draining me!" Eris threw over her shoulder as she jogged to the shade of our school's entrance.

"She belongs in the theater club," Pax nodded firmly. "I'm glad she'll be in the play this year." We'd finally gotten Eris to admit her true ambitions and to pursue them. It was better to have her out of the house and screeching than in our basement and doing the same. Much healthier for my ears too.

"Yeah," I agreed. "The brat deserves it. C'mon, let's get in before we turn into human puddles of wax." Pax scrunched her nose at the idea.

"Woah!" I turned to the sound of the voice. "What is the notorious Pax doing twenty minutes early to school?" When I caught sight of Daniel, I rose my gaze to the ceiling and silently asked for patience before looking back at him. I didn't know him very well as Pax did, so immediate friendliness was not required of me.

"Pax, is this the boy you've been raving on and on about?" I asked innocently. In shock, his mouth hung open; in that moment, he looked much like a fish. I liked it so much that I took a picture.

Pax spluttered, "What? Since when?" I'd been watching the two since April ended, and it was clear there was something going on between the pair. But clearly, either one of them was completely oblivious or both of them had no idea what to do.

"Okay, two things: one, how dare you take that picture." Daniel faked a glare in my general direction. "And two, Pax, I think we have certain things to discuss."

"I don't even know this dude, so I don't know if I like him yet, but good luck," I whispered to Pax. She squeezed my hand and took off to who knows where, head bent in with Daniel's. I rose my camera and shot another photo.

Not knowing what else to do, I wandered into my homeroom. Greeting Ms. Oscar, I slid into my seat. And as I always did, I opened my book and started to read. Out of habit, I reached up to loop a strand of my hair around my finger.

Ten minutes later, someone sat down on my right and noted, "Looking good as always, Thisbe." Without looking up, I pushed Giovanni into a seat.

"It's not nice to push people," Ms. Oscar chided jokingly. "If you're going to do anything, be sure it's where no evidence can be found."

"You sound like you've been in on a crime before," Gio snickered. "Ms. Oscar, is there anything you want to tell us?"

"Besides the fact that I think you two look good together? No." I looked up, startled. She had such a straight face on that I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be embarrassed.

"See?" Gio slammed a hand on his desk. "Even a teacher thinks we should go out."

"You've been trying for ages, Gio. You're still in the same place, aren't you? Plus, just because we look good together doesn't mean that we work well together." I tried to concentrate on Moll Flanders, but it was impossible now.

"Actually," she drew out slowly, "This quarter's project begs to differ." In addition to being our homeroom teacher, she was also our AP Literature class, which was slightly inconvenient if we had homework to catch up on. I bookmarked my page and darted to the front. Gio beat me to her desk and once he saw the mark we'd gotten, he hugged me.

The man-child had the audacity to hug me.

Not knowing what to do, I stood stark still until my eye saw what our grade was. Then I started jumping up and down with him. "You've got to be kidding. No way, Ms. Oscar!"

"Yes way," she laughed. "You're welcome." As we started to receive weird looks from our peers as they came in, I tried to pull away.

"Gio," I whispered furiously. "Don't make me want to resort to defenestration."

"I don't even know what that means, but it sounds fun." He was still grinning madly when he let me go. Just to aggravate him, I brushed off the nonexistent dust from my clothes.

"Take your seats," Ms. Oscar began over the ruckus. "I have an announcement to make." All our eyes snapped to the front. Rarely did we ever have anything important to discuss in homeroom, especially so close to the end of the year.

"Our principal has decided to remove the homeroom period from the school schedule." Our class erupted into indignant objections.

"Wait!" Ms. Oscar held a hand up for silence. "That's not all: he's replacing it with a study hall session instead. Of course, this means your schedules will be moved around, but this allows you time to legally do any homework you procrastinated on." Ms. Oscar smirked. Many of my classmates looked away, very much guilty of doing their homework the day it was due.

I laughed softly to myself and took a photo of Ms. Oscar's very smug face. Gio shoved his face into the frame, so I shut the lid on my lens.

"That's all. Go back to your business." People shifted in their seats to talk about this new development and I set my camera back on my desk.

Ignoring Gio's protests, I returned to my book; this time equipped with my earbuds.

This was the day I met you. I didn't know what had been missing from my life and from then on, as cliche as it sounds, nothing was the same. But as every story goes, it started with a typical day and an expected routine.

And this has to do with us how?

Hah...you're still the same.

[word count 1716]

[published 4:44 PM Thursday, July 19, 2018 (GMT+9)]

cover by oceantaled. bea, if you see this, i love you