Dark Haven Academy

CHAPTER EIGHT

Imperfection is a form of beauty.

There was a shift in the air that hinted that today was no ordinary day at all. It may have been the fact that it was Saturday for starters and my timetable had directed me to the staff room to retrieve a new file or it could've been the random names that were called out from the speakers every ten minutes or so. I couldn't possibly have known seeing as the school had more mood swings than a child on energy drink.

"It's picture day today and that can only mean one thing." Eleanor said bouncing alongside me as I was attempting to make my way down to the staffroom.

"And what would that one thing be?" I asked.

"Macarons!" she said beaming at me. I suppose she expected me to have an idea as to what she was referring to but a few minutes of me staring worriedly at her gave my thoughts away. She rolled her eyes and began to pull me a different way.

"We'll grab you a portfolio and head down to the studio immediately, I'd like you to meet Ralph." She said as we rushed hurriedly through empty hallways. After we got to our first destination, I was informed by staff that my currently blank portfolio profile had to be filled and filed into the first page of the folder with my newly-taken picture going in afterwards.

"Treat this as you would your report card and remember that when filling in your profile, less is always more." Eleanor briefed afterwards, her arms wielding her almost full portfolio with a new picture just recently added.

The studio was not what I had originally expected. I had no idea that what Eleanor was referring to was a photography studio set aside for picture day with actual professional photographers working in it. Two men stood inside a photo-shoot scene one adjusting the lighting and the other testing cameras.

"Ralph is my uncle." Eleanor whispered to me as we slowly approached the oblivious men. Just as she was about to reach for him and attempt a scare, he turned around swiftly and caught her hand mid- air.

"Eleanor?" he said somewhat surprised upon realising the lurking danger was a mere school girl.

"Surprise!" she squealed waiting for him to acknowledge her presence rather than stare at her like she'd grown two heads.

"Well if it isn't my favourite niece." He said patting her on the head. I noticed immediately that his accent was foreign -French - if I had to put a name on it. Eleanor's eyes lit up in delight when he excused himself for a moment only to reappear moments later with a bowl of Macarons.

The girl was a goner.

I handed him my portfolio as Eleanor stuffed herself with one colourful biscuit after another. He stared at it for a moment confused by its empty pages.

"You're new mademoiselle?" he asked passing it back to me and I nodded in response.

"Okay then, the basic rule is that there are no rules." He stated briefing me on their picture day system.

"If you want a professional shot taken then I'll be the one to handle that. If you want a more elaborate design, then hair and make-up is available down there on the left." He said pointing to a different room.

"Hand cameras, Polaroid cameras and photo booths are on the right all fitted with manuals." He finished.

"The choice is yours to make really. So what's it going to be?" He asked finally while I struggled to processes all the information.

"I'll handle myself thank you." I said, smiling politely before wandering off to find the Polaroid cameras. Something about the little square photos just seemed cool to me at the time and I wasn't sure why. However, Eleanor had fortunately finished with her morning snack and wanted to take some photos with me so undoubtedly obliged.

She decided that we would make random facial expressions just as the timer went off and we positioned ourselves in front of the camera.

"Miss J." she said and we both pulled our best strict and uptight expressions. The camera went off with me bursting into laughter.

"Confused face." she said running behind the camera so that I was the only one left in the shot. I didn't mind anymore and furrowed my eyebrows in puzzlement.

"Okay now let's get serious. We need to get one decent good student photo of you for your portfolio." She said adjusting the shot so that my face was sat perfectly in the centre of it.

"Go!" She said and I did a little miss perfect smile with my head straight and my hair hanging to the side of my face. The angle that always looked good or so I was told.

"How do you make that innocent face so well?" she whined as she snapped away. My lips were pressed thin so I couldn't really reply mid-shot.

"I look like I'm up to something even when I'm genuinely trying to help." She expanded pausing briefly but then, just as though she had switched on a light bulb in her own head she grinned mischievously at me and repositioned the camera.

"Bad student. Go!" she said as if forgetting that it was me she was talking to. Bad student to me was naughty. But still I tried as hard as I could to drop the 'innocent face' as Eleanor had put it and attempt something Alexis would do. Eleanor was very proud.

"Okay I'm really sorry but I'm going to have to go right now because I may or may not have booked an appointment with Miss Trevine which I really can't afford to miss." She said grabbing her bag and pecking me on the cheek. So we were now on kiss on cheek basis. Good to know.

"Just choose a photo from the good student collection and have it printed out." She yelled as she hurried out barely having time to tell Ralph goodbye.

I grabbed the camera and began looking through all the photos we'd taken. I was just about to print off one of the decent pictures when I thought of checking other pictures we'd taken.

I soon found myself cringing time after time at my attempts to copy Alexis' naughty faces. It didn't take long before I had burst out laughing at my not so photogenic self. Then I reached one photo that held some life in it. It was nothing special really, taken during the 'bad student' play around that we'd have. It featured me biting my lip whilst staring closely at the camera with dead green eyes.

I actually liked it.

But my serious lack of confidence wouldn't allow me to publicize the full shot out of embarrassment so I decided to save myself some trouble and crop out the upper half of my face, therefore leaving me unrecognizable. I was actually very pleased.

The picture printed out just the way I had wanted it to and i grabbed a marker with the intention of writing my name on the sheet in case I forgot it somewhere when i noticed something. Between my chin and collarbone was enough space to shelter all of the homeless so rather than wasting all that good space, why not turn the whole thing into a fun experiment?

No one could actually tell it was mine, so what harm could come of it? I quickly scribbled a 'Guess who' in the space before hurriedly inserting the now completed photo into a paper wallet in the portfolio. The profile page stayed blank totally forgotten by me but as I dumped the portfolio alongside everyone else's, I couldn't but feel as though there was a certain mystery to the entire thing.