fade a w a y

     “ hmpf. ”      she lets the annoyance tainted breath out in an almost silent rush --- the words are there in her head ‘ yeah, it’s a public library so you can go find somewhere else to sit ’ but confrontation isn’t her sort of thing. should’ve just kept her mouth shut in the first place. with a few deft movements she stacks her textbooks and kicks her backpack so that it’s less next to her and more before her feet.

     “ oh --- it’s just...school project. ”      a less than perfect school project now. maybe a good eraser and white out could help hide the aftermath --- there’s no way she’s restarting the map again; she’s been working on it way to long now.      “ not really so impressive now, but i guess that what i get for not looking where i’m going.”

not paying attention in the slightest, corrine rounded the corner with her nose stuck in her planner trying to organize her crazy life. “okay, that gets moved to tomorrow and then that is moved to next wednes-” she mumbled to herself before she felt something hard collide with her body causing her belongings to go everywhere. a squeak of surprise escaped her lips before looking up to see it was a person she made contact with. “oh no, it was my fault,” she insisted and began to gather her things.

     she stares at the blonde at her feet before letting out a laugh.      “ well, if it was --- then karma already went and bit you in the butt for it, so at least you won’t have to worry about that. ”      she quips, tucking her clipboard under one arm and kneeling to push loose papers back together. 

“i still don’t understand why rose didn’t try harder to get jack on the door. there was room for both of them and she just let poor leo freeze to death! i will never be okay with the ending of titanic.”

     “ i always thought inception was a better movie. ”      jade comments dryly, the eraser end of her pencil tapping against the table in faint annoyance.      “ even if his character was completely useless. ”

     “ yeah, i’m good. ”        she takes another step backward for good measure, gaze flickering up from her marred drawing.      “ focused a little too hard at the task at hand, i guess. ”

     “i’ll remember that for next time.”      she mumbles, attempting to erase the heavy pencil line marring the delicate outlines of buildings and fields. not that she’d say it, but jade thinks she definitely had the right of way in this situation. after all, she’s doing a project and she’s got all those lovely senior privileges even if her face makes her out to look like she’s only fresh out of eighth grade. but she doesn’t pull the whole seniority thing very often, and certainly not for situations as frivolous as this.      “ you sure you’re good? ”

     “um...i wasn’t...really going...” he’s cute, sure. aesthetically pleasing, yeah. but jade hasn’t really gone to a single game in her entire constance career, and she doesn’t really plan on changing that any time soon. she lowers her notebook, lines of tally marks sort of haphazardly organized into columns. “i have a test on tuesday.” comes the lame finish.

“You know, you should really stay still if you want to do this,” Nina fixed the strap to her camera and adjusted the focus. 

     “ i -i know, i’m just having second thoughts, right? i dunno if i really want my face photographed. maybe, maybe we should try, like, an aesthetically faceless pose. ”