Aaron Cyrus February 26th,20XX

“Great Jedeyi, Destia, what happened to you?”

Destia looked awkward as the red-haired teenager leaned over her and lightly used the pads of her fingertips to push her back and out of her face.

“Ah, I’m fine. I just got scraped up a few days ago, look! It’s mostly healed up!”

Although Destia had offered, it looked like she hadn’t expected Sparrow to lift the blanket over her legs and carefully look them over. I didn’t know how they knew each other, but from the scene that they acted out in front of us, I could guess that they had been pretty close at one point.

Sparrow carefully put the blanket back down before suddenly pinching both sides of Destia’s face.

“Meanwhile, why did you suddenly go radio Silent a few months ago? I wouldn’t even have known where you were if I didn’t see your name and picture on the project profile. You had me absolutely worried sick!”

Destia looked taken aback by the impassioned lecture and her hands waved around as she debated removing the charismatic teenager’s hands off her face.

“Ah, A’hm sowwy.”

Her words came out garbled as the grip on both of her cheeks compromised the integrity of her mouth’s shape. Sparrow finally let go of the pinch and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“I’ll accept your apology, but I don’t want you to do that again, okay?”

She somewhat awkwardly scratched at her head as she followed up with her next sentence.

“I thought we got pretty close last year, so it kind of hurt my feelings that you suddenly went ghost on me. Let’s catch up after, okay?”

“Department rep, we’re running low on time.”

A girl holding a paper notepad slunk up to Sparrow and trapped her on the shoulder. She had a wary expression on her face as she looked over at Destia but said nothing to the other girl.

Sparrow finally turned her attention to the rest of the kids who had watched her interaction with Destia like an audience and shot a charming but embarrassed smile back at them.

“Ah, guess I got a bit distracted. Melissa, take them over to the quads and have them get ready for the first set. Mr. Cyrus, if you could come with me.”

I’d already had my pictures taken with a professional studio, but Joyce had asked me to pose for a few here. I didn’t mind since I had nothing else to do, but I hadn’t thought I would have to do anything that required a private meeting with the director.

She ended up just walking me through the schedule and asking for my cooperation in handling the kids, but the serious way she went over everything made it clear that she hoped I would contribute some input.

I wasn’t an artist, nor had I ever been, but right away I could see a few unrealistic things.

“You’ll need a lot more time for this set right here. Unless you’re planning to change the poses you want them in, you’ll need a lot of time to get a good picture. And you’ll need to alter some of these sets a bit. These kids have never had their pictures taken professionally, so take out the face-centric ones. Tillo and Kaja could probably pull it off, but I wouldn’t have high hopes for the others. We only have about five hours, so let’s run the harder ones first and speed through the less taxing ones at the end. Sound good?”

I tried to keep my suggestions down to those I thought were necessary. While I didn’t want to take over what looked to be her first solo gig I also didn’t want to let her give us a hard time, consciously or not.

She quickly jotted a few things down and even started altering a few of her sketches.

“Thank you, Mr. Cyrus! Did you bring your H&A team, or did you want to trust my team? I know they’re only students, but they’re mostly at the top of their class! It’s fine if you wanted to wait for your people to arrive but-“

“It’s only for a couple of pictures, so I’m afraid I’ll be troubling you all.”

I cut her off before she could continue rambling. From how closely her team followed her orders and how detailed her plans were, I could tell that she was usually a more direct person than this. The nerves must have been getting to her.

“It’ll all turn out fine, so take a breath and go according to your plan. I’ll be in your hands!”

After giving a generic, encouraging speech, I flashed a smile and walked over to the changing rooms.

The outfit was pretty normal, just a pair of slacks and a black turtleneck. There was some jewelry as well, but nothing so expensive that it scared me to put it on.

I spared a bit of thought wondering which set I would get but otherwise didn’t think too much about it. Right now, I needed to hurry so I could watch out for the kids and help them out if they needed it.

She had us do a few group shots first, so I finished first and got to change back into my clothes.

I returned to see the kids looking awkward as Sparrow ordered them around and changed their poses.

Kaja and Tillo adjusted the fastest to the high-speed instructions and being dressed up like dolls. They even went as far as to work with the enthusiastic students on the best way to achieve the desired visual.

Archer had it the worst and froze up like a mannequin in front of the camera. After five attempts, he walked over to Eva and whispered something into his ear. I didn’t know what he’d asked, but from his sudden relaxation and the slightly dazed look on his face, I could take a guess.

I’d have to talk to those two again later.

Destia was currently standing beside Sparrow, and the two were deep in conversation about the set. She technically wasn’t supposed to be off the wheelchair yet, but she’d needed to get up for a few poses and just hadn’t sat back down.

It looked like she was having fun, despite the tension from earlier.

I was used to all of this, so I’d forgotten how overwhelming it all could be. The kids tried their best and seeing the kids cooperate with the photographers who were at most four years older than the youngest of them made me think.

Yeah, Joyce and I might have overstepped our bounds in some ways, but seeing them laugh and kid around with each other made me relax from a tension I hadn’t known I was carrying.

It had been less than a week since we’d started, and it had been a rocky beginning, but things would be okay.

I’d make sure of it.