Featuring: Zachary “I’m Not Crushing!” Webb and D. “Yes You Are” .B.
Location: By the speech area
Man, he was kind of cringey.
All Zach could do was think back to that awkward first impression he’d made on on the tall, beautiful, long legged girl from the karaoke room with the jeans that were very filled out by something that Zach had caught only a fleeting glimpse of. He should have stared, it might have been worth it! But she did have that Combat Club jacket on, which really only meant that he would have gotten his ass handed to him if he’d stared, either by her or by, like, her boyfriend, or something.
Zach had done that stupid forced laugh to defuse a situation that wasn’t even fused, then drank a cup of gross, foamy beer. Even worse than that, he’d spilled his nachos! This party had turned out to suck ass. He’d gathered a second plate of nachos, dumped seasonings on them, and made his way to the stage to watch the speech. In the crowd, he’d seen Sam towering over everyone else, but she had someone on her shoulders, and Zach vaguely remembered the smaller girl singing with Sam before he’d left. They were probably friends or something more, and he didn’t want to interfere with that.
Plus, he was kinda scared.
So he’d watched the speech in silence, eating nachos. It had been… an experience, to say the least. He’d never seen an Elite speech before, and had really been expecting more, but hey. It was still kinda cool; Henry Green had a way with words and he got his point across. He mentioned someone at the end that Zachary had never heard of, though.
“What’s a Yung Steve?” He asked a nearby person, who just laughed in response. Shortly after that, the fireworks went off, and Zach was wide-eyed the whole time. “That was totally wicked!” He said, this time to no one in particular. He glanced around the area, and saw someone with a camera.
Maybe they recorded the show, and he could rewatch it! He strolled over to the girl holding the camera, and tapped her on the shoulder, “hey, I’m Zachary. Did you record the fireworks? I’d like to rewatch it, if you did.”
Divya was so glad that her camera didn’t explode or something. That had been the real highlight of the night.What a trooper this camera was, having survived being accosted, falling onto a gas station floor, Divya’s own clumsy hands, and yet it was still able to record when it turned on. Of course, she really wanted to upgrade but that was currently a bit above her minimum wage paygrade. All she wanted for Christmas was a new camera but instead she got clothes and some movies which wasn’t all that bad. If only the gas station had Christmas bonuses.
Despite her sometimes malfunctioning hardware, Divya had managed to record most of her adventure on the boat without much in the way of issue. It would definitely make for some interesting footage when it was edited together - something to play when this year’s class graduated or something. A snicker danced in her mind as she thought of the opportunity to show an image of some of the students who had flashed the camera in their drunken state as they walked on stage at graduation. That would be hilarious! And also likely some kind of offense. Maybe not, then.
Ultimately, Divya was just glad the camera worked well enough to record the speech and subsequent fireworks display. Divya, knowing how to frame a shot like any budding director or director of photography, stood further back and shot from a low angle. This served two purposes: it got the full amount of fireworks in frame and it also allowed the real fireworks to remain in the center of the picture, backlit by explosions. A kiss like that was Casablanca territory. That was The Notebook territory. Hell it was Spider-Man upside down in the rain territory. And Divya got it all on film. Throw some royalty free music on there and soon the whole world would see what love looked like.
Divya, who was going over the footage, looked up when her shoulder was tapped and nearly tripped backwards in surprise. Someone was talking to her? That never happened. Someone wanted to look at what she shot? The double never happened! ”Yes!” She replied with a bit of a high pitched shriek of both excitement and surprise, and upon realizing this she cleared her throat with a fake cough. ”I mean, yeah, yeah I filmed it. Don’t know how much of the fireworks you’ll get to see but here.”
Divya held the camera up for both of them to watch, forwarding to the fireworks and on the two lovebirds kissing beneath them.
Holy crap, this girl was really excited for him to watch her recording. Was she weird? With only seconds to think about it, Zach decided that yes. She probably was. Why else would she freak out like that? He just smiled and nodded as she pulled the video up for them to watch. That fireworks display was awesome! He couldn’t wait to watch it again!
After it ended, Zach was quiet at first, glancing at Divya, then back at the camera. Well, that was kind of a bummer. He’d hoped to see more of the fireworks, and less of the happy couple making out… “I mean, thanks. But don’t you think you should have probably focused more on fireworks? Like more than Henry and that girl.” He frowned and folded his arms over his chest, thinking about it some more. “I mean, I guess it’s a nice video, and I’m sure they’d like to have a couple, but…”
It was hard for Zach to put what he was thinking in words without seeming offensive, so he was being careful about what he said. After all, his goal wasn’t to like, kill her night or anything. He just wanted to watch fireworks, and he thought other people would too! “It’s like you’re filming a romance movie? Aren’t you just filming fireworks? Or are you gonna put cheesy music over this and try to get it, like, on the morning show? ...hey, what all have you recorded tonight? Dude, maybe you could make like a little montage of the night. That’d be sick!”
Oh no. Divya was dealing with a plebeian. She couldn’t expect everyone to understand the subtle art that was filmmaking but she at least had the confidence to think that shooting more than just fireworks would be the obvious choice for anyone with a camera. Fireworks were a dime a dozen, but with the human element it turns spectacle into an Academy Award. If this kid wanted to watch fireworks he could go buy some and set them off himself! So few people, even among those in the Broadcasting Club, had a real eye for the frame. A camera was more than just something to record memories. It was an easel on which art was painted.
”The fireworks weren’t the point. You don’t ever get to see that in high school. You know, love. I wasn’t looking for a romance movie but that’s what I shot. You probably want to see the breasts or something.” Such a plebeian indeed. She figured mentioning the drunken antics would be what he was after, like so many who couldn’t sit through a genuine moment in a movie unless there was some sex around the corner.
”I’ve filmed a bunch of stuff tonight. Mostly students a bit drunk and saying or showing things that are a bit R-Rated. But also the speech, the fireworks, this totally awesome karaoke with like this statuesque girl and this shorter one and I’m pretty sure they made out. They’re probably dating or something, I dunno. I heard there was a poker or blackjack game but I didn’t get that. I would’ve liked to but I came late. Because of my dad.”
Divya was rambling. She had to work on that.
“The tall girl was Sam… You think they’re dating? That sucks.” Zach sighed, and then blinked as he realized what he’d said, and quickly backtracked, “wait, not what I meant. If they’re dating then that’s good for them, y’know? But, uhm… wait, I don’t wanna see breasts! I just wanted to see the fireworks, that’s al. You have to go to Disneyland to see them!” He shook his head and waved his hand to dismiss her complaints.
“Like I said, I’m sure they’ll like it if you show it to them. And it’s really good! Just not what I wanted to see… You recorded all that stuff? What else are you gonna record? I was kind of late too. I think I was like one of the last people on the boat.” If he had missed it, that would have sucked; at least mostly. To some degree, not going to the party would have been better for him, because he would have been sitting in the safety of his bedroom, and playing games and eating chips. He wouldn’t have embarrassed himself. “I really think you should make a recap video. You can make Riley post it on the morning show tomorrow, that’d be cool. Like, sorta for the news? Is this party newsworthy?”
Divya wasn’t about to let a little detail like that slip by. One of her biggest hobbies was looking for continuity errors in movies and she was very, very good at that. It wasn’t the sound of homophobia that brought about the initial reaction of ‘that sucks’ and to that Divya snapped her fingers and turned to look the guy in the eye. ”Oh my God you’ve got a crush on her, don’t you! She’s like, way out of your league. I mean you’re, like...Ant-Man and she’s like...Wonder Woman.”
Divya looked through some of her footage, finding the karaoke performance - which she recorded while standing on a chair - and paused on a shot of Sam smiling in the center of stage, just before she was about to belt out into the second part of the song. Divya practically shoved the camera in front of Zach as if she was taunting him with the mere existence of Sam. ”If you ask real nicely I’ll save you a copy of her performance before I edit all the footage for tomorrow’s announcements. I’ll also accept five dollars for it.”
Zach looked down at the offered video and shook his head, “No, I don’t want to pay for that. That’s weird. I could just go talk to her if I wanted to see her more.” He shot an angry (which for him was more like a mad puppy dog) look toward Divya, “I’m not Ant-Man! Even if I was, Ant-Man is cool. He and Wonder Woman aren’t even from the same universe….” This girl was just taking shot after shot after shot, man.
“I don’t have a crush on her either! I don’t even know her, she just has a big butt.” Zach said defensively, pushing the camera away from him. “I don’t want to watch her make out with someone that’s not her girlfriend.” He was all but blatantly saying ‘because I want to make out with her.’
”You don’t have a crush on her but you looked at her butt?” Divya’s bullshit meter was flying off the charts with each passing moment. It would have been adorable if it wasn’t kind of sad. But Divya understood. Sometimes it was hard to muster up the courage to talk to someone, especially if you were fond of their big butt. A hell of an idea came to Divya’s mind and with it another snap of her fingers. Suddenly the camera that had been showing Sam on stage was now turned around and pointing directly at Zach. Divya took a few steps back and angled the view so Zach was centered.
”Tell me about Sam. No, wait. Tell me about your party experience.” Divya had an idea and while she might not have exactly gotten Zach’s permission, where was the harm in a little video confession? She had a hunch that this idea would be good in the long run.
“Of course I looked at her butt, it’s like a habit.” Zach protested, as if that gave him any legs to stand on. Even worse, it was now on camera. He was kind of taken aback when she asked him to tell her about his party experience. It wasn’t interesting, really. “Uh… well, I showed up here late, and I signed the guest book and ran up the bridge. Then, because I don’t really know anyone here outside of my friend group, I sorta kept to myself?” Zach found himself having trouble collecting exact memories of the party, even though it’d just been a few hours since he’d arrived.
“I went to the food court and got some food and just wandered around while people watching. Then, I went to the karaoke room; this was probably my biggest mistake, because it was there that I bumped into Sam. Like, literally. Physically bumped into her, and I spilled my nachos and her bear all over her, then I…” Here, Zach physically cringed and sighed, “I forced myself to laugh because she was hot so I figured she’d be mean and I thought it’d defuse the situation? Didn’t work. In fact, it made it worse because it made me look like some kind of autismo child from the internet.” Zach made a face.
“Anyway, she wasn’t that upset, and asked me to go get a beer, so I did. Then I came back and she told me I had to down it all in one go so I did, and it turns out beer kinda tastes like piss. Then I watched the speech and the fireworks and here we are.”
Divya zoomed in when the recap turned to Sam. Even if it was relatively brief it was still worth capturing. Zach might not have noticed, but Divya had an eye for detail. It was subtle, but the memories that were clearest in Zach’s retelling were the memories involving Sam. ”If you could make a second impression to Sam, what would you do differently? What would you say?”
This was good material. It might not have been the most exciting, but raw, genuine emotion was hard enough even with the best actors. Getting Zach to talk about Sam? That was genuine, no matter how badly he denied not having a crush.
“I mean, for one I wouldn’t do that stupid laugh thing again. That was the worst first impression possible, don’t you think? If I didn’t stand a chance before, now the only thing I stand a chance at is her never wanting to see me again.” Zach looked down at his feet for a second, before he looked up with a suddenly bright smile on his face, “oh yeah, I forgot one important piece: she booped my nose. It was cute.” Then he went back to thinking, having to focus on what exactly he would say differently.
“Well, I’d try not to stutter so much. It was embarrassing, I just kept repeating the same thing… I could have done a whole lot of things differently. I could have not said ‘uh’ so much. I got embarrassed and shy and nervous. A terrible combination. Don’t know why it’s not happening now, must be the beer.”
Divya looked up from behind the camera with a sheepish grin. If Zach really didn’t have a crush, why would he be so hung up over being embarrassed? He didn’t exactly seem nervous now so it wasn’t like talking to girls made him nervous and yet Sam had made him so. Somehow she didn’t think it was just because Sam was tall and kind of intimidating at a glance. Someone that could sing Meatloaf was not someone that was going to walk around like some kind of high school big shot bully.
But the most damning evidence was the fact that he said something Sam did was cute. Zach was undergoing a variety of feelings and this was just the recounting of the events. Despite his claims, Divya had video proof of a literal high school crush. And now she had a new sort of goal in mind. ”It’s not the beer. Don’t worry, guy. Your secret’s safe with me. But you know what you need? Female insight. I accept. I love a good romance story. Promise me when you talk to her again I can film you afterwards. You ever see a reality show? Think of it like that. What do you say?”
She wanted to give him insight? Well, she wasn’t exactly wrong. If he was going to try to get Sam to like him, then he’d probably need all the help he could possibly get. “I probably won’t talk to her again, but… sure I guess.” Zach shook his head, but stuck his hand out to her for shaking. “What’s your name, anyway?”
”Divya Bajwa. D.B. is fine. Div if you want.” Divya accepted the handshake with a firm grip of her own. She was in. Just when she was running out of things to record; her life just wasn’t that interesting anymore. But a true to life high school romance? They still made movies about that. Plus, maybe it was time for her to use her camera for good instead of making home movies with her old action figures. ”Trust me, if you talk to her with even half the passion you just showed me, you’ll be able to do more than just stare at her ass like some kinda creep.”
This was going to be fun. Not more fun than gas station burritos, but still fun.
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