A Walk In the Courtyard [Gloria]

Left, right, left, right. Xelvior's feet followed this tedious pattern as he trudged along the campus. Uhhhh....why do I have to walk? Why cant I just hover or sumthin'? Man this blows. Despite the mental protests, the scenery was at least pleasant to the eye. Even he had to admit that the campus was very photogenic. Photography was one of the skills required of a journalist, and it was simple enough for him to learn. And the best part, the most effort he had to do was to tilt the camera and press a button! The boy stopped on the pavement, and looked over to the neatly trimmed grass. He briefly fluttered his eyes, and until his vision finally changed, allowing him to see the digits. Since he had recently had access to his pocket space, he remembered that item '00002' was the label for his camera. He grabbed ahold of the item, then shut his eyes tight once more. Upon opening them, he had successfully brought the object out of its container space.

He held it up to his eye, and began taking still shots of the grass blades. Next, he turned around, where he discovered a patch of yellow flowers growing on the campus. Click. Click. Click. The boy removed the camera from his eye, and just casually aimed it along the pathway, paying no mind to who, or whatever was in its path. Click. Click. Click. Xel closed his eyes, and stood on the tip of his right foot and began to twirl as if he were a ballerina dancer. Click. Click. Click. When he had finally stopped twirling, he settled his feet so that he could stand upright. He then began to examine the pictures in his camera.

"Hm...the grass is...nice I guess? I mean, sure, someone put a lot of flava' into it but...its grass. No one wants to know about grass...and what are those? Dandelions I think? These pics are crap. Wait, who is dat...?"

The boy zoomed in on the picture in his camera to find the figure of a woman on the path. It was unexpected because he had thought he had been the only person present on the campus grounds. But, it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise since he had been taken pictures on a whim. Having a snapshot of the woman wasn't apart of the story idea, but it was beginning to nag at him. It wasn't moral to have a picture of someone without their consent. But he had no intention of deleting it. He walked towards the direction, eager to catch her attention.

"Hey there! Xel Keoss, journalism major. Mind if I take yo' picture fo' a story? Might even sho' up in the school paper!"

As the words left his lips, his eyes conducted their usual ritual for when he met a person of the opposite gender. They started from the tip of her feet, and slowly trailed upwards. A woman in a dress wasn't a particularly interesting sight for a story, though it seemed like it would be more popular on the countryside than on an island. But Xel wasn't one to judge, after all he refused to close his button-up shirt and preferred to leave his upper body exposed. When his eyes finally processed the image of her face, the story had hit him.

Before she had time to give him permission or not, he swiftly brought the camera back to his eye and began to take more shots of the woman. The variety of flowers on her head were a stark contrast to the repetition of grass. He then moved his camera to the left, manipulating the photo so that more of the flowers on campus could be included in the frame, as well as the woman. Click. The boy was impressed with the photo, if it weren't for the presence of the daycare in the background, the photo could have been passed off as an entirely different setting. He had become so involved in his own plan, that he had seemingly forgotten about the presence of the woman, and her rights to privacy.

"Hmm...now what to make it about. Fashion Flowers could work with girls right? Or Flower Power? No wait, Eve in the Garden of Eden."

Xel was always the type of person to give people their rights, however this time was an exception due to his own selfishness. He was becoming desperate to produce a story to submit to the school paper, and it was seemingly impossible for him to find an interesting topic. Since he couldn't find something naturally, the woman's appearance had convinced him that he should fabricate a story. As long as the faculty didn't find out, he wouldn't get in trouble. Or so he thought.

The woman's words went through one ear and out of the other, but the mention of his professor brought him back to his senses. "No, I've already completed my assignment! Dis is more of a side project!" he lied.

Xel didn't want to be known as The Procrastinator so he didn't want to admit that it was in fact, for an assignment that was due the following day. Though in his defense, it wasn't entirely his fault. He did have another story, but it didn't have the amount of success that he hoped it would. Since stories must always be accompanied by photos, he was unable to submit his first story. This story on the other hand, would not suffer the same fate.

He took another gander at the photos and realized that the presence of the building in the background could be 'fixed.' If he took the picture from a different angle, then the building could be omitted from the photo entirely. Had he been paying attention earlier, her warning wouldn't have gone unnoticed. The boy stepped off of the walking path and onto the flower beds. His feet crushed the flowers beneath him as he walked around the woman, then stopped so that the building was behind him. He raised the camera for one final photo of the woman.

Click. Of all of the photos, this last photo had the best setting, but the woman's expression did not look the most pleasing. And the boy was oblivious to what could have caused the mood change. As long as he had the photo, it didn't matter. At least now he could submit the assignment and be done with it.

"Thanks fo' the pictures, Miss...uh, I didn't get yo' name?"

The boy stepped backwards to the path as he was instructed, but his attention was stolen by a horrific sight. The woman, Sandoval, had demonstrated her unique ability in front of him. Her intentions were to undo the damage to the flowers that he had caused, but the consequences were far more than that. From the boy's perspective, she had just performed an impossible feat. The boy watched as what he could only describe as 'dead matter' had been willed by her. Dead things are supposed to stay dead. This event was such a mind-blowing occurrence, that the shock had caused the boy to stumble onto the pavement and land on his back.

Fear swelled up within his mind. His power was nothing compared to the ability of controlling 'dead matter'. If the woman wanted to, he theorized, she could create an undead army and conquer the world! Such was the ramblings of the nineteen year old boy. A clear misinterpretation of a power that he simply did not understand. But in this moment, where he was possessed by fear, he could not be persuaded otherwise.

"I...uh..gotta go..."

The boy hopped to his feet as quick as he could and put the pedal to the metal, towards the daycare center. Once he was sure that he had put enough distance between the woman and himself, he stopped and began to take deep breaths. Suddenly, he stopped and began to pat down his pockets with his hands. He glanced back at the path leading towards the woman. The boy had been so eager to get away from her, that he didn't realize that he had forgotten his camera when he dashed away. He bit his lip with uncertainty as he pondered on what to do. If he went back to retrieve the camera, he would have to explain why he ran away. But if he didn't get the camera, the photos for the potential story would be lost.

He slowly walked on the path back towards the woman and the camera. The slower he walked, the more time he gave himself to prepare an excuse. But if he walked halfway there and still didn't have one, then it wouldn't be too late for him to turn around and run away again. He would just have to fail the assignment...

Stupid. Shoulda had the camera first!