Felixfalck
patreon
Look at this photograph
🕑 Added 2023-01-13 00:01:43 +0000 UTCPrevious chapter :https://www.patreon.com/posts/school-life-76918648?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
A few days a week both Ami and Asuna had club activities with the photography club. Ami wasn't much of a photographer herself, but always indulged her friend's requests to model.
They'd been planning on a full body portrait for some time now. There was a long line of students signed up to borrow recreational items from the school. Perhaps the longest wait was for camera equipment like the type they used for the club activities. Of course the club had allocated a few cameras to club use, but even then the wait was measured in weeks.
Ami was used to the routine by this point, she even had a few poses down to a T. Knowing a bunch of poses by heart made the sessions somewhat easier, but that didn't help if Asuna felt uninspired. After what felt like hundred of pictures, she eventually called it quits. There was something ..sterile about the environment. The white wall in the photography clubroom didn't help with the soulless photos.
"..I have an idea" Asuna said as she tried to snap some final pictures before packing away the gear.
"What?" Usually when Asuna claimed she had an "idea" it meant more work for Ami.
"Let's shoot some pictures outside. I think the natural lighting could liven up the photos a little. Just let me get a few more done first"
The proposal wasn't exactly what Ami had wanted to hear, but in for a penny, in for a pound.. She brushed her skirt, making sure that her fit remained perfect for the final photos. Her hand might've brushed up against the sting left by the thorn. Either way, the area stung ever so slightly. It was however so minor that Ami dismissed it entirely.
Speaking of her thighs. Ami wasn't very pleased with them. She felt that her legs in general were a bit too ..plump. It was the prime reason for why she wore the tallest legwear the school would allow, thigh high stockings. If anything, the transition from stocking to thigh only emphasized their softness, but Ami still preferred to have most of her legs covered.
Normally the photoshoots would only be portraits of her face, yet this time she'd let herself be fooled into doing a full body shoot. Her insecurities surrounding her miniscule breasts and fat thighs were the main culprits for why she hated doing it. Most, if not all of her social media posts were either pictures of herself in thick clothing or just her face.
Her smile wasn't sincere at all, still good enough for Asuna though. There was a sort of honest dishonesty to her forced smile. She hoped to appear happy and to be at her best, though she couldn't say she felt like that from the bottom of her heart at all. Her constant feelings of doubt, insecurity and self loathing prevented her from it. For anyone knew her, it was obvious that the smile wasn't her true self, Asuna included. Which may be the reason she's so happy with how the picture turned out.
"That last one was gold! Let's head out and get the last few ones"
Ami wasn't sure what it was that had made Asuna so happy, but seeing someone be genuinely pleased with her lifted her mood a little. It was a nice getaway to have club activities. No academic or social pressure, just herself and a friend. Her best friend. Her only friend.
"Oh, and swap out my tie with your own bow, please!"
Ami borrowed Asuna's bow for the shoot, but Asuna wanted the last few shots to be as earnest as possible, this meant wearing her own clothes as well.
After having tied her bow back on, the two girls headed outside with only the camera and a stand.
"You don't have to smile for these ones"
The thought of not smiling for the photo bothered Ami. If she let her facade fall she felt exposed. Without the act she put on everyday there was no telling if or when someone caught on to her feelings of inadequacy.
Asuna however wanted a completely honest and transparent picture. With a little bit of sweettalking and emotional blackmail she managed to trick her friend into posing solemnly for the camera.
In between two of the shots, Ami once again felt the sting, though it was brief and barely noticeable. Her gaze shifted from Asuna to the floor. She felt so lucky that the ace of the photography club had wanted to take her photo. The day she'd approached her was one of the better ones she'd had in this school. A few weeks back Asuna had asked the loner girl and asked if she could model for her club activities. It was a one off sort of thing but it meant the world to Ami. She had no friends and usually kept to herself.
The mountain of insecurities and self-doubt had made for a deep rooted social anxiety that prevented her from making any real friends. Why would anyone want her to model anyways? Her face was nothing special, being the most bland type of face to ever exist. At least that's how she saw it. Despite her relatively exotic western features, she still managed to look tame and uninteresting. Her chest was flat as a board as opposed to her hips and thighs which were severely bloated from her complete lack of exercise and overindulgence. Whenever she felt down or stressed she'd eat as a means of escape. Considering how literally every single day was plagued by such feelings it was to no one's surprise that she got absolutely grilled by her PE teacher during the yearly fitness tests.
No wonder Ami was so incredibly meek and shy.
Once the shoot was over Asuna headed off to return the camera equipment. Part of why the wait was so long was because some students were lazy and carless, returning the equipment after the initial due date. In contrast to Ami, Asuna was diligent and timely with everything she did. She was the epitome of the attentive student.
Heading back to the shoe lockers by the school entrance Ami ran into one of her classmates, Haruto. For some reason, despite his obviously unhealthy lifestyle and lack of social skills he still got on well with the most popular girl in school, Fumiko Miyazaki. Truth be told, Ami had always hoped that he'd fall out with the popular clique so that she could try and seize him for herself. She had no romantic interest in the guy, but she desperately needed a friend and she considered him to be ..of her caliber.
To her surprise, Haruto actually approached her and asked what she was doing on school grounds so late. The shoot had taken a couple of hours and she wasn't formally a part of the photography club, so the question was very much warranted. Ami was actually quite flattered by the fact that he'd known that about her, the fact that she wasn't in any clubs.
"I modeled for Asuna.." She answered meekly, feeling a strange sense of vertigo from talking to someone she didn't know that well. Talking with Asuna had been ..different. It was as though they were really friends, a concept that she considered absurd in hindsight given how different their two worlds were. If anything, Haruto was the one she should be able to converse with normally.
"That's cool! Is she going to use the photos for the school festival? Hope I catch them!" The unexpected interest in her modeling caught Ami by surprise and her cheeks turned bright red. She couldn't muster a proper response, just a stutter of different sounds.
"Speaking of modeling, you wouldn't consider doing a little for me? Nothing serious of course, my dad owns a camera. One of those really expensive ones. I've been meaning to get into photography myself, but I need someone to model for me. Or- It's not that I have to take pictures of people.. It's just. I need to get someone else involved too. To sort of lock in a commitment, you get me? If I make plans with someone it's no longer just myself that I let down, so it's harder to scrap it. Y'know?"
The chubby geek was fumbling with his words. To think that this guy regularly hung out with the queen bee of the school and her "crew"..
