Observations (Zach)

[Kristina Novak]

Walking along the barely visible pathways of the university, Kristina shivered slightly. Even all bundled up, the girl was freezing cold. Due to the cold, it seemed like all of the university kids had retreated indoors. Which was a shame, really, since the best photos were taken in a natural light. The girl was still looking for students to take photos for her photography portfolio. Kristina wanted to take a variety and then select the best. She wouldn't accept nothing less than perfect.

Though, today, she would have to retreat indoors, so it seemed. With camera in hand, the girl took off her gloves and stuffed them in her messenger bag. Kristina had her hand on the handle of the university door, but then noticed a figure outside still. He walked with a determined pace that caught her attention. A rare grin spread across her face for a second. She let go and half jogged to somewhat catch up to the boy. After being confronted, it left Kristina a little phased after the event. She swore to be more careful and less conspicuous in taking photos. Whether or not it worked was another story.

The stranger she was stalking observing took a seat on one of the park benches quite a few feet away. Kristina continued walking, completely unaware of her cold fingers. She was focused on only him, who was sitting and opening up a notebook. At least he had a pair of gloves on.

Kristina sat on one of the other park benches, about 30 feet away from him. She exhaled an icy breath and began adjusting her camera settings.

[Deleted]

Finally, Zach had gotten his shit together enough to power through few pages of that long stupid paper that was worth 25% of his grade. With only a few more days left on it, Zach really should be using all his remaining time to finish the last four pages of it and finalize the formatting so he could actually turn it in on time….though as it was, Zach was mentally calculating how many days he could afford to turn it in late and still manage an A…or a B….C is still passing, right? Maybe he should ask for an extension?

If nothing else, Zach really just needed to clear his head, so he fell back on one of his normal recreational activities: people watching. Well, people watching and writing about what he observed from said people. Sometimes he just wrote a short about what his impression of them is, create a character and story surrounding them, invent a reason for why they were there, at that place, at that time. Sometimes they even managed to make appearances in the novel/s he was working on, which was useful when he got a random bout of writer's block.

It was still very cold outside but….damn it all, the clothes that Kai had bought him were actually working to Zach's benefit. He couldn't recall how long it'd been since he had clothes that could actually keep out the freezing cold. He sat at one of the benches and pulled out his handy-dandy notebook. He pulled down the tops of his gloves - a stupidly fancy kind but irritatingly useful style - to expose only the ends of his fingers so he could grip his pencil and start writing.

Now he just needed a subject. Zach idly scanned the area and caught the sight of a bundled girl tinkering away at her camera. A photography student, he assumed. Trying to keep his glances subtle(though that was pretty impossible since he had to look at her every 10 seconds), Zach put his pencil to the lined paper and started to prose.

[Kristina Novak]

Kristina continued to play around with her camera, taking a couple of quick shots of nothing in particular. Perfect. She wiggled her fingers around to get rid of the numb feeling in them, blowing hot air on them. She longed for the warm(er) summer days ahead where bundling up like she was in the Arctic was unnecessary. Her peripheral vision kept glancing towards the boy, waiting for a moment. She was going to get a great shot of this guy, even if it took an hour. There was just something about the way he was sitting, clearly passionate about whatever he was writing in that notebook. Maybe just the act in general.

The Czech girl figured she looked the same way when taking photos.

Kristina licked her cold lips, pretending to be interested with the university building. She took a couple of quick shots, humming under her breath. There. Perfect. The stranger was looking down at his notebook and Kristina raised her camera, focusing on him. Furiously, she clicked down, snapping a few. Kristina quickly brought the camera down, smiling. His posture still told a story, but part of her wished she could get a face shot. Trying again, she took a couple more photos of him, praying that he didn't notice. When he started to raise his head, she inhaled sharply, swinging the camera lens away from him and onto.. a tree. Covered in snow.

[Deleted]

For the most part, Zach kept his eyes on his notebook, hurriedly writing down one word after another, not caring much for tidiness and much more for content and swiftness. He wanted to get as much down as he could because there was no telling when the girl would take her leave.

He first started on her outfit, describing the color, the texture, the assortment, how it fit her body….which arguably could be considered a little weird but Zach was a professional! He needed to know these things! Then her face, posture, and how she wore her hair. From there he would start on her actions, how she rose the camera to her eye and delicately clicked the button to take a series of shots of a nearby tree covered in snow.

Zach looked up again and thought he saw her turning her head away. He paid it no mind, but when she seemed to be about to look back in his direction, Zach turned back down to his notebook and focused on composing and arranging the sentences. They weren't done in blocks or paragraphs, but as independent sentences. He would look them over and rearrange them, change the wording here and there, combine and separate them, all until it was structured into a well flowing composition.

Zach flitted his eyes up once again to see what she was doing.

[Kristina Novak]

Kristina ran a hand through her messy waves, feigning interest in the snow covered tree. Nothing about it stood out, it was just like any other evergreen tree spread across campus. She sighed impatiently under her breath, waiting for the man to look back down at his notebook. She peeked through her bangs, her foot tapping on the ground. Sure, muse and the perfect moment took time but it didn't stop her from wanting it now.

Now was her time. With his focus elsewhere, Kristina took more photos of the stranger, lingering longer this time around. His posture, the way he furiously scribbled, pen on paper. His focus and attention on his writing. How he didn't stop, the words continuing to pour from head to hand. Kristina didn't even have to talk to him in order to know all of this. It was all straight forward from his actions. A grin spread across her face, a genuine one. While lingering, she didn't notice that the stranger had looked up.

Oh no... oh no. Was she busted? Would it be to obvious if she were to turn away quickly? Kristina's grin faded, camera lens still on him. His eyes seemed to be looking straight at her... well, through the lens. Was he looking at her? Did he notice? Part of her wanted to scamper and hide away, but there was nowhere to go, really. Kristina decided to risk another confrontation and clicked. Snap, snap.

She lowered her camera, reviewing the recent photos. The ones where he seemed to be looking at her were good. His expression... she couldn't quite place it but it sure was realistic. Should she go talk to him? Show him? Ignore him? Her eyes continued to glance back and forth between both the camera and the man.

[Deleted]

Unlike the girl who was actively pretending to be looking at something else, Zach only had his notebook to look at in between glances, so there was little pretending there. And while his people watching was considered creepy and he tried to be subtle about it, there had been occasions where Zach had just outright ignored being careful about being noticed for the sheer sake of "I'm at college, I'm a creative writing major, what else do you expect me to be doing at least I'm not tightrope walking in a kilt like that guy" feels. Because seriously, some of the things he'd seen around campus, especially those things conducted by members of the student organizations, were a lot weirder than a guy on a park bench writing while staring intensely at someone staring back at him…

Huh?

Oh, whoa! She was staring back at him! When did that happen? Was it because she noticed him taking glances at her? Man, Zach hoped she didn't think he was a real creeper/stalker. But….was she taking pictures of him or somebody behind him?

Zach turned his head to search for this mysterious person that clearly didn't exist behind him, then turned back to face her with a wide-eyed stare.

When their eyes met again, Zach offered a meek smile and slight wave. Not at all awkward, right?

[Kristina Novak]

Since emotions were not her forte, Kristina was struggling to place his expression. Oh well, it didn't concern her anymore. Her heart continued to thud, waiting for the stranger to come over and yell her ear off, or some equivalent. Either way, Kristina was waiting for a pissed off and offended man to come over. She blinked, resting her camera for the time being.

Kristina swallowed hard, watching him turn away. Shit, she was so busted now. There was nobody out in the wintery weather besides the two of them. She made eye contact when he turned back around with a wide eye stare. Maybe he was shocked? Startled? Embarrassed? Kristina didn't know. She bit down on her lip, gnawing worriedly. Would he start writing about her, some creepy, foreign looking stalker?

Woah. Did he just wave and smile at her? That wasn't a reaction she was expecting.

Kristina gave him an equally shy smile. Maybe it was a bit weird. She raised her hand, giving a wave in return. Definitely awkward. Should she apologize? Show him the picture? No idea. She had no clue what to do in this sort of situation.

[Deleted]

Well if this wasn't an incident of pure awkward, Zach didn't know what was. Apparently he'd caught someone stalking him while he was stalking them. The more he thought about it, the more he started comparing it to that old funny Spy vs Spy, only in this case it was Stalker vs Stalker. Because that's what this was, right? What else would you call someone who stood around taking pictures of someone else from afar without their knowing? Was he perturbed by it though? Not in the least. Zachary had still seen stranger things going on at university. Like the tightrope walkers of the juggling club who performed in kilts and no underwear. That was definitely something to write about.

As was this, to Zach. The whole situation just got a whole lot more interesting to him and gave him a muse particularly unique. He could definitely use this in his….writing. Yeah. Writing. That's all it was. Though already his head was spinning the scenario and it ended with…..

This particular interaction was definitely not going to end the same way as that.

But what should he do now? Go over there? Say hi? Zach was hostly…content to just let things go on as they were. He smiled a little more in response to hers and held up his notebook, pointing at it with his pen. Maybe that would been enough to get the message across? He started writing again. They went to the same school. There would be other opportunities to talk to her.

[Kristina Novak]

Placing her hand back in her lap, Kristina anxiously watched the stranger. Only this time, without the camera pressed up against her face. She was curious as to how he was going to react after the awkward introduction. Kristina crossed her ankles, holding her camera with a tight grip. She kept her eyes on him as he continued scribbling down a few more things. She tilted an eyebrow up, intrigued. Clearly, the stranger was into whatever he was writing.

Kristina's fingers twitched towards her face, camera in hand. She hesitated before bringing the camera down. No, now was not the time for that. She had already been busted, why chance it further?

The faint sound of pen and paper was the only thing she heard. Kristina shrugged before breaking her own promise and taking a few more shots of the stranger. Just as she lowered her camera back into her lap, Kristina noticed that he smiled back in response and raised up his pen and notebook. She nodded in his general vicinity, a slight smirk on her face. Kristina raised her camera up, waving it. As if he didn't already know.

A genuine smile spread across her face. Just two artists and their muses. Kristina loved it. She wished she had her sketchbook to draw the scene. The Czech girl leaned back on the bench, happy to watch him continue writing.