Shake it off (open)

[Onya Falch]

Onya walked out of her dorm and headed down to the common room. She usually didn’t do this, Onya wasn’t the type of person to actively go somewhere where people would be at. There were times where she did of course, like now, she did like being around people, and yet she didn’t… It was all complicated, her anxiety made it very hard for her to walk out of her room, let alone be social. Just thinking about it made her stomach twist in knots. What if someone told her to leave the common room? What if someone tried to bully her? What if someone tried to assault her? What would she do if someone tried talking to her? How would she feel if no one actually talked to her? What if no one even noticed her?



All were negatives in her mind, and some of them were contradicting, yes. What would you do if you felt like you were going to puke when someone randomly started to talk to you? And how would you feel if someone didn’t notice you because you were a wallflower and weren’t outgoing enough? They both would be big negatives in your book too. Some people can handle being social, and some people can handle not being social. But Onya? She couldn’t handle either… She wished she could.



At the common room, she stopped in on the stairs and peered around, it looked empty at the moment. It was weird considering it was a Saturday afternoon. Maybe everyone was busy working? Or people just wanted give themselves a break from Hammel. Onya guessed that is was a good thing that no one was around, it settled her stomach a little to be able to think clearly. She smiled as she saw the pool table, it would be a fun to play a round or two, She could never really play because someone else was always playing, and she was always too scared to ask to join. She gathered the balls, and set them up to start playing.

[Deleted]

Jackson had stayed behind on this Saturday for extra-club activities. Also, it was nearing the end of the school year and the yearbook team was starting to meet more regularly to go over formatting and photos and features and the like. It was all very busy, very very busy! So he’d been tasked with going around the school and catching candid photos of various students for one of the sections of the yearbook. He wasn’t the only one going around, of course, but he was the one assigned to start at the students dorms.

But it was Saturday and there weren’t a lot of students up and about today for one reason or another. Maybe they all decided to sleep in? he though with a soft chuckle. He opened the door to the dorms and stepped inside, taking a moment to allow his eyes to adjust to the change in lighting before continuing on.

He heard something in the activity room. Sounded like rocks clanking against each other. Maybe. Either way, it meant that there was a person there! With a big grin, he headed over, camera at the ready and poked his head around the corner of the room’s entrance.

Ooo! A pretty blonde! Jackson blushed at the sight. With glasses too! Girls with glasses were cute in his book.

With a smile, Jackson rose his camera to the girl who was casually working at the pool table and snapped the picture, click, flash, and all.

[Onya Falch]

Onya didn’t realized anyone had come into the common room. But who would have? It seemed the guy was being a creeper… The blonde was too busy playing away on the pool table to notice anyone anyhow. But this person had a camera, and Onya did not look her best… She was wearing her most casual lazy outfit in her wardrobe. There was no way she would want a picture of her like this in the yearbook. People would make fun of her…

She kind of thought that her classmates were all studying for their finals stuff; she felt like she had done enough studying, however she still worried about if she would pass all her tests. But it was just like Onya to worry about everything, so to stop herself from worrying she would study extra, extra hard.


There was a bright flash, and a strange click, it made her jump out of her skin. She let out a little squeak in surprise. Her heartbeat picked up tenfold. It took her a second to regain herself, but her heart rate was still up there as she looked at the person who had just taken her picture. She bit her lip, here she was… Why did he take her picture? Was he some creep? Should she be even more worried? “Why… Why did you taken my picture?” Did he even take her picture? He had the camera pointing to her, but maybe he took a picture of something else? “If.. I mean.. if it was me you took the picture of..”

[Deleted]

She really was concentrating hard on her game, wasn't she? And she hadn't even noticed Jackson yet. Jackson felt sort of bad for snapping a pic when she was unawares, but that was honestly the best way to get a candid photo. If she didn't like it later when he showed her the result, then he would...yeah, he'd probably have to delete it....but she wouldn't know if he kept it, would she? Well, she would if she made him show her that it was deleted.

But it was a nice photo! He didn't want to delete it! And she was darned pretty in the picture as well. Looking up, she was darned pretty in real life as well, but that was to be expected, wasn't it? Though...she did seem awfully surprised. Jackson struggled to figure out a good excuse. No, it wasn't an excuse, it was a reason! "I'm-I'm with the yearbook club. We're taking pictures today," he explained, flustered. "And they wanted me to go around and get pics done of the students in the dorms. Like candid photos, casual photos and stuff." Did that make sense? Hopefully she understood and was okay with it.

[Onya Falch]

Onya pressed herself closer to herself (If that made sense); Her body tensed and her whole body just came closer together. She placed one of her arms around her front to hold onto her other upper arm. If anyone was moderate at reading body language, Onya completely screamed uncomfortable. She did not like that she was talking to a stranger, that had a photo of her, what if he used it to blackmail her because it was such an awful picture… Or if he used it for… Well naughty alone stuff… She didn’t like either of those thoughts, and her heartbeat started to thump harder in her chest.


Onya thought she looked horrible at the moment, in her pj pants basically, and just a plain t-shirt nothing special at all… Her hair probably looked completely bad too… Not good, not good at all. And now everyone was going to see it? Her eyes widened as Jackson told her about what he was taking the picture for. “So… So the.. whole school is going to see that picture..” She looks at Jackson but not for very long before she darts her focus onto the floor. “Everyone will see how horrible I look..” She muttered mostly to herself.

[Deleted]

Jackson saw the girl close in on herself and he smiled awkwardly. She….it didn’t seem she liked it. That he’d taken a picture of her without permission. Honestly, he didn’t know why anyone would use a picture like this for the purposes of what she was imagining. She didn’t even look that bad in the picture, just…casual. Like she was supposed to. Like all his pictures were supposed to be of their subjects. Just casual. Isn’t that what candid was?

“Um….yeah…well, if it’s one we choose to put in there. We’re gonna take a lot, you see, and there isn’t enough space for all of them.” He snickered a little and shook his head. “You don’t look terrible! Not at all, wanna see?” he asked, holding up the camera. “I can show you right now and….” He hesitated. Jackson did like making this offer, because it would mean he had to go find another person to sneak attack with a picture and he didn’t want to put in the extra work. “Well….if you don’t like it, I can take another one that’s a little less candid. Like, give you time to primp yourself up a little, if you want.” Because who was to say that people didn’t walk around looking naturally glamorous?