Pessimistic

            by Neoma Moreno

 

            Walking into the tall, brightly lit building. With hot coffee in one hand and “ The San Francisco Chronicle” in the other, as she walks past her co-workers and clients she smiles and nods a hello as if to acknowledge they were next to be delt with. Jade elegantly slips into the elevator just as its about to close. Ooh yay! I have the elevator to myself, she thought as she reaches to press the number four button that goes to her studio. Quietly listening to the soft elevator music, Jade looks down towards her chest and sees her brand new digital camera hung snuggly around her neck. As she stands there staring at it she begins to remember her birthday.

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            “What is it mommy?” she asked.

            It was Jades twelfth birthday and she was excited about what she was getting as gifts. She wanted a lot of things, but she preferred to be surprised because the suspense gets her even more excited. Jade knew she liked electronics rather than sports or toys, so when her best friend Maggie got a camera for her birthday last week, naturally Jade wanted one as well. She begged her mother to get her one that whole week. When Jade received a medium sized beautifully wrapped package from her mother she wondered what it was. At first she thought it was a video game, but noticed that the package was too big for such a small gift.

            “When you open it you’ll find out,” her mother said.

            At this point Jade is overly excited, even her best friend was getting excited. She couldn’t wait to open her presents most importantly the gift her mother gave her. After the cake, food and singing of happy birthdays, she ran to the table stacked high with presents and grabbed the one that said From Mommy. Maggie was taking photos of Jade ripping the beautiful wrapping to shreds spreading it everywhere around her until finally she reached the surface of her gift. Jade looked at her mother with eyes so bright and big they were on the verge of crying, she jumped out of her seat and squealed with joy and squeezed her mother until she was out of breath. She inspected the camera to see if it was loaded with film and ready to go, she was so happy she forgot about her other gifts. Jade and Maggie teamed up and took pictures of everything from then on.

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            “Diiiing!” it was the fourth floor, Jades floor. As she walked out the elevator she thought about how her passion for photography developed over time and the whole idea of taking a photo is to capture a moment in time which you can look back at to remember forgotten memories. With new technology you can send a picture to anyone anywhere via e-mail. As though it were second nature Jade grabs her camera and begins shooting her best friend Maggie as she slips on some coffee. Should I put this up for the studio members to see or send it to Maggie as a Christmas card? As a child when Jade first got her camera, she and Maggie would take embarrassing photos of each other and give them to each other as holiday cards or when either of them felt bad and needed cheering up.

            Jade sat her camera down to help Maggie up. When Jade reached out her hand for Maggie she noticed to handsome figures enter the studio with her boss in between them. She also noticed that Maggie quickly gathered herself up and dusted of her sleek, black dress pants. Jade giggled to herself and straightened herself up too.

            “Hello ladies and gentlemen,” her boss greeted.

            “We have ten models scheduled for a photo shoot this week, these gentle men             here are the first two, I expect to have great photos by the end of this week. Chop,             chop!” he announced hurriedly.

            “Chao!” he yelled and left in a swift manner.

            “Are you okay Maggie?” Jade asked.

            Maggie looked up at Jade with a “what do you think” face and started laughing. Jade was relieved she was okay and laughed along with her.

            “Hey we have work to do, we need to take photos of these models,” Jade said.

            “I know, but you know I cant help but giggle when I see beautiful people. I even             blush from embarrassment,” Maggie giggled.

            This was true, since high school Maggie always giggled and only slightly blushed when ever she encountered a good looking person. Jade remembered an incident that made Maggie giggle and blush as well.

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            “BOOP-BOOP!” It was lunch time and Jade wanted to get this introduction over with so that she and Maggie can go get something to eat. Jade promised Maggie that she will introduce her to the foreign exchange student from Italy. As soon as Maggie saw him she turned bright red and started to giggle quietly so that Mr. Italy wouldn’t hear. Jade knew she would like him, but she didn’t know Maggie would like him that much. After the introduction they went to eat on the way Maggie wouldn’t stop talking about him.

            “Oh my God! He is so beautiful, he could be a model!” she exclaimed excitedly    

            “So do you like him?” Jade asked.

            “Duh! But only as a friend ‘cause he’s not my type,” Maggie said coldly.

            “Oh sorry I didn’t know that,” Jade said feeling awkward.

            “Hey don’t worry you are my best friend and that’s what best friends do.” Maggie             pointed out.

            Jade was happy that Maggie saw the positive side of things. I guess that’s what attracted us to each other in the first place, Jade thought. Jade was more of a pessimistic than Maggie was and they both balanced each other out like Yin and Yang.

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            “Jade? Jade?!” Maggie Whispered loudly.

            “Huh? Oh! Sorry, yea lets get to work! Jade said.

            “Are you okay, you seem kinda out of it lately,” Maggie pointed out.

            “No I’m okay I was just remembering some of the things we went through,” Jade             explained.

            “Oh, like what?” Maggie asked.

            “Like…” Just when Jade was about to go down memory lane with Maggie again, the door slams open and two tall, beautiful models walk in. Jade noticed they were twins and that one was more dominate than the other, but neither could live without one or the other. She noticed that they entered with elegant strides and a confidence that left you breathless. At that instant that these models take their modeling career very seriously. Maggie noticed this as well and whispered to Jade that they should get to work. Jade agreed and retreated to her work station.

            All four models were directed to the dress, hair and make-up room to get ready for the shoot. Jade and Maggie got cameras ready with memory cards and camera stands in position. Jade made sure the technicians were getting the prop room ready and Maggie was making sure the models were comfortable and ready to pose, pose, pose.

            “No! I need you to be in love with your partner. You need to believe that you love him or the photograph won’t come out right,” Jade explained.

            The twins were giving Jade a hard time. Since two sets of models came in she thought it would be a good idea to separate the twins and work with different people. So far it wasn’t working, Jade told them to take a rest and called the next pair of models. For the next photos Jade wanted the models to represent polar opposites. When the twins walked in together she thought that the same energy they came in with can be used in a photo shoot with another person. Jade was looking for a balance in between the two models. She wanted to portray the Yin and Yang. Though she knew the photo shoot would be difficult because the twins were separated and probably aren’t used to working with other models. She reassured herself that this whole week would be very busy but good week because she knew what she was doing and her work was always great from what her boss tells her. As Maggie for a consultant Jade can’t lose anything.