Candid (True Images Series) by Michelle Pennington

teased him about all the girls who liked him, laughed at his mistakes in yearbook, and gave him a hard time over his old fashioned manners. I actually adored the way he held doors for people and spoke to teachers with respectful courtesy, but I decided to torture him over it to hide the fluttery feeling it gave me.
    Yesterday in yearbook, Lee had actually pulled out a chair for me. Pretending to look scared to death, I’d said, “Oh my gosh ! I know what you are.”
    “What are you talking about?” He’d looked as confused as I’d meant him to be.
    In a low whisper, I’d told him, “You’re a really old vampire – just like in all those books. There’s no other explanation. Are you going to suck my blood?”
    Lee had looked at me like he didn’t know whether to laugh or be offended. “I hadn’t planned on it. Where did that come from?”
    “Well, you’re, like, a total gentleman. You have to be from some other time or something,” I’d pointed out in dramatic accents.
    “You equate being a gentleman with being a vampire?”
    “Only good vampires of course. What other explanation is there for a guy who has manners now days?”
    He’d shrugged and looked embarrassed. “If you knew my parents, you wouldn’t be surprised.”
    Hoping to fix the sudden awkwardness in what I’d hoped would be a flirtatious conversation, I’d said, “Oh wait, you have a zit. Whew, that’s a relief. I think it’s impossible for a vampire to have a zit.”
    As soon as I said it, I’d wanted to take it back. I mean, why in the world had I pointed out his zit? It was so small I never would have noticed it if I hadn’t been staring at him as we sat close together working on a project in journalism earlier. I’d felt awful as a deeper shade of embarrassment swept over his features and he touched the red bump on the side of his nose.
    “I think this humidity is making me breakout. I’m sweating a lot more than I did Arizona.”
    “It’s probably just that it doesn’t dry off. I’ve had to deal with it my whole life. Look, I doubt anyone’s even noticed it. Stop messing with it.”
    “It feels like it’s the size of mountain now that I know you’re looking at it.”
    “I’m not. I promise. Besides, it’s kind of nice to know you’re human like the rest of us.”
    “Well, at least you won’t accuse me of being a vampire again.”
    “Don’t count on it.”
    We’d been interrupted then, which was probably a good thing. How many girls accused a crush-worthy guy of being a vampire and pointed out that he had a zit in the same conversation?
    Lee had gone to work on his layout for one of the yearbook’s football pages as Mr. Greeley came over to talk to me. He’d asked me if I would mind spending my lunch hour the next day taking some pictures for the student life section of the yearbook.
    So, at least I was official today. Since that first time I’d used my camera to spy on Lee during lunch last Thursday, I’d kept my camera with me every lunch hour. I’d gotten some good photos, but I hadn’t given them to Mr. Greeley yet. An embarrassing number of them were close ups of Lee. Those would stay secret on my external hard drive at home. Today, I needed to concentrate on getting some pictures of other students.
    I was glad I had my own camera to use because I preferred it to any of the school’s cameras. Not only was it a better camera, but I was perfectly familiar with its functions and capabilities. Besides, it gave me access to take pictures of almost anyone I wanted.
    Most kids had cameras on their phones, but when I came around with my big DSLR, they knew the pictures could end up published somewhere. I usually got a lot of people calling to me to take their picture. From some though, I got a completely different reaction.
    Most of the students who didn’t eat in the cafeteria hung out on the lawn in front of it. There were shade trees, benches, and a few picnic tables. Several of the schools cliques had