Page 78 of Penalized Love

"You'll what? Finally admit you secretly know all the words to 'Espresso'?" Selene challenges.

“But that’s not a secret. I do know all the words,” I throw back.

"Of course you do," Jade laughs. "From what I now know about her, I don't think anyone who's spent more than ten minutes with Selene can escape without learning at least one pop song by heart."

“I agree, and you can add Levi to the list too,” Hailey adds.

A rustling in the brush ahead catches our attention, and it’s immediately followed by rapid footsteps on the trail. A girl with her dark hair in a ponytail comes jogging around the bend, nearly colliding with our group. She's wearing hiking boots and carrying some kind of sketch pad.

"Oh! Sorry!" She comes to a stop, breathing rather hard. "I was trying to catch up to—" She pauses, looking at each of us. "Wait, you're in my Creative Writing seminar, aren't you?" She points at me. "Isla, right?"

"Yeah," I nod, recognizing her now. "Willow, from Professor Martinez's class?"

"That's me," she says, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I thought I was the only one crazy enough to be up here sketching landscapes at this hour."

Selene's eyes light up once more, probably because she has another potential person to corrupt with her music choices. I’m not complaining about the corruption either way. "Well, you're definitely not alone. Though some of us—" she shoots me a pointed look, "—prefer to capture the view through a camera lens."

"And some of us prefer to actually complete the hike," Hailey interjects, but she's smiling as she says it.

Willow looks at each of us before her eyes land on me again. "Would you mind if I joined? I've been trying to work up the courage to ask about your photography in class. I use sketches asreferences for my writing, but I've always wanted to learn about taking better photos."

"Of course you can join," I say, already reaching for my camera to show her some of the shots I've taken. "Just be warned though. If you’re hiking with us, you might end up starring in an impromptu music video."

"Please don’t give Selene any ideas," Hailey adds with a laugh that’s not meant to be funny.

“Hey!” Selene jumps in. “Don’t judge me. The video might go viral or something.”

"Getting back to the topic at hand, what brought you out here so early?" Jade asks Willow as we continue up the trail. Our pace is more leisurely now as I show Willow some basic camera techniques.

"I've been working on this story that takes place in the mountains, but something about the setting felt... off. My professor—well, our professor," she glances at me, "suggested I might benefit from experiencing it in the real world."

I adjust my camera strap as I try to think of how to properly word my answer. “I can see that. It’s the same thing with photography. Getting out into the real world and taking photos of different subjects is one of the biggest ways to gain experience. It just clicks.”

Selene suddenly gasps. "Oh my god, speaking of clicking—" She whips out her phone. "Group photo time!"

"Is this a regular thing?" Willow whispers to me as Selene herds us all together against a particularly scenic backdrop.

"Eh, it comes in waves. She’s very hyper right now," I whisper back. "It could go either one of two ways; we’ll take your basic photo, or she’ll start coordinating our poses."

As if on cue, Selene starts telling us where to stand and how to pose like a film director instead of someone who decided to take a selfie with her phone. "Okay, Isla, you stand here. Willow,next to her. Jade, can you crouch down a bit? Perfect! Now, Hailey, actually give me a smile!"

I can't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. This is supposed to be just a regular hike and what it is turning into is something I both could and couldn’t have seen coming.

Thanks, Selene.

Once we are done taking photos, we begin to head down the trail again until Willow stops walking abruptly. "Wait. Is that a red-tailed hawk?"

We all look up. I watch as a medium-sized bird flies around up above. There’s no way I’m going to be able to positively identify what type of bird it is.

"It’s a cooper's hawk, actually," Jade says.

Our attention shifts from the bird in the sky to the woman who just blew our minds. All she does is shrug.

"What? I took a zoology course last semester. There was a focus on ornithology during one of the sections."

I raise my camera, adjusting the zoom. Bird photography isn’t a specialty of mine, but if I can snap a photo, I know it has the potential to be amazing.

The hawk circles overhead and I hold my breath with my finger poised over the shutter button. The world narrows to this moment as I tune everything else out.

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