The Book of Firsts

Thirty-Eight

"What’s with all the names?" I asked, peeking at the sheets of paper Lania was shuffling. "Your personal grudge list?"

Lania laughed and groaned at the same time. "I could never hold a grudge long enough to get a list this long. This is my price for joining the Student Council this year: I’m in charge of organising the photo competition. It’s a ton of work."

"Are those all the people who have entered?"

"Oh, no, this is everyone in our grade. My job is to collect and print pictures of everyone graduating this year who is willing to give a photo, and the competition is to correctly identify them. The person who identifies the most people wins a prize. The problem is we have so many rules about the photos. We aim to collect non-standard looks to make it a little harder, but the photo can’t be more than four years old, the face mustn’t be obscured, not too outlandish a makeup job, not too distant, and so on. We want the maximum number of people to put in their photos, but some get really annoyed if you keep going back to them saying the photo doesn’t fit the rules."

Our Home Room teacher arrived then, a little late, and rapidly took attendance before going into details about the upcoming school festival, and finalising arrangements for contributions to the class stall, which was a straightforward bake sale.

"I think I saw a poster," I said, as the bell rang to release us from Home Room. "But I didn’t read the details."

"That’s half the problem," Lania said, sighing. "Everyone loves the photo competition, but no-one remembers to put their pictures in, let alone ones that match the rules. Plus, I have to mount the printed photos in special covers, which takes forever."

"I can help with that," I said. "It’s not like I know enough people in this school to ever enter the competition."

"Really? That would be awesome, Mika. Meet at the Student Council offices at lunch?"

"Sure," I said, and at lunchtime went to explore a floor of the main building I’d not before ventured. This was the location of a lot of the indoor clubs, like the Newspaper and Media Clubs, and had quite a few people busily coming and going.

The Student Council offices were clearly marked, and the door was open, but I didn’t see anyone inside, so I paused to text Lania. A moment later she emerged from an inner doorway.

"Hey Mika. Thanks so much for coming! Everyone on the Council is snowed, and looking at the pile of photos to process is giving me heartburn."

"Just show me what to do," I said, and followed her into a room furnished with two computers with large monitors, a colour printer, and a central table currently stacked with multiple piles of printouts and pamphlets.

"It’s simple really. Take one of these pieces of cardboard, cut four slits in it, staple another piece of cardboard at the top to make a cover. Then slot in a photo, and write the photo number on the cover." She sighed. "At least it seemed simple until I looked at the pile building up while I’ve been chasing around after new photos and getting them verified."

"Verified?"

"A few years back, someone thought it funny to swap in a couple of non-student photos, and things got rather heated, so now all photos have to be verified by two Student Council members to make sure the name matches the face. It’s easy enough for most people, but there’s some students we actually have to meet up with, because no-one here knows them."

We worked uninterrupted for about half an hour, and then a handful of other Student Council members arrived, some grabbing pamphlets and leaving after a word, but two sitting down at the table with us to sort one of the stacks of paper.

"This is Vicki and Habib," Lania said. "Mika’s helping me with the photo mounting because she has no chance of winning the competition. I’ve added her to the disqualified list."

"How far are you to complete?" Habib asked. He was very skinny, with fuzzy hair and a flashing smile.

"At the halfway mark. I’m sure I’ll get to the sixty percent average, though people are being very bad emailing non-qualifying photos."

"Try to get to at least eighty," Vicki said. "This is the largest graduating class Corascur’s ever had. We don’t want to half-ass one of the main events."

I examined Vicki with interest, remembering her voice as the girl who’d been hitting on Rin in the garden. Athletic, with short, glossy black hair, fantastic dark lashes, and bronze skin, she glowed with health. She looked at me in turn, a brief survey, then said: "I saw you at the sandcastle competition. It’s a pity you haven’t been here long enough to put a picture in."

"She has," Habib said. "A full semester."

"Isn’t it six months?" Lania said, surprised. "That’s what last year’s notes said."

Habib leaned forward to tweak one of Lania’s braids. "Take it from a future lawyer—always read the actual rules, not what someone tells you are the rules."

"Hold on a sec," Lania said, and went to rummage through a cupboard, dragging out a weighty folder and bringing it to the table to leaf through. "We really need to convert this to digital."

"At least the official rules," Habib said. "The rest is useful history, but the important stuff should be something everyone can read. I’ll try to find a chance this week to compile a definitive copy, with all the amendments, and post it on the intranet."

"That would be awesome, Habib," Lania said, smiling at him brilliantly. "And you’re right—it says one full semester here, which means…" She turned to me. "Mika, your photo?"

I chuckled. "Sure. Where do I send it?"

Lania rattled off an email address, so I pulled out my phone and selected a suitable shot from last year to send.

"With you here we can verify it straight away," Lania said, putting the folder away and sitting down at one of the computers. "Super handy."

I watched her with amused anticipation as I reached for the next printout, but then turned my full attention to the photo pile, eyes widening. Kyou. Kyou at fourteen or fifteen, in full kendo gear, holding a wooden sword. There was a touch of roundness to his cheeks, and his jawline wasn’t yet so cleanly defined, but the biggest difference was to his hair, caught up in a short, high ponytail, and also softly framing his face.

Lania shrieked, a single high exclamation of astonishment that would make me think she’d dropped something heavy on her foot if I hadn’t been anticipating it.

"What the hell, Lania?" Vicki said, covering her ears. Habib craned his head to see the computer screen, and then laughed.

"Mika, is this really you?" Lania gasped.

"Doesn’t it look like me?"

"Your hair! When was this?"

The door opened, and I turned my head to see Kyou staring at me, with Rin and Bran looking over his shoulders. I immediately held the kendo photo up and widened my eyes at them, then put it down again, and answered:

"Last, um, last April, I think that was."

"Here I was thinking we needed the first aid kit," Kyou said, strolling in after the shortest of pauses. "What’s the fuss?"

"Millie, my roommate from last year, is studying to be a professional makeup artist," I explained. "She basically used me as a dress-up doll for my entire time at that school. No amount of makeup could transform me into Sinéad O’Connor, but Millie certainly managed to produce a resemblance."

"You let your roommate shave your head?" Habib asked, staring at the image of me in a black turtleneck against a black background, miming a looking down and to the right pose from the Nothing Compares 2 U film clip.

"No, that was for a cancer charity event the previous week," I said, watching with amusement as Rin, Kyou and Bran went to take a closer look while maintaining a pose of only vague interest. "I’d never had really short hair before. I’m not sure I’ll be able to go back to having it long."

Vicki gave me a puzzled glance. "What do you call your hair now, if not long? What did it look like before you shaved it?"

"Hm. Well, this is the last picture I have from before it was shaved."

I emailed another photo, and waited until our ears were split again.

"Making you shriek is my new hobby, Lania."

"How long is that?" she asked.

"It’ll grow to my thighs if I don’t cut it. I usually keep it around waist length, but it was just under full length there."

"I want to know what the hell is going on in this picture," Bran said.

I went to join the crowd around the computer, snugging myself between Bran and Kyou, both of whom briefly put a hand on my waist, but quickly let go.

"It was supposed to be a poster for a play called A School for Scandal, but since I wasn’t actually in the play, they decided not to use it." I considered myself, precariously balanced on two legs of a chair, my feet lightly touching a school desk, knees bent at different angles. This made me more-or-less horizontal to the floor, and my hair—in its usual high ponytail—hung straight down to pool on the floor. A highly provocative position, made only more so because of the tiny skirt, thigh-high blue socks, and the boy crawling across the desks toward me.

"Who’s the guy?" Vicki asked. "He looks familiar."

"Cristophe," I said, then added very deliberately. "My boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Lania stared at me. "Not ex?"

"Well, technically we never broke up, but he does live in another country. There’s a chance we might go to Peru together after the school year ends, but I’m not sure I’d call that officially dating. It’s all a bit up in the air this year, but guess I’ll find out eventually."

Kyou and Bran’s reaction to this was transmitted to me through the sudden tension in their bodies, but I think neither of them believed me, because they almost immediately relaxed.

"It’s weird. He does look familiar," Vicki said.

"You’ve probably seen Sky of Diamond," I said.

"Yeah, and—" Vicki stopped, eyes widening. "The Margrave!"

I nodded. "He only had two lines, but running around without his shirt, and in those skin-tight pants, sure made him memorable."

"That’s Christophe Barrington?" Lania gasped, and leaned forward to examine Christophe in more detail. Pale-skinned, with tangled dark curls and long lashes. Stunning blue eyes, though they wouldn’t be able to see that in this photo. "I heard he landed a role in Crusaders."

"Well, acting aside, this second photo doesn’t qualify for the competition," Rin said, in full student council president mode. "The first one can be considered verified. Try to halve the decibel of shrieks in future, Lania."

He smiled with mild amusement and left, followed by Kyou and Bran.

"And we’re nearly out of time," I said. "I’ll help you again, um, how about Wednesday, Lania?"

"Deal. And you can also show me all the photos of you with long hair," Lania said, firmly.