CHAPTER 25: PHOTOSHOOT

"Oh my god, I saw you on the news! AND the Mj Michaelsons show!" Aaliyah screeches as
soon as I see her in the halls with few people around.
Rolling my eyes at her excitement I really think that it was a total disaster. "Let's not talk
about it, let's talk about the fact that we have are now in University and what we choose to
do now shapes our lives and everything is already going extremely wrong!" I exclaim all in
one breath. It's important for our futures, I'm not even sure what I want to be though. I
rounded it up to three, a doctor, lawyer, own my own business. I ended up choosing
business, of course as you know. But I don't know if I'll stick to it. There's too many things
and I'm young and it's stressful. I know this may sound crazy because I'm not a stylish girl
but I really love making clothes. Ugh, I need to get my life sorted.
"Blah! Blah! Blah! I know I'm gonna fail in life so therefore I don't want to talk about it," she
crosses her arms over her chest then panic settles within her. "OH MY GOD WHAT IF I DO
FAIL!" She exclaims and grabs me by the shoulders shaking me, I grab her to stop the
movement that's making me feel dizzy.
"You won't fail in life," I assure her. I notice Carter and Joey walking side by side down the
hall, Joey still has a few scratches and a more light purple medium sized bruise and Carter
has a blue bruise that's all. As I said, Joey got it worse. Ignoring whatever Aaliyah is saying I
run down the halls to Joey and Carter, I stop myself in front of them and wrap my arms
around them in a massive hug.
"Oh my god Joey are you okay now?" I pull back inspecting him, he flashes me a smile and
nods.
"Yeah, alright. Not keen for our long ass quiz though," he nervously twiddles his fingers and
looks around. I grab my pencil case out of a temporary locker and slam it shut, we all walk to
the hall where we do our exams. Once we arrive I peak inside noticing that they are still
putting chairs and desks down.
Once they are finished we all pile in feeling nervous and I take a seat, they start handing out
sheets of paper and I exhale. Here we go.
~~
"So, how do you think you went?" Joey asks me as he looks at his iPhone in front of him,
deeply focusing on it.
Shrugging I reply, "not too bad." He nods and drops his phone onto the table, we are seated
outside- we finished our classes for the day and are waiting for our rides. It's good uni isn't
like school where you need to go in every single day and you can't leave whenever. I
suggested the photoshoot to Isaac and he agreed now I'm waiting for him then we'll get
changed there and get my makeup and hair done. Joey is waiting for his mum since they're
going out for dinner. "How about you?" I ask lifting my eyes from my own phone.
He simply shrugs, "good." The sound of a screeching car pulling up stops our very short and
limited conversation. The sight of Amy Williams, Joey's mum bouncy black curls comes into
view. She grins when she sees me and I wave.
"Hey mrs W!" I greet, she always insists me to call her Amy but I always call her misses W
instead.
She's gotten used to it by now. Zac's limousine stops behind Amy's car, "how are you?" She
asks, Joey and I stand; I give him a quick hug and walk slowly to the limousine.
"Pretty good, how about you?" I politely ask.
"Great. Have a nice weekend Claudia," I smile at her then I rush to the car, the door slams
open and I jump back and glare at Zac.
"Well hurry up, you were taking forever."
Rolling my eyes I push him over because I wouldn't be able to fit next to his fat butt then I get
in slamming the door after me.
We drive to a beach, the sunset is really beautiful; orange, yellow, purple and blue splashes
across the sky. I see the cameras set up and little change rooms and dunny toilets so people
can do their business.
As soon as the limo stops I open the door and run out onto the beach glad that I took off my
sneakers already.
"Hello mrs Richardson I'm Cameron," the camera man introduces. Ha! Cameron the camera
man! Kinda rhymes don't ya think?
I shake his extended hand and look around, Zac appears next to me and a lady shows us to
two seperate change rooms next to each other with only a curtain around it. It's kinda hard to
explain. I open the certain and step in, there's a tarp on the ground to prevent sand from
going everywhere even though some sand particles are at the corners of the tarp. My dress
hangs on a rack and I strip out of my clothing and put on a strapless bra then my beautiful
wedding dress. We decided that we weren't going to wear shoes because we're at the beach
so yeah. I open the curtain the light almost blinding me when it comes at me all at once. A
young woman who looks to be in her early thirties walks over towards me with a bag full of
stuff.
She smiles at me, "I'm Casey the makeup artist." I smile at her and she instructs me to follow
her, I follow her to this makeup desk that is on the concrete before the beach. She does my
makeup as accurately and beautifully as she can then she pins my hair up the way it was at
my wedding, she claps her hands together and grins. "Perfect!"
"Thank you." I say looking at myself in the mirror, smiling I rush down to the beach where
Isaac is most likely waiting. I notice him taking to Cameron the camera man, when he sees
me he stops talking and his mouth opens wide. I stop next to him and look up at him shyly,
why so shy all of a sudden?
"Y-you look beautiful," Zac stutters. He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly and I
chuckle looking him over.
"Thanks, you don't look too bad yourself." He obviously looks amazing, he looks so formal
with the suit on and his blue eyes seem to get lighter with his black suit jacket.
"So are you two ready to start?" Cameron asks, we both nod. "Okay. You stand here Isaac,"
Cameron points to a spot then beckons me over using his index finger and moving it in a
'come here' motion. I stand next to Isaac. "It's simple what you have to do, all you need to do
is chill back in Isaac's arms while Isaac has to lift you bridal style." Zac bends down and
hooks his arm under my knee and lifts me up and pulls me to his chest. Cameron walks over
to the camera and looks into it, "great! Now look at each other expression your emotions,
how you feel, how happy you are to be married." We both look at each other and do what he
says.
"Great now try and make her laugh!" Oh god. I look like a retarded seal when I laugh. Eh I
who cares really?
"Um... he kind of looks like a penguin?" He says unsurely. I don't know why but I burst out
laughing at his lame attempt to make me laugh, I throw my head back and just laugh.
"You're both doing so well! Now look at the camera both smiling!" I look at the camera and
smile, he takes countless photos. "Okay, new position! Claudia get on his back please," Zac
places me to the floor gently and I walk around him. He crouches down and I wrap my arms
around his neck then wrap my legs around his waist, he stands up and I look down at him
smiling. "That's great Claudia! Keep doing what you're doing!" I tilt my head and look down
at him.
We do more of the back shots then we head to the water, Cameron tells us to splash around
and all that. He's chasing me in one of them and I'm laughing, I haven't seen the picture but I
know that happened. I'd say that today was a successful day really.
~~
2 days later
"Claudia I got the photos! Cameron also sent them to me on my phone," Zac shouts. I jump
of my bed and run to his room where he is in excitement then jump down on his bed. There
are many photos in front of him, like the one where he was chasing me in the water and I
was laughing while he was smiling. Then when I was looking down at him when I was on his
back and he was looking at the camera. I'm surprised when I look at one where I'm smiling
at the camera and Isaac is smiling down at me because I specifically remember Cameron
telling us to look at the camera- there's also one where we both are looking at the camera.
Then there are plenty when I was in his arms bridal style, me laughing, us looking at each
other almost romantically.
Cameron also made sure to get in a kissing shot which I was slightly embarrassed about
because it's an arranged marriage for peeps sake! AND I HAVE TO KISS HIM TO MAKE IT
SEEM REAL! "Can you send them to me?" I ask and he nods sending them to my contact.
"What now?" He asks.
"Well now we have to post a WHOLE lot on Instagram, Facebook, twitter and Snapchat."I
inform him and he raises an eyebrow.
"A whole lot? Why? Can't we just do like one photo on each?" Scoffing I shake my head.
"See this is why people don't believe that our fake marriage is real," he chuckles and I grab
his phone going on his Instagram. Deciding that my first choice will be the one where we are
in the ocean and he's chasing me, I post it. I post two more, the one where we were kissing
and the other one where he was holding me bridal style. Zac goes on my phone too and
posts whatever photo he wants. "Can you also post on our ship account?" He raises an
eyebrow but does it anyway.
I post pictures on his other social media and when I'm done I drop the phone on the bed. I
made sure to have most of the captions as 'I need to share these posts in appreciation of my
wife' or 'I love her so much' or 'one of my best choices in my life was to marry you' all cliché
but all of them work.
"And now we wait," he mutters.