Capturing Savannah Read Free Page A

shadow made by an iron fence. My grandma took this photo when I was a kid near her house in Tennessee. She let me and my brother go with her that day on a walk to watch her take photos. It was the first time I got to see her in her craft. My brother was a little older than me so he had gone with her before. He helped her sometimes in pointing out things to take photos of. She loved nature and finding something beautiful or striking within it. The bark on trees, a misshaped rock, and like this one an abstract shadow that made a remarkable pattern. She had an eye for finding the right compositions. I hoped I could develop myself here and become at least half as good as her. And a boy is only going to be a distraction from that.
    Emily says she is exhausted and I am too so we both decide to turn in. I brush my teeth and wearily climb into bed. I remember my head hitting the pillow and then I must have passed out.

Chapter Two
     
    I wake up hot and to the sound of some angry girl music playing softly. Which is a contradiction in itself. I rub my eyes and stretch. Remembering I am actually here in my new room and I am a college student is a great thought to wake up to. I decide to wake myself up even more with a shower. Which is for the best because of all the night sweating I am sure I smell a little. After I am dressed I ask Emily if she wants to go down to breakfast together before Orientation starts.
    “Sure Thea .” she says walking with me to the door. “Oh wait I have something I need to hang up real quick first.”
    “Ok.” I say watching her dig into one of the two still partially full boxes. Her side of the room looks put together. She has several photos of what looks like family and friends. Pictures where everyone in them is smiling. Pictures capturing normal life and people. I feel jealous thinking about what it used to be like to have a normal life, a normal family, something I haven’t felt for the last four years. She digs out what looks to be a whiteboard. I quickly check my pockets to make sure I have my key and we both pause outside the door so she can hang it up.
    “A whiteboard?” I ask.
    “Ya, so people can leave us messages. Or we can just leave messages for each other.” She says.
    “ Hmm. Good idea.” I say.
    “Ya let’s write something on it now.”
    She starts writing Breakfast. Orientation. Out on the town.
    “And who are we leaving that message for?” I ask.
    “Everyone. Anyone that might be looking for us.” she says.
    “Like who? Max the security guard ?” I say.
    “No like one of those guys you were talking to last night .” she says.
    “Oh them. Ya not sure I am going to be friends with those guys .” I say.
    “Well you don’t know that yet ,” she says. She must sense my apprehension and annoyance here because she drops it and we make our way to the elevator.
    Breakfast is my favorite type of food so I load up on the eggs and hash browns and fruit. After breakfast, which actually isn’t too terrible for a school cafeteria, we find our way a few blocks down to the Civic Center for Orientation. Since the school is in the historic downtown it’s made up of different buildings all over the city, so not your typical college with a campus. Several of the buildings are in walking distance to the dorms others you need to ride the shuttle bus to get to but they each have their own architectural style and I am sure their own story. Orientation is good. Mostly a lot of sitting and listening but then we move outside to play some games. I take off when they bust out the water balloons wanting to go back up to my room to stack the new piles of information on my art drafting desk and get my camera ready for the beach. The bus is leaving in an hour to take students to Tybee Island. They have buses set up every other weekend to go to some part of the city like the mall or some other shopping areas. Tybee Island was a monthly stop and I was glad they offered it since it was around a