Survival Of The Fittest

((Nadia Riva continued from Pool Slingshot))

Nadia rested her hand on her chin as she flicked through the photos on the website. She gave off a low hum as she flicked through the gallery. There were a lot of surprisingly good pictures on the website. It was hard to think, but she could actually have a picture of hers appear on Vogue Italia's website.

Nadia only recently found out about it through a fashion photography forum she was checking out yesterday. Vogue Italia had a space on their website that allowed young photographers to send in their photos called PhotoVogue. If they liked her work, they'd put it on the website. If they really really liked it, it would be in the actual magazine. That was enough of a draw to get Nadia to look through the website for examples, and then to look at her own work for consideration.

Nadia had free time during lunch to sit at one of the computers in the library and look through the PhotoVogue and her own personal blog. She had just registered for PhotoVogue, and now she needed to figure out what to submit. With that, she sat there quietly, flicking through photo galleries until she could get an idea of what to do.

((Alessio Rigano continued from What a Day))

Alessio sat in front of a computer. Not his own, but in front of a school computer, which performed worse than his own one. But that didn't matter, as Al did not plan to play a video game during the lunch.

˙ʎǝʞ ʍoɹɹ∀+lɹʇƆ+ʇl∀ ˙ʇᴉ ǝʌlos oʇ ʍoɥ pǝlƃooƃ uǝɥʇ l∀ ˙ƃuᴉʎouuɐ sɐʍ ʇᴉ ʇnq ˙ɔɐɐsI ǝqʎɐW ˙ʇᴉ op oʇ ʎuunɟ sɐʍ ʇᴉ ʇɥƃnoɥʇ ɹǝʇsʞuɐɹd ǝɯoS ˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn sɐʍ uǝǝɹɔs ǝloɥʍ ǝɥ┴ ˙ʇᴉ ƃuɐp 'ʇnq

Cool. Fixed.

He should go to newgrounds and-

Al looked around the room. Maybe he shouldn't go to newgrounds. He didn't want to appear as if his only hobby in the world would be to play flash games. Next to him there was Nadia Riva. What was she doing? Al was curious. He tried to look at the screen from the distance. He had no clue what that website was.

Nadia continued to click through the pictures on her blog. She was looking through her gallery of self portraits. Part of her wondered if it was weird to send in some of those. Sure, they were good pictures, but would it be deemed narcissistic? Here she is, trying to be a world class fashion photographer, and she's only got pictures of herself as a model. It's not that she didn't have pictures of others, but she had to wonder how the people at PhotoVogue would read it.

"Eh, I can send at least one in," she muttered to herself

Nadia began to flip through the photos of her wearing the denim shirt dress she bought a few weeks ago when she felt an unfamiliar presence near her. She glanced to the side and saw some underclassman looking at her.

"Um, can I help you?" she asked.

Oh, there were photos on the website? And then Nadia said something. Was that directed at him? Then she looked at him, where his natural reaction was to quickly look back to his screen. She asked him whether she could help him. Oh god, Alessio had no idea how to reply.

"Uh..."

Yes?

"No."

Alessio stared perplexed at the computer screen, not sure what to do. He took the mouse, closed the Firefox window he used to discover how to fix the flipped screen problem and moved the cursor on the desktop. He should click on Firefox, no, create a word document. The cursor then moved to Internet Explorer, whyever the school had Internet Explorer. And then it went towards Firefox again. Then, he clicked on Firefox, then he did nothing. He then quickly looked again to Nadia to check whether she still looked at him.

Nadia watched as the boy mumbled out a response, then turned back to what he was doing. She shook her head. Maybe he was just looking her way by coincidence. It didn't really matter. She didn't have to pay attention to him, and so she turned her attention back to the photos.

Nadia flipped back to PhotoVogue and continued to look through the photos. They didn't all have to be fashion photos. She could send in any pictures of rocks and beer cans she had, the kind that were filling the streets of Kingman. She could probably take a picture, put a black-and-white filter over it, and send it in for instant acceptance.

Nadia smirked. No way would she be that pretentious with this. She was about to keep going when she noticed something in the corner of her eye. Sure enough, the boy was looking at her again. Her smirk disappeared.

"Are you sure you don't need anything?" Nadia asked.

Oh noes, she looked at him again.

"Yeah, I don't need anything."

It was a weird situation. A weird eye situation. Just like when these dang young kids stare at you in the bus. Constantly.

Alessio however should under no circumstance turn back to his computer. No, he couldn't do that. Nadia would think he's a creep. And then, she might tell that somebody else in a conversation. And it could spread. And somebody specific could also receive information about how that italian dude stared at Nadia. Her. That should not happen.

No, start a conversation. A conversation that overshadows the looking at each other. How to start one?

"Uh, what are you doing?"

Nadia tried not to blink too much while the boy stuttered his response at her. She learned long ago that holding a gaze on someone could make them feel more intimidated by you. This boy was being weird to her already, and unless he was ready to engage her in meaningful conversation, she was going to sit their and let the audible silence and unending stare of "what the fuck?" continue to pierce at the boy.

Finally, he asked her what she was looking at. Nadia thanked god that the kid actually had something to say. Plus, it gave her the chance to talk.

"I'm looking at this website to see what photos I should send in," she told him. "It's the Italian version of Vogue, and undiscovered talent can send in photos for a chance to have them published on the website. The best ones get to be in the actual magazine."

"So yeah, I'm just seeing what they publish and trying to see what I should send in. Granted, it looks like they publish anything from pictures of cats to complete frontal nudity, so I guess I have a wide range of options to send in."

Alessio was scared of the awkward silence and was relieved when she replied. And she talked. She talked a lot.

In contrast, Alessio wasn't that talkative for a reply.

"..."

What to say? Photos was stuff Alessio wasn't interested in. Like, he was the live the moment kind of guy. Not the capture the moment. Though there was something aesthetic about photos.

"Uh."

He breathed the air out of his lungs and inhaled again.

"Can you read Ita-"

No, dumb question. No need to point out that he's Italian. He coughed into his hand, then cleared his throat.

"What do you want to submit? Do you have a...plan? Concept?"

Nadia shrugged at the boy's latest question.

"I'm trying to figure that out myself," she said. "Really, I think anything goes with these folks."

Nadia quickly looked back at the computer screen, flicking to her blog.

"I've got enough to choose from."

Nadia apparently had a blog with photos on it.

Alessio's visual senses were flooded with different pics. He couldn't decide which photo of Nadia to look at.

"Oh, that one looks cool!", Al exclaimed while pointing his finger onto the screen.

The picture he pointed at was one, where Nadia wore a hat and a denim shirt-dress. She was sitting on an old lawn chair and the picture's about her looking on Route 66. That'd be a good picture to submit, wouldn't it? After all, Kingman was near Route 66, so it would be a practical application. And the picture was beautiful as well. The sky was blue and she had a cool pose.

The guy pointed to one of her Route 66 photos. Nadia looked it over. It wasn't the best picture of the set she took that day when she set her tripod up and hoped that she could set the camera to take a picture that looked decent.

"Yeah, that might be a good one," she said.

She continued to click through the photos. Maybe sending a series of photos from a series would be good. That way, she could show off herself, as well as her aesthetic and background. Kingman wasn't the best place to grow up, but desert imagery was appealing in its own way.

How to reply to that, how to reply for that, Alessio. Alessio had no clue.

There were other photos. A photo in the desert, combined with the orangey shine of the sun. She's posing there in the desert with mountains far away in the background, though it was a bit cold how she looked with her head slightly tilted down. And then there's a picture of her as a shadow or rather a black figure because of the camera position being in the direction of the sun. And then there's the fact that her hair is floating.

Amazing what one could do with cameras. Alessio wished he'd be photogenic. If somebody shot a photo of him you'd probably have to edit his face out and insert Nadia's face instead to make it photogenic.

Oh well, Alessio then looked back at his own desktop. He opened Firefox and thought what he'd do now.

The boy gave his comment, then went back to his computer. Nadia simply nodded and looked back at the blog. Maybe that boy had a good idea. The Route 66 pictures were pretty good ones. She doubted there would be anything exactly like those on Vogue Italia's website, so maybe she had that going in her favor.

"Alright, I think I've got it," she said aloud.

She continued to flick through the photos and other websites for the rest of her time in the library. She had accomplished her goal, so Nadia felt a little better about submitting. Now all that remained was seeing if anything would get picked.

((Nadia Riva continued in I could live in the world just like a stranger))

When Nadia revealed that she had decided which pic it should be Alessio was relieved.

He might have been a helpful person to her.

Alessio then browsed on the internet to find cool games. He aimed for free or cheap games, but could not find any that interested him. Thus, he turned off the computer and left when he was finished.

((Alessio Rigano continued in Bad Days, Bad Moods, Bad Burgers))