How I Fly (30 page)

She’s smiling that sweet, upturned smile of hers, and scrunching her face while taking the winning shot that showed the incredible, hovering, and angry bird. I also captured some of the emotion that Ellen captured of the same scene. The little bird is so obviously torn between feeding and guarding her babies, all while staring Ellen down with this look that is only for Ellen that seems to say,
Come one inch closer and lose your eyes.

It is so very obviously the shot Professor Perry featured as Harrison’s yesterday that everyone pulls in noisy breaths in recognition, and then starts whispering. To add nails to Harrison’s coffin, we can all see Harrison in the background. He’s staring down at the lake and not involved in helping with any part of this shot. So he can’t even claim that he collaborated. It appears he’s looking out at the water. Only, because I know the jerk, he was obviously leering at the French girls in their bikinis.

I interrupt the whispering going on in the room with, “Even if I have to say this in front of everyone, and even if this shot makes me look like a shady stalker—then okay. I can handle that. I took these shots of Ellen Foster because aside from the fact that our relationship as a couple was derailed, I’ve never stopped loving her and missing her. Which is what I was doing when I took this shot. Missing her. Pining after her, and being generally a self-pitying, lovesick…yeah…stalker.”

“Aww,” Ellen says, making me smile.

I go on: “And my longing for Ellen Foster, a girl I thought I’d lost to time, to fate, and to someone else—that longing went crazy last week in Grand Bend. She and I were in such close proximity I think I was about to go insane.”

“Which is why he was out to get me! To ruin my life!” Harrison shouts. “Sheer jealousy! And fine, it’s pretty obvious from this that the photo I turned in was not my own. But that was a huge mistake.” He pleads, “Professor Perry, we were sharing a camera. I also took hundreds of shots of that same bird and nest. I must have simply mixed up which shots were mine.”

Professor Perry ignores him and nods at me. “Go on, Cam.”

“Well, when Ellen was taking her shots of the birds, and the sunsets and the shimmering sand while down in the little park, I was up in my room pouting. I don’t have shots of the other photos she took, but if you will accept my word, I can tell you I watched her take the sunset ones. They took her so long, and she worked really hard on them. I got so behind on my work watching her, that I had to miss the bonfire so I could catch up.”

“I’d wondered where you were,” Professor Perry says.

Cam nods. “If you can’t tell from this shot, the view from my dumb hotel room looked over the park where Ellen and Harrison were working every single day, and it was like I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t work for days because they were working in that park. I shouldn’t have photographed her without permission. I know that’s not appropriate photographer behavior.”

Ellen pipes up, “I would have given him my permission. And for the record, the third shot that Harrison turned in—the shot of Cam’s eye and the lake reflecting next to it?”

Professor Perry nods. “Yes?”

“I took that photo without Cam’s permission the first day Harrison lent me his camera. I can’t prove it, but since before Cam and I were even dating last year—back at the beginning of our junior year—I took a stalker photograph of Cam with my iPhone nearly every single day.”

“You did?” I look at Ellen, shaking my head and almost laughing. She nods, beet red.

“I did.”

“Aww,” I say.

“I’m going to puke.” Harrison crosses his arms. “Seriously, puke.”

“Well.” Professor Perry shakes his head, clearly annoyed. “We can all agree that photographing people without their knowledge is rather bad form, and should not be done if one is a professional,” he says while the administrator lady scribbles down more notes.

Harrison shifts in his seat as though he’s actually trying to
see
what the woman with the notepad is writing down. “I hope you’re writing stuff on Cam and Ellen as well as writing stuff about me.
All of us
have broken
so many
rules here. If I’m to have any punishments for what is obviously, again, a huge misunderstanding—an innocent mistake—then they should also be reprimanded and removed from scholarship consideration, that’s all. I only want this to be fair.”

“I will decide what is fair, Mr. Shaw.” Professor Perry shakes his head, and then sighs again, like he hates all of us. I don’t blame the poor guy. “Are you finished with your love story, Mr. Campbell?”

“Well…almost. I just want to address the relationship thing. Where did we leave off?”

Harrison snorts. “You were being a pathetic loser and stalking Ellen from the hotel room?”

“Right. I was taking stalker photographs of Ellen with my telephoto lens so I could stare at her face, which only made me feel sorrier and sorrier for myself—because as you can see”—I nod toward Ellen—”she’s so beautiful. Even right here right now—even with her face all puffed up from crying—she takes my breath away.”

Harrison acts all wounded. “Ellen and I dated the whole summer, and a few days after she and I break up, they’re acting like they are in insta-love. It’s just so
unbelievable
.”

“Harrison Shaw, you will have your chance to speak,” Professor Perry says. “Though these details are rather tedious and possibly unnecessary, after studying this photograph that Cam’s submitted as evidence against you, I think it is in your best interest that you think of some additional facts that might help you, instead of running your mouth in ways that is continuing to anger this advisory board.”

“But how can you use this photograph against me when anyone can see they’re out to get me at this point? Like…they could have easily edited me into this image.”

Ellen cries out, “Harrison! You were there. You know the shots are mine and you can’t snake your way out of this!” To the administrators, she says, “Yes. I dated Harrison all summer, and I know it looks really bad and sounds worse now that we’re sharing all of this awkward information. But—I don’t want anyone to think I’m just the kind of girl that trades boyfriends really fast, because I’m not. It’s only that…all the time I was dating Harrison I was realizing what I didn’t quite understand yet. That…Harrison Shaw wasn’t right for me.”

I bite my lip to hold back shouting out things like:
Because he’s insane. A felon. A TOOL! And because she still loved me!

Ellen continues, “I want you to know—despite the fact that I did kiss this manipulating
con artist
…” She frowns at Harrison. “And despite the whole world pulling us apart, Cam and I were always together. I hope that makes sense, and even if it sounds like teen drama or whatever, he and I are completely real. I love him and I always have.” She shrugs. “That’s all.”

Harrison rolls his eyes. “Again. This is all contrived bullshit.”

I’ve torn my gaze away from Ellen. I know if I meet her eyes right now, I’ll get all shaky. I’m also worried my voice will go wobbly, because—
damn—
I love this girl so much.

Quickly, I add, “I just have one more thing. Before you meet and decide on things like scholarships, and before you look at that list of notes and figure out who broke which rules and what the heck happened here this summer, there is one scholarship that should simply be reassigned.”

“Son. It’s not that easy. You teens have been hitting each other, electronics have disappeared and been broken, students have been sent home, and there’s the question of blatant plagiarism still hanging in the air. This is the worst year in this program’s history, thanks to all of you.”

“Mistakes. All mistakes. What if I take away my charges of these guys bullying me and attacking me with crutches if you could all
understand
that I simply messed up? It was an
honest
mistake,” Harrison begs, again trying desperately to save his own butt.

I stay quiet, realizing that this looks so bad—not only for Harrison, but for all of us. Patrick walked away from campus last night and Laura London’s getting sent back to Ireland.

Professor Perry crosses his arms. “The entire committee as well as all students and parents involved would have to agree that we don’t need to go forward with punishments. We’d all have sign documents to this agreement today. It would confirm the
huge misunderstandings
; otherwise, your grades for this program as well as the scholarship allotments can’t be salvaged.” He glares at Harrison.

“I’m willing to do whatever I can to make sure none of this silliness gets on to my permanent files,” Harrison adds, acting like he’s doing Professor Perry a favor now.

The president of the university finally stands. “Son, no one will be happy if the entire reputation of this esteemed program becomes jeopardized because you all made
very poor choices
. Ellen and Cam, would you also be willing to go off record and not press charges to keep your records clear?”

“I guess I would be okay with that,” Ellen says quietly.

I want to call out a challenge, order them to call the police, but I’ve already heard what the attorneys will do. I already know too much about how the legal systems drag everything out and cost too much money. I can also tell from Ellen’s face she, just like Professor Perry and the entire administrative staff, only wants to be done with this day and with Harrison Shaw.

I nod. “As long as people find my camera and my laptop, and as long as you consider correcting the biggest injustice that happened here this week.”

“Which would be?”

I blink at the university president. “The wrong person won a very coveted scholarship.” I point at the image of Ellen photographing the bird again. “In case you don’t see what I see in this shot—when Ellen Foster is doing what she loves, which is
photography
, her light shines so damn bright anyone should be able to notice it. I just want this photo to prove that Ellen is the real deal, and she deserves a chance to come here and study. Attending this university is her lifelong dream. If you can’t reassign the scholarship to her, then please give her mine.”

“Cam! No.” Ellen flings her arms wide. “I won’t accept. I won’t take away Cam’s hard-earned scholarship.”

I finally risk a glance at Ellen, who’s looking like she has a lot more to say. Her eyes tell me that she sort of wants to kill me for what I’ve said—but she’s smiling at me in a way that confirms just how much she loves me. I smile back, suddenly not caring about any of this. I realize that whatever happens here today—and in our futures—that she and I will always be together. Always. And that’s the only thing that is important.

Professor Perry clears his throat. “Ellen, can you prove any of the other photos I selected to win the scholarship were yours?”

She tears her gaze away from me and nods at the professor. “Yes, sir. If needed, I can try to get copies of those stalker photographs I took in the past. The ones of Cam’s eyes. I’m sure if you do a style comparison, they will prove that the shot submitted yesterday is mine.”

Professor Perry shakes his head. “I was hoping you would say that. And there’s no need. Patrick Gable, our
runaway
student who also broke a ton of rules, forwarded me about five hundred of the shots you are talking about this morning. So many that he crashed my computer. So I would like to confirm to the jury in attendance here that two of the three photos shown yesterday did not belong to Harrison Shaw, and, in fact, are Ellen Foster’s work.”

He turns to Harrison. “Harrison, do you have anything to say for yourself about the third shot or all of this
insanity
that you’ve created? To how much of our valuable time you have wasted? To anything?”

Harrison’s eyes are still staring at the giant screen while his face and voice go all sad and apologetic again. “Well…proof is proof, and you have it. I honestly didn’t know that those were not my shots. I apologize. I’m so sorry, and I hope you will allow me to submit different shots so at least I don’t fail the course as well.”

I snort, but keep my mouth shut, as does Ellen. The guy is so obviously lying, but whatever. It’s his life. He’s going to eventually wind up a failure or in jail—and at the very least, they’re saving a seat for him in hell. As long as he’s going to be out of our lives after this day is over, that’s enough for me.

Professor Perry glances at the group. “All right, then, maybe we don’t have to meet any further, like I’d thought. Harrison Shaw’s just admitted that he’s made a mistake and the shots are not his. It’s pretty obvious Ellen did not attack Harrison Shaw unprovoked, because we all know she was merely defending herself. I move that we remove Harrison from the program today, just how we removed Laura London, but we do allow him to submit different photos. Based on his previous work, I will not fail him. I also propose we give the scholarship in question to Ellen Foster.”

The administrators nod and whisper more among themselves. Finally the lady with notepad nods and speaks up: “We all agree to this solution if
all
lost equipment, like expensive cameras and laptops, are found within the hour. If not, we will resort to the video feeds and press charges accordingly.”

“Oh. I think I might know where Cam forgot a few things.” Harrison nods.