User blog:SodaCat/Bullworth Nights - Muse: Chapter 7: Safelight

ngl knowing all about darkroom photography really helps with writing jesse

The days were beginning to chill as Ms. Philips’ 5th period Photography class waited for her to finish handing out the assignment score sheets from the previous week’s photography project.

It’d been a few weeks since Mandy had found Jesse praying in the graveyard, and since then he’d been pretty careful about not praying around her anymore. He knew that Mandy was pretty nosy, and there was no way he was gonna let anybody other than Casey find out about that.

“Nice work, Jesse, 100%,” Ms. Philips praised as she placed Jesse’s score sheet in front of him on the table, smiling down at him. He grinned back at her, sliding in a sly wink, as he took the sheet.

“Why thank you, Ms. Philips,” he replied, sneaking a smug look at Mandy, “I appreciate your complimentin’.”

She chuckled, amused, as she continued passing out score sheets. Jesse peered over at Mandy’s once Ms. Philips’ back was turned, making no attempt to hide his laughter when he saw that Mandy scored only an 84%.

“Looks like I finally got the upper hand, don’t I, sweetheart?” he cooed, crossing his arms over his thick chest in triumph.

Mandy scoffed, rolling her eyes at him. “Just ‘cause you flirt your way to an ‘A’ doesn’t mean you have the upper hand or whatever, loser,” she shot back.

He just laughed harder, his eyes crinkling up as he did so. He leaned forward, grabbing his score sheet before shoving it into his backpack. He then pulled out two film canisters, setting them carefully on the table.

“I gotta make some prints today. You headed to the dark room today?”

Mandy looked over at him, studying his face for any signs of joking. What, was he actually pretending he knew how to make prints?

“You need to develop the film before you start making prints,” Mandy retorted, shaking her head.

Jesse raised an eyebrow at her, a little bit surprised. He opened up the canister and showed her the role of developed film, waving it in front of her pretty face like he would a treat in front of the face of a dog. “It’s already developed, darlin’,” he coaxed, “I did that yesterday while you were doin’ whatever it is you do.”

She watched the film, trying to focus in on what the images were. They’d been photography partners since the year started, yet she hadn’t seen any of his pictures yet. Still, it surprised Mandy that Jesse even knew how to develop film, and hadn’t like, tried to drink the stop or the fixer or something.

Mandy bat his hand away, annoyed. She reached into her own bag and pulled out her own film canister, hastily standing up off of her stool and making her way to the dark room. “Whatever, Tyler, let’s just get this over with. And try not to break any of the enlargers?”

His laughter echoed loudly from behind her, making her smile just a little bit as they entered the dark room. Mandy stood at the entrance for a moment, wanting to get him pretending to bump into her to cop a feel over with, but was instead caught off guard when she saw one of the enlarger lights flip on.

She craned her neck to see what image was lit up onto the blank photo paper, but Jesse stood right in front of it, blocking her view. The timer went off, as did the light, and Jesse immediately turned and dumped the paper into the developer.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Aren’t you gonna get workin’?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her in the dim light of the safelight.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yeah,” she snapped back, grabbing her pack of photo paper and slapping it onto the enlarger table beside the one that Jesse was using, “I mean, we literally just got here. How’d you get so fast?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Jesse shrugged, reaching up to the film carrier and sliding over his film strip, but not turning on the enlarger light to focus the image. “I come here before football practice sometimes,” he admitted, walking back over to the chemical table and moving his picture over to the stop bath with a pair of tongs.

<p class="MsoNormal">She snorted at that, turning on the enlarger light and adjusting the focus knob and elevation knobs so that her lame picture of a tree looked nice and clear on the baseboard before flicking the light off and placing a fresh sheet of photo paper underneath. She set the timer for three seconds and let the light run, before grabbing the photo and making her way over to the chemical baths.

<p class="MsoNormal">In less than a second, Jesse appeared in front of her, hastily turning his photograph over in the stop bath with the tongs. Mandy stared at him, confused and, quite frankly, annoyed, could he not act like such a freak in a dark setting?

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hey, Tyler? Could you like, move?” she demanded, holding the photo paper tight against her stomach. Ms. Philips had told them the first day of class that while the safelight was okay to keep on in the darkroom, it still could expose their photos if they left the paper out too long.

<p class="MsoNormal">Jesse nodded, craning his neck forward so that his hair covered his eyes. He placed the photo into the fixer bath before handing the tongs back to Mandy, and then made his way back to his enlarger to print another photo.

<p class="MsoNormal">Mandy rolled his eyes; he’d probably taken a dick picture or something with his film camera and had decided to give it to some girl. Loser.

<p class="MsoNormal">“So uh,” Jesse mumbled from his enlarger, not bothering to turn and face her, “um… how are you and Ted?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Her hand curled tightly around the tongs she was holding, just barely submerging the photo in the developer bath. “Huh?” Mandy mumbled, distracted, until she realized that a quarter of her photo had started developing. Annoyed, she dunked in the rest and threw the tongs down.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Why are you asking about me and Ted?” she demanded, placing one hand on her hip and sinking into it. What, so now he just acted all weird one week, then knew all about photography, and now he was prying into her social life?

<p class="MsoNormal">Jesse shrugged, approaching her and dropping his photograph into the developer bath facedown. “Just makin’ conversation, darlin’,” he replied, a little bit let down.

<p class="MsoNormal">They stood like that for a moment, staring at each other, Mandy annoyed and Jesse innocent.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Aren’t you gonna see if your picture’s exposed right?” Mandy asked after a minute, desperate for something to say to break the silence with.

<p class="MsoNormal">Instead, he shook his head, reaching into the developer with his bare hand and dropping his own photograph and Mandy’s into the stop, and then taking his earlier photograph and dumping it into the water bath. “I’ve done this enough times to know what I’m doin,” he explained with a wink.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Sure,” Mandy replied sarcastically, swishing her photo around with the tongs. Her eyes wandered to Jesse’s, which he was still swirling around in the water, facedown. What was his deal?

<p class="MsoNormal">“So what’d you take pictures of?” she asked nonchalantly, studying her own picture glumly. A quarter of it was darker than the rest, and it was terribly out of focus. What the hell? It looked so nice and sharp on the light…

<p class="MsoNormal">Jesse shrugged, biting his lip. “Just um, nature and religious stuff. Stuff that reminds me of home, I guess.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Can I see?” Mandy pressed on, raising an eyebrow.

<p class="MsoNormal">Jesse hastily shook his head, grabbing his second photo and shoving it into the fixer. “They ain’t ready. By the way, darlin’, you gotta set the light on the brightest setting ‘fore you go and try to focus it. Otherwise you ain’t gonna see it none too clear.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I know,” Mandy lied, aggravated. Okay, so she didn’t know, but there was no way she was just gonna take Jesse Tyler trying to teach her about anything having to do with a class.

<p class="MsoNormal">He grinned charmingly at her, his gray eyes lit up in a dim orange faze by the safelight, and he looked almost attractive. “Alright, sweetheart,” he replied, grabbing both his photos and dunking them in the water for a second, “whatever you say.”

<p class="MsoNormal">With that, he grabbed his photography binder and film strip and exited the dark room.

<p class="MsoNormal">Jesse 2, Mandy 0.