𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞, ph.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀𝐢𝐯. can i take a picture of you?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐢𝐯. —— can i take a picture of you?

— i —

"Okay, everybody please gather around!"

Rome looked up from his phone at the teacher's voice. It was a little after nine and they all just finished their breakfast, still sitting by the tables near the river. The weather was especially nice, the sun was already shining down on them and Rome was able to avoid being annoyed by it only because Pick was sitting opposite to him and blocking the rays of sunshine—turned out the senior could be useful sometimes, even though he probably didn't know why Rome picked this place to sit. But despite the weather, Rome felt terrible; his head felt heavy and he kept sneezing around, interrupting everyone that tried to have a conversation with him. Getting sick when it was so hot outside was just his luck, not to mention the broken camera Rome had a breakdown over when he remembered about it in the morning. Pick made fun of him while Porsche tried to cheer Rome up, business as usual.

"I've noticed that some of you are too distracted to even start on the project," the teacher said once everyone was close enough to hear her without her having to raise her voice. She looked towards the students that threw Rome into the river the previous night, making it obvious who she was talking about.

Rome wasn't really mad at them, they probably honestly thought it was funny to pull a prank on him and didn't want to... kill him, or anything. Rome didn't have enemies in his own major (and he hoped it applied to the rest of the university, too), if he wasn't the victim of yesterday's incident, someone else would probably get wet either way. It was better to think that than hold a grudge and be miserable for the rest of the trip, Rome didn't have the energy for that nor did he want to worry Emma even more; it seemed like lately worrying about him was a part of her daily routine.

"I understand that it might be difficult for some of you because this is the first time we're doing something on a bigger scale. I'm also aware that not all of you had friends who are seniors at our university so you're practically being paired up with strangers, and it's going to be awkward to spend so much time together and take pictures of them. As for the seniors, I also understand not all of you might be used to it and I'm grateful that you've agreed to help my students. I hope you'll guide them so that they can make our university proud once you leave in a few months. I was thinking about how I could help you get started, seeing as this trip was supposed to help you get to know each other and figure out in which direction you want to push your project. So I've decided that I'm going to give you a daily set of words. By the end of each day, you'll have to submit at least one photo on which all those words will be included, along with a short note on how it was to work with each other. From both my students and the seniors."

Upon hearing that most of the students yelled their "oh no, teacher!" in the most disappointed tone ever. Rome kept quiet because he didn't think it's such a bad idea; well, the set of words, not necessarily the note since he doubted he'd be able to be honest. His teacher probably wouldn't be too thrilled to read "P'Pick is an asshole" in the different formats every day.

As if hearing Rome's thoughts, Pick tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

"You know I'm not going to write anything, right?" he asked lazily, leaning a little closer so the teacher wouldn't hear him. Pick smelled nice today but it wasn't his perfume that Rome could often smell on his clothes (usually the ones Rome was wearing), it was his shampoo that Emma referred to as the one single girls buy to feel like they have a boyfriend; whatever that meant.

"Yeah, I figured. I'm just going to write Rome is an amazing photographer and pretend like you wrote it," Rome whispered back, earning himself a light slap on the back of the head.