LAUREN'S POV
On the way to the studio, Y/N and I didn't really exchange any words. She stayed quiet as she drove and I continued to stare at her side profile in a daze. I just wondered how someone could be so goddamn attractive.
Before I knew it, Y/N was pulling into the parking lot of the studio. She parked the car and turned it off before jumping out. I grabbed the handle of the door but it was opened by Y/N who had a smile on her face. She held out her hand for me to take.
I blushed and took her hand, the feeling of butterflies taking over my whole body. She let go of my hand though once I was out of the car and I instantly missed the feeling. Y/N led me into the studio and it was utter chaos.
There was so many people all running around and doing different things. I watched in amazement as everything was going on. My mouth was agape as I looked at every little crevice of the studio. A hearty laugh sounded next to me and I looked over to see Y/N looking at me. I totally forgot she was the reason we were here in the first place. I smiled brightly at her. "Thank you so much for bringing me here. This is like a dream come true."
"Oh it's my pleasure." Y/N returned my smile. "Take it all in though, you're going to be working here. If you want to of course."
"Is it always this busy?" I asked incredulously.
"You haven't seen anything yet." Y/N's smile turned into a light smirk. "Come on, let's go meet Ally."
The taller girl led me through a serious of hallways where numerous people were still buzzing about. I couldn't even count the times Y/N or I got bumped into by people who either weren't paying attention or they were in too much of a hurry to care. It was just as I imagined.
"Hernandez!" Y/N shouted. I saw her looking in a certain direction but I didn't see anyone turn in our direction. "This is Lauren Jauregui, she is a student of mine who is interested in an apprenticeship." I was still looking for who she was talking to when a small body wrapped around me. I looked down to meet light brown eyes and a smiley face.
"Hey! I'm Ally Brooke Hernandez and this is my studio. I heard you were interested in photography and possibly becoming an apprentice." She smiled brightly and happiness was just radiating off of her in waves. It was just contagious.
"Yeah, I was hoping I could." I smiled back shyly.
"Well I understand you brought some of your pictures, correct?" Ally asked. I nodded and looked over at Y/N who already had my picture in her hand.
She handed the photograph to Ally and stepped off to the side. I looked at her for reassurance and she gave me a smile, easing my nerves. When I looked back over at the short girl she was surveying my picture over and over.
"Woah this is crazy. You said she was your student?" Ally asked Y/N. The teacher nodded, a smile still on her face as Ally turned back to me with a look of surprise on her face. "Wow! I would love for you to be an apprentice here! We could really use this amazing talent."
"Oh well thank you but I still have a lot to learn." I blushed. In all seriousness my heart was beating extremely fast in my chest, this was my chance. My chance to do something for myself for once, something to help me out. I was even more excited knowing I would get to work alongside Y/N in this.
"That's the whole point of the apprenticeship, honey." Ally giggled. "Plus I'm sure this one over here will help you as much as she can while you guys are in school. She's one of the best." She motioned to where Y/N stood. I nodded and laughed a little bit as Y/N waved at us.
"Since it's Thursday, I suggest coming in next Monday to see what we can start you out on. For now, I want to see how well you can mount this picture." Ally smiled. What.
"I know you probably don't know how to do it but I'll have Y/N teach you before you guys leave. Also, I want that picture back fully mounted before you leave."
"Okay I'll get started on that right now." I smiled at Ally once she gave me my picture back. Before I even knew it she wasn't in front of me anymore, she was one of the numerous people now running around the whole studio.
Y/N walked up behind and smiled. "What did she say?" She asked.
"She wants me to start Monday." I gasped once Y/N picked me up in her arms and spun me around.
Once she put me down she sheepishly smiled and rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry I'm just really excited for you. And I always forget that I'm a teacher now and I can't do shit like that. Oh sorry." She apologized, especially for cussing.
"It's okay." I whispered, a blush burning my face. "But Ally also said she wanted me to mount this picture before we leave."
"Oh okay. Let's go to the mounting station then." Y/N motioned for me to follow her as she lead me into a whole 'nother hallway.
We stopped in an empty room with numerous machines that cut, sized, and organized different boards. The boards themselves were different colors and sizes which were also cut differently. It was crazy how they could have all these options for just one picture. "How do I pick?" I turned back to Y/N who was already staring at me.
My eyes dropped, hoping she wouldn't see my blush. "Honestly, that's up to you. The only thing I can teach you is is to cut the boards themselves." Y/N spoke quietly and shrugged.
"You can't even give me some help?" I pouted. Y/N laughed and shrugged.
"The only help I'll give you is to follow what you want to do. But personally, I look at the difference in lights and darks. If the picture is really light, then go for a black board, and if it's dark, a white one."
"What do you recommend?"
"I honestly shouldn't be the person you're asking because I actually didn't follow any of what I told you, that's just what I was taught. If my pictures were dark I'd use a black board and if it was light or super colorful then I'd use white."
"God you really aren't the person I should be asking." I playfully rolled my eyes. Y/N pretended she was hurt but she waved it off with a laugh.
"Okay so did you find one you wanted to use?" She held up a black board and a white one.
"I think I'll go for the darker one." I pointed to the one in her right hand. Y/N nodded and handed me two black boards and motioned me over to the cutting station.
"So how we start off is, we find out the size of your picture. Normally we use eight by tens but just in case." She held out a ruler which had zero in the middle and ended on seven on both ends.
"This is a centering ruler, so if each edge ends on ten. Vice Vera's with the eight. Now we check the boards the same way to make sure the person cutting them didn't fuck up- oh I'm sorry." Y/N caught herself cussing again with a bashful smile.
"Anyways, you make sure they didn't mess up. Now to find the dimensions." She grabbed a blank piece of paper and put it in front of me.
"What's fourteen minus ten?"
"Four." I answered. Y/N nodded and pointed to the paper in front of me.
"Write it down. Divided by two?"
"Two." She motioned for me to write it down again so I obeyed.
"Now add a quarter inch and that's how much you measure in the board. So if it's landscape, then it's two and a quarter inches on the top, and two and a half on bottom because no matter what, you always add another inch on the bottom. These two dimensions will be on the top and bottom while the other ones are on the sides."
"Why do you add another quarter inch to the bottom?" I asked.
"Our eyes tend to do this weird thing where even though it's equal on all sides, or centered, they think the picture or window in this case is too low. So to prevent that we add a quarter of an inch."
"There's a lot more technicalities with photography, isn't there?" I giggled. Y/N smiled and nodded.
"Exactly. So to find the other dimensions you take ten minus eight and take each step the way we did the first time. Remember though, only add one quarter inch to each side." I did the math really quick and came up with one and a quarter inches on the sides.
"Okay now that we have that done, keep that in mind when we start cutting the board. Personally I like to use the push blade rather than the pull blade because I don't like the idea of facing a blade towards my body." I giggled along with her.
Y/N took the boards and put one to the side before flipping the other over. She pulled up some weird lever thing before placing the board on the machine. She adjusted two knobs and adjusted another sliding bar thingy. I didn't even know what was going on right now to be honest.
"I start out by doing all the dimensions first and marking them but like I said, all of this is up to you. I mark which one is the bottom and everything with a pencil and go from there. Then when you cut, go a little over the line so you don't rip off the board and leave those corner things."
I took over by adjusting the slider thing until it was on the inch and a quarter mark. I ran the pencil across the board and the slider thing to make a straight line. I repeated the process on all the other sides, remembering to adjust each one to fit the right dimensions.
"Okay what do I do now?" I asked Y/N who was originally playing on her phone. She put her phone away and looked to see where I was in regards to the mounting boards.
"Just pick your blade and cut." She shrugged, grabbing a certain blade. "If you want to use a push blade you can use this one. Just cut past each line so the middle of the board just pops out."
She walked over and pulled the lever thingy down, connecting the blade to it and sliding it a couple times to make sure it was connected.
"If you would do the honors." She motioned to the machine and I giggled at her childish demeanor. "Oh I should say, don't just cut the whole side off. I had someone do that once and it was probably one of the most irritating things ever."
"Okay, I'll try not to." I playfully shrugged. I partially stuck my tongue out the side of my mouth in concentration as I tried to figure out where the blade actually came out.
Once I saw it I slowly moved it across the board, the only sound in the room being the cutting noise. I repeated the process on the other side but I had to readjust the sliding thing on the inside to cut the top and bottom. Once I was done, the middle fell right out just like Y/N said it would.
"Good job, now keep it backwards and place the top just above to other board." I followed Y/N's orders as she walked back towards me with a roll of tape in her hand.
"Go ahead and tape the two boards together. Then place the picture in the middle and flip the top down. (😉) Once you do that adjust the picture until none of the white edges are showing and put the roll of tape on it to keep it there while you flip the top back up." Y/N ripped off four smallish pieces of tape and put them on the edge of the counter before handing the roll over to me. I did as she said and waited for her to give me the next instruction.
"So we're going to rip four small lines of paper and fold them to make some makeshift corners to put on the picture. Then tape them down."
"Why can't we just tape the actual picture?" I asked.
"Well technically this is called archiving your picture meaning you will hold it for a long time. The tape will cause the picture to turn a different color because of the chemicals. The paper just prevents that from happening."
"There's so much that goes into this." I stress causing Y/N to chuckle.
"It'll get easier the more you do it." She shrugged. I folded all the strips of paper and placed them on the corners of the picture before taping them down. I used my fingernails to make sure it was securely on there. I flipped the top board down once I was finished and held up the finished project.
"You did really good." Y/N commented from behind me. "It's nice. We can go give it to Ally then leave this place." I nodded and followed Y/N back out into the hallway so we could find Ally once again. Apparently she was in the middle of a photo shoot so Y/N just gave my picture to one of her assistants.
"Are you ready to go?" She asked and I nodded.
We walked out of the chaotic studio back into Y/N's car where she held open the door for me once again. I blushed for what seemed like the millionth time as I sat down in the passenger's seat. Y/N pulled out of the parking lot before turning to me as we stopped at a red light. "Do you need me to drop you off at your house?" She offered.
"No it's okay, you can drop me off at the school and I can walk from there." I shook my head.
"That's not happening. Just give me directions to your house, it's okay." Y/N turned back to the road as the light turned green. I knew there was no winning with her so with a sigh, I gave her directions to my house. When we pulled up I wasn't surprised to see my parents' cars gone.
"Thank you again, for all that you've done. I can't thank you enough it seems like." I blushed.
"It's okay I'm glad to help." Y/N smiled. "And you don't need to thank me, I'm only doing my job."
"Well you didn't have to help me get an apprenticeship." I raised an eyebrow playfully. Y/N shook her head with a laugh.
"Really, Lauren, it's okay." After that I didn't really know what else to say so the silence became a little awkward. I decided I should just get out.
"Well thanks again, I'll see you tomorrow." I whispered, a blush heating up my cheeks.
"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow Lauren." Y/N smiled one last time before I stepped out of the car. I waved before walking up to my front door.
I noticed that once I had the door open, that's when Y/N backed out of the driveway and took off. I smiled to myself and locked the door behind me as I went into my room. I set my stuff down on the floor and flopped onto my bed, happiness still taking over my features. This really is going to be one hell of a year.