Chapter 4 – The Shattered Camera

“Hey, Sam. It’s Odd, I got your message on my phone, figured I’d call you when I got the chance. So, did you get any new information about you coming to Kadic over the summer break?” Odd said into the cell phone.

“Yeah. I can come. Since we moved so close to the school, my parents were fine with it. Want to meat me in like fifteen minutes outside in the soccer field?” Sam asked.

“Sure! Oh! Guess what! Ulrich - wait . . . he didn’t want me to say quite yet . . . Yeah, I’ll be there with the gang in like fifteen minutes, see you then, Sam!” Odd hung up.

Odd made sure that he had his room key before slamming the door and skating off down the hallway. Sam was coming. Soon. He was delighted. In less than fifteen minutes, he would be able to hold Sam in his arms again. His Sam. No one else’s. Just His.

He skateboarded along the path towards the soccer field. Sure enough, when he got closer, he could see Ulrich and Yumi still sitting together on the bench under the tree. It was almost as if they were frozen in time. His skateboard wheels made so much noise on the textured path that Yumi and Ulrich detected him coming thirty feet away.

Ulrich glanced up at the approaching Odd. His face wore an ear-to-ear grin. Ulrich instinctively knew that it had something to do with Sam.

In their few years of being together at Kadic, Ulrich learned Odd’s personality very well. He knew that Odd only smiled like that when it had something to do with Sam. This time, he was sure of it, was no different.

“What’s up, buddy? Is Sam coming or something? You’re smiling like a laughing hyena,” Ulrich said, Yumi giggled softly.

“Yea-” Odd started, but was interrupted by the faint roll of skateboard wheels.

Odd scampered away on his skateboard. Ulrich and Yumi rose to watch Odd come to an abrupt stop ten feet away from another human. Sam stepped off her skateboard, and ran to Odd. Odd met her halfway, and embraced her in a hug. It was tough to see the full details, due to the large amount of trees around them. Ulrich grabbed Yumi’s hand and pulled her to another tree, one closer to Sam and Odd. Once they were close enough, they not only had a great up-close view, but could hear everything they were saying.

“Aww, look at that! Thats so cute!” Yumi whispered with a smile. Ulrich looked up to her sparkling eyes, and placed his hand around her waste.

“Yeah, it is very cute. Like you,” he said placing a lingering kiss on her lips. She depended the kiss. Odd and Sam must have detected them because they tiptoed over to Ulrich and Yumi’s tree, where they peered around the tree.

Odd’s face lit up with a smile. He had an idea. Motioning to Sam to follow, he tiptoed to a tree about ten feet from Ulrich and Yumi. He had a perfect view of them, yet Ulrich and Yumi never ended their kiss. Odd pulled out a palm-sized camera.

“One . . . Two . . .” he whispered. “Three!” He snapped the camera button down. “One picture isn’t enough! MORE!”

Click! Click!

Odd zoomed in closer, so that he could get a picture of just their faces.

Click! Click!

“Five pictures are enough, I think, Odd,” Sam said. “Save some space!”

“Shh! I think I see some tongue action!” He stepped closer, and snapped more pictures.

“Oh, well, Milly and Tamiya are still doing the Newspaper, and I figured that an ‘anonymous person’ would ‘tip off’ the girls with some pictures about a certain ‘new’ relationship.” He smiled.

“Odd! Would you like someone to do that to you?!”

“Well, to tell you the truth, I was also thinking about doing the same thing with us . . .  since we are a couple now, aren’t we? I want to.”

“Yes, Odd, we are,” Sam said kissing odd on the cheek.

“Good.”

Ulrich and Yumi broke apart finally. Ulrich gazed into Yumi’s eyes.

Odd tiptoed closer to their tree, trying to get another priceless picture of their expressions. He made one mistake, and started to fast walk.

Crack!

A twig snapped under Odd’s weight. “Shoot!” he thought to himself.

Ulrich and Yumi turned around to see odd in mid-step, holding a camera in his palm. “Odd, why do you have a camera? Were you taking pictures of us? How long were you here for?” Ulrich questioned.

“I, I, uh,” Odd stammered. “About five minutes?” he said innocently.

“FIVE MINUTES!!! Why? Did you take pictures of us . . . kissing?” Yumi interrogated. An innocent, squeaky ‘yes’ escaped Odd’s lips.

“Why would you do that? What are you planning to do?”

“Uh, I . . . I was going to ‘anonymously’ tip off Milly and Tamiya with some ‘secret photos’ and then tip them of with some ‘exclusive information.’” Sam shook her head inside of her hands.

“Odd! Give me the camera! Now! Come on! Give it here!” Ulrich demanded, growing slightly angry.

“No! Catch me if you can!” Odd let out a burst of laughter, and started running around in a big circle. Ulrich rolled his eyes and launched Odd’s skateboard at his feet.

“Whoa!” Thud. Odd hit the ground, and in the process, smashed the camera on a rock. “Aw, you smashed the camera! It wasn’t even mine!” Odd said getting off of the ground and wiping some of the dirt off his face.

“Who’s camera was it?” Ulrich questioned.

“It was mine! That camera was mine and you just smashed it, Odd! Nice going! Now I have to buy another camera!” Sam shouted and stormed off.

“Great going, Ulrich. Now I have to replace her camera! I can’t believe you did that! You could have just asked for it!”

“I’ll buy her another camera, Odd, it was partially my fault that it broke. Go talk to her, she’s gonna be mad if you don’t trust me.” Ulrich motioned to the direction that Sam was walking in.

“Yeah. I’ll tell her that you will replace the camera. I’m not.” Odd turned, waved to Ulrich and Yumi, and ran after Sam.

“Thats so cute. They’re a couple now! But now I have to replace Sam’s camera. Stupid me,” Ulrich said placing his arm around Yumi.

“Your not stupid, don’t say that Ulrich. You will never be stupid.” She leaned down and kissed him lightly. He grasped her hand inside his and they walked off together to the Ishiyama household to check on Hiroki.