Chapter One

"I prefer the term: Uncommon."

"Wow, it’s so nice out today" the breeze whistled through the trees and swayed through Leon's hair. "The air smells so clean and perfect," she sighed then sat down on the pier.

"I agree, today does feel pretty great" I replied as I tossed a rock into the lake. I rested my head on my hands and looked up to watch the birds fly over us. Leon snapped a picture of them.

"Wow, I got their silhouettes!" she said then set the camera to review to show it to me. "Isn't it pretty?"

"Yeah, I like it, it’s nice." I pulled the sleeves of my hoodie over my hands as they grew colder. I'm not sure why they were cold, it was weird. It's spring now, April 11th, 2009; 5:46 in the evening.

"Yay! I'm glad you like it...I do wish I could have gotten a better angle though."

"You could always edit it, you know."

"If I did it I'd mess it up!" She laughed, "But if you messed with it for a couple seconds it would look amazing."

"You guys always say that, I'm really not that good. You're all just crazy and blind" I laughed.

"You're the blind one, Kari," she put her camera back in her bag and took out 2 apples. She gave me one then bit into the other. "You know you're good, you just hate to admit it."

"No, actually I really don't think I’m all that good at it, all I do is play around with effects until I get it how I want it...it’s nothing extraordinary."

"Well, it is to us...we can't do it like you." She took another bite from her apple, a tiny droplet of the juice ran down to bottom.

"Well, I still think you're all nuts" I bit some of the skin off of my apple and we floated back into a silence. There hadn’t been much on my mind today, just the usual things, like how pretty the sky is and what a cloud feels like, hoping my cat didn’t poop on my bed, if I remembered to water my flower or wash my dishes, what it would be like to be something inanimate like a rock, and if God really exists.

I sort of was in a daze, staring off into the lake until Leon shook her head at me. "Ya know, I never did understand that about you..."

"Understand what about me?"

"Why you only eat the apple skin and not the whole apple."

"Oh...I don't know either,” I looked down at my apple, tracing the rips in the skin with my eyes. “I guess I just like it." I took out my pocket knife and began skinning the apple.

Once again, Leon shook her head, "You are so weird" and continued eating her apple.

I prefer the term: uncommon.