Tim Portland and the Reunion Photos

By Fraser Elsdon

Tim Portland doesn't fit in. He's got an ambitious spirit and a big heart, but hasn't yet found his play in the social order of Coleman High. All that's about to change. Tim is organizing photography for the school's 75th Reunion. When planning goes awry, Tim recruits another student to help him. The only problem is, the other student is an attractive girl in the tenth grade, and Tim is falling in love.

Now Tim has to navigate the unfamiliar territory of first love, photography, and a jealous best friend, all under the shadow of his father's death and his mother's heartbreak. If Tim can pull it off he'll finally have his chance to shine and have found his place at Coleman High.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fraser Elsdon
• Release date: Jan 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301491179

Fraser Elsdon

Fraser grew up in Windsor, Ontario. He studied English and Philosophy at University of Toronto, then acting at George Brown Theatre School. He works as an actor, writer and director. His first work as a playwright, 'VACANT', appeared onstage at the Alumnae Theatre in October 2012. He currently resides in Toronto.

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TIM PORTLAND

AND

THE REUNION PHOTOS

by Fraser Elsdon

Published by Fraser Elsdon

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Fraser Elsdon

Cover Design by LOOP: Design for Social Good

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

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The organization of the high school reunion photos fell on Tim Portland. It wasn’t that Tim had any experience with cameras, or the hiring of photographers, so much as he longed to prove himself to the students and staff of Coleman High School. The reunion was his last chance—it was June now and the badminton season, the fashion show and the school band performance had all come and gone. Tim was involved in all three, but he was always off to the side, behind the scenes, pushed out of view; he was the substitution player, the set painter, the off-key trombone. But Tim knew that everyone was good at something, and maybe photography was Tim’s thing. He would find his place at Coleman High.

Tim was short and plump, a wind-up teddy bear with the fur shorn away everywhere except the top of his head. He had accent grave/accent aigu eyes, which gave him a look of permanent melancholy; when he smiled, you saw all of life—sadness and pain mixed with joy and hope—smeared across his circular face. It was the kind of face you might not look at twice, but if you did, you'd be glad that you had. He sometimes shouted when he meant to talk at a normal volume, and whispered when he should have shouted; he never talked in libraries and he went unheard in a crowded room.

Preparations for the reunion commemorating the school’s 75th anniversary had begun in April. Tim had tried to use his meagre budget to hire a semi-professional photographer but the ones willing to do it for the money were engaged with weddings and funerals. Tim thought it was strange to take photos at a funeral but he didn’t question them. Tim’s mother suggested he take the photos himself.

You’ve got that digital camera, the one Grandpa gave you.

Mom, it’s only 1.2 megapixels. It’s from, like, the nineties.

I don’t know what that means, honey.

The nineties?

Megapixels.

It means how good the pictures will look, so they won’t be grainy.

I think that camera takes fine pictures.

Ugh.

One of Tim’s best friends from elementary school, Kelsey, fancied himself a photographer. Kelsey’s grandpa had also