Pretend This Thread Title is a Witty Lyrical Reference

[MurderWeasel]

((Steven Salazar continued from After the Battle))

It was Saturday afternoon, and it was sunny, which made the situation overall a lot more pleasant than many days in Seattle. Steven was in the park because he'd been watching a baseball game. He sometimes wrote up reports on games completely unrelated to the Aurora Pelicans' endeavors, just to stay in practice. It helped that that also served as an excuse to spend some time watching baseball games. It was by far Steven's favorite sport, and any day spent immersed in it was worthwhile.

Well, unless the match was a horrible rout by a bad team. Today's had been decent, though. The pitchers weren't so good as to create many run-less innings, and the teams had been decently matched. There'd even been a couple rather impressive home runs.

Now, half an hour after the end of the game and a few hundred feet from the diamonds, Steven was fiddling with his camera, trying to get a bit of a better feel for it. His photography was definitely weaker than his writing, and while he normally preferred to get one of Aurora's numerous camera enthusiasts as an assistant, that wasn't really as much of an option when it came to personal blogs. Also, he had the future to consider. With graduation approaching, he wouldn't be able to rely on anyone else being available to help him. Working towards self-sufficiency would also be helpful in case he ever ran across something that screamed out for photographing.

At the moment, he was playing with the macro close-up settings, taking pictures of flowers. This required kneeling at the edge of one of the planters. He was trying to get the camera as close to a pansy as possible, because the zoom function tended to make clean shots harder to get. The flowers weren't that exciting, and he was feeling about ready to head home, but he wanted to get the hang of things just a bit better first.

[jimmydalad]

((Sharon Elizabeth Austin continued from How I Spent My Suspension))

Today was a sunny day, something that was very odd for Seattle. Sharon didn't mind the bad weather of Seattle that much owing to the fact it rained most of the time back in Scotland, but she did enjoy it when the sun was high in the sky. Due to it being the weekend, she didn't have to be in school and owing to the nice day, she decided to go to Centennial Park. Taking her copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" with her, she planned to sit underneath one of the many trees and read, taking in the atmosphere of the park and finding some peace in her book.

With the book by her hip in her left hand, Sharon walked around the park in an attempt to find a nice and quiet place to read, which was quite hard to do owing to the numerous amount of little children that littered the landscape. She let out a little sigh and brushed some hair out of her eyes as she lamented the fact that finding a quiet place would be harder than she anticipated. Looking around, she continued her search for a place where she can get some piece and hopefully drown out the noise of the loud children that she found increasingly annoying.

It was then that she noticed Steven from the corner of her eye. One of her friends, she meshed well with Steven. Both of them had tempers and while his was not as bad was Sharon's, it was still nice to know she wasn't the only person in Aurora High to suffer from anger issues. He also had a sharp time like hers and she always enjoyed his presence whenever he was around. He was also gay, which Sharon didn't mind. While he did receive some flak for not being straight, Sharon did have the tendency to use her mouth of venom alongside him when confronted by bullies. It seemed to work at the time.

"You might want to use the zoom function to make life easier Steven. Then again, the zoom is always crap on those cameras if you don't have steady hands." Sharon commented as she walked towards him and knelt beside him, touching one of the pansies gently with her free hand. She didn't like how industrialized Seattle was and missed the open plains back in her home country of Scotland. The park was really one of the only places where she could see plant life and it was one of the reasons she liked coming to Centennial Park.

"Why you taking photos of plants anyways? You never were good at using a camera. Wasn't your thing gossip?" Sharon asked him amusingly, giving a cheeky smile as she looked at the flowers in front of the two of them. They were so pretty and Sharon had already taken quite a few photos of them in her spare time. Most of them were saved on her laptop that she left at home.

"How's the school gossip coming along anyway? Heard any juicy secrets or happenings?" Sharon asked as she sat down on the floor, adjusting her glasses again so that they wouldn't fall off. She could always rely on Steven to have gossip about Aurora High. He seemed to get around a lot, much more than she did. It was through him that Sharon could gain information about the goings-on at school. She assumed something must of come up due to the imminent arrival of Prom, something she wasn't planning on going to.

[MurderWeasel]

The voice from behind Steven was familiar. Sharon was a cool girl, even not taking into account the fact that she was one of the few people in school who made Steven feel tall. She didn't take any nonsense, and if her temper could run a bit hot, well, Steven wasn't about to call any kettles black.

"I'm taking pictures 'cause none of my favorite photographers are on call," Steven said. "I mean, until now. Also, I figure I should practice so that I can take care of myself a bit, just in case something comes up. The news doesn't wait for backup, and a lot of great photographs have been snapped by folks who were just in the right place at the right time."

He gave her advice a go, sliding the zoom bar and watching the flower grow on the screen. The issue was, his hands weren't the steadiest. He wasn't shaking all over the place or anything, but every little move was amplified by the zoom. Grimacing slightly, he let his elbows rest on his knee, providing a bit of an anchor. This did his stability a world of good, but made it a little harder to get an interesting angle, insofar as there were interesting angles to photograph a pansy from. Steven wondered whether it might not be more unique to take a picture of a flower from the bottom. There were many pictures of flowers, but he'd never seen an ant's-eye view of one.

"The news around school's okay," Steven added. "Nothing really special. I hear someone proposed 'Pimps and Hos' as a Prom theme. Verdict's out on if it was serious or if they were making a joke. Kinda too bad Freeman shot it down, though. We could've made the real news if it'd gone through."

He lowered the camera down, trying to get a shot from under the flowers. It instantly became apparent that he wouldn't be able to aim it at all from that position. Steven lightly bit the inside of his cheek as he set the camera gently on the ground, facing up. He did his best to align the lens where he thought it was pointing roughly at the flower, then pressed the button to capture an image.

"I mean, not in the good way," he continued. "It's probably for the best that Aurora isn't known for having the worst taste in Seattle, but it'd have been something, at least."

He lifted his camera up again, flipped it over to view mode, and examined the picture. It was terrible, blurred and too close up because he'd left the thing zoomed-in, just a splash of green and purple with no distinct form. He gave a little sigh, deleted it, and tried another shot from the conventional above-flower perspective.

"This isn't as easy as you make it look," he said. "What's the secret?"

[jimmydalad]

"It might've made good news, but it would the worst theme for prom ever." Sharon said bluntly as she took enjoyment out of watching Steven try to take a good photo of the flowers. She laughed at how Steven tried to get a good photo and was content to just watch him attempt to get a decent shot of a pansy. She leant forward a little as she set her book down on the floor next to her.

"You do have a point. Not a lot happens in Aurora High School. It's not the most exciting place in the world." Sharon commented casually as she took out her camera and started fiddling around with it. She took some time to look through some of her photos of various things such as trees and benches that Sharon took in her spare time, before trying to take a photo of the flower that Steven was trying to get a picture of.

She laid down on the floor as she investigated the right angle for the picture, listening to Steven's question as she investigated the flower for which side it would look best. After a moment, Sharon kept her hands steadied and focused on her camera, trying to move it so that it would be just right. Her actions were meticulous and her face was serious as she aimed to get a great shot of the flower.

"The secret? You need to have a good eye and steady hands. It's all well and good taking a photo of just about anything. However, if you want to make your photo stand out, you've really got to work for it. Look for the right angle and get everything just- *flash* right." Sharon passionately informed Steven as she took the photo once she was satisfied. Looking at the photo, she put on a satisfied smirk as she showed him the photo she just took. The flower looked as if it was popping out of the image and the colors of the flower were vibrant and radiant.

"That's the secret. But it takes quite some time to get good at it. You probably should stick to what you do best. It'd make your life easier. In any case, I've got some gossip if you're short on some juicy information." Sharon told Steven as she sat back down by her book, thinking back to the incident on Friday in the Castle. Just knowing that Alex and her friends had the balls to confront Alba counted as gossip in her book. However, gossip really wasn't her thing. And she didn't even know the names of Alex's friends. In any case, she might as well tell Steven. He would know what to do with it.

[MurderWeasel]

"Well, what's the secret for lazy people?" Steven grumbled. "I mean, sometimes things happen and there's no time to set up a good shot. At that point, is it just crossing your fingers and hoping the photo god throws you a bone?"

He wasn't expecting much of an answer from Sharon. Words were unnecessary. The photograph she showed him was undoubtedly superior to his efforts, even the ones he'd been pretty happy with. He'd just have to take consolation in the fact that he could probably write circles around her. Of course, that was forgotten with her offer.

"Gossip?" he said. "That sounds pretty uncouth, like we're old ladies talking about the neighbor's meth lab."

He shrugged.

"Not too proud to sound like an old lady, though. What's the scoop? Someone else getting suspended? I heard rumblings about a couple juniors."

Steven doubted that Sharon would have much information about that, but it was as good a stab in the dark as any. Really, he was almost as intrigued by the curiosity of her having news as he was by whatever it was she actually knew. Sharon wasn't exactly the social nexus of Aurora High School, and Steven didn't really think she had the subtlety to snoop with much success. He had a loose idea that she was probably involved with whatever she was about to tell him, but he hadn't heard anything regarding her of late, so it'd be fresh, at least.

Besides, if she was heading for trouble, maybe he could offer some gentle course corrections and save her some pain.

[jimmydalad]

"Yes, because old ladies have nothing else interesting in their lives to talk about." Sharon replied cynically as she smirked at Steven. Sharon thought that she did have a point though. Nothing really interesting happened without gossip. Controversy made the world go round and she was sure Steven was all too aware of that. In any case, Sharon enjoyed gossip. As long as it wasn't mainly about her.

"Do I look like a person who gives a shit about juniors?" Sharon asked Steven as she crossed her arms and stood up.

She adjusted her glasses a little as she began to pace forwards and backwards, trying to put what was in her mind into words. She couldn't make it seem like she was a villain and she also had to take out the part about asking Alex that question. It really wasn't that interesting.

"Well. I was in the Castle and I saw one of Alex's friends confronting that big jerk Alba. You know the boy with blue eyes and sandy brown hair? Well yeah, he totally was all over Alba's ass about the Cafeteria incident which I am sure you covered. After the boy started, he was joined by Alex and that other girl, the short blonde one with the pixie cut and they sorta joined in as well, saying how it was wrong for him to act like that and that he shouldn't be bullying people yadda yadda." Sharon explained to Steven, stretching the truth a little in regards to what actually happened.

"Meanwhile Alba just stands there and doesn't attack back at all and took all of the bullshit the other 3 gave him. It was literally amazing. He didn't even come back with a reply to it all. Maybe he's lost his edge or something? In any case, I had to intervene. After all, I couldn't stand there and let them throw all this abuse at the guy. He's got it bad enough being suspended from Prom and everything. Well in any case, I managed to break up the argument between them." Sharon concluded as she sat against a nearby tree, making sure the shade covered her fully.

"It may not be the most interesting piece of news, but at least it's something." Sharon added afterwards as she opened her book and began reading it. She waited for Steven's response. Hopefully he liked it and hopefully he wouldn't pick up the fact that she stretched the truth in certain cases. Not that it mattered too much though.

[MurderWeasel]

"I've heard of Alba," Steven deadpanned. He knew of most people in his class, but it seemed unlikely that even the most insular hermit in school would have not heard about Alba. The boy had a penchant for making a large impression, almost always of the negative variety. The latest thing had been the food fight, something Steven was still kicking himself for missing. He hadn't managed to track Gray down again, either.

His face went studiously neutral as he contemplated Sharon's description of the situation. Finally, he took a deep breath, then started to speak.

"It's good to stick up for people," Steven said. "It's even good to stick up for people who usually do the wrong thing, if they've changed and don't deserve the flak they're catching. Sometimes, though, it's important to get more context before acting. I mean, it was in the Castle, so Alba couldn't have done much. The security there's pretty on the ball. He'd've gotten bounced if he'd tried anything, so I doubt he was being altruistic. He might even have been trying to goad them into doing something, so they'd get in trouble. Doesn't sound like his usual style, but then again, you can never tell for sure."

Steven stood up, rolled his shoulders, and started sighting with his camera again. There wasn't actually that much of interest in the park. He could try to get a shot of the dirt or something, but his experiments in extreme close-ups weren't going so well. He glanced at the sky, but there weren't any interesting clouds.

"That said, it's probably good for everyone that you broke stuff up. And, well, it's interesting enough news. I think that could even be a headline: Adonis Alba Takes Reasonable Action; Some Rejoice, Others Predict Armageddon."

He looked at Sharon again. She was sitting under a tree, in the shade. He pointed the camera at her, trying to find a good angle for a shot.

"Mind if I snap a picture of you?" he asked. "Then you can tell me what I did wrong with my composition, and we can try to make it less embarrassing."

[jimmydalad]

Sharon laughed heartily at Steven's headline, keeling backwards and accidentally smashed her head against the tree.

"Fuck!" Sharon loudly exclaimed, rubbing her head and ignoring the heads of many parents that turned their heads in her direction. She adjusted her beret which got messed up by the tree and shot a glare over at Steven, daring him to laugh at her. She could feel her anger swelling up inside her and almost immediately, she sat out taking her father's advice, trying to take the reins of her normally uncontrollable temper.

Sharon close her eyes as she took deep breaths, attempting to soothe the flames of rage inside her with calming thoughts. While she hadn't fully mastered the technique, she was still able to control her minor rages to a good extent. However, she had to focus and only think about breathing. By focusing herself, Sharon eventually had managed to keep control over her temper, for now.

As she opened her eyes, she heard Steven asking her to stay where she was so that he could snap a picture of her. She let out an exasperated sigh as she relaxed herself against the tree and once again went back to reading.

"You are really determined to get this picture thing right, huh?" Sharon called out as she tried to remain as still as possible, only moving her arms to turn the page of the book. She did this because she wanted to make it easier for Steven to take the photo of her. She didn't want to make things hard for him and possibly get a blurry shot. Sharon hated blurry shots. They were so annoying, but then again, the thing she hated the most was when the flash caused the people in the pictures to have red eyes. That was really bad.

"I'll see what I can do, be like a mentor of sorts. If I were you though, I'd stick to writing. It's your strong suit" Sharon continued to say to Steven, conversing with him while posing. Sharon felt odd whenever she had a photo taken of her. She was so used to being on the other side that she didn't enjoy having her own photo taken. She'd rather work behind the scenes anyways. That was more her style.

[MurderWeasel]

Steven took a couple shots of Sharon. He didn't think any of them were perfect, but they at least beat his poor showing with the flowers. It helped that his subject was more than six inches tall this time.

"Gotta diversify," he said in response to Sharon's gentle ribbing. "Back in the old days, the people with real talent did everything. da Vinci didn't just paint. He knew all sorts of things about anatomy and engineering. He even invented a tank."

He chewed his lip a little as he examined the result of his efforts. The pictures were clear, at least, but they didn't have any real spark to them. They didn't come alive, didn't speak to him. In a way, they were decent enough, but only in the practical utilitarian sense. They showed Sharon, yes, but they suggested no emotion. They had no soul. It was the difference between a phoned-in, bare-bones article and one where the reporter went out and did extra research and actually cared.

Put simply, his photographs were not art.

"You may regret saying anything about mentoring," Steven said as he flipped the camera around and held it out to Sharon. "Photos seem to fall outside the category of things I can pick up intuitively."

He hoped Sharon would be able to provide some assistance, though he wouldn't be too surprised or frustrated if it turned out to be futile. Steven knew well how difficult it could be to explain artistic crafts. It had taken a few rather tricky sessions for him to get used to offering criticism of his classmates' articles, and he still wasn't perfect at helping them figure out how to shape up.

[jimmydalad]

Sharon walked towards Steven once he had finished taking photos of her, raising her eyebrows a little as he went through the photos. From the look on his face, it was clear that he was not satisfied with the photos he took of her. She could tell his expressions when he saw the photos and her suspicions were confirmed when Steven held out the camera to her, commenting on how she might soon regret being a mentor to him.

"You ain't no Annie Leibovitz, that's for sure." Sharon commented dryly as she took the camera from him and began flicking through all of the photos he took of her. While they seemed to be fine at first, she realized that nearly all of them were lifeless. Steven's photos were just plain and there was nothing that stood out. There was no emotion, nothing that caught her attention and there was certainly nothing interesting about them. They were meaningless.

"Boy do I have my work cut out for me or what?" Sharon muttered quietly to herself as she tried to think of a way to help Steven improve his photos. The problem with art was that it really wasn't a science. There are many ways to approaching it and each person had a way that suited them the most. This was especially true for photography and the problem Sharon was experiencing was trying to convey that to Steven.

"Well Steven, as you can probably tell, your photos suck." She began bluntly as she gave him back the camera. "Your problem is that there is no emotion, no feeling in them. They're dead. They're uninteresting. They're pointless." She continued to say, hoping she wasn't being too harsh with him. It was how she worked. No point in holding back what was wrong with unneeded niceness, even if she was his friend. She chewed on her lip as she thought about what to say next. Art was something that was hard to put into words and trying to do so was not giving it any justice.

"You need to.. umm... "feel" the image you want to take. It's not as easy as just getting the camera and taking the photo. You really need to try to feel and take in all the emotions that you want to convey in the photo. Sure you can take photos without doing so, but as you can see, you end up with photos like yours. You have to feel the emotions first and then try to convey those emotions through the camera lens. That's why I take my time when it comes to taking a photo. That's the difference between a good photo and a normal photo, if that makes sense." Sharon explained to Steven in the best way she could. Sharon wouldn't be surprised if he didn't understand what she was talking about. She'd been taking photos for ages. It just came naturally to her. It was really hard to explain what she did and the process she went through whenever she took a photo.

"That probably wasn't helpful in the slightest, but at least I gave it a shot." Sharon sighed as she sat down next to Steven, touching the grass with the tips of her fingers, making sure she didn't accidentally pull some out. While not in love with nature, she did find it beautiful, especially when it came to taking photos of them. Some of her favorite shots were pictures of flowers and other plants as there was just a beauty about them which Sharon really couldn't put into words. They were just amazing, in their own way.

"In other news, you need help with your homework? I know how hopeless you can be sometimes." Sharon asked him, giving him a smirk as she turned to face him. It was common knowledge that Sharon was smarter than Steven. She guessed that he would need help from her sometime with homework. After all, she was one of the smartest girls in the year. She didn't mind helping out a friend.

[MurderWeasel]

"I can try to feel the pictures," Steven said. He had a vague idea what Sharon was talking about, but only insofar as he could relate it to writing. Sometimes, it was important to get a feel for a sentence, especially when bending the rules of grammar and style. There were very good reasons to drop into informality or slip in awkward constructions, but finding them required a solid base understanding of the right way to do things, as well as more than a hint of stylistic intuition. Most often, the writers who failed were the ones who broke rules just to break rules, or because they didn't understand the rules in the first place.

"And, unless you feel like like delving into the joys of physics with me, I think I'm pretty good on homework," Steven said. School wasn't really that tough for him, on the whole. Science could be a remarkable pain, but that was primarily because it combined the toughest aspects of several other subjects. It had all the complicated rules of math, combined with the unknown variables and starting subjectivity of an English course and the verifiable nature of some bits of history. Messing up in any of these areas could completely tank an experiment or, to a lesser degree, a homework problem. Steven was used to class being fairly easy, and science wasn't like that so much, which made adapting something of an adventure.

Sharon's ribbing probably came because of Steven's complaining about science at some point in the past, or maybe it had its origins in one of his more satirical takes on the academic situation at Aurora. He'd certainly framed himself as less competent than he was on an occasion or two, usually for humorous effect. It didn't really matter.

Steven took his camera out again, looking for something else to try to take a picture of. Almost as soon as he'd centered a tree in the sights, though, he allowed a frown to crease his face. He wasn't going to make any progress without paying full attention, and with Sharon here he wasn't about to pour all of his focus into trying to figure out what composition felt right. Instead, he turned the camera off and tucked it back into its case.

Now free of distractions, he turned his attention fully to Sharon.

"What brings you to the park, anyways?" he asked. "Anything worth writing about? Forbidden romance, perhaps?"

He made sure to keep his tone light and a smile firmly plastered on his face, so Sharon would know he was joking. He didn't want to risk offending her on the off chance she actually was here on a date, no matter how unlikely that seemed given her choice to approach him in the first place.

[jimmydalad]

"Aww Steven, you know how much I love physics." Sharon lightly chided Steven, rolling her eyes as she laughed a little. She knew he didn't really need help with school, but she felt the impulse to ask anyways. She was used to helping her friends out with homework, it was nothing new to her. In fact, she took some delight in helping people out as teaching someone can be great way to reinforce the facts and details and enhance her knowledge of the subject. But that would probably have to be done at another time.

"You finally given up. Thank god. While I love to help you, I'm a crap teacher when it comes to photography." Sharon confided in Steven, letting out a sigh of relief as he put away his camera. As she said, Sharon never really could teach someone how to be good with a camera like how she could teach someone Maths. They were two completely different things and Sharon could never pinpoint just what made a photo great and how to achieve it. She still had quite a bit to learn after all.

At Steven's next question, Sharon turned to him and gave him a look of exasperation.

"You really think I would be the type of person who would be into that "forbidden romance" bullshit?" Sharon asked him incredulously, as if he was insulting her intelligence. In essence, he was insulting her intelligence. To think she would do something as pig-headed as running off for forbidden romance was just silly. She was better than that.

"If you really want to know, I was making the most of the nice weather today. I enjoy reading books here, especially on days like this. Even though the company may not be as good." Sharon answered, gesturing over to the crowds of kids a fair distance away from them. She was not a kid person. She just found them extremely irritating with their screaming and shouting. They gave her a headache.

"So no, nothing worth writing about, unfortunately. What about yourself? You only come to take pictures of shit?" Sharon asked Steven, crossing her arms and lying down in the grass, looking up at the skies and clouds. They were so pretty today. Sharon considered taking a picture of them, but then decided not to. She didn't want to give Steven any ideas.

[MurderWeasel]

"Nah, I was teasing," Steven said. "I know you're not the sort for scandalous affairs."

He rolled his shoulders and moved to the side a little, into the shade of the tree. He'd been standing in the sunlight for a good while, and it was starting to become a little bit too warm for comfort. As much of a novelty as that was this time of year in Seattle, he wasn't about to suffer discomfort just because it was out of the ordinary.

"And I came to watch the game," he said. Then, a moment later, he realized Sharon might not know what game he was talking about.

"Baseball," he clarified. "America's pastime. For a reason."

Steven wasn't sure if Sharon would share his investment in the sport, since he couldn't remember ever bringing it up around her. In fact, he rather doubted she'd have any interest in it. Baseball wasn't everyone's cup of tea, with many of Steven's friends finding his interest as bizarre as he found their total lack of amusement with the sport. He supposed that maybe some of it was that baseball lacked the potential for violence of hockey or football.

It wasn't important. If Sharon had no interest in talking about baseball, Steven wasn't gonna force the topic. Talking sports with someone who didn't like them was worse than not talking sports at all.

[jimmydalad]

At Steven's response, Sharon raised an eyebrow and gave him a confused look. While she could hazard a guess as to what he meant, Sharon didn't want to say anything that made her look like an idiot. She wasn't really into all the American sports that she was offered. Then again, she never was into any sports. They were a lost cause on her and she knew it. That was why she never made any effort to know things about sports.

When he expanded on what he said, Sharon couldn't help but give him a disapproving look. Sharon was not a fan of sports. Never was, never will.

"Oh I bet it's the greatest sport in the world." Sharon started of sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she continued to talk to him. "It's such a shame I really don't give any fucks about the sport, or any sport for that matter." While she did seemed to sound annoyed, Steven was Sharon's friend. She therefore wasn't too angry at him and laughed after she had finished with her mini tirade.

"Yeah, I really shouldn't be the person to talk to about sports. The only thing I really know about sports is Football. Oh wait, you guys call it soccer here don't you?" Sharon  cynically retorted as she sat up, giving up any prospect of reading her book anytime soon. Since Steven was here, she might as well have a conversation with him. He was one of the more tolerable people in her school.

"It's bloody ridiculous that you guys call that bloody sport football. How does that even make any sense? If anything, it should be called Handegg, not Football. Soccer makes more sense as you control the ball with your feet! You people are so strange sometimes." Sharon commented as she let out her frustrations about why American Football could even qualify to be called football. It made no sense to her. But then again, she was in America. She might as well get used to it.

[MurderWeasel]

Sharon cared absolutely nothing for baseball. In fact, she was almost aggressively disinterested in it. Whatever, he wasn't really that surprised. She also had some deep philosophical questions about the naming conventions of American sports.

"I've got no clue why they call it that," Steven said. "I mean, you kick field goals, but that's not really the focus. It's probably just tradition, now."

Really, the naming choices made way back whenever didn't make a huge difference to Steven, but he could appreciate the fact that Sharon was probably playing up how worked up she was. He was no stranger to lengthy, indignant rants about totally ridiculous and petty subjects. In fact, they were one of his favorite writing techniques when working on less serious articles, or even sometimes one where he did have an important point. Hyperbole was very good for making points, because the ridiculous extremes got people laughing but the underlying ideas got them thinking. That's why A Modest Proposal was still being taught, after all.

Steven wasn't quite sure where to take the conversation from here. He wasn't planning on staying in the park too much longer, though he also was in no particular hurry to get home. Since he'd struck out on sports talk and photography lessons, he figured he's wait and see if Sharon had anything she wanted to discuss. He was always up for seeing what was on his friends' minds.