"Um...hello, Ms. Harlow. Sorry for disturbing you, but um...I was wondering...by any chance...can I get an autograph?"
"Sure?" I tried not to shrug as she squealed and handed me the card that had the newest images from the photoshoot we'd done for the Witchling Games. With the games being three months away, the school was promoting hard and it was clearly working.
This morning, the official round of posters, advertising cards, and special invites to the Witchling Games were officially sent out. This year's games was one of the most hyped in years.
Miya and Mia had explained after researching it that every few years they made the games like a competitive Olympic event. It was normally determined by the magic council during a year they deemed to have enough exceptional seniors to hype it up.
Clearly, this year was going to be that year because the moment it was announced, it broke the official website with so many views and so much traffic that they had to shut it down and get a second company to assist with increasing the volume the website could handle.
Which broke shortly after.
I didn't think of it as a big deal when we were taking the photos. We all talked about it the evening we signed the contracts with Professor Phoenix, Master ZenSu, and Conner's coach. I had no clue what his name was since everyone simply called him Coach, but he seemed excited for us and volunteered to drive us the day of the shoot.
I emphasized that all shoots would at least have the guys’ presence on the sidelines, and they made sure the crew knew I wouldn't be taking anything too "sexy". I didn't think it mattered much seeing as anything with you in a sports bra and shorts could be deemed "sexy", and with some drenched strands and the perfect pose to display all the perfect lines in the right lighting, you had a seller in the realms of sex appeal.
I wasn't the only one grabbing the attention of half - if not seventy-five percent - of our city’s attention. The guys were each photographed alone in various prompts.
Jax's photoshoot had him shirtless in what had to be the hall entrance to a stadium with flickers of light accenting his muscled chest, magic tattoos, and solid abs as his hair was left down in its slightly flaming glory. One eye was burning with various warm tone colors while the other was black, which left me wondering if it was an added aesthetic, or if Jaxsin had made a slight appearance during the shoot.
Connor's shoot had him in the center of a gym, glistening in sweat as he "prepared" for the games. I personally felt they just did that on purpose to grab interest, but I certainly requested a few copies of that for saving. They'd requested for him to dye his hair a specific ice silver with bits of lavender purple that gave me sort of lightning vibes. I personally loved it, and that was why he decided to keep it for a while.
Kaito's photoshoot was centered around a room full of cheering fans, and he was in traditional fighting attire that showed a good chunk of his muscled chest. He wore a sash of white that went along his chest diagonally and was tucked into the loose black pants that reminded me of Japanese fighting attire that Kaito occasionally wore. He had two of his blades in his hands while the third one was positioned so the hilt of the sword was in his mouth, like that classic anime people were still fond of.
It clearly sent the ratings of the anime back up, with the bonus love of men with long hair trending on multiple platforms thanks to the way they styled Kaito's hair that was blowing in the wind in the photograph.
Finnick's shoot was not only the most creative in my opinion but really made everyone realize how damn hot my normally conservative boyfriend was. I was honestly curious if he'd be willing to go shirtless for the shoot, but to our surprise, he was more than happy to play with the trend and it didn't disappoint in the slightest. It was an aerial shot that had him almost doing a cartwheel in the air, but he had his bow and arrow out and ready to shoot at the opponents below. He'd used his wind magic as a prop, which made his hair and clothes fit the aesthetic perfectly while the threads of teal from his magic that spun around him only finished the look entirely.
Once the shoot was done, I literally couldn't help but be proud of my boyfriends, because I felt like this was something way out of our comfort zones and yet we killed the shoot. The crew was talking about it nonstop, and with us being the first shoot for our school district, I had a strong hunch the other schools that were coming in for their shoots for the games were going to get an earful about how amazing our session was and raise the bar.
Miya and Mia were rewarding me with floor-to-ceiling posters of our images, even though I had no clue where we were going to put them, but I wasn't going to say no to seeing my four sexy boyfriends on my walls.
Regardless of the madness this photo shoot was about to conjure up in terms of our popularity, it was a good distraction as we began to prepare for the competitions.
Reaching for one of my thicker markers, I accepted the poster and signed it. "Here you go," I said with a smile before I rose up to gather my stuff.
"Thank you, Ms. Harlow." She had to be one of the juniors who just sneaked into the class to get my signature. I could see a group waiting outside as if they wished to be as bold as the girl, who seemed rather shy at first glance, but I purposely gathered my stuff and headed over to Professor Phoenix, who was awaiting my approach.
"Ready for today's session?" she inquired.
"Yes," I answered with a slight smile. "Though we may have issues going out."
She actually laughed, which caught the remaining students’ attention since Professor Phoenix wasn't the type to express her emotions during class.
"We don't need to go that route," she assured me as we waited for the remaining students to leave. The last student waved goodbye as she closed the door at Professor Phoenix's request and told her if anyone asked, we were having a meeting.
"Well, how does it feel to be famous?" she inquired as I sat down on one of the front row desks.
"I'm not sure how to feel yet, but it may become a hindrance," I admitted.
"Yes and no," she admitted. "Yes, because you're going to have a lot of people asking for your autograph, and no because there'll be a lot of attention on you, which means our hidden enemy has to be careful not to step on an explosive."
"You have a valid point," I admitted and sighed. "I haven't told the others about me visiting Elijah yet."
"That's surprising," she acknowledged. "Why? Are you worried they'll object to the idea?"
"I'm not sure?" I honestly had no clue why I was finding it difficult to share. "It's not like I'm doing anything wrong."
"You're afraid it'll affect the current dynamic in your relationship," she guessed, which seemed to make me slowly nod with a nervous expression.
"I mean, it's not like I still have feelings for Elijah or anything, and I'm not doing it out of pity either. I just hate seeing him that way and since starting, we've seen some progress."
"Major progress, actually," she acknowledged. "His brain activity is up today."
"Really?" I grinned at the news as my heart leaped with joy. She nodded and looked at me with relief in her pink eyes. "They sent the report this morning, but I knew you would have been a little tired from practice yesterday."