"The Earth has music for those who listen." -- William Shakespeare.

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Sam breathed in the fresh air and listened to the peaceful sounds around her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment. Treasuring it. Memorising it.

There was slight rustling of the leaves from the cool breeze. The birds were chirping different tunes and water could be heard in the distance.

These calming sounds eased Sam's mind. She opened her eyes and saw a magnificent bird swoop down and sit on a tree branch in front of her, unaware that Sam was sitting a few feet away from it.

She slowly moved into a more comfortable position and gripped her camera -- a Sony RX100 -- that was hung around her neck and positioned it so that she could take a clear picture of the bird. She recognised it, but could not remember what kind of a bird it was.

Its wings were big and looked heavy yet fragile, it had a body not too big nor too small that was covered in multiple colours. Its feet had long, extended claws protruding from it that was gripping the branch it was standing on. Its beak was long and sharp; it was orange and darkened towards the ending and the tip of the beak was black.

Just as the bird looked straight at Sam with striking green eyes that stood out -- despite the plants behind it --, it then spread its wings to take off, and Sam took the picture.

She smiled in satisfaction as she looked at the image, amazed at the beauty and perfection of the bird.

She looked up just as the bird flew out of sight and stood up, knowing at she had -- once again -- spent more time here than she had planned to. She glanced at her watch which told her that it was 6:45 am.

She turned around and walked back the way she had come to return home. She knew that Ian would be waiting impatiently for her.

She walked a little faster as the house came into view. Just as she was about to open the door, it opened itself and her impatient Uncle stood behind it. He gave her a look that said 'again' and sighed before walking out and locking the door. Sam stepped back a little to give him more space.

"Come on, let's go," he said and started walking.

"Okay. Sorry for making you wait," she apologised.

"No, it's okay. Don't worry about it."

Since Transville was a small town, it didn't take long to get to one place to another, thus it being the reason her Uncle walked to work everyday.

Sam looked around at the other shops as they made it to The Square. The Square was where most of the shops were situated, as well as Ian's shop, The Photo Story.

They made it to the shop in what seemed like a minute and he unlocked the shop, going inside and Sam followed.

Ian walked to the back and switched everything on. He came back and looked at his watch and then at the clock that hung on the wall.

"The staff will be here now. Let's just get you sorted out first. It'll make things easier. Come on."

Sam followed him and they went through the back door where she had found him working the previous day.

"Okay, so you know what to do and things so that's not a problem. Um, I'm busy with some pictures that were ordered, but other than that, there's nothing I can think of," he said.

"Okay, so what can I do, then?" Samantha asked.

"You can help the new staff I have -- there's quite a lot of them -- and if you want to, you can take pictures for samples of albums, prints et cetera for buyers," he said.

"Okay."

He looked up, surprised. "You okay with that?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh, nothing. I just thought you'd want to do something else," he said.

"No, no. I couldn't have asked for something better to do," Sam replied and gave him a smile. "I'll be in the front."

Sam walked out of the back room and went to the front, sitting down on one of the comfortable chairs that were placed by one wall and decided to wait for the staff to come.

About five minutes later, a boy around her age entered through the door and went to the front desk to sign in, unaware that Sam was there, watching him.

He had messy brown hair, most of it covered by a cap and had a long face. His eyes was a dark brown with short lashes and bushy eyebrows surrounding it and his complexion was slightly pale. He had an average height and broad shoulders.

Sam watched silently as he signed in, let out a sigh and pulled his cap off. He turned around and leaned against the counter behind him, only then noticing Sam.

She noticed the surprised and slightly embarrassed look that crossed his face as he looked at her. He looked dumbfounded and Sam couldn't understand why. She gave him a small smile and stood up, amused by his expression.

"Hey, I'm Samantha, but you can call me Sam," she greeted him.

She watched as he struggled to find words. And after a short while he replied, "H-hey. I-I'm, uh, Lucas."

Lucas couldn't find anything better to say. His attention was on her eyes, which took his breath away. It was a dark green -- not too dark that it looked brown -- and had flecks of a lighter green in them and was bordered with two rings of black. Her lashes were long and cast shadows over her cheeks, creating a sort of shield around her eyes. He could see her eyes clearly even though he was standing quite far from her. He had never seen eyes more beautiful than hers.

She gave him another smile because of his stuttering. She couldn't understand why he looked so nervous all of a sudden.

"You work here?" she asked him.

He seems to have composed himself and gave her an answer.

"Yeah. Only started yesterday."

"Oh, okay. That's nice. How is it?" she was suddenly curious.

"Um, it's nice, I guess. Lot's of things to do around here," he replied.

"I can imagine," Samantha smiled.

"So what brings you here?" he asked her.

Lucas started feeling more comfortable around her. She seemed like a nice person to talk to and he wasn't nervous anymore.

"Oh, Ian is my Uncle. I decided to work here from today," she said.

He nodded, not knowing what else to say.

Just then, the man himself appeared behind Lucas and smiled at Sam. "I see you've met Lucas, Sam. He only started yesterday, so maybe you could show him around, teach him how to do stuff," he suggested.

Lucas turned around when he heard his boss and greeted him.

After that, Sam took Lucas around the whole shop. She showed him how to do things and what to do at each area. She repeated things he didn't understand and let him do a few for practise. She also met the other staff -- all of them were friendly -- and introduced herself to them and got to know them, too.

By the time she had completed everything it was already well past midday and her stomach grumbled, telling her to feed it.

Lucas laughed and Sam felt herself getting hot from embarrassment. Lucas noticed her discomfort and stifled his laughter.

"Sam, don't worry about it. It happens to everyone and I'm hungry, too," he said, trying to rid her of her embarrassment.

"Yeah . . . ," Sam wasn't sure how to respond to that and in the end just settled with, "Okay."

Sam's stomach grumbled again and Lucas had difficulty trying to hide his laughter this time. As if on cue, Samantha's Uncle walked in with a big paper bag in his hand.

"I brought some food. Figured you guys would be hungry since you skipped lunch break earlier," he said, placing the bag on the desk in front of them.

Sam sighed, only realising now that they had missed out lunch break without knowing it and thanked her Uncle.

The three of them sat around the table and began eating in comfortable silence, satisfying their hunger. By the time they had finished, it was almost time to close the shop and Sam sighed; she had really enjoyed her time here.

"You good now, Luke?" Ian asked Lucas, referring to his work.

Lucas nodded. "Sam helped a lot. Showed me how to do everything properly."

Ian smiled. "I didn't realise I kept you here a lil longer than the others. It's a few minutes past closing time. You can go home now. I'm sure you're tired," he patted Lucas on the back.

Since their studio was not busy, that meant that they could close earlier than shops usually do -- at 2:00 pm.

Lucas nodded and turned to Sam. "Thanks for the help."

"Not a problem," she replied and smiled. She was glad to have helped Lucas with his work.

Lucas left the shop not long after and Ian started closing the shop.

"What were you doing this morning that made you late?" he asked as if he had just remembered it.

"Oh, I was out in the forest, taking pictures."

Sam always thought that it was a gift to have a forest only a five minute walk away from the house. Her eyes lit up as she remembered the picture she had taken that morning in the forest. She wanted to show Ian the picture, but remembered that she left her camera at the house.

"I wanna show you the picture I took. It was of this bird. And the bird looked amazing," her mind wandered off to the bird she had seen and she forgot that her Uncle was still in the room.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said and she snapped back to reality.

They switched the power off and locked the doors. They walked down the streets -- only a few people were out, most of them were gone away -- and made it back to the house in no time.

Sam went upstairs to her room so that she could show the picture to Ian and after a few minutes of him staring in amazement at the picture did she take it away. She wanted to take it to the shop tomorrow so that she could edit it and print it out so that she could add it to her collection of her best pictures. She also wanted to draw it -- she was pretty good at that -- and add the drawing into her book.

Most people said that she developed her drawing skills from her cousin, Ian and Anne's son, Jeff, who was amazing at drawing. He could draw anything perfectly out of memory, by looking at it only once, or by creating the image in his head.

Everyone thought he'd become a professional but instead he developed a passion for cooking and baking -- he's amazing at that, too -- and somehow adds art into his work.

After all, anything and everything can be art.

He moved into the city and lives with his girlfriend in an apartment. He earned money by working in a restaurant and about a year or two later he opened his own restaurant that was successful even up until today.

Sam sighed as she thought of her elder cousin, who she looked at as a bigger brother. She missed him a lot; she hardly ever sees him now.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard Ian calling her from downstairs. She ran down to see why he had called her and sighed as she took notice of the mess he had made in the kitchen. Some things were on the floor and chairs were pushed around. Other things were broken and were laying in pieces on the floor.

He had a guilty expression on his face as he looked at her. A broom and a scoop was tightly gripped in both his hands.

"I'm sorry, Sam. There was a mouse and I-I freaked out. Sorry," he apologised.

Sam knew that he had some sort of fear towards any rodent so she sighed and forgave him. She got to work and picked up things from the floor and cleaned it, put the chairs neatly in place, took the broom and scoop out of her frozen Uncle's hands -- who still had a guilty expression on his face -- and placed the broom in the corner, taking the scoop outside so that she could get rid of the mouse that was in the scoop.

She went back in and put the scoop away. She put her hands on his shoulders and led him to the lounge, where she made him sit down and calmed him down, making him relax. She switched the TV on for him since there was nothing else she could think of, trying to make him forget about the mouse.

After washing her hands and making sure she didn't miss anything, she returned to the lounge to inform him that she was going to bed.

Sam was tired after the long, tiring day. She had a hot shower, and slipped into bed. She tossed and turned until she found a comfortable position and relaxed, sinking into the soft mattress. She fell asleep after a few minutes, the last thought on her mind was of her Uncle who was sitting downstairs, probably still thinking about the mouse instead of watching whatever was on TV.

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Croc