Brooke Mills is excited to take a “first day of school” picture at the start of each new school year, just like a lot of other students.

On the first day of seventh grade, she and her mom went outside to take a picture.

A stranger came up to Mills and her mother while they were outside taking pictures by a tree.

Several pictures had already been taken, and everything looked great. Then Mills’ mother saw her son.

“I looked more closely and saw what was there,” the girl’s mother, Joy Mills, told The Dodo.

As the seventh grader preened, there was a snake lying on the tree trunk and looking right at her.

She didn’t understand at first why Mills’ mom told her to go over to her right away.

Mills didn’t find out about the snake in the picture until she was away from the tree and safe. Her mother didn’t want to scare her.

She didn’t know she was sharing her happiness with a stranger.

Mills said, “She couldn’t say anything when she realized what was behind her.” “When we saw the pictures on my phone, we couldn’t believe how close he was and we had no idea.”

It seems the snake wanted some of the attention Mills was getting and decided to get it himself.

Thanks to a nice snake, Mills will have the best back-to-school pictures and story in her class.