Stepping Out of Me

5

KIERA

Kiera stood in the doorway as the guidance counselor arranged some papers on her desk. It was finally time for the dreaded monthly check-in at the new school. It was a requirement from the principal when Kiera was allowed to go there based on her behavior at her previous school.

"You can come in Kiera," Miss. Afere stated.

Kiera stepped in and lingered at the chair in front of the desk while Miss. A closed the door behind her. When they were both seated, Miss. Afere said, "It's nice to see you again, Kiera." Her cheeks swelled with a smile.

A strained smile formed on Kiera's lips and her eyes flitted to her lap.

"How have things been going? Have you been settling well into your classes?" Miss. Afere continued.

"Yea..." Kiera shrugged. "Everything's going fine."

"Have you made any friends?" She pried.

Kiera sighed as she looked up at the woman, then shook her head.

Miss. Afere pursed her lips. She took the folder from the side of her desk and opened it. For a while, the only sounds in the room were the pages of the file being flipped and the hum of the air conditioner that periodically turned on and off. Kiera's eyes darted to the clock on the wall, though the hands seemed to be moving extra slowly that day.

"Kiera," Miss. Afere started. "You do realize I need to make a report on your progress throughout the semester? If you say everything's fine then that's all I'll have to write. But it's not really telling."

Kiera didn't reply. She averted her eyes from the woman's concerned face. 

"Kiera, we went through this the last time you were here." Miss. Afere's shoulders sagged. "We agreed no more of this."

Kiera closed her eyes for a second then took a deep breath as she looked up at the woman who had a soft smile on her face. "Um...It seems fine. I sat with some people at lunch one day."

"And who are those people?"

Kiera fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Just some people." She said shortly. 

"Do they have names?"

"Yes..." Kiera groaned. "Halle. And uh...Luca. I don't really remember the others." 

Miss. Afere nodded. "That's good." She paused and wrote some things on the sheets of paper placed before her. "Tomorrow is club day. Do you have any that you'd want to join in mind?"

Kiera shook her head. "No. I haven't thought about it." 

"Well, our school has a very good poetry club." Miss. Afere said cautiously as Kiera's posture became rigid. "You can go there, even if you don't share your work. You can listen to others share. They also have monthly competitions which I'm sure you'd find intriguing."

"I'll think about it." 

Miss. Afere continued asking pointless questions, small talk stuff while Kiera tried her best to not give one-word answers. When the 30 minutes finally ended, she breathed a sigh of relief outside the office. She didn't get why she had to sit in an office and talk about her life with that woman. It's not like she could help her. She was stuck at this school and just had graduation to look forward to. 

Later when Kiera got home, she typed up the last of her part of her English project. She hadn't been to Halle's house since that day so she convinced Halle to let her do it online. Of course, Josie wasn't too keen on this. She thought Kiera was trying to slack off and not do her part.