patience is key | the karate kid

xv. kitkat

    Ten minutes pass and the bus pulls up by the school. Daniel tries to leave his seat but there were too many people blocking his way. He awkwardly scratches his head as he waits for everyone to get by, making him the last kid to get off.

    The first thing he does when he steps off of the bus is look around for Kat. He walks down the sidewalk path and takes notice of each bike stand, trying to find her bike. Unfortunately, he doesn't see it anywhere in sight.

     The first bell rings, but Daniel doesn't seem to care. He had about ten minutes to get to class. To him, it was ten minutes to look for his friend.

    But instead, he sees Ali walking alongside another girl. He smiles a little to himself and runs up to her.

    "Hey."

    Ali looks back behind her shoulder and sees Daniel. Her lips curve into a surprised smile.

    "Hi," she said excitedly before noticing the gigantic, boulder-like bump on his forehead. "Ooh, what happened to your forehead?"

    "Oh it's uh, this gigantic, runaway zit."

    "Gross." Says the girl on the other side of Daniel. Daniel looks over at her and laughs along with Ali.

    "Daniel, this is Suzy."

    "Hey."

    "Charm."

————

    Kat flings forward in the front seat as Ace stomps on the breaks of the truck. With the move of the stick shift, he puts the old vehicle in park. Kat catches her breath for a moment or two before unbuckling the seat belt.

    "Do ya need a ride to Orient Express this afternoon?" He gives the girl a toothy grin as she steps out of the truck, still wheezing.

    "No thanks."

    "Alright," Ace nods, he rolls the truck a little bit forward and then stops. "Remember what Dad said, when you're done with work, you come straight home." Kat rolls her eyes and mocks her brother quietly.

    "Hey, there's our Kat!" She hears someone say out loud. She looks around to see who the voice belonged to, then spots Johnny and the guys over at their bikes. Tommy waves Kat over.

    Without any hesitation, she runs over towards the group. Johnny spots Kat instantly and smiles widely, engulfing her in a hug once she's close.

    "Hey, Kat." He says, pulling back to look into her face. "I was starting to get a little bit worried."

    "Why?" She laughs a little, actually happy to see the kid. Johnny shrugs and smiles bashfully.

    "I didn't think you were going to show."

    The two chat, Kat not knowing that her brother was still there, watching silently from inside the truck.

    Ace's eyes grow wide when he sees Kat hugging the blond kid. He snorts like a child and covers his mouth with his hand.

    "Oh my God," He says to himself, still chuckling, "Kat has a boyfriend."

———

    "We're going to the arcade, wanna come?" Ali asks Daniel, clutching her school books to her chest while continuing to walk down the outside hall.

    "Yeah sure."

    "They got this new game I wanna show you." The girl cheeses. Daniel smiles and nods, then turns to look straight ahead. He freezes and has to take a second look to make sure he wasn't just dreaming.

    His smile disappears when he sees that it's true. There, straight in front of him, is Johnny and his gang. Not to mention that the blond had his arm around Kat's shoulders.

    He tries to take note of Kat's facial expression when she's with Johnny. But it became too hard to depict how she must've been feeling in that moment. Her lips curve into a smile, her eyes squint and there are creases by her eyes as she laughs.

    "I, uh, uh, I gotta..." Daniel's voice disappears into thin air when Kat laughs along with the gang. "I forgot something. But I'll catch up with you guys in a minute, okay?"

    Ali's eyebrows furrow as she notices what Daniel had seen. She stops in her tracks and shakes her head.

    "I don't believe it." She mumbles, causing Daniel to slowly join the two girls, again. Suzy shakes her head as well.

    "Kathleen Martin." She hisses between clenched teeth. One of her hands balls up into a fist and hits hard into the palm of her other hand. "That bitch."

    "What?" Daniel asks. Ali turns around and grabs Daniel's forearm lightly.

    "Nothing, let's just go."

    "No, wait, what's wrong?"

     Ali sighs, then turns back around. "You see that girl right there?" She nods instead of pointing, trying to make things less obvious. Daniel nods.

    "That's Kathleen Martin — I'm sure you know, I saw you two talking the other day at tryouts. Anyways, she and I used to be friends."

    Daniel snaps his attention towards her, surprised. "Really?"

    "Yeah. Shocking, right?"

    "Yeah, most definitely," Daniel agrees, then turns the other way, walking down with Ali, "do you have any.. I don't know, dirt?"

    "Tons," Ali nods, "first thing is, she lives with her father and her dim-witted brother Ace in Reseda. Which now I refuse to go to. That place is just the worst."

    Daniel nods, though is hurt. "Yeah..."

    Daniel and Ali continue to talk while walking in the opposite direction of Johnny and Kat.

    While Johnny tells a story about something that happened at the dojo, Kat looks over towards her right and notices what looked like to be Daniel.

    "What? Apologized?"

    "Yeah, the only reason I agreed to go out with was if he'd apologized to you."

    "Woah, woah, Kat, I told you — I don't need to be defended or protected!"

    Kat frowns and can't help but stare at Daniel from afar. She hangs her head down low and closes her eyes.

    "Hey," she hears a soft whisper. She opens up her eyes and sees Johnny, looking down at her, "you okay?"

    The girl hesitates to answer, and then decides to go ahead and nod with a tired smile.

    "Everything's a-okay."

————
author's note.
i am on a rolllllllll