Kaia's POV
"Kolton come on!" I yelled bagging his lunch into a brown paper bag.
"Coming!" He cooed back as he ran through the hallway and into our kitchen. Looking into the brown bag he scrunched his face up. "This banana has brown spots on it" He said and scrunched the bag back up and shoving it into his bag.
"I know, but I don't get paid until tomorrow. That's the way-"
"The leaf falls, yeah! yeah! every morning bro." He said slyly.
Rolling my eyes, I smiled. Moments like this is when I think I would not trade my life for anything.
"Oh shut up, now go say by to Dad" I said and shooed him off as I packed my laptop and book into my bag. Following Kolton into the living room.
After my Dad returned from Afganistan he has never been the same. I still can't understand what really happened. But he is in this catatonic state that stops him from being independent. It made him non-verbal and crippled. He lives in his wheelchair twenty-three hours of the day. His carer, Janice, comes everyday at eight am to watch Dad until we get home. On Tuesday's and Thursday's the night carer, Marlin, fills in for Janice when I am at waiting at Wendy's Diner. Dad gets a veteran wage every fortnight, but that is only enough to pay rent and for his medicine. I work to pick up checks to feed Kolton, and to pay for my car.
"Bye Dad! I love you!" Kolton said as he signed to Dad. The doctor said that their is a lot of chemical imbalance in Dad's brain that ultimately caused for the loss of his hearing. We taught him sign language in the early stages of his hearing loss. He cannot sign back, but always flashes a smile to acknowledge us.
I kissed his forehead, "Goodbye Dad! I love you so much! We will be home after school. Have a great day!" I signed as I spoked to him. He opened his hand, gesturing me to place my hand in his. He would always plant a kiss on my hand every day before I left, but lately he has lost more co-ordination and became more stiff and less mobile. I saw him struggling to lift my hand up so I assisted him, pulling our hands towards his face. Placing a gentle kiss on my hand and squeezing my palm tight he smiled cheekily at me. I smiled back, before signing "I love you" once more.
The drive to school was thankfully short. Although we pass through the wealthier neighbourhoods, Kolton and I always make conversation of how that is going to be us one day. Hoping for a miraculus blessing that will get us out of our situation now. Even though I mentioned I would not change anything, sometimes I dream of an alternate timeline- where Dad came home healthy, my Mother never left, and I had financial support like any other kid.
My ultimate goal is to get into Stanford College to study astrophysics. I have always had a fasination with the outer universe. And not only because the planets are pretty, obviously. I've always wanted to develop a study into how the wider universe might have encouraged or influenced major cultural development. Getting the grades was the first barrier.
"Have a good day" I spoke to Kolton as he hopped out the car. I was fortunate enough that Chino Hills High was located right next to his middle school.
"Yeah, you too" He spoke and started running through the carpark towards his school.
Locking the car, I already knew I was late. I sighed throwing my keys into the zip pocket of my bag. Walking into the office, I cringed at how often I was late and it was basically an expected daily act.
"Miss Porterson...your timetable" The receptionist handled the piece of paper over the desk. "It is the first day, I would hate for this to be a trend again." She said sternly and looked over the bridge of her glasses.
"Sorry" I spoke scimming over my timetable. "Fuck" I mumbled under my breath.
"Do we have a problem?" She asked. I looked at her.
"No no sorry," I said and walked off. "Are you serious? AP calculus?!" I spoke and walked hastily to find my room faster.
Walking into the classroom, only twelve students occupied the desks.
"I expect that you try your best at this class. This class needs a lot of deteremination and atte-" Mr Canlin abruptly stopped his sentence. "Miss Porterson, I see you have cared to join us" He spoke sarcastically.
"I am really sorry" I spoke and walked down the aisle of desks to sit at the back.
"Don't worry about" he said nicely and continued to finish what he was saying.
Sitting down, I took my bag off my back and scanned the classroom quickly. Small class.
"As I was saying," he started again. "This class is hard, I have emailed you all a syllabus. My suggestion is to make study partners quick, you will need extra help." He said and turned around to start writing on the whiteboard.
I could always get away with not socialising in class, that is because I could learn theories by myself. But calculus was my weak spot. Something about numbers I just absolutely suck at.
"Let us start off by introducing ourselves, I will go first..." Mr Canlin spoke, "My name is Mr Canlin, and I always want the best for my students. I will treat you the way you treat me, and I always admire hardwork and honesty. Whose next?"
The room grew silent as everyone looked at each other in hopes someone would stand up and take one for the team.
"Uh, my name is Lamelo. I play ball and my favourite calculus concept is multivariable" A tall figure spoke from the other side of the room. I swung my head around to look at him. His posture was tall, which complimented his broad shoulders. Light skinned, curly hair, and an extremely handsome face. Lamelo Ball. I think we've talked a whopping total of two times. One of them being in 9th grade when he asked me for an eraser and last year when he apologised for his girlfriend forcing me to move tables in the cafeteria. I never knew what he was like,let alone have enough interactions with him to understand what his personality was like. But gathering from what every girl tells me and twitter trending, he was the "chosen" one. Whatever that meant.
I swallowed my pride and followed after Lamelo's lead, "Uh I'm Kaia Porterson. You can call me Kai for short. I currently don't have any hobbies and I suck at calculus." I spoke. The class shared a laugh. Watching Mr Canlin grin from the front he spoke from his laughter.
"Well, I do not think you suck at calculus, that is judging by the close selection of you lot. Do not doubt your ability" He reassured me and I returned he response with a smile.
The rest of the class took turns introducing themselves, everyone so warm welcomed.
"Right, hate to be that teacher but pop quiz!" He said holding quiz papers in his left hand.
Damn already?
"Do not be too scared, it is just a basic quiz that allows me to see where you are sitting. Don't be nervous" Mr Canlin says as he walks through the rows of desks, handing the paper to each of us. "Judging by your enthusiastic smiles. you lot are so very happy you are in my class" He said sarcastically.
"You have 30 minutes, Go" He said. I flipped the paper over and looked at the questions like they were written in Russian. I seriously had no idea what the hell was on this paper.
I spent the next 30 minutes confused, writing down random numbers that I thought somehow correlated with the question.
"Times up, pass your paper to the person next to you, they will grade your test" Mr Canlin spoke. I looked to the right of me and no one was by me. Turning my head to the left I saw a tall figure walking towards me.
"I didn't have anyone near me, but I saw you" Lamelo spoke as he sat at the desk next to me, handing me his quiz.
I flashed a quick smile and handed mine back in return. "Wow, your handwriting is really nice" I spoke to Lamelo.
He smiled, "Thanks, you learn to write properly when you spend half of middle school writing lines at lunch" He joked. We shared a little laugh before Mr Canlin started listing off the answers.
I couldnt help but to notice how handsome Lamelo was up close. I caught myself staring at his hands. How his long, slender finger gripped the mechanical pencil. His well manicured nails, clean and short. The veins the crawled up his wrist, becoming more intense as they warped around his arm.
"Kaia?" He spoke. I shot my eyes up to meet his, pulling away from the alternate reailty that was my day dream. "Your answers," He said softly. "You need to check your formulas again" He said nicely.
My cheeks redened with embarrassment, "Oh," Is the only word I say. Taking the paper from his hand, the tips of our fingers touching ever so gently. We locked eyes for a second, then I flickered mine away. "Thanks" I said handing his paper back, "You got everything right" I said and he smiled.
"Word? Youre just saying that, quit playing" He said looking at his paper. "Damn" He said
"It's impressive" I said moving closer to see he paper. He leaned over at the same time so we could both look at it. Our shoulders meeting at the middle of the aisle. "How do you do that shit" I asked pointing to the long equations.
"Honestly, It's just practice and a lot of memory" He said and leaned back to his desk.
"I cannot remember shit, i have a poor memory" I admitted.
He chuckled, "Make sense, you probably don't remember the four classes we had together."
I looked at him in confusion, "We had four classes together?" I asked astonished.
"Yeah, p.e, chemistry, history, and the one class in 9th grade" He said.
"English? OHHHHH you were the one that was calling juliet a slut" I said.
He laughed, "Yeah, but like that was facts" he said and I nodded.
"You remembered all those classes" I asked.
"How could I not" He said and looked at me for a while then faced forward.
Good lord
The bell chimed, signalling for all the students to stand up and pack their books away. Lamelo took longer than everyone, as we were caught up in conversation walking towards the door.
"So what are you looking to do after highschool?" He asked directing the conversation to me.
"Oh I want to study astrophysics. I am set to go, I just need to pass calculus," I spoke as we walked out of the door frame.
"Wow that's dope, we can study some ti-" He answered but got cut off by another voice
"Melooooo, we are going to be late" A high pitched voice spoke. We both turned to where the voice was coming from. A slim girl, dressed in a short skirt with an even smaller crop top. "Whose this?" She asked bitterly looking at me. "And why do you dress like a boy?"
I looked down at my outfit. My Dad's big jumper, some cargo pants and my vans. I looked up to her confused.
"What's your problem?" Lamelo asked the girl.
"Nothing baby, introduce me to this little boy" She said nastily.
"bro I am taller than you..." I spoke in confusion.
"Her name is Kaia, we have AP Calculus together" He said turning to me.
"This is Loretta" He said and pointed his finger at her.
"No, I am your girlfriend, introduce me properly" She said cockily, wrapped her arm in his.
I cringed at this weird interaction I got myself into, "you dont have to," I stopped Lamelo from talking. "I can read the room" I said and began walking backwards.
He held back a smile while Loretta stood their frustrated, gathering the six words in her vocabulary to reply.
"Ill see you around" Lamelo said.
"Yeah, forsure" I responded. Turning around to walk away.
Smiling to myself as I walked through the emptying hallway.
This is going to be a long year
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hello! I hope you enjoyed the first part of this book! Do not forget to vote, comment and share!
Thank you alwasy for reading
-b<3