𝐊𝐀𝐈𝐀
I sat on the side of the pool with my feet dangling in the water, watching Summer gracefully glide through the pool, performing lap after lap. As she finished her final round of backstrokes, she approached me, her hands gripping the pool's edge.
I helped her up and placed her on the side next to me, ignoring the water that was dripping from her and getting onto my clothes. I let her catch her breath for a moment before speaking. "So, do you think you've had enough practice for today? I don't want you to overwork yourself."
"Yeah, I think I'm good." She lifted her head up and turned towards me. "Can you get my bag? It should be on the bench." I nodded and took my feet out of the water, going to get her bag off the bench.
"Summer, there's no bag here." I said while looking under the bench and around. "There isn't?" She took her legs out of the water to come and look at the bench.
"Oh- I left it at the gym." Her confusion turned to realization as she spoke, I raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "How'd it get in the gym?" She stopped. "I'll explain later, can you go get it for me? It has my clothes in it."
My suspicion only grew larger as to why she wouldn't tell me, but I put it aside and agreed to go get her bag.
I slipped my crocs on before starting on my way to the gym to get her bag. The school was almost empty, nobody was studying because it was the start of the year and no homework had been given yet. The only people who usually stayed after school were kids who played sports and took them seriously, like Summer.
I usually stay around for Summers' swimming practice instead of going and practicing volleyball on my own because to be honest, I don't care for volleyball that much. I've never had a huge love for sports like Summer does. Summer has always devoted her time to swimming and even given parts of her mental health. Meanwhile volleyball for me is just a thing I do to keep fit and because my parents tell me to.
Because I don't care doesn't mean I'm bad at it or that I'll put less effort when supporting my team, I just don't love it.
I arrived at the gym and peeked through the door, hearing a basketball thumping around. Of course somebody has to be in here.
It was a boy basketballing, he pulled off his tie and threw it to the side and then went to grab the ball. I pushed the door slightly ajar to get a better look and this time he seemed to notice me.
"Um, sorry." I quickly apologized, not wanting to come across as weird or intrusive. I stepped fully inside the gym, letting the door close behind me.
"I left my bag here." I explained, leaving out the part that it was my sisters because I didn't want to engage in much conversation. My gaze shifted to the boy. To my surprise, he was none other than the president's son—the very same person I had found myself captivated by earlier, the one who seemed to see right through me.
I walked across the court to grab Summers' bag. "It's right here.." I picked the bag up and quickly swung it across my shoulder.
"It's fine." He responded.
I looked at him, trying not to be too obvious. His white school shirt clung to his sweaty form making his bicep's visible through it, his coffee brown hair was pushed back and out of his face. Sweat ran down the sides of his jaw, yet his skin was really clear.
We were just standing across from each other, doing nothing. "It was really nice–" He paused. "Seeing you."
"Oh yeah. You too." I speed-walked out of that room and shut the door. Was he debating between using the word meeting? We hadn't really met. That means he knew it was me staring at him.
Great job making him think you're a weirdo. Great job Kaia.
As I walked out of the gym, I couldn't help but feel embarrassment. The encounter with the president's son had left me flustered, and I replayed the brief conversation in my head over a million times.
I kept walking until I reached the pool with Summers' bag on my shoulder. She still had her toes in the water and was on her phone. "What took you so long?" She turned to me and asked.
The interaction replayed in my head again, the image of him pulling his tie of rewinding in my head over and over. "Oh I– got lost."
She looked at me and didn't buy it one bit. "You're lucky I don't care." She said, taking her legs out of the water and grabbing her bag. "I'm going to shower."
As Summer walked away to head for the showers, I couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for not being entirely honest with her. I knew she saw through my excuse, but thankfully she didn't press the matter any further.
◂ ❚ ⊱ꕥ⊰ ❚ ▸
The next morning Summer and I got to school a bit early. We were hanging out in Ms. Windwards classroom. It was my favorite classroom out of all of them. The room was almost made of glass, there were art supplies laid out everywhere. Eseals, loads of markers, paints, knitting items. Everything you could imagine.
I was over to the side, organizing all the markers by color order. Summer was chatting it up with Ms. Windward while also helping tidy up the classroom.
"How was your first day yesterday Kaia?" She asked me. I didn't turn to look at her, I was too focused on making sure all the makers were put in the right shades. "My first day? Oh, it was good. I talked to the girls and watched Summer swim yesterday."
I stopped organizing for a second and turned to her. She gave a warm smile. "I'm glad." I nodded. "I made a painting yesterday, I wanted to show you but I didn't want to bring the canvas to school so I took a picture. Here, take a look."
I walked towards Ms. Windward and showed her the picture on my phone. She examined it for a moment before speaking. "I like the use of color. It's out of your comfort zone." I smiled at her compliments, receiving a compliment on my art from her was like getting an oscar.
Summer checked the time on her phone. "The bell is going to ring soon, we should start getting ready to leave."
Ms. Windward nodded. "Yes, stay out of trouble girls." I chuckled. "We will." I said while grabbing my bookbag off the floor, Summer doing the same thing.
Right as we walked out of the large art room the bell rang and students began coming in from all areas to go to their first class, most of them coming from outside.
Summer and I walked together in the hallway to Marine Bio and I felt a pull on my bookbag. I snapped my head around to see Lily, holding onto my bookbag handle. I smiled at her and pulled her to my side, that way she wasn't behind me.
"Lily!" She smiled and Summer turned to see her. "I'm so glad we all have history together, I was scared that we weren't gonna have any classes together." Summer said.
"Aw.. everyone but Camilia." Lily frowned and we got to the doors of the History room. We walked in with a few other students.
"Sit wherever you'd like. Be mindful of your seats!" The teacher echoed out from the front of the classroom. Summer, Lily and I all sat in the front row with one empty seat next to me.
More students were pouring into the classroom and soon the bell rang. Our teacher motioned for one of the students to close the door, a guy in the back closed it.
"Today is your second day. If you didn't have me last year I am Mr. Brown. This class is pretty easy, we do have two big projects worth 50% of your grade each semester. That is what you'll be working on most of your time in this class." He spoke to the whole class.
As we all listened to him speak, somebody in the class handed out syllabuses. I looked over the syllabus, noting what I'd need to do for this class. It might be a little harder because this class has a lot of partner projects. I work better alone but I figured I'd be able to manage.
A knock on the door interrupted the light chatter in the class, a student in the back opened the door and the student walked in. "Mr. Adams. You're 10 minutes late." The boy nodded and I could see a couple people with their mouths wide open. Not him, again.
"I know, I apologize Mr. Brown." He walked down to the row right behind me and sat next to a brown boy who was clearly excited to see him. It was him. The boy I saw yesterday, the president's son. Ryder Adams.
I tried my best to not look back at him but he was right behind me. Mr. Brown kept talking about the syllabus in front of us and my brain was elsewhere.
My mind was replaying the image of him pulling his tie off, his biceps showing through his sweaty shirt. No, no, no. Focus Kaia.
"Since you've all had time to look over the syllabus I want you to start on your first project." He quickly scanned the room. "Mr. Adams." He called out. "How about you sit next to.. Kaia. She wont have a partner." I looked over to the empty seat next to me, internally freaking out.
Lily and Summer were sitting together, partners were going by who you were sitting next to. No, no, no. "Be mindful of your seats!" Is what he said right as I walked in the room. I sighed. Angry at myself for not paying enough attention.
"Yeah sure." Ryder responded, grabbing his items and getting up to sit next to me. I tried to avoid eye contact by looking down at my syllabus but he was just looking at me. "Hi." He said.
"Oh, hi." I looked up to meet his brown eyes, his hair was messily styled and this time his uniform wasn't sweaty. "Uhh.. I'm Kaia." He nodded.
"It's nice to meet you." This time his brain didn't stumble over word choice. "Yeah. Your Ryder.. Right..?" I asked, pretending as if I didn't already know that..
He hummed in response.
Mr. Brown started speaking again. "For this project we'll be studying coastal biodiversity. At the end of this semester you'll be making a report of all your findings. You'll go out to the beach and examine different things and include them in your final report. For now you and the person you're sitting next to are partners. You two will need to just start by looking over articles and picking what you want to research first. You have water quality, microorganisms, plants. Choose whatever."
I nodded, jotting all of this down in my head. This was a huge project.
"I want you to just start researching with your partner today, also take a couple notes. We'll head out to the beach in two classes."
I looked at Summer and Lily. They were already getting to work, typing on their Macbooks.
Well, Summer was watching an ASMR video.
I turned my head to Ryder and he was working. I quickly pulled my Macbook out of my bookbag and started typing up stuff about industrialism.
Ryder ripped a piece of paper out one of his notebooks and put it in in between us two. "Write any notes you have on this paper." I nodded in response and went back to my computer.
I feel like such a slacker. Maybe I'm being weird for being so awkward around him. I'm not even working as fast as him. I've only typed two things into the search bar and he has at least 3 things written on that paper right now.
I let out a sigh before taking out my airpods and playing Dimple by BTS. I've liked their music since I was 12 and I told everyone I 'grew out of them.' I lied. I'm not really a part of the K-pop fandom anymore but I still have my obsessions over them every now and then. My Bias is Yoongi, and of course my bias wrecker is Jungkook.
After a while of listening to music and really getting into the zone with my work I had written a couple things on the paper and found a ton of websites for research. The work was easy and I was no longer distracted by the fact that my partner literally is the president's son and we'd had two awkward interactions before actually meeting.
Once class was over and everyone was packing up. I took out my airpods so I could talk to Summer and Lily. "How much work did you guys get done?" I asked. Summer shrugged. "We spent most of the time on Youtube, but we got a good amount done for the most part." I chuckled and took my bookbag off the back of the chair as we were leaving.
◂ ❚ ⊱ꕥ⊰ ❚ ▸
Summer and I grabbed our lunch trays and started to get our food. Summer grabbed some fruits and a sandwich while I went over to the salad bar and got myself a salad. There were a variety of different greens you could choose from, along with dressings and toppings. I'm thankful I've never had the problem like most kids; hating school food.
My school actually serves great food and doesn't look like it came from the bottom of a trash can. They even have a whole section catered towards people who can't eat gluten, vegetarians, and people who play sports and make sufficient meals for them.
I finished making my salad at the salad bar and went over to where Lily and Camila were already sitting. Our same table we've been sitting at since we first met.
I sit across from Camila, a spot next to me open for Summer. "Camila, Did I tell you how Kaia looked like she was about to die in first period?" Lily said. Oh god.
"I was not about to die. We should've sat somewhere else with one more person!" I retorted. Camilia shot me a confused look. "Will anyone just explain to me?" Right as she said those words, Summer sat down next to me and smiled. "I will! Soooo... You guys know the new kid right?"
I sighed and rolled my eyes as Summer was about to tell the most embarrassing story ever. "You mean the president's son, right?" Camilia added. Summer nodded.
"So, we just sat down and there was an empty seat next to Kaia. We were put in pairs of two and he was sitting in the spot of the empty seat next to Kaia but behind her." Summer took a sip of her water before speaking again.
"Then Mr. Brown asked him to move so she'd have a partner and the whole time she looked like she was contemplating her life choices." Summer laughed and I shook my head.
"It's only fair if you tell me why your swim bag was in the gym, since you wanna spill on my embarrassing moments now." The other girls laughed a bit and Summer frowned at me.
"Sure.. I was just talking to a certain basketballer and I forgot my bag there, that's all." I furrowed my brows. "You can't just give a vague answer like that."
Camila nodded. "Tell usss! Who is he?"
"Micah Carter."
Lily smiled. "I know exactly who that is too.. Okay Summer!" She said in a 'get your man!" tone. "Did you get his number?" She teased, causing Summer to blush in embarrassment.
Summer laughed a little, "No, you guys are taking it too seriously, we just talked.."
I looked at her body language, Summer's body language always outed her, even if her mouth was lying. She was fidgeting with her necklace and she was holding back a smile. "Mhmm.. If you say so."
We ate lunch and talked about the rest of the classes for the day and after school. Once lunch was over we all went our separate ways.
It doesn't help that when I arrived to 4th period I also had that class with Ryder. Luckily the seats are assigned and we sit opposite from each other. We didn't talk one bit.
After school I had volleyball practice which I was partially excited for. Seeing my teammates again would be great but the exercise is what I didn't want.
I walked into the gym with my gym bag and already in my sports clothes. I had them stored in my locker. Most of the girls were already warming up and I was one of the last few to come in. "Kaia!" Halsey smiled at me. I returned the smile.
Halsey was the team captain and had the most passion for the sport out of all of us. She was a good captain too. Calling us out on our mistakes and pushing us past our limits when we could be better. The only problem with her is she can be a bitch at times. Not like trying to be helpful in a coaching way, just being bitchy.
As I joined the rest of the girls on the gym floor, the energy was amazing. We were all focused and determined to make the most of our first practice session. The sound of sneakers squeaking on the polished floor filled the air as we began our warm-up routine.
As we moved into the main practice drills, Halsey continued to push us hard. She called out our mistakes and provided constructive feedback, but occasionally her comments crossed the line into being unnecessarily harsh.
Throughout the practice I pushed myself and the intensity grew, sweat dripped down both sides of my forehead once practice was over.
I was tired and ready to go home. I walked out of the school and my driver was waiting for me there. He drove me home and I fell asleep immediately after taking a shower and eating dinner.
AUTHORS NOTE
hihihi! sooo i wasnt able to write for THREE WEEKS. i know, so sad. mainly cause my computer charger broke and i couldn't get a new one for a week, then i went somewhere and didnt have my computer for a week + writers block, but im back. this chapter is a little long :)
dont forget to comment + vote!