We never forget our first love.
Because of the special way it made us feel,
no matter how bad it ended.
⌘
Neither of them said anything as they headed to the garage of the huge mansion. It wasn't that they talked a lot, it was just the habit of doing things in silence. Even more so if it was already a habit to get up, get ready, have breakfast, and brush their teeth to go to school.
Every morning, both siblings repeated the same routine over and over again until exhaustion. They had been living in the United States for almost five years now and there was never anything out of the ordinary in all that time. Kai and Tailime Nazarova were so used to it, that they did it out of inertia rather than awareness.
Kai opened the cellar door to help his sister get her bike out. Both preferred to get some exercise while going to school, although they had at their disposal a whole arsenal of late-model cars that their father and grandfather collected.
They were never pretentious, on the contrary: Kai was a serious, reserved person, he knew when to express his opinion, although somewhat haughty. While Tailime had always been a shy and quiet girl, with great creativity and imagination, so her notebook was full of shapes and sketches that only she understood.
When they managed to get the bike out after having been locked in the cellar for the entire summer, Tailime put her bag in the small basket in front, while Kai reluctantly took out his skateboard and dropped it on the ground to put on his headphones and headed to the gate followed by his sister.
They were both seventeen years old, in their eleventh year at a prestigious high school in Sacramento, and they were just returning from spending the holidays in their hometown: Moscow, Russia. It wasn't the ideal place to spend the summer, but neither of them cared, they weren't fans of the sun anyway.
They took the last turn before starting to see the high school and Tailime accelerated her pace until she passed her brother, making him smile half-sidedly, giving himself more momentum with his foot until he reached her side. He took off one of the headphones to look at his twin.
"I didn't think you were so eager to get there," he told her, making the girl slow down again.
"I'm not anxious," Tailime replied, seeing the large white building in front of her again. "I hate it when people crowd around checking out class lists at the beginning of the year. The earlier we arrive, the fewer people there will be."
Neither of them spoke again until they entered the large school yard, they turned right to reach the parking lot, where Tai got off to chain her bike, while Kai lifted his skateboard with his foot to put it under his arm.
"Nazarova!"
Tailime raised her head, while Kai just turned his head in the direction where the voice came from. The boy smiled arrogantly while Tailime only rolled her eyes to return to attaching the chain and lock to the bike.
Luka Markov was a seventeen-year-old boy, fair-skinned, with ashy hair and black eyes. He was a lively boy, sarcastic to the point of incoherence. He was always in the mood for a joke and was generally a good guy. Next to him was Serge Petrov, a tall, stocky boy with brown hair and blue eyes, the same age as Luka. Although his appearance was quite imposing, he was nothing more than a calm and very quiet boy.
They were both part of her brother's group of friends. There were more, but Tailime didn't want to remember them all, at least not for now, when the semester was just beginning.
Finishing placing the lock, Tailime sat up, checking that everything was in place.
"See you later, devushka (miss)!" She heard Luka say goodbye with a ridiculous Russian accent, as he began to walk with the other two boys towards the interior of the building, to which Tailime smiled and raised her hand to say goodbye.
She took her bag, and putting it on her shoulder, she adjusted the red knit beanie over her ginger hair, combed in a side ponytail. That vacation her hair had grown incredibly quickly. Her mother had strongly insisted on taking her to a spa and various beauty salons to improve her image.
She sighed remembering the painful facials and excessive makeovers. Her parents lived in Russia due to the high demand for her father's work in that country.
It hadn't been like this from the beginning. She, along with her brother and parents, had come to live with her grandfather Hedeon in the United States because of the company led by the Nazarova patriarch: BioIntellekt.
After two years, the headquarters in Moscow ended up having serious problems due to poor management by the manager on duty and her father had to return. They had been offered to take them with them, but both Kai and Tailime preferred to stay in the United States with their grandfather until they finished high school. Only for college would they decide whether to return to Russia or stay in the United States.
That's why every opportunity they had, be it vacations or holidays, Hedeon put them on a direct plane to Moscow.
Tailime opened the door to her locker to look at herself in the small mirror inside. Her fair skin remained the same, except for the slight pinkish tone she had on her cheeks due to the blush her mother had bought, along with a large beauty kit that she was sometimes afraid to touch.
Thanks to treatments at one of the two spas she had visited, her hair had grown beautiful and silky, or at least that was what the pamphlet they had given her upon entering promised. She looked at the loose curls that fell over her shoulder.
Tailime had never had her hair that long. She usually wore it short and scruffy, as the heat in Sacramento was sometimes uncontrollable. But she let it grow to make her mother happy, although in the end, she ended up liking it and decided to let it continue growing.
She started walking through one of the school hallways, towards the classrooms of her grade; where they would tell her which group and room she would have to be in for the rest of the year; when someone pushed her forward, almost slamming her into the lockers on the wall.
Tailime looked somewhat confused, but frowned as soon as she realized who it was.
She didn't need many clues to identify the person when she noticed the blond hair.
Alek Ivanov. Another one of her brother's group of friends that she'd have preferred never to meet. And it's not that they didn't got along. It was just—
Tailime had to shake her head as she noticed she was starting to blush.
Just when they had moved to Sacramento and entered middle school five years ago, both she and Kai ended up in different groups, making different friends. Kai still maintained the same circle of friends from that time, consisting of Luka, Serge, Arizona, Anna and.... Ivanov.
Alek was the typical high school star kid. Russian by birth, but raised in the United States. He was athletic, fond of swimming, with grades above the class, in addition to being quite attractive. Those dark golden hairs stood out even in a crowd, and Tailime had found that she could get lost in the intense blue of his eyes.
Yeah. Once upon a time, Alek had been Tailime's crush. It was shortly after Kai had been confident enough to bring all his friends over to the house that she met him. She had always secretly admired Alek, and although they didn't speak much because of the girl's shyness, he was kind, so to speak, to her, but they had never gone beyond a mundane conversation and greetings in the school hallways.
By mistake, Tailime wrote a diary, fantasizing that one day, Alek would notice her, and they would be happily ever after.
She felt a chill remembering that tragic event.
One day, at one of the many parties her brother threw, Anna Wright and Arizona Wagner ended up sneaking into her room, finding the freaking diary. Long story short, they told Alek everything. And although he never said anything to her, Tailime ended up understanding the rejection when Alek avoided her every time he found her face to face.
It was then that Tailime realized that Alek wasn't the guy she had idealized. Somewhat hurt and disappointed, she decided to give it the same importance that Ivanov gave to the matter: zero.
Finally she came to the board that displayed the list of the different eleventh grade groups. Several students were still up to the front, so not all the lists could be seen from the back. Tailime stood on tiptoe trying to see her name. Why didn't any of her teachers understand that with such small print no one was going to be able to see anything?
"Tai!"
A shout from the crowd made her look away.
Mia DiMarco and Emma Miller were on the other side of the hallway. Mia was waving at her to get her attention. She had long hair tied up in a ponytail, her clean and defined features made her one of the prettiest girls in school, adorning her face with chocolate eyes that contrasted with her long eyelashes. The two had been best friends since Tai had arrived in Sacramento and the Russian barely spoke English.
Emma was the nerdy girl of her generation, she wore huge glasses in front of her blue eyes, although what stood out most of all her physique was her colorful hair, which had been pink since the last school year. She always liked to change colors in stages. It was strange, but fun. After a few days of the new color, everyone got used to it.
Tai headed towards them, greeted with an effusive hug from Mia.
"How nice to see you again!" Mia told her excitedly.
"It was only a month and a half," Tai smiled, not knowing what to do with the display of affection.
"Sometimes I miss you, you know?" the girl reprimanded Tai, releasing her and seeing her face. Mia raised an eyebrow as she got a closer look at Tai. "Are you... Are you wearing—?"
"Mascara?" Emma asked when she noticed that little detail too.
"Oh," Tai responded, smiling sadly. "Yeah. My mama got a little excited this vacation and thought that with some makeup I would look a little prettier. Do I look bad?"
"No." Emma answered, still looking at her carefully.
"Are you insane?" Mia shouted with a smile, directing her gaze to Tai's right shoulder. "And your hair!"
"Yes," Tai sighed, looking at it too. "I think that's the only good thing about this vacation."
"Well, your mom didn't waste her time with you." Mia's smile was one of excitement. "You look cute, Tai."
"Thank you," Tai appreciated the gesture and looked at Emma. "Are we in the same group?"
"We don't know." Emma looked at the list surrounded by several students while crossing her arms. "We were waiting for you to see it together."
"Are we ready, musketeers?" Mia asked, starting to move the onlookers who no longer had anything to do there.
What do you think of the story so far?
Let's get started and meet the protagonists! I can't wait for you to meet them all!
⌘Maria Centeno⌘