0003. BACK TO THE BEGINNING
TWO WEEKS PRIOR
KAIA BREATHED OUT slowly she pulled herself up on her pull up bar in her garage, sweat gleamed her brow as she finished her count to fifty before letting herself drop back to the ground. She shook her arms out as she cracked her neck as she reached down, grabbing her water bottle taking a large gulp of it. A Stray Kids song blasted throughout the large garage as an alarm went off to signal to the black haired girl that she needed to quickly take a quick shower in order to wash off the sweat that stuck to her skin from her morning workout.
She quickly took a shower, washed off the sweat before getting dressed. She wore a cropped black tube top, a black cropped leather jacket and black cargo pants with a thin blue belt. She brushes through her hair, leaving it down as she applies a coat of her strawberry lip gloss, coating her lips a light pink as she puts on a light coat of mascara and filled in her eyebrows. She put in her silver ear rings before pushing herself off her desk chair and rushing down the steps as she realized her shower took a bit more time than she thought.
She entered her kitchen, smiling at her mom and pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Good morning, momma." Kaia greeted her in Korean, her mom's first language as Kaia's mom, Ji-Soo smiled softly back at her daughter.
"Morning, dear." She greeted her back as she slid her lunch box towards her. "I packed your lunch already since you were running a bit late, also be sure to give Ashlyn one of the bagels, we both know that girl forgot to eat breakfast."
Kaia chuckles a bit at her moms comment, knowing it to be true. The ginger haired girl was almost always late to the bus, to the point Kaia was surprised she's genuinely never missed it, somehow always making it last second. Kaia was the exact opposite of her in most occasions, she hated tardiness, it made her nervous. "I will, momma. I have to go, the bus is about to pull up."
"We have new neighbors by the way, Kaia, they have two boys around your age, they might be riding the bus with you as well." Ji-Soo called out to her daughter causing Kaia to nod as she continued out the door, yelling one last good bye before shutting the door behind her.
Kaia plugged in one of her headphones over her ears as she was instantly greeted by the sound of a Hozier song playing softly into her right ear. In her hand was a brown bag that contained both her's and Ashlyn's bagels. She from the right of her, she heard the sound of a male's voice calling out goodbye causing her to glance to the side, seeing that her mom was right, they did have new neighbors.
Kaia had noticed moving trucks a couple of days ago while she was on her evening run at the house next door to her, but she didn't even care that much during that time. Usually the people that lived in her neighborhood were older rich couples moving to the quiet town for a nice and peaceful retirement, but seems like she was mistaken judging by the two boys that walked out from the house.
There was a blond boy, the shorter out of the two, wearing a bright orange shirt that held a yellow smile emoji on it along with the word, 'smile' being printed on the sleeves along with under the smile design. Then he wore light gray jeans and red shoes. Then at his side was a taller boy with brown hair wearing a dark grey shirt and dark blue jeans and she couldn't spot the color of his shoes from there but it didn't really matter.
On accident from her staring, she had caught the eyes of the blond boy, who held startling red eyes that caused her to blink as a large grin spread across the boys features as their eyes connected, blue meeting red. "Hey!" He waved wildly as they ended up meeting right where the bus stop was right when the bus got there.
"Hi." She greeted him back with a small smile, not thinking much of the interaction, she was friendly with many people, so she had no issue with greeting him back, it wasn't like they were going to become friends, she'd never let that sort of thing happen. She was the type of person who was nice to everyone yet not best friends with anyone, she just wasn't the type. The only person she'd truly consider any sort of friend would be Ashlyn, and that connection the two had was partially forced upon them due to the fact that their parents were such close friends having served in the military together, her mom had been a medic.
She sat down in her usual seat, placing her bag down beside her in order to reserve Ashlyn's seat as the two had a silent agreement to always sit together during the bus rides there and the bus rides home. Though she noticed that the two new boys sat directly behind her as the blond leaned against the back of her seat with a wide smile. "We're neighbors."
Kaia's lips perked into a friendly smile, holding back the confusion on why he was continuing the conversation, she hadn't really expected it. "Yeah, I noticed." She told him, forcing the smallest bit of playfulness into her tone so she didn't come off as rude.
Kaia was friendly to an extent, and she never tried to be rude to everyone, she just kept her distance. She never hung out with people outside of school, she never sat with people at lunch, always stuffed away in the library or the gym or track during lunch. She never talked to people in between classes unless they spoke to her first, she never initiated a conversation, always just replying to whatever some says to her. She was friendly, but friendless though she liked to keep it that way. She found it no use to make friends with people who she was only going to end up leaving behind once high school ended in order to go off to a much better collage than any of those offered here in small town Georgia. It's that or they just end up leaving her first once they realized there wasn't much to her besides studying, working out, and ballet.
He grinned wider at her tone, "we should totally hang out sometime, we live right beside each other so it would be so easy!"
Kaia blinked in shock at his bold request though hid the slight distaste she felt at his words. "Ah, I'm really busy, I have a lot going on outside of school, but if I'm free, I'll be sure to let you know." She smiled softly at him, lying straight through her teeth. She was busy yes, she was addicted to working out and studied for at least four hours a night minimum, but even in her free time she was constantly spending it by herself allowing herself to recover both her mind and body. Though she leaves her sunday's free most times for that, but she'd make sure to never mention that.
"I'm Aiden by the way." He continued to smile widely at her, as he rested his arms on the back of her seat making it so she had to lean her back against the window to look at him as he seemed insistent on continuing this conversation and she'd entertain it for now until it got too annoying and she'd find some excuse to get herself out of the conversation. She was the best at that sort of thing, evading conversations was a talent of hers, one she's mastered over the years of pushing herself out of becoming friends.
"Ah, I'm Kaia." She introduced herself as well, smiling up at him as she leaned her head back against the window, pulling her white headphones down to her neck in order to not seem rude.
The bus began to pull up to Ashlyn's stop and the new boy's attention was taken off of her quickly as he pushed himself towards the window and over his companion who Kaia was unaware of the name of. The other boy hadn't spoken a word since they got on the bus, which wasn't long.
"Holy crap! What's that?!" Aiden questioned, turning his head towards Kaia as he figured that she might know it since she had been living in the area seemingly far longer than he and his cousin had.
"It's a bus graveyard, I don't really know much about it." Kaia told him with a shrug, once again lying straight through her teeth. She knew a lot about it considering she very often visited it for training purposes. It was a great place for her to work out and run around without disturbing anyone and often times she was joined by Ashlyn's parents who often trained with her in various martial arts since out of her and Ashlyn, she was the only one that held any care for it, Ashlyn had always been more into ballet than Kaia just like Kaia had always been more into martial arts more than Ashlyn.
Kaia turned her attention away from Aiden the second she realized Ashlyn had got aboard the bus and her smile grew to be the slightest bit more genuine as she gave a small wave towards the ginger haired girl. Her movement caught Aiden's attention as his eyes locked on the ginger haired girl who stole Kaia's attention from him. He hummed as he realized that this girl lived right in front of the bus grave yard and could most likely tell him a bit more about the place than Kaia seemed to know, though a small part of him wanted it to be her that told him about it but he brushed it off.
Ashlyn took her regular seat beside Kaia, giving the girl a nod as she passed over the brown bag. "Oh, thanks." Ashlyn told her as she opened the bag, finding two bagels.
"My mom also wanted to let you know that you and your parents are invited for diner tonight if you can make it." Kaia casually mentioned as she read the text that her mom had just sent her.
"You know my parents will force us to make it." Ashlyn tells her, basically meaning they were coming as Kaia nods, smiling softly at the girl as she tells her mom that Ashlyn and her parents would be there.
"Hi!" Aiden suddenly pops up into their conversation with his face between both Ashlyn's and Kaia's causing both girls to jump at his lack of personal space. Ashlyn more so than Kaia as the ginger slammed back into the seat in front of them while Kaia just jumped a bit as Ashlyn ended up falling into Kaia's lap. "Is that your house?" He questioned, his words directed at Ashlyn. "What's up with the whole 'bus graveyard' thing?"
"It's a junkyard with used buses..." Ashlyn replies, not telling him much more than Kaia previously had as she sat up a bit, her back to Kaia's chest as she hadn't processed their position just yet.
"That's it?" Aiden seemed a bit disappointed, though it was hard to tell given the fact his smile didn't even fall.
"Yeah?" Ashlyn replied, a little confused on why he was so interested.
"Well, that's disappointing." He shrugged, before eyeing their position. "You guys gonna stay like that the entire bus ride?"
Ashlyn's eyes widen as she realized she was sat between Kaia's legs and quickly moved off of her, muttering a small apology that Kaia waved off with an easy going smile.
"You know, I was hoping for some kind of lore or paranormal jazz." Aiden said as he plopped back in his seat, his arms crossing behind his head.
Kaia didn't reply, only pulling one headphone over her ear as she looked down at her phone, pulling up a random game she had downloaded off some pop up ad after getting pissed off that the person playing it was doing it wrong and she needed to do it better. A silence washed over the four of them as Ashlyn hadn't replied to the blond either as she began to reach for her phone to go on it in a similar fashion to Kaia, but was quickly stopped as Aiden's voice broke the silence.
"Anyway, I'm Aiden!" Aiden introduced himself to Ashlyn, once again popping his head between Ashlyn and Kaia. "Kaia already knows that though." He smiled towards the dark haired girl as Kaia looked up from her phone, shooting a confused smile as she hadn't heard his previous words as she pushed one of her headphones off her ears. "And that's my cousin Ben." Aiden finally introduced the silent male. "We just moved here a week or so ago from Virginia. Can't remember what town it was though." He shrugged before brightening. "Oh, hey, we live like right next door to Kaia, since you guys seem to hang out and we all live so close, how about we hang out often."
Ashlyn froze for a moment, glancing towards Kaia who seemed to have put her headphones back on in order to ignore the conversation as she was fully immersed in her phone. "Nothing personal, but I'm a bit tired and not in much of a conversation mood."
Kaia proved to have been listening as she held back a small snort at Ashlyn's blunt reply and Aiden's shocked look before it turned into what seemed to be a sly smirk. "It's fine, I get it." He chuckles and Kaia and Ashlyn feel a bit of relief as their eyes subtly connect. "You two are just shy, right?"
The two girl's faces fall as their eyes connect once again, though neither of them reply as they both choose to immerse themselves in their phones as Aiden turned his attention towards Ben and began to chat about this and that but Kaia didn't pay it much attention, just turning the volume of her music up.
The bus arrives at school at it's regular time as Kaia and Ashlyn got off together, walking in a comfortable silence before Aiden and Ben join them, walking behind the female duo as Aiden continued to talk their ears off and Kaia continued to bop her head along with the music playing in her ears. Ashlyn wasn't as lucky as she forgot her headphones that morning and only had her hearing aids.
"Woah, this is a small school." Aiden mused as the four of them walked through school. His eyes fell on Kaia who was walking right in front of him, her eyes peeled to her phone as she seemed to be writing down something in her notes app and he reached out, gripping at her arm in order to pull her out of the way of an incoming student that almost ran into her.
Kaia blinked as she jumped a bit at the touch, glancing back at him as he grinned down at her. "Thanks." She muttered under her breath, finally sliding off one of her headphones as she figured it was the least she could do considering he just saved her from potentially running into someone and maybe even dropping her phone in the middle of her calculating her calories from her workout that morning and how much protein she needed to eat throughout the day.
Though just as they were about to continue walking, Ben grabbed the back of Aiden's shirt and yanking him back before he could continue following the two girls. When Aiden glanced back at him in confusion, Ben pointed towards the office.
"Oh, right." Aiden blinked in realization and the moment Kaia saw his attention diverted, she reached out, gripping Ashlyn's wrist and bolting down the hallway and dragging the ginger down the hallway before Ashlyn picked her pace up and the two girls turned the corner quickly. So when Aiden turned back to talk to them his face dropped in shock before he began to laugh. "They're fast."
♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ : author's note
i. and so you guys see how they meet for the first time and how closed off Kaia was a mere couple weeks prior. her character development comes a lot quicker than most to be honest, but she still struggles heavily with it as it is a deep rooted issue
ii. In another life, kaia and ashlyn were gfs
iii. ANYWAYS i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! please remember to vote, comment and to have a wonderful day!