lyra 💫
hey ki?
delivered:
yeah?
read.
lyra 💫
will you come to my sisters game with me? I hate sitting alone and waiting until she's done
delivered:
sure not like I have anything else to do lol
read.
lyra 💫
:)
delivered:
you know I'm right next to you right?
read.
"Shut up." Lyra laughed setting her phone down on the fake marble table in front of them.
Ki smiled, biting her lip and looking down at Lyra's phone.
"Did I miss something? It was like dead ass silent a minute ago..." Acacia said through bites of her pretzel.
"Nah." Ki shook her head still smiling.
"I just say shut up out of the blue sometimes." Lyra said, completely serious in tone.
"Oh do you now?" Ki laughed, resting her head on her hand so she could watch Lyra.
"Yep. All the time." Lyra smugly replied.
Ki couldn't stop smiling at her. She was so damn sarcastic. Ki loved it. It reminded her too much of herself.
On the other hand, Lyra couldn't stop staring at Ki. Ki didn't know what she was thinking about, but something was making her face tint with a light blush. It was probably just embarrassment.
"You guys ready to go?" Acacia said, taking a noisy sip of the last of her lemonade.
"Uh..." Lyra was taken off guard, her eyes still fixed on Ki. "Yeah sure."
Ki quickly looked away, grabbing her SpaceX lanyard from the table. She started to get out of the booth so neither one of them could tell she was actually flustered over the fact that her and Lyra had like a solid twenty seconds of eye contact.
That's a long time right?
Calm yourself, Ki.
————————
After they dropped off Acacia, Ki and Lyra headed over to Lyra's house.
Ki was a nervous wreck. Well, maybe not on the outside, but on the inside she was hard core panicking.
Lyra must've sensed it as they walked up to the garage. As she was pressing the code in, she gently smiled over to Ki.
"It's okay. Gabby's the only one here. The others are at the store."
"Oh." Ki muttered, feeling stupid for being anxious to meet Lyra's family.
She was sure that they were mostly like Lyra. Kind, funny, and outgoing... but maybe she had a hidden fear that Lyra was the only one like that. Maybe she feared that they would see right through her. That they would pick her apart for the mess of a human being that she was.
As the garage door opened, Ki pushed all those thoughts away.
"See? The van's gone." Lyra motioned to the empty concrete pad that they walked through.
Ki looked around the garage as they walked through it. There were volleyballs, softballs, bats, various cleats, and a few different colored soccer balls up against the walls. Ki could tell they were an athletic family, it's no wonder Lyra felt guilty for giving up cheer.
"Ignore the mess. It's always like this." Lyra laughed as they walked up the base wooden steps leading to the door.
The door swung open and there was a chime that went off next to the entry.
They entered the kitchen and Lyra stuck a hand out to lean against the wall as she kicked off her blue vans.
"Gabrielle!" Lyra called, her spanish accent coming out in the way she pronounced her sisters name.
"¿Sí?" A voice answered from another room.
"Estoy en casa. ¿A que hora tienes que estar ahi?"
Ki had no idea what Lyra was saying. It must've shown on Ki's face as she closed the garage door behind her with a wide eyed expression.
Lyra laughed as she walked into the kitchen, stepping over the other girls' shoes scattered on the floor.
"I asked her what time we need to leave."
"Ah..." Ki affirmed, kicking off her slides and walking into the kitchen with Lyra as well.
Then she heard a pair of feet stomping down the stairs.
"¿Qué?" The girl yelled as she reached the bottom.
"What time do we need to leave to get to your game?" Lyra repeated, this time in English.
"Tengo que estar en la escuela en treinta minutos." Her sister came walking into the kitchen, looking down at her phone.
She was already dressed in her uniform which consisted of navy blue spandex shorts and a white long sleeve shirt that was just as tight. Ki noticed she was significantly shorter than Lyra, and also a bit thicker. She was actually relatively small compared to Ki as well. She contrasted Lyra's straight hair with her abundance of thick brown hair held in tight spiraled curls. Her skin was a shade darker than Lyra's, and her eyes were brown instead of Lyra's bold blue. It was clear to see the resemblance in their features otherwise, but they weren't spitting images of each other.
"English, Gabrielle." Lyra leaned against the kitchen island which was covered in papers.
This caused her sister to look up rather quickly. Apparently she wasn't accustomed to being told to speak English in her own home.
Her eyes met Ki with an immediate sense of surprise and confusion.
"Oh. Hello." She smiled, waving over to Ki.
"Hi." Ki shyly waved back.
"Gabby this is Ki." Lyra pointed over to Ki.
"Ah, so you're Ki?" Gabrielle mischievously grinned, dropping the phone in her hands down to the island.
"Uh... yep."
"Lyra was right you are really..."
"Gabrielle detente!" Lyra's eyes shot up at her sister.
"¿Por qué hermana? ¿Ella no sabe?" Gabrielle teased looking from Ki to Lyra.
"Cállate!"
Gabrielle put her hands up in surrender as she rolled her eyes at Lyra.
"Fine. Fine. So Ki... you coming to the game?"
"I guess I am?" She said out of sheer confusion.
Ki had no idea what the fuck just went down, but she desperately wanted to know what Gabby was about to say before Lyra stopped her.
"Ah good. We're gonna beat Fisher's ass."
"Is that who you're playing today?" Lyra said tapping her fingers on the counter.
"Yeah. We played Middleton last week. They destroyed us."
"Hah. We beat Middleton." Lyra stuck her tongue out.
"I don't really care." Gabby mocked her.
"So what position do you play?" Ki quietly asked. "I don't really know if that's the right way to say that but..."
"I'm a setter." Gabrielle smiled. "But I also play a little bit of everything else."
"Oh so like Lyra?"
"Sorta like that. Except our ball is in the air and there's only one net."
"She's not a dumbass she knows what volleyball is." Lyra rolled her eyes at her sister. "Don't you?"
"Uh yeah, I watched the olympics once." Ki awkwardly avoided contact with both of them.
"I like her. She's cute." Gabby laughed, picking her phone back up from the counter.
"Go get your stuff." Lyra straightened herself up from the counter.
Gabrielle paced over to the far side of the kitchen and grabbed a black backpack and a pair of white shoes. She plopped herself down in the middle of the floor and started slipping on her shoes.
Lyra was walking over back towards the garage door, opening a closet that was directly behind where Ki was standing. She turned on the light inside, illuminating the mess of jackets, sweatshirts and snow boots that were inside.
"Hey Gabby whats Fisher's colors?" Lyra yelled, turning her head out of the closet for a minute.
"Red and gold." She yelled back.
"Thought so." Lyra turned completely around. "Take that off." She pointed to Ki.
"W-What?" Ki stuttered.
"Your jacket. It's red, you look like a Fisher kid."
"It's cold out there! I'm not just walking out in my tee shirt."
"Relax..." Lyra laughed turning back into the closet.
She pulled out a navy blue sweatshirt that had the school's soccer logo on the front. After holding it up, she threw it over to Ki, who reluctantly caught it.
"You can wear that."
"Is this... yours?" Ki fumbled with words as she was reading the print on the back of the sweatshirt.
Meclane 04.
"Uh yeah. It should fit you. Actually it might be a little big, but hey that's okay..." Lyra leaned back into the closet and pulled out another sweatshirt.
The other one she pulled out was a volleyball sweatshirt, it must've been her 'showing sisterly support' sweatshirt, as just like the last one it had Meclane on the back along with her sisters number 16.
Ki watched as Lyra slipped it over her head, the hood sticking on top of her hair as she pulled it down around her waist. When she put the hood down, her hair was falling out of her ponytail, but Lyra couldn't have given two shits.
Ki slipped off her red leather jacket and immediately felt naked. She wore that jacket all the time, without it she felt... out of place. But before she could even register the cold air against her forearms, she slipped on Lyra's sweatshirt.
It was soft, but not quite yet worn in. It was long on the sleeves, but gave Ki a sense of comfort as they draped over her fingertips.
Gabrielle had a smirk on her face as she walked towards the two.
"Solo querías una excusa para que ella use tu sudadera..." She sighed as she slipped her backpack over her shoulder.
Ki looked to Lyra for a translation, but instead Lyra was staring at her sister with an angry blush on her face.
"Cállate tu cara." She grumbled back.
"You know I'm right hermana." Gabby teased as she met them at the garage door. "Ready?"
"Yeah." Ki responded quietly.
"Lets go."
———————
Volleyball required less attention than soccer.
Ki realized quickly that she didn't have to nervously watch for the ball between feet, as it was always up in the air.
Ki was actually invested in the game. Lyra, however, seemed a little distracted.
Whenever Ki would look over to her to see if she just saw whatever pass just happened, Lyra was just smiling, her eyes in a captivation of amusement.
"How many ends or quarters or whatever?" Ki whispered leaning over towards Lyra.
"This is the last." Lyra whispered back.
"Oh okay."
The final moment of the game came quicker than she thought. It was down to ten seconds when Fisher missed a pass.
The Kennedy kids all cheered as the buzzer went off, knowing that the tie would've meant another loss in their books. Ki threw her hands up with the rest of the crowd, the sleeves of her sweatshirt falling down past her wrists.
"We won!" She exclaimed, looking over to Lyra.
"Yes. Yes we did." Lyra laughed. "You know for someone who knows nothing about sports, the littlest things get you so excited."
"I think it's because I know nothing about sports that everything becomes more exciting." Ki sank back down into the bleachers.
The players all moved to their respective sides of the court and were high fiving each other and pouring their water bottles into their mouths.
The Fisher team didn't look too disappointed however. An almost tie is probably the closest thing they got to a win. They were all patting each other on the back and handing out gatorades.
The crowd was starting to file out of the bleachers, the top rows filled with students seeming to rush out first, nearly trampling anyone from the bottom rows that tried to get out.
"Come on." Lyra nudged Ki, following the row of students they were with.
Ki stood up and quickly followed Lyra's lead through the mass of kids leaving the bleachers.
Lyra was a few people in front of her by the time she reached the stairs, the sound of all the other students making the bleachers creak as they all stomped down them. Ki tried to shuffle past another girl to get in front, but it failed and Ki didn't want to seem rude and dodge ahead of her.
Lyra seemed to notice Ki wasn't behind her when she stopped and slid into another row for a second. When Ki met the row she was standing in, Lyra smiled.
"Hey." Ki bumped into her.
"Thought I lost you there." Lyra shuffled back into the line beside her.
The two walked down the rest of the stairs side by side, but by the time they reached the hardwood gym floor, the crowd threatened to separate them again.
Lyra was peering above everyone to find her sister, as the collection of students were high fiving them on the way out.
Ki was confused as to where exactly she was looking to go, but she watched Lyra move around anyways.
"Ooh! Found her." She said, dodging out of the crowd.
Ki dove to chase her, but Lyra noticed her falling behind and held out her hand. Ki took it and let Lyra pull her along, their fingers interlocking as they separated from the crowd. Even when Ki felt as if she wasn't going along with the flow anymore, she didn't let go of Lyra's hand.
Lyra slowed the pace as they walked towards her sister. Ki was finally able to catch up, her arm brushing along Lyra's as their hands moved in sync.
"Gabby!" Lyra called with a wide smile.
Her sister turned to look at them as they approached her. Gabrielle's eyes turned to an amused confusion as she looked between the two with a smile.
It was then that Ki realized what was going on.
Holy fuck.
Holding hands.
What the shit.
"Hey..." Gabrielle looked at Ki with her eyes squinted.
Ki must've been wearing the confused and utterly shocked look that she felt inside, because Gabby started to laugh.
"You okay Ki?"
Ki looked down to the floor and then awkwardly shifted her gaze away from the Meclane sisters.
"Um yeah. I'm fine." She blushed.
"You kicked ass today sis. Didn't expect to see you serving..." Lyra said, obviously oblivious to what was going on between the other two.
"Yeah... uh me neither. I guess we were both surprised." Gabby popped the top off of her water bottle and took a sip. "I think I'm gonna go hang out at Alex's house after we change, they're getting pizza."
"As long as you're getting your own ride. I'm not having Ki haul your ass around town."
"Oh... I don't mind." Ki shyly looked back up at them.
"Not it's okay Ki. I'm catching a ride with the seniors. Thanks though." She shrugged.
Ki glanced over at Lyra.
"So..." Lyra raised her eyebrows. "Shall we?"
"Shall... we w-what?" Ki stuttered.
"Leave?"
"Oh... uh... yeah. Yeah."
"Have fun." Gabrielle smirked. "Thanks for keeping my sister occupied."
"What? Oh... yeah... anytime." Ki responded, knowing that Gabby was on to way more than she thought she was.
The two were still holding hands as Lyra started walking towards the crowd. Ki followed behind, waving back at Gabby as the left.
Gabrielle could tell.
The look on her face, the accusatory tone, the secretive banter.
Lyra's sister was onto her the entire time.
Ki was scared.