In PE during the team's basketball practice, Pari was excessively aggressive in the game and I was annoyed when she sent the ball flying at me when I least expected it one too many time while constantly throwing glares at me. She was starting to overreact a lot but I was going to let it slide for now.
After school, I rode to the restaurant Colin worked at and saw that Kaan was already waiting for me on the steps near the back.
I swung out of my bike and removed the helmet, shaking out my hair. Kaan stood up and approached.
"You wanted to talk?" He asked, not meeting my eyes for more than a few seconds.
"Yes, no one followed you, right?" I asked, looking around to check.
He shook his head and I gestured for us to take seats on the steps. We sat next to each other and he fiddled with the chain of his bag.
"I'll get straight to the point. I plan to drag down Maira, reduce her to the same level of ridicule as she did with others. I don't plan to show her any mercy. I want her ruined. That's my intention."
His eyes widened, clearly shocked by my blunt confession. "W–Why are are you telling me that? Aren't you afraid I'll tell her?"
I smiled. "I believe you are a good person, Kaan. I know you didn't willingly get into their group. It was to survive them."
"Yes, I told you that but did you really believe me?"
"I see no reason not to. I think I can detect lies very well and my lie detector–" I tapped the side of my head, "–is telling me that you're also a victim."
Kaan's eyes shown brightly. "Tell me what I should do."
"I want to know how far you are willing to go to help me."
His eyes trained down at his shoes. "I'm selfish, Julia. I run away at the first sign of trouble. I'll help as long as they won't get wind of this."
I nodded. "That's fine. I just need you to tell me everything Maira talks about, her plans, her relationship with the other three boys, whatever that she says that you think is important for me to know."
"Okay, but how do you plan on exposing her? I have to tell you, Maira's dad is influential enough to suppress anything that you might report to the school."
"The best proof is a video evidence, of course. And we need lots of it."
"How are we going to record her bullying kids? She'll know in a heart beat," he said with knitted eyebrows.
"That's where I need you," I said, turning to my bag and digging for an object. I whipped it out, showing it to him.
"A pen? You want to write something down?"
"No, silly look close." I said, pointing to the tiny camera lens that was inconspicuous enough to not be noticed unless observed carefully.
"Whoa," he said in amazement, leaning forward to examine it causing our heads to bump into each other. He looked up at me, our faces suddenly close.
I was instantly reminded of our kiss last night. Kaan jerked away from me as if I had electrocuted him, not even being subtle about putting space between us.
I cleared my throat. "Anyway, you have to keep this on you at all times! You absolutely cannot forget it, even for a day. The more evidence we gather, the better."
"Uh, okay," he said, taking the pen from me and sticking it into his shirt pocket, turning its head for the lens to face the front.
"Good, remember to click the top to start recording. Anytime Maira bullies anyone, I want it recorded. Do not give this pen to anyone."
"I won't."
"I'll retrieve the videos whenever I want. Until then keep it safe."
He nodded.
Just then we heard the restaurant's back door of the huge kitchen open and Colin stepped out with two huge black trash bags which he dumped into the a bin.
He looked up and caught sight of us. "Hey, Julia!" He jogged over to us. "And Kaan," he greeted. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Just bumped into each other." I said abruptly. I didn't want Colin to tell anyone that we met up with each other because it might reach Maira's ears.
"Okay, then what are two individually doing here?" He asked, much to my annoyance.
"I wanted to see you," I told him. "And he–" I looked at Kaan, quickly coming up with a reason, "–was here for some food."
"That's great, Kaan. This is a great restaurant. I'll get you a table, come on." He said, grabbing his arm and pulling him up.
Kaan looked at me in, exasperated. "I don't want to eat alone!"
"Then do you want take out?" Colin asked, having heard him.
"Sure," he said begrudgingly.
Ten minutes later, Colin handed him his order and I didn't understand what Kaan was irritated about. I lied that he was here for food which wasn't bad at all because it's food, who would be not be happy to get some food!
After he left, Colin led me inside and sat me down at the same table that I had sat at the first time.
"So tell me what you wanted to talk about," he asked, sliding me a muffin after I refused to order anything.
It wasn't a total lie when I told him that I wanted to talk. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to but then figured it might benefit for Julia's sake.
"I want you to tutor me in Chemistry," I said.
"Aren't you already good at it? I heard you were better than Boonsri in that last test," he said while tearing into his own muffin eagerly.
"Yes, but like by one point. And I heard that you're really good at it, far better than Boonsri but that doesn't matter because she's good in other subjects as well so everyone's like 'oh, she's the smartest in this school'".
Colin smiled amusingly. "Do you want me to tutor you for your benefit or because you want to beat Boonsri."
"The former, of course but the latter one is just a cherry on the top."
"Okay, we can do Thursdays and Fridays. I have those days off from the restaurant. Is that okay with you?"
"Perfect. Two days a week is enough. Timing?"
"How about four?"
"Works for me. We'll start this week."
He nodded and we continued eating our muffins in silence.
"Did you and Aurelio get home fine last night?"
"Yeah, we did. He sobered up after some sleep and then we left."
"I heard him talk about some girl in the party. That she was with a guy who fell into the pool. Was that girl Frida?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
Colin looked nervous. "No, it wasn't her. He was talking about someone else. I can't tell anyone."
Yes, it was Frida. I smirked. "Alright."
After returning from Colin's restaurant, I headed straight to Eli's place. As promised, I met up them to kick start their self-defense lessons. I was going to try and teach them everything I knew.
Before I could actually get them through any moves, I realized that they first had to build their muscle strength. I had them do five sets each of pushups, situps, lunges and squats. By the end of those exercises alone their legs began shaking and they started doing it wrong, much to my disappointment but I knew it was important to not overexert them.
I decided it was best if they had light training for a couple of weeks. After that we all sat down and I tutored them.
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