Back at the Academy, as we are ready to go to sleep, I think back on what happened today. Shawn almost kissed me. But why? We don't get along, we are not even friends let alone something else. I am sure he did it to bother me. But in all honesty, whatever his motives where, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
I really wanted to talk to Everly about this. My entire life I have always told her things that happened to me, and even if this is not a big thing I still want to share it with her. Truth is, that even though I've learned to appreciate these girls, I'm having issues trusting them, trusting anyone actually. But I really need to talk to someone about this or I will explode.
"Girls." I say sitting up on my bed as Nyla looks up from her book and Avianna is exiting the bathroom.
"Yeah?" Nyla answers.
"I have to tell you something that happened after the fight." I say and they nod as they sit up to pay attention.
"Well remember how I told you the Neto guy, the other fighter went up to me and started making comments that were making me quite uncomfortable?" I ask and see they are truly paying attention. "Well what I didn't tell you was that Shawn saved me from him." I say and bite my lip as I see Avianna smile widely.
"Whaaat? What did he do!? Tell us! With details eh" She says excited.
"Okay fine." I say smiling. I let them know about Shawn putting his arms around me and holding my hand, how he pushed Neto after he wanted to bet me, and how upset he was about his comment.
"Aww he defended you, how sweet." Avianna says.
"He had defended me once already from Tom, he told me he would do it for anyone so yeah not so sweet."
"Lord. Either he likes you or he likes acting like a hero."
"Avianna is right. I think he's on to you."
"Welllll..." I say and Avianna's eyes widens. Why is she so excited? "He almost kissed me." I add and their mouths drop.
"What the fuck? How? When? Tell me everything right now!" Avianna says jumping to my bed.
"There's not much to tell I gave him a kiss on his cheek thanking him and then he said to give him a proper thank you and yeah that's it." I say and they lift up their eyebrows. "We didn't kiss, Brian interrupted us."
"Dammit Brian," Avianna says walking back to her bed. "I was right though. He likes you."
"No I think he just wanted to bother me." I say convinced. He doesn't like me. We don't like each other. "What you think Nyla?"
"Well I want to believe he does like you because he be looking at you some kind of way, but at the same time yeah maybe he really just want to do it to I don't know intimidate you or something."
"Exactly! he wanted, to bother me. But I won't let him. Anyways goodnight." I say before getting myself under the blankets not wanting to talk about it anymore, ready to sleep with the memory of Shawn centimeters away from my face.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"I don't understand why we have to be up so early." I say as we walk to the performing arts center of the school on Monday morning.
"I'm telling you miss Sydney is back and she always gives a welcome speech even though we've been in school for more than a month now." Avianna says
"Who is this lady again?"
"Sydney Colins. Founder of the academy and the principal." Nyla adds. "She was then joined by Miss Cynthia Smith. That's why the academy's name is S&C Girls Academy, it's both of their initials."
"Oh." I nod as we continue walking to the performing center.
As we are all seated down. Miss Cynthia comes up to the podium with her sweet smile.
"Good morning ladies, thank you all for being here this morning. I know it's early and I know some of you are still half asleep, I can see it on you little faces." She chuckles. "But I wanted you guys to help me give a warm welcome to our beloved principal Miss Sydney Collins." She says as she steps away from the podium clapping and we all join her.
My eyes go wide when I see a not so tall lady, with shoulder length dark brown hair, slim figure, and face features that remind me of.. me..
"I knew it. Remember I keep telling you you reminded me of someone and you mentioned miss Cynthia said the same thing? Well I guess there's our answer. You could be twins." Avianna says. I can't believe what I'm seeing. She looks so much like me. This is insane.
"Good morning ladies. Thank you all for being here. I really hope you are all having an exceptional school year. I am excited to be back and I'm ready to work hard to keep making this Academy one of the best ones." She says and the crowd cheers. After her short speech, she leaves and Miss Cinthya comes back to dismiss us to go back to our regular schedules.
"You guys seen that too right. She looks like me, Miss Sydney looks just like me." I keep telling the girl as we walk towards our room to grab our school stuff to go to class.
"Yeah it's crazy you are almost identical. But you know what they say, there's a total of 7 people out there who look exactly like you, you just found one." Nyla said.
"Yeah I've heard of that. It's just insane you know, i never imagined meeting one." I say.
My school day went as good as ever. As I'm walking back to my room after my last class I receive a call from my dad.
"Dad!" I say very excited to the phone.
"Darling, how are you doing?"
"I'm doing fantastic dad, but hey I have to tell yo something. Today I met the principal of the school and she looks so much like-"
"Hold on Kenny I'm getting a call, let me take it real quick."
"Ok." I say to an empty line.
After a couple of minutes my dad answers back.
"Sorry honey I have to take this call. I'll call you back ok."
"But dad I-"
"Kendra it's important, I swear I'll call you back baby. I have to go." He says before hanging up on the phone on me.
"Ha." I let out a sigh before shaking my head and continue walking. I'm not paying attention where I'm walking when I feel how I bump into someone.
"Oh lord I'm sorry." I say quick before realizing it's Shawn.
"You really love bumping in to me huh."
"It was an accident I promise, it it were to be intentional l would have bump you hard, possibly even taken you down."
"Ouh aggressive, I love it." He says and we both laugh.
"You look pretty today." He says smiling at me making me blush.
Wow, unexpected for sure. "Thank you." I say back to him smiling as well.
"Don't you think we have a pending conversation?" He asks and I choke on my saliva.
"No I don't think so."
"Yeah, something about you thanking me for what I did last time, or something?"
"Yeah no i already thanked you so.."
"Not the proper way."
"What proper way? The way you think you should be thanked for something you wanted to do? As much as I appreciate you defending me from Neto, I didn't ask you do it. So if you're going to be doing me 'favors' and to then try and take advantage of me for them, then I don't want you doing anything for me."
"Kendra I-"
"Hi guys." Avianna says interrupting him and Shawn runs a hand through his hair. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything important, I can come back."
"No no no you're good." I pull her as she trying to leave. "What's happening?"
"We have study session right now, with the math tutor."
"That's right, let's go." I say and start walking away when he grabs me by my wrist stopping me. I turn to face him and he's looking down at me with what seems to be an apologetic look. I pull my wrist off his grip and turn and walk away. I don't know what or who he thinks I am, but he got it wrong.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
After our study session, Avianna and I went to our room where she decided to nap. Nyla was not in the room since she was trying out for sports. I checked at the time and it was 4:00pm. I contemplate the idea of calling Everly, it's late back home, but it isn't that late. Plus knowing her, I'm sure she's awake.
I exit my room and walk towards the main patio where I sit on the fountain before calling her contact.
"Kendra! Hi!" Everly says excited to the phone and I smile at the sound of her voice.
"Everly! So nice to at your voice. How are you? How's school?"
"I'm doing awesome! School is well. Quite awkward seeing Paige, she has no friends and a part of me wants to feel bad but then i remember what she did and i want to punch her but don't worry i won't." She says and i smile again at her comment. "Tell me how are things going on for you?"
"School is well but the weirdest thing happened today. Remember I had mentioned before that i kept feeling like people kept staring at me and looking at me weird? Well today I met the school principal and it all made sense. Everly.. she looks like me."
"What do you mean?"
"Like she looks exactly like me. Like that's how I feel I will look in 20 years. We could literally be twins."
"How rare. Could she be your family? Is she from England?"
"No I don't think so she doesn't have an accent. And I am sure I don't have any family outside the UK so it is quite odd."
"How cool you found your doppelgänger."
"Yeah I did." I say to the phone as we both laugh. "I miss you."
"I miss you too K." I hear her say with a sad tone.
"Kendra." I hear and turn to find Shawn standing to my left. "Can I talk to you?"
"Kendra? Is that a boy?" I hear Everly say in the phone.
"Yeah sure." I say responding to Shawn fully ignoring Everly.
"Yeah it's a boy? Who is it? Oh lord tell me who is it?" Everly asks with excitement.
"Ev, I'll talk to you later ok?"
"No Kendra Lisette Bennett don't you dare to hang up the pho-" was the last thing I heard before ending the call.
I look up to Shawn who is still standing net to me.
"Look I'm sorry ok? I didn't realize how fucked up I sounded earlier. I didn't mean to disrespect you or made you feel uncomfortable in any way, really, I'm sorry." He says leaving me speechless. I didn't expect him to apologize? As confused as I am right now, part of me is happy to know he's not a total asshole.
"It's ok just don't do it again."
"You got my word, as long as you stop bumping in to me." He says sitting down next to me. He laughs but I only smile.
"You good?" He ask looking at me.
"Yeah I just miss home sometimes."
"Well why are you here? So far from your home?"
"That's a very long and unnecessary story to tell." I say standing up and he stands up as well. "Thank you for your apology. I'll see you around." I add and he nods. I walk past him my shoulder barely touching his, still giving me a shivering feeling that travels throughout my entire body. I shake my head to ignore the feeling and I keep walking feeling a pair of eyes on me as I walk away.