Shortly before breaking apart to shower and get ready for school, Kahoni proposed going to get smoothies after school since he didn’t have tennis practice that day. I hesitated for a moment since I knew I still had practice, but I quickly devised a plan. I accepted, knowing that it was going to work. I quickly dipped back inside and made my way back to my room. On the way, I could smell breakfast being made in the kitchen and humming coming from Amber’s tardis of a bedroom. Honestly, her’s is so much bigger than mine, I can’t even with her. The house was definitely awake. Reaching my room, I quickly dialed my coach, who preferred to be called Lady Verona because it was “a symbol of her status as a world-class figure skater” or something like that. She was a hopeless romantic, so if I spun after school into a date, then she’d have to accept, right? I heard the phone ring once… twice… before she eventually picked up, her voice riddled with sleep. “Beatrice, it’s 7 am. Why are you calling so early?” she complained. I could hear a man grumbling awake in the background, so I knew she had probably not slept for very long before I disrupted her.

“Morning, Lady Verona!” I said, mocking her with an awake tone. I heard her groan. “I just wanted to know if I could get practice off today.”

“Of course not. Why would you think you could?”

Time to spin the truth. “Oh, well, see, I have… I have a date and he’s super busy so we can only go after schoo-”

“My young Beatrice has a date!? Oh, how the tides are turning! I never thought you’d breakthrough into the world of seduction my young girl! Good job!”

“U-uh yeah. Anyway, can I get-”

“Yes yes, since it’s your date, I will let you off today. But don’t forget, you have a competition coming up.” I sighed, relaxing now that I knew that my plan had worked.

“I know, Lady Verona. I swear, I will work double hard tomorrow! Thank you!” I hung up the phone and proceeded to get ready for the day. After all, I had a “date”. I shuddered at the thought.

Walking downstairs I was greeted with a familiar sight: Damien setting plates full of fruit and toast down at the table. “Good morning Beatrice” he mentioned as I got deja vu from the day prior. “I saw you come in this morning. Out on an early morning run?”

“Yeah,” I said, sitting at my spot. “I went running with a friend”.

He stopped in his tracks, the coffee he was holding halfway through its journey to the table. “You… made a friend miss?” he asked, genuinely surprised.

I laughed lightly. “Yeah, a few actually. Isn’t that bizarre?”

“Quite, Beatrice. I thought I was going to be your only support structure until I was fired.”

“I’m quite shocked mys-”

“EXCUSE ME” Amber exclaimed, bursting through the entryway. Why is she always so angry in the morning?

“Careful furrowing your brow there, you’ll get wrinkles” I quipped, causing her hand to shoot up to her forehead. She proceeded to forcefully facepalm herself and cause both Damien and I to burst into laughter.

“SHUT UP! Why was Kahoni here this morning? Why were you out talking to him?” Ah so she saw me. She angrily plopped down in her chair and stared at me expectantly.

I admit it was rather intimidating; staring your evil doppelganger square in the face. It did not sway me however. I stood strong and simply said “Kahoni and I are friends. We were training together.”

She gave me the most cliche disgusted look and a very audible scoff before replying “since when do you have friends?”

“Since yesterday. And I have a few now thank you very much. I’m not that hopeless.” Her face contorted more, spinning in on itself like a black hole.

“That’s bullshit. You’ve never had friends and you never will.”

“Clearly this morning said otherwise.”

“AUGH!” She grabbed her plate and coffee that was more sugar and syrup than dirty bean water and stomped off towards the informal living room. Clearly, she wasn’t happy that I had “succeeded” in something she hadn’t, befriending Kahoni. Taste of her own medicine, I guess.

Damien looked at me concerned. “What is the deal with that boy? Ka- Kohani was it?”

“Kahoni” I corrected. “We all played together as kids and since we’ve met she’s had the biggest crush on him. However, he doesn’t feel the same and tried to distance himself from us as we grew older. She’s been trying to win him back for years. She’s probably just mad a nobody like me could win him over.” I sat for a second and though about my wording there.

“Did you?”

“No. He actually approached me. Before we left for school and at lunch yesterday. I know Amber had to have seen him at least once, so I don’t know why she was so angry about this morning…”

“Oh, that was him? I see I see. Well, maybe it was because you willingly went and hung out with him. From my understanding, yesterday both times was initiated by him, were they not?”

“Y-yeah?”

“So seeing you able to just casually go and hang out with the boy she’s seen as unattainable for years really got to her. Though, that’s just a theory.” I smirked at the stupid ending before finishing my food and going to rangle in Amber. Interesting start to the last few days to be sure.

By the time lunch rolled around, all eyes were on me and Kahoni, now joined by the rest of his group from the day before. Most were shocked by the lowest of the low suddenly being chill with the kings (and queen) of the castle (excluding Amber). I felt this sinking anxiety in the pit of my stomach. Why can’t this be like my competitions? I have all eyes on me then! But then I remembered the self psyching myself up that I have to do before each competition and quickly figured out the answer.

Jace shoved a piece of his pasta salad onto my plate and demanded I tried it. Turns out he was experimenting with a new recipe. He subsequently dished out bits to the rest of the group. Abby ate the bite and squeaked. “Ah! Too spicy!” she yelped, scrambling for her milk carton. Meanwhile, Lance didn’t think it was spicy enough, causing a smile from his male companion. The rest of us had very few differentiating opinions. Abby then went blabbering on about some stupid thing Lance had done in AP physics; the one class the two shared as a sophomore and a senior. The couple was quite cute in my eyes, but I was curious how they were going to last past graduation.

Kahoni then offered me his fork with some macaroni salad on it. I briefly panicked, since if I ate off his fork, it would be an indirect kiss but if I didn’t I’d look rude and I didn’t have any other options and I- *nom*. Before I could finish the mini panic session I was holding in my brain, my body moved for me and took the bite. The others looked at us and “oooh”ed us, which I quickly shut down. I knew what the “oooh” meant. I may have had no friends until the day before but I knew all the way back in elementary school what the “oooh” meant. He simply smiled, his flushed face radiating with wholesome energy. “S-sorry” I stammered, swallowing the deliciousness in my mouth, “that was way too forward!”

“No worries, Bea. You’re all good. I’m a pretty forward person.” I smiled in response and we moved on from the awkward discussion, and I became oblivious to the eyes peering on me and that feeling like I was being watched through a telescope.

When the end of the day rolled around, I texted Damien that I wouldn’t need a ride to the rink and teetered on my heels anxiously waiting for my “date” to arrive. I still couldn’t believe that had actually worked. Back and forth, back and forth I went before eventually a head of curly brown hair peaked itself out the large main doors. He waved to me and came jogging over. “Afternoon, Bea” he chirped, his bright smile massive on his face. It was almost blinding, like staring into the sun for too long. I wonder what kind of toothpaste he uses? Whitening? I shook it off and looked down at my rocking feet.

“Ready to go?” I mumbled, to which he hastily replied yes and began walking off towards the parking lot.

“I thought you always ran to school?” I asked, doing that awkward walk-jog thing that everyone hates doing to catch up to him. He nodded his head.

“Usually I do, but since we had plans, I brought out the big guns.” He motioned to a dark green convertible sports car parked in the front row of the parking lot, his name spray-painted onto the ground below it. Stupid popular kids and buying their stupid parking spots… He opened the passenger door for me before moving to the other side and hopping in over the door.

“Are you… trying to impress me?” I joked, jabbing him in the arm, though I’m sure it hurt me more than it hurt him (those things are rock solid, I swear).

He smirked at me, giving me an almost seductive look. “Maybe,” he flaunted, brushing a stray bit of hair out of his face, “or maybe not. The world may never know.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever weirdo. Just drive.” And so we did. We drove the 10-ish minutes into the downtown shopping district which was as busy as always. We struggled for another 5-ish minutes to find a parking spot before eventually finding one, raising the top, and hopping out. This time I ended up attempting to hop out over the door but my foot got caught and I vaulted forward, smacking my face onto cold, dark asphalt. Classy. “Fuck” I whelled (that’s whisper yelling, thanks). He grabbed my stuck foot and I flipped over until I was starfished on the ground facing upwards.

“You ok, Bea?” he said, genuinely sounding concerned.

“Yep, peachy. Let’s go.” I struggled to get off the ground before turning to leave. Before I could get far, however, he grabbed my wrist and spun me around so I was facing him. Startled, my face went bright red as I realized just how close that had made us. He brought up his hand and brushed something off my nose before booping it and moving on like nothing had happened. “Ah- uh what was-”

“Nothing! Just some dirt from you eating shit on the pavement” he said, his back turned to me. Despite this, I could still see that his ears poking from his voluminous hair were clearly red. We walked the rest of the way in awkward silence. Once we got in, we ordered our smoothies and found a spot with multiple miscellaneous fruit chairs and a coconut couch located in the loft since the rest of the group were going to join after their club activities finished. “So,” he started, looking at the cream-colored coconut cushion that he sat upon. “Smoothies.” Was he… flustered? Cute…

“Smoothies! They’re honestly one of my favorite foods. Or would it be a drink? I’m honestly not sure. What’s your favorite food, Kahoni?” Shit, I’m rambling, I’m spirling, this is why I don’t do socialization. I-

“Spam Musubi” he said, a fiery look in his eye. It kinda scared me if I’m being honest. “Whenever mom makes it, it’s delicious! When you come over next, I’ll have her make some! Like when we were little!”

I glitched momentarily. “Come over… next”? HAAAAA!? He wanted me to come over? What was with this guy? Sure I had gone to his house a few times as a kid but this was different! We were adults now, about to graduate high school. Going over to someone’s house can mean so many things. My face illuminated to the color of the earth’s inner core as I fell backwards against the thin railing that kept me from falling fifteen feet below and smashing my skull on the cold, multicolored pavement. Or maybe it would be a cool superhero landing? No, probably not. Besides, that does a number on the knees and I need my knees. “When we were little?” I asked, trying to get off the topic of going to his house.

“Yeah! Remember when we were younger, all the kids would play together, and then we’d all go over to my house for snacks since everyone deemed my parents the nicest-” way to toot your theoretical horn there sir “- and my mom would make us a bunch of different stuff! I remember your favorite being kalua pork sliders!”

Memories rushed back into my head before he finished saying kalua. Oh man, those things were delicious. The savory meat mixed with the warm sauce and delicious bun made my mouth water, despite having a delicious and sweet fruit smoothie right in front of me. “Ahhh, I remember those. So delicious…”

“What’s your favorite food?” he asked, snapping me out of my meaty fantasies (wait…). I looked down at my smoothie, kinda embarrassed.

“Um.. it’s going to sound silly, but starfruit” I responded, not lifting my eyes off the swirling, multicolored straw escaping the slightly melted drink. I took a sip, expecting a frozen drink but getting something more akin to juice.

“Silly, why?”

“Because… I like its shape. It’s just an extra bonus that it tastes good…”

He chuckled, only adding to my embarrassment. “I don’t think it’s silly at all.”

“I-it’s so pretty and naturally star-shaped, along with a really pretty light yellow color and sweetly sour, vitamin c packed deliciousness! H-however, like the grapefruit, people shouldn’t eat carambola with certain medication! It messes with the way the body- ah!” He was full-on laughing now, and I could feel my face burning. I’m talking Venus temperatures here.

“That’s so… that’s so cute!” he said, toppling backwards against the brown outer coconut cushion behind him. “I love that ahahaha-”

“D-don’t laugh! It’s really silly.”

“What’s really silly?” a deep voice piped up from a little ways away. The two of us looked over to see that the rest of the group had made their way to the table, rainbow-colored drinks in hand.

“N-nothing!” I stuttered, Kahoni continuing to laugh all the while. What a chaotic few days I thought. It was exhausting but… I… liked it. How odd.