Chapter 1
Move in Day
I let out a sigh of relief as I set the heavy bags down in the run down living room.
My name is Kai, I'm a college student studying abroad.
“OW!” and that would be Liz. My younger cousin I have adopted and took with me to college.
Anyway, I’m studying abroad while taking primarily online classes to take care of the 15 to 16 year old.
“Are you going to pick your room or am I going to-?”
“Yes!” and with that, Lizzy was off to go pick a room. I could hear her running up the creaky stairs and across the upper rooms to pick out the perfect room for herself.
This place would need some serious renovations and a deep clean, it's a nice and cozy older house but seems like it hasn’t been dusted since the 70s. Still, it's the only place I could afford with my limited savings while being off campus.
The college I’m going to wasn't able to accommodate the plus one I was bringing with me, so they compromised and found me a little place for me to rent in the meantime with a student discount from the landlord. It was apparently a frat house for a while before getting sold off. So there's plenty of room at least.
“What's for dinner mama?” Liz came bounding down the old stairs
“Well, considering there isn’t anything in the fridge or cupboards. Let's say take out? You google some food near us while I go and pick my own room since I let you pick yours first?”
“Mmmmm. Deal.” After that I was already walking up the stairs with my luggage and just flopped onto the first empty bed I saw. There wasn’t much furniture in the house, but enough for us to get by comfortably.
“MOM! Someones at the dooooorrr! I think it's the pizza guy!” was all I heard as my eyes snapped open and I checked the time on my phone. It had been 45 minutes since I came up here, I must’ve fallen asleep. Damn jet lag.
The doorbell rang once more and I groaned as I got up and ran down the ever creaky stairs. I swung the door open and was greeted by the smell of pizza but also three people at my door instead of the one I was expecting.
“Ah, that’ll be £20 even.”
“Uh… Give me a second while I find that in my wallet?”
“Yea sure?”
I should’ve done more research about the currency, goddamnit.
“Here, this should be it. Thanks for the pizzas. Liz! Come get the pizzas!”
This guy’s gonna get a good review. Wish I knew what pizza joint she ordered from.
“PIZZA!” and there goes the food.
“Save me some! And she’s gone… Anyway, hi uh.. You are?”
“Oh, where are our manners? We live a few streets down, just wanted to say hello!” The nice lady was only slightly shorter than whom I’m assuming is her son.
“Oh, hi. Would you like to come in and have some pizza? Not sure how much is left, my kid is a bottomless pit I swear.”
The two smiled and walked in. The young boy couldn’t be any older than Liz, while the woman couldn’t be any older than her late twenties.
“Thank you for inviting us! I’m Sarah, and this is my son Nick, it's lovely to meet you!”
Even against my exhaustion and severe jet lag, their smiles were contagious and I found myself smiling warmly at them as well.
“It's great to meet both of you as well. I'm Kai, and this is my daughter.” She quickly covers her mouth and finishes her bite before introducing herself.
“I’m Liz! Nice to meet you.”
“Wow! She's alot older than I was expecting! You and my Nicky boy must be in the same grade level than!”
“Yea shes in.. uh”
“10th grade, or year 11 here.” Liz piped up.
“I'm very glad you remembered that, I didn't. Anyway, she’s going to Higgens, that all girls school close to here.”
Nick eventually sat down and began having a conversation with Liz, I’m glad she’ll know someone at least.
“You look really young for having a 16 year old Kai?” This snapped my attention back to Sarah.
“Oh, I'm 19 actually-”
“Oh wow, how do you have a daughter at such a young age?”
I let out an involuntary laugh.
“She’s my younger cousin. I ended up adopting her after I turned 18 due to some circumstances back home. She's been calling me ‘Mom’ since she was 14 anyway.”
“Oh, really? Well, what made you both move here?”
“ I’m going to college near here. Since I wasn’t able to live on campus with Liz here, the school set me up with housing near the school so I’d be able to attend some of the in person classes I have. And I signed Liz up at Higgens so she’d be able to continue highschool here with me.”
Sarah smiled at me and gave me a small hug.
“That's very kind of you, I bet you're a good mother.”
The sounds of giggles and laughter behind us had snapped Sarah and I out of our sweet little moment and we both paid attention to our kids, who were both getting along swimmingly and laughing at some stuff on their phones.
“This is Charlie, Tao and Elle, some more of my gangle of friends.”
“Oh they all sound like so much fun!”
With them both being so distracted by Nicks phone I was able to sneak up behind them, Sarah's giggling almost gave away my plan but in the end,
“BOO!” I shouted as I jumped up and grabbed their shoulders.
Liz quickly fell off her chair and Nick went to elbow whatever was behind him but ended up just slipping off the crooked chair instead. Me and Sarah erupted into laughter and I made sure neither of them were hurt or bruised too badly.
The rest of our first night in this new town was spent talking to our friendly neighbors, eating pizza and sleeping when they had to leave. All in all, it was a goodnight, and Liz made a friend. Which is all that matters to me.
Monday
The weekend was spent walking around town and sight seeing a bit before both of us had to go to school. It was a ton of fun, all the cute little shops in town had a bunch of cool things. There’s a nice little coffee shop and an ice cream place not far from the house I’ll be seeing if either of them are hiring later on.
Monday morning I woke up first, put the pot of coffee on and hopped in the shower waiting for Liz to wake up. Half an hour later she drags herself out of bed, down the stairs and into the kitchen. Only to lay on the floor and groan like some gremlin who lives here instead of a teenage girl.
“Cmon chickster, you have 30 minutes before you gotta get to school. I’ll drive you if you get dressed and eat something within 20.” was the only thing I had to say to get the gremlin up and moving, even if it was at a snail's pace.
“Maybe this weekend I should take her to the store or something so she can decorate her room more. I’d like to do that for my own room, anyway..” I was talking quietly to myself while pouring myself a cup of lukewarm coffee I had forgotten I made. Just as swiftly as she disappeared Liz appeared next to me, in her new uniform and everything.
“All dressed?”
“Yep.”
“Hair brushed?”
“Yee.”
“Teeth brushed?”
“Yes mom.”
“There’s some leftovers in the fridge,” Liz wandered over while she listened, “I’ll go grocery shopping today after orientation, text me some of the things you want and I’ll add them to the list Ok?”
“Ok!” she muffled while eating cold chow mein.
“Got 10 minutes, I’ll go start the car here in 5. After that grab all your things and meet me out there. Okay?”
“Yuppers!”
Liz is a great kid, she's clumsy and loud. But I’m glad I have her. Now if only she’d come out to the damn car already. It's been 10 minutes.
“Sorry mom! I couldn’t find my vape. I spent like 6 minutes trying to find it but it was in my pants under my bed. Anyway, off to school!”
“No vaping on school grounds, I don’t need you or I to get in trouble for that”
“Yea I know. I just like having it on me.”
“I'm aware. This school has a big no phone policy, so if you need to text me or use it to calm down go to the bathroom. And try to make friends okay?”
“I will. it ‘s just like any other school, making friends can't be that hard. Besides, I already have Nick. He’ll be at Truham, but it shouldn’t be too hard right?”
“Probably. Just behave yourself and no back talking to your teachers or other students. No matter how awful they might be.”
“Yes mom.”
“Okay,” I can feel my anxiety rise as she goes to get out of the car. “Be good Bug. I love you.”
“I love you too mom, bye!”
And she runs off. Now I get to go home and relax before orientation. I have a big list to get through today.
Liz's First Day
“Okay. New school, different country. Can’t be that hard-”
“Hey! Lizzy!” a voice to my left calls out my name. They can't be talking to me? Nope, just keep walking, just keep walking.
“Liz!” Am I hearing things or is God speaking to me? Am I suddenly having a manic episode? Oh god-!
“Liz? Hello? “ Oh it's just Nick.
“Oh, hi! Sorry I was hella spacing out. I thought you went to Truham?”
He laughed before looking behind him and pointing out a small crowd of people.
“I do, but I’m visiting with some friends before school starts, and I knew it was your first day so I wanted to come by and say Hi.”
I peaked around the very tall man and saw the group he was pointing at as they walked towards us. All of which could be models, by the way.
“Oh, that's nice of you. Are these the friends you showed me pictures of?”
“Oh, heh.. Uh yea-”
“Showing us off to every new person you meet Nick?” The very tall and very pretty girl with glasses and cute hair puffs was the first to speak.
They all stood side by side. The one who spoke held hands with a tall, lanky guy with an awesome beanie on.
“Ooooh, is that the girl you were talking about?” says one with dyed blonde hair with her roots showing and a smile that stretches ear to ear with mischief.
“My gaydar is tingling!”
“Darcy! I’m so sorry about her.” said a very pretty dark skinned girl holding hands with who I now know as Darcy, and the prettiest curly hair imaginable.
I couldn't help but giggle. Knowing Darcy was right.
Nick took over the slight awkward silence by introducing everyone.
“This is, Tao,” pointing at beanie man who has a slight scowl. “This is Elle, Darcy is holding hands with her girlfriend Tara. Isaac is holding a book and last and absolutely not least is my boyfriend Charlie.”
They all waved and smiled.
I think this'll be fun.
After the first bell rang the boys all quickly said their goodbyes and toddled off to their own school down the block. With probably too much help, Elle, Tara and Darcy all showed me around the building and helped me get to “form”, whatever that is.
“Uhm, Hello?”
“Ah! You must be Elizabeth-”
“Just Liz, or Lizzy please.”
“Okay Liz, I'm Ms. Young. I’ll be your Forms teacher for the next semester. I’ll have you sit next to Ms. Elle since you two already seem to know each other.”
“Thanks.”
Forms was a rather boring class. It was mostly just talking to the girls while they showed me a map of the building. As well as some of the pranks the 12th years have done. Which I found funny.
Then there was Elle talking to Tao while hiding her phone very poorly. While the passing period was oddly long, I still had to scramble to get to math class. Which was another very long, and very boring class. Math is just one of those boring ass subjects I guess.
The only fun thing that happened today was lunch and a free period I got with the older kids. Which was terrifying if I’m being honest. During lunch I got to hang out with the girls, they talked about some stuff they thought I should know, like Charlie's apparent and embarrassing crush on Nick.
The next thing I absolutely needed to know was Charlie has an older sister who goes here as well, Tori sounds like my type of person. Another thing I noticed was the food at this school was nasty as fuck. This must be what Kai warned me about, prison food. Just lovely. I’ll have to bring my own food or I’ll just starve to death.
During free period, I was grouped with the older kids since I’ve already completed my Health credits I guess. This was honestly terrifying, chronic anxiety is not fun and I spent my free period in an empty computer lab. That was entertaining, just hanging out on my phone playing Minecraft for almost an hour and a half before getting to go home. I like the free period.
I feel like I’m gonna like it better here, grandmas was awful. But, I like it here.
Kai’s Day
Orientation was not nearly as boring as I thought if I’m being entirely honest. Just some general talk about the school, a small tour of the campus and talk about some clubs. Of which I will most certainly not have time for.
But, after that was all done I had to immediately go grocery shopping. Tis the boring life of an adult I suppose.
“Liz said she wanted grapes, and oranges. These prices are so confusing, fuck.” I wandered pretty aimlessly around the supermarket. Just trying to see what all I could get to make dinner tonight instead of just getting take out again. Pretty sure the pizza place knows me by name now..
“I’ll have to go home and make a meal plan or something with Liz, maybe she’d enjoy that? I don't know.”
This is kinda boring, I still have to set up the internet at home, and not to mention figure out where to possibly get a used tv.
“Um, Hello?” The sudden voice next to me made me jump, I almost dropped the eggs I was holding.
“Ah, sorry, am I in the way?” I stepped aside, not noticing her name tag and obvious work shirt.
“Ah, no. sorry! It just looked like you were having some trouble and was wondering if I could help you with anything today?” oh she’s pretty. Her hair was cut into a wolf cut that worked very well for her face, she also had a few piercings. Snake bites and a septum ring. Kai, your gay is showing stop it.
“Oh, er. Not really, I’m just trying to get some stuff for my new place, just to get me and my kid by before we can make a meal plan.” Kai, you said too much. You could’ve just said ‘No thank you’ like a normal person!
“Oh! Sorry to bother you Mrs?” She sounds like honey.
“Oh. I’m nonbinary. But my name is Kai, and I'm not a ‘Mrs’... actually.” You’re talking too much!
She smiled warmly and nodded.
“Very sorry Kai, you’re new around here then? Judging by what you said and your very American accent?” She’s so pretty, looking up at her makes my knees weak.
“Er, yea. I’m going to the college near here. Are you going to get in trouble talking to me or?” she looked around briefly before motioning to an invisible watch on her wrist.
“I’m actually off in a few minutes, just trying to get through the rest of my shift. I just noticed a very pretty person standing very perplexed staring at a carton of eggs mumbling to themselves and figured I’d help them out, Kai.”
I could feel myself smile, hopefully I don't have lipstick on my teeth.
“That’s very nice of you,'' I glanced down at her nametag, somehow not having done that prior. “Jaden.” even her name is pretty. I’m going to have a heart attack.
“Would you, perhaps, like to go get milkshakes after this? In about five minutes then Kai?”
I glance down at my small basket of groceries and look at a distant clock on the wall. I have time before I need to pick up Liz.
“Yes, that would be lovely Jaden. I do have to pick up my kid at 2 however.”
Her smile widened, showing off her adorable dimples,
“Okay, it's a date? I’ll even help you put your groceries away before we go.”
“Oh my, what lovely service, someones gonna get a good review.”
And after trading numbers Jaden had walked off, her shift apparently done.
I have to call Liz on my way home.
“LIZ OH MY GOD!” I blurt out, not even thinking about her poor eardrums.
“You’re very lucky I’m in my free period, also, OW MOM.”
“Ah, sorry are you okay?”
“Yes, now. Spill the tea. Whatever it is.”
“I have a date!”
“HOLY SHIT MOM REALLY?”
“YES REALLY! A very pretty woman at the grocery store asked me out! I’m on my way home and she said she’d help me put the groceries away and then we’d go out for milkshakes!”
“She's not a serial killer right?”
“Er.. probably not.”
“Eh, good enough. Don’t forget to pick me up.”
“I won’t, I won’t. Text me when school lets out okay? I’m pulling in and she’ll be here very shortly okay?”
“Okay mom, I lub youuu!”
“I love you too!”