Chapter 1
Kayla sighed and flopped onto her new bed, pulling out her phone to facetime her best friend. It wasn’t that she wasn’t excited about her families move. She was. It was just such a big change, and she really needed something familiar right now.
“Hey Reg,” she drawled as his flushed face appeared on her screen.
“Oof. I know that tone,” he chuckled. “Whats going on? Room too small? No let me guess. Too big.”
“Shut up!” She scolded playfully. Then she sighed. “Its not the room.” He raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue. “Its all just so sudden, ya know? I mean, two months ago I was flying down to albuquerque to see you and my grandparents. Then my moms spring this on me. I would’ve at least liked to have a little longer to pack up my stuff. Maybe say some goodbyes. Don't get me wrong, you and Willie are the closest friends I have, but there were some girls at school im gonna miss.”
“I totally getchu. Change can be rough, even if its good. I mean, you’re closer to family now. Not to mention only a couple hours away from me!” He smiled teethilly at her.
“I know!” Kayla shrieks, rolling over on her bed. “I can’t believe we’ll get to see each other that much more often now! And yeah, I’m sooo excited to be closer to Nick and Chloe. I see them every year, and we face time all the time, but now we live ten minutes away from each other!” She glances at her phone clock. “They’re coming over soon too!” She sees his mischievous look on his face and laughs. “Ah, you always know how to make me feel better Reg. Getting me excited was a nice little trick.”
“I know. I’m quite the magician, aren’t I.” Kayla hears loud voices coming from somewhere near Reggies room. His face falls a bit.
“They’re still going at it, huh?” she asks.
“Yeah. Its gotten worse recently, for some reason.” At the concerned expression on her face, he smiles weakly. “I’ll be fine. I just wish they could get a divorce already and have it over with.”
“Reggie!” someone yells from outside his door. “We need to talk to you!”
Reggie’s eyebrows furrow. “Huh. wonder what thats about.” He blows her a joking kiss. “Well, gotta go. See you later.”
“You’ll tell me everything that happens?” She asks.
“You know it,” he chuckles, throwing up a peace sign and a wink before signing off. She sighs and flops back onto her bed. But this time, Kayla’s smiling.
She lies there for a few moments, making a pact with herself to be excited for the new school year.
“Kayla!” her mom, Taylor calls up. “Your cousins are here!”
Kayla squealed and hopped up, bolting out the door and down the stairs. She skidded to a halt in the living room, and saw her uncles, Chad and Ryan, and her cousins, Chloe and Nick, standing near the door. Probably alerted by her squeal, Nick turned her direction and smiled brightly. She rushes over and jumps straight into his arms, squeezing him tightly.
“Nick, its been forever!” she laughed.
“What do you mean? We face timed last week!” Nick joked. Kayla swatted his arm.
“You know what I meant. Christmas was months ago. And how are you baby?” She turned and scooped her younger cousin into her arms. Chloe giggled and buried her face in Kayla's hair. After setting her down, Kayla turned and engulfed her uncles in a big hug as well.
***
Reggie ended the call and sighed. He wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but he knew for sure he wouldn’t like it. Thinking he might as well get it over with, he hopped off his bed end exited the room.
He found his parents sitting on opposite sides of the living room.
“Whats up?” he asked, flopping onto the couch. He glanced between his parents. His mom’s face was emotionless, his dad’s stony, and Reggie felt his heart rate quicken. The atmosphere in the room was tense, and he felt he was in the calm before the storm. His mother cleared her throat.
“Reggie, your father and I are separating.”
Reggie felt his mouth drop open and hastened to close it. He felt a feeling close to relief, but not quite. He knew a divorce was what his parents needed, but he hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly after he had mentioned it to Kayla. He was about to say something, before realizing his mom was avoiding his gaze.
“Is there something else?” he asked hesitantly. His mom didn’t look at him.
“What your mother isn’t saying, Reggie, is that more than us getting a divorce, we’re going to take some time to ourselves for a while,” Reggies dad continued.
“What?” Reggie asked, growing increasingly confused. What where they saying?
“We’ve already called Mr. Covington. He’s agreed to let you stay with his family in LA for a couple of months.”
Reggie felt a ball in his throat. “What?” he choked again. “You guys are just- leaving me?” He desperately looked at his mom, but she continued to avoid his gaze.
“Its for the best Reggie. We need some time to sort out the affairs, and you shouldn’t be caught in the middle of that,” she finally replied. Reggie stood up abruptly.
“I’m going for a walk,” he gasped, before running to his room to grab his banjo and phone and walking out the door.
He wandered aimlessly until he wound up at a park a few blocks from his house. He sat beneath a tree and tried to sort his thoughts. Spending a few months with Willie didn’t seem so bad. He would be even closer to Kayla too. Having his best friends to support him would be nice.
It took him a minute to slow his breathing. The situation itself wasn’t bad. It was just the feeling that his parents were abandoning him. He hummed to himself, strumming on his banjo to ease his nerves.
***
Kayla laughed as she walked towards the pier with Nick. Although it had been awhile since they last saw each other in person, conversation flowed easily between the two. They had spent almost an hour hanging out in the living room of Kayla’s house with their parents, before Nick had asked if he could show Kayla around LA. Although Chloe had begged to come, the adults had only allowed the older kids to go.
“So, tell me Nick, where do you get your adorable hats? Are they heirlooms from your dad?” Kayla asked jokingly. Nick shoved her.
“Are you making fun of me?” he asked accusingly.
“Never!” Kayla crooned. He shoved her again, before grabbing her hand and dragging her around a corner. “Where are we- Oh…”
Kayla gazed in wonder at the sight in front of her. A small carnival was spread over the boardwalk, complete with a carousal, a ferris wheel, and a bunch of games. She glanced at Nick and saw a brilliant grin on his face. This time, it was Kayla who grabbed his hand and dragged him forward.
They wandered through every row of the carnival, playing tons of games yet only winning three prizes. They were just grabbing some cheesy pretzels when Nick spotted some of his friends in the crowd.
“Julie! Luke! Guys!” He shouted to them. A boy wearing an orange beanie spotted them and began to drag three other people over to their table.
“Hey bro!” The beanie boy exclaimed, reaching forward to do a weird sport handshake. “Who’s this?” he asked, gesturing to Kayla. She smiled a little and waved at the group.
“This is my cousin Kayla. She just moved here from New York. Kayla, this is Luke, Julie, Flynn, and Alex.” They chorused a ‘hi’ and sat down next to them.
“Luke and I play lacrosse together,” Nick mentioned to her. “Alex is in cheer, so we all hang out a lot. And Julie and Flynn are in the same music class as all of us.”
“Cool!” Kayla remarks, smiling. “I’m thinking about joining cheer. Is it fun?” she asked Alex.
“Eh,” Alex sighed. “It used to be when I was younger, but know its just time consuming and exhausting. Not to mention the newest coach is total jerk. I’m thinking of quitting.”
Kayla laughed. “Maybe i’ll just do dance then.”
“Oh yeah, Kayla’s a killer dancer,” Nick told his friends.
For the next little while, Kayla got to know Nick’s friends. She learned all of them played some kind of instrument and sang, and that she shared many common interests with them. She felt hope bubbling inside her, and she began to think that maybe this school year would be easier than she thought.
Just as they started discussing the lacrosse season, she got a text on her phone.
Willie: have you talked to reg recently?
Kayla frowned a bit, wondering what was going on.
Kayla: um, we facetimed a couple hours ago. did something happen?
Willie: yeah. his parents are finally getting divorced, but for some shit reason they’re deciding Reggie doesn’t need to be there when it happens. they called my dad a bit ago and asked if reg could stay with us for a while while they sort everything out. I found out before they even told him.
Kayla: fuck. Lemme call him
“Hey Kayla, you okay?” Flynn asked, noticing her worried expression.
Kayla stood up from then table, her brow creased. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just have to call my friend real quick. I’ll be right back.” She walked to an empty bench on the boardwalk and sat down, trying to ignore the worried glances of Nick’s friends.
She pulled up Reggies contact on her phone, and started a video call. It took a minute, but eventually Reggies face appeared on her screen.
“Hey Reg!” she said, trying to sound cheerful and failing. “You okay?”
“You heard?” asked, sounding more hopeful then anything.
“Uh, yeah. Willie texted me. Is it really happening?”
“Yeah.” he sounded solemn. “I mean, Im fine with the divorce, ya know? Its been a long time coming. Its just- I never expected them to send me away.”
“Yeah. do you know when its happening?” she asked him. A quick glance back to her table showed that Nick and his friends were still throwing worried glances her way.
“Yeah. I left to the park right after they told me, but mom texted me saying I’m flying out in a week. I have until then to pack my stuff.”
“Thats like, two days before school starts!” Kayla exclaims. “Are you enrolling with me and Willie?”
“Yeah. Mr. Covington’s being really cool about this. Its a little late to apply, but he called in some favors and as long as I send in my audition tape by twelve pm tomorrow, they’ll consider it.” He took a second before continuing to talk. “I’m actually kind of excited I guess. I mean, I’ll get to be closer to my besties, and not have to deal with my fighting parents. Seems like the perfect world.”
“Reggie, you’re allowed to feel sad about this,” Kayla insisted. He gave her a weak smile.
“I know. And I am. Im just also trying to see the light too.”
She chuckled at that. “Well, as long as you’re feeling okay.”
“I am.” He looked somewhere off camera. “I should probably start walking home. See ya!”
“Bye Reg. Goodnight.” She ended the call and walked back over to her cousin.
“Everything all right?” Nick asked her.
“Yeah. my friend’s just has some family stuff going on. I’ll tell ya later.” She brushed off their concerned looks and dove back into conversations. “So, what should I be most excited for about Los Feliz?”
***
After a while, Nick and Kayla left. Flynn and the others resumed their aimless wandering, but Flynn’s mind wasn’t on her friends. She was thinking about Kayla. She had only met her a few hours ago, but something about the other girls smile was stuck in her head.
“Earth to Flynn. Flynn. You there?” Julie asked, waving her hand in front of Flynns face.
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Flynn blushed a little as Julie narrowed her eyes at her.
“What are you not saying? I know that tone of voice.”
Flynn mentally cursed Julie and her seemingly psychic mind. “I’ll tell you later,” she groaned.
“Tell Julie what later?” Luke butted in.
“Nothing! Its none of your business!” Flynn groaned again.
“Well now I want to know what it is!” Alex piped up.
“No!” Flynn shouted, sounding exasperated. Luke and Alex raised their eyebrows at each other, silently agreeing the safest option would be to shut up.
“Well, it looks like someones getting cranky,” Julie joked. “I think its best we head home. Bye boys!”
“Bye!” Alex and Luke called. Julie pulled Flynn to her car.
Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the molina residence. They walked straight into the studio, where they had already set up their sleepover gear, and Julie wasted no time before getting Flynn to spill.
“So. What had you spacing out at the boardwalk? You had this glazed look in your eye, so I know it wasn’t nothing.”
“You’re right. It wasn’t nothing. It was something. Something I did not expect and was not prepared for.” Flynn sighed, burying her face into a pillow.
“Let me guess. You like Kayla.” Flynn shot upright and stared at Julie, a shocked expression on her face.
“What? How did you- what?” she stuttered. Julie chuckled.
“Girl, I saw the look on your face when Nick introduced us. You thought she was cute. Then, the more we got to know her the more you looked at her with simp eyes. You should have seen your face when she went to call her friend! It was full on worry.”
Flynn sighed, and buried her face back into the pillow. “Fine. You caught me. I have caught feelings for yet another gorgeous dancer. Happy?” She closed her eyes and silently screamed into the fabric. She only sat back up when she felt Julie lay a hand on her shoulder.
“Flynn, its okay to like more than one person.”
“Not when one is CARRIE, the literal embodiment of lucifer, and the other is Kayla, who I only just met!”
“Hey!” Julie lifted her hand off Flynn’s shoulder, only to use it to punch her in the side. “Carrie and I made up. How much of you hating her is due to repressing your feelings and avoiding asking her out? And Kayla’s going to be going to school with us. You’ll get to know her better then.”
Flynn flopped backwards onto the mattress on the floor. “Okay, first off, Carrie is dating Nick. I could never do that to my boy! And who knows, Kayla could end up being just another snobby rich kid. We only talked for like forty minutes.”
Julie just sighed and laid next to her. “Keep coming up with excuses Flynn. Avoiding you crushes is just going to end up with you distant and alone. Do you really want that?” A glance over at Flynn told Julie she was being adamantly ignored. She sighed again. “Well, just know that if the worst happens, I’ll be there to fix your eyeliner. You wanna watch moana?”