Wintercrest Academy

Happy hormones, sad hormones

           Her first kiss. It’d forever go down in history, that the first time Kaia got a kiss that didn’t come from a family member, that came from a boy, it wasn’t on her lips. It was at the sides of her damn neck! She sighs and buries her head into her palms, remembering how livid she had felt when Bren pinned her to the wall and his surprisingly soft lips collided with her neck. Mr Ariel had been mortified.

           “Making out in school premises? In daylight?! Wait here, the both of you. I’d be right back.” He fumed and went to dismiss the person he’d been talking to.

           “You taste sweet,” Bren cleared his throat and when Kaia turned to look at him, his entire face was coloured red. What was she supposed to say to that? Thank you?!

           “What the heck did you do that for?” she huffed, aggressively wiping at her neck to eliminate Bren’s lip marks. A waste, it would always be tattooed in both their brains.

           “If he had caught us here, he’d have known we were spying and we’d get in trouble. I had to do something.”

           “We?!” Kaia shrills. “I wasn’t spying. You were. It has nothing to do with me.”

           “Forget it. He already caught us making out anyway.” Bren shrugged like it was nothing serious and Kaia threw a punch to his guts. He yelped. “Kaia!”

           “Shut up!” she spat and started storming off when she remembered that Mr Ariel asked them to wait. Embarrassed, she drags her feet back but makes sure to keep a huge distance from Bren. He looks away from her as well, but his ears are still blood red and she can see him smirking. Arggghhhhhh!

           She returns to consciousness when her phone lights up with a text from Cliché. What do you mean? Why would a boy kiss your neck? Is he a vampire or sth? He skipped your lips and went straight to your neck? Damn, that’s hot.

           Okay, not helping. Kaia locks her phone, takes a deep breath and steps into AP Bio lab. Mr Ariel had asked her and Bren to meet him there after school hours. Bren is seated when she goes in and she makes sure to avoid eye contact. She wants to move her seat away from him, but after considering how dramatic that would be, she gives it up.

           Mr Ariel clears his throat and rests his elbows on his desk. “You two wanna . . .explain that?” he points at nothing.

           “We’re sorry.” The culprits say at the same time and then stare at themselves. Kaia mostly glares.

           “It won’t happen again. Ever. So please, sir. Don’t let it get out. We could get into serious trouble, and I don’t need to give people anything new to talk about.”

           Mr Ariel sighs and rubs his forehead. “Of course, Kaia. I don’t want to give the kids anything to talk about either. But couldn’t you both have waited? It could have been Principal Jan who caught you. Or Miss Howard, or anyone else. What would you have done then? Skipping classes just to steal a kiss?”

           “I’m sorry, Mr Ariel. It was my fault. She didn’t see it coming. I instigated it,” Bren says, bowing slightly in apology.

           “You should know better! You’re top students. It’d be worse for you two than it’d be for any other student. It’d be worse for Kaia than it’d be for you. I know, you . . .have those feelings for each other. But you have to keep it under control.”

           “There are no feelings.” Kaia states the same time Bren says, “We’d be more careful.”

           “More careful? Are you kidding me?” Kaia stares daggers at the foolish Bren who uses his eyes appease her to play along. She huffs and faces Mr Ariel again. “We’re sorry. We’d”— she swallows like the word is bitter­— “be more careful. Sir.”

           Mr Ariel eyes them both pensively before nodding. “Your SAT is on Saturday?” he asks Kaia and she nods. “Goodluck.” He gives her his charming smile. “You’d do great. If you need any help at any time, just call me.”

           She smiles back. “Thank you, Mr Ariel.”

           “When’s yours again?” he turns to Bren.

           “Saturday.”

           Mr Ariel sits straighter. “Yours is Saturday as well? And you had the time to drag Kaia in for a kiss?!”

           “Mr Ariel!” they politely try to shush him because anyone around the lab can hear him.

           “Hormonal teenagers.” He mumbles and dismissed them with a wave of hand. “Kaia,” he calls while they leave and Kaia turns to him. “Call me. If you need anything.” She promises that she will and then breezes past Bren and dashes ahead and out. The house is too quiet for her. Now that she’s not talking to Dad, and Keanu after he pulled the silly stunt of contacting their mum through Diane’s phone, she’s being by herself. She’s also avoided Diane for knowing that Keanu was using her phone to call their mum and still letting him do it anyway. She occupies herself with preparing for her SAT, interrupting Cliché when she tries to bring up the cringy neck kiss and contemplating whether telling Astrid or not. Someone knocks on her door. She doesn’t answer. Instead, she reaches for her headphones and wears them.

           She doesn’t know when the door opens, but soon enough, she sees a shadow enclose her and stay there, and then a drop of water lands on the page of her book. She raises her head up sharply and it’s not water. Well, it’s salt water technically. But it’s tears. Keanu’s tears.

           She huffs, and it’s breaking her to push him away, but sometimes, people have to learn the hard way. “What are you crying for?”

           “You’re not talking to me,” he sobs, snort tricking out of a nostril. “I miss you. I don’t know how to be happy if you’re upset with me.”

           Damn. That tears at her heart. “Go talk to Dad, Keanu. I’m studying. My SAT is on Saturday and you know that.”

           Keanu starts to cry, loud and noisy and like a 12-year-old.

           “Hey!” she cautions but he won’t budge. “Okay. Okay.” She grabs his arm and leads them to her bed. He settles at the foot of it and she gets him tissues to wipe his eyes and nose.

           “I’m sorry,” he sniffles.

           “No, you’re not.”

           “I am. I pro—”

           “You shouldn’t have, Keanu. Why did you do that? After everything she did?”

           Keanu fumbles with the tissue in his palms. “Well . . .dad said she was coming b . . .back, so I thought . . .th . . .that it’d be okay to . . .talk to her. So, it won’t be awkward when she comes.”

           Kaia scoffs. Why does this child choose to be mature at odd times? “Keanu. I have nothing to say to you. Literally. You went behind my back.”

           “Cause I knew. I knew you’d act like this. And I . . .i missed her. I’ve always told you I miss her.”

           “Go to bed, Keanu,” Kaia says and then briefly reaches out to pat his cheeks. “It’s late, and you have school tomorrow. We shouldn’t be having conversations like this. We’re too young for all the drama. Go.” She returns to her desk and when she slips into her chair, there’s another knock. “I don’t want him here so you better go out with him.” Kaia warns her brother and wears her headphones again. She doesn’t know when Keanu leaves or if her dad entered her room, but for the rest of the night, her focus dwindles.

                                                                       ****

           Bren and Kaia are magnets. Always drawing themselves to one another. Well, at least that’s what Bren thinks, because Kaia’s writing the SAT in the same venue as him. She’s acted like he doesn’t exist since she came in, wearing her headphones and not talking to anyone. Save for the calls she’s received from Adan, Astrid and some kid called ‘Cliché.’ A very weird name for a human. She’s gotten a lot of stares though. Bren, of course has had lots of conversations. Most unwarranted and forced. They don’t count, when the person he actually wants to talk to. The person whose neck he kissed is downright ignoring him. He should apologize. Yes, he’d do that after the exams. His phone buzzes and he check it to see a text from Jacob Kang. Don’t miss a question. You must get all answers correctly.

           His jaw clenches automatically in anger. That’s it? Shame on him for expecting more. He deletes the text and promises himself that he’d be deleting his father’s number next. It’s time for the test and all the students file in for the 3hour long exam. When that’s done, he rushes out to look for Kaia.

           “Hi!” he almost bumps into her. The smile on her face fades when she sees him.

           “I’d call you back,” she says to the person on the phone and then hangs up. “Hey?”

           Bren cannot believe it. The sheer joy he feels right now talking to her. It’s stupid. But he likes it. “How was it?” he asks.

           She just nods in response. “Yours?”

           He thinks for a moment and then nods too. She tsks and a small smile spread on her lips. Freaking beautiful. “Oh, here.” He holds out a small gift bag. “Energy snacks and water.” He hasn’t gifted her anything before. She’s gifted him twice. He’d thought it’d be nice to do the same for her.

           Kaia gawks at the bag for a little too long. “Uhm?”

           He picks up her hand and pushes the bag into it. “I’m not asking you to marry me. Get out of your head. Consider it a ‘well done’ snack. And . . .also an ‘I’m sorry for abruptly kissing you on the neck’ gist.”

           She groans and scrunches her face. “It’s much worse when you say it out loud.”  Bren bites back laughter. “Thank you. I appreciate it. Really.”

           Bren shrugs it off. “How are you getting home? I could walk you to the bus station.”

           She narrows her eyes at him. “Stay away from my neck,” she says and start walking away. Bren chuckles. He did not see that coming.

           He jogs after her. “What? Are you insinuating I’m some kind of vampire now?”

           “I don’t care what you are. Just keep your lips to yourself. Please.”

           That probably shouldn’t hurt, yet it does. Bren opens his mouth to speak when he’s disrupted with the sound of Mr Ariel’s voice. “Kaia!” he yells from across the street. The two of them turn towards him at the same time, and Bren is relieved when shock takes over Kaia’s face and not excitement to see Mr Ariel aka her stalker and Lindsay’s boyfriend? Lover? Whatever.

           “Why’s he here?” Bren hears himself asking.

           “I don’t know,” Kaia says and checks her phone. “Lunch. He wants to take me for lunch. I just got his text.” She hides the phone in the back pocket of her mum jeans.

           Why the heck would he want to take her for lunch? Weird man! Kaia tilts her head upwards to face Bren. “Would you come with me? Come eat with us.”

           Crap! Whatever this feeling is, it’s better than anything he’s ever felt before. A rush of serotonin. “Sure,” he nods, because if he was giving Mr Ariel any benefit of doubt before, that just died. Mr Ariel is bad news for Kaia, and he’d keep her away from bad news.