Love and Family | Port Orthos 4

chapter 9: fern is in her own little world

chapter 9: fern is in her own little world

~fern~

       Harlow storms into the kitchen, walking to the fridge. She swings the fridge's door open, grabs a smoothie, then slams the door shut before she heads out of the kitchen despite the fact that there is breakfast for everyone.

       "Are you not going to eat breakfast?" Poppa asks Harlow.

       "No," Harlow says. "I'm too angry to eat."

       "Angry?" Poppa asks. "Why are you angry?"

       "Because school sucks," Harlow says. "I'm too angry to drive so Emmett's going to drive me to school and he's almost here." She walks out of the kitchen without going into detail about why school sucks. A few seconds later, we hear the front door open and slam.

       Poppa looks at Dad. "Do you know why she's angry?"

       Dad shakes her head. "I don't, but she was like this ever since I got home from work yesterday."

       "Someone ranked all the girls at school based on their looks," Forest says.

       "What? Really?" Poppa asks. "Who would do such a thing?"

       Forest shrugs. "Some drama page for our school. No one knows who runs it."

       "That's so not okay," Dad says. "Now I get why Harlow is mad. Is the school going to do anything about it?" Forest shrugs. Dad looks at me. "What about you? How are you feeling about it?"

       "I mean, I think it's dumb that someone made that list, but I'm never on social media so I'm not paying attention to it," I say. I know a lot of people at school have been talking about it, but I can only focus on conversations when I want to. I never listen to conversations happening around me when I'm focusing on something, so I didn't hear anyone talk about it.

       The only reason why I know about it is because Kiro told me about it. He found out because everyone was talking about it. He didn't look at it and he doesn't want to.

       Since Harlow normally drives me and Forest to school but she already left, Poppa says he'll drive us since our school is close to his office. He'll probably still be at work when we got off at school, so I tell Poppa I'll get Kiro to drive us home.

       As soon as Poppa drops me and Forest off at school, the first thing I do is head over to Kiro's locker to see if he's there. If he gets to school before me, he'll always be there waiting for me. There's a seating area with tables and chairs by Kiro's locker, so I'll sit there and wait if I get to school before him.

       Kiro did get to school before me since he's already at his locker. He looks at me and smiles when I walk over to him. "Hey," he says.

       "Hi," I say. "Would you be able to drive me and Forest home after school? My poppa drove us here because Harlow got Emmett to drive her. She said she was too angry to drive because school sucks."

       "Yeah, of course," Kiro says. "Is she still upset about the list?"

       "I think so," I say. "She didn't explicitly say it's why school sucks, but it's the only thing that happened recently."

       "I don't blame her," I say. "She did say Kaylee's boyfriend talked to the principal about it and that the principal said she would make an announcement about it, but she hasn't done it yet. How long does it take to make an announcement?"

       "Oh. I didn't think of that. Yeah, maybe that's why she's still mad. None of the staff have really done anything about it. I think."

       "They haven't," Kiro says. "And speaking of the list, I talked to Chaz. He's not behind it."

       "Are you sure?"

       Kiro nods. "Positive. I, uh... Intimidated him, I guess you can call it. He was telling the truth when he said it wasn't him."

       I frown. "You didn't hurt him, did you?"

       "No, of course not," Kiro says. "I won't lay my hands on anyone unless it's self-defence. That's what I've been taught in my fighting classes." That is true. I've never seen Kiro start a fight, even if someone, in his words, really deserve it. He knows it's always best to wait until someone throws the first punch so he can just claim self-defence.

       When lunch rolls around, Kiro and I decide to go out somewhere for lunch. He says it's probably best not to stay in the school during lunch since there's a lot of tension between the students because of the list. I haven't noticed, but that's probably because I'm not the best at reading people. 

       Kiro lets me choose where we'll eat, so I choose a cafe close to the school. It's close enough to walk, so we don't have to get into Kiro's car. The snow hasn't melted yet, and it probably won't for a while, so it also gives me an excuse to walk in the snow.

       It's hard for me to talk to strangers, so I tell Kiro what I want on the menu and he orders for me. He's always so understanding when it comes to what I can and can't do. He never tries to get me to leave my comfort zone. He'll encourage me, sure, but only if I say something about leaving my comfort zone. 

       I get a BLT sandwich and a cup of hot chocolate, as well as a chocolate chip cookie. Kiro gets a BLT bagel and a latte. We find a table to sit, and I'm about to sit on the chair that faces the counter, but Kiro gets me to sit on the one facing the door instead. I don't question why he wants me to sit there, but it doesn't bother me, so I sit down.

       I immediately bite into the sandwich. It's probably the best BLT sandwich I've ever had. Well, not including the one I get from my great-great aunt and uncle's cafe. They definitely have the best food and drinks.

       "I think we should come here for lunch more often," I say.

       "Yeah, for sure," Kiro says. "But, uh... I think we should get take out next time."

       I furrow my eyebrows. "Why? We've got time to eat lunch here. And the atmosphere is great."

       "It is, but..." Kiro sighs. "I'll tell you after we leave."

       "Okay?" I just eat my sandwich and drink my hot chocolate, a bit curious why Kiro doesn't want to eat inside, but I'll let him tell me when he wants to.

       When we're both done eating, we leave the cafe to head back to school. As we're walking there, Kiro says, "I didn't want to make you uncomfortable, but the barista kept staring at you, and he looked like he was in his forties."

       "Oh," I say. "That's weird."

       "Yeah," Kiro says. "It didn't look like it was in a... him being attracted to you kind of way, thankfully, but it was still weird to keep staring at you. I'm sure can find another cafe to go to for lunch if you don't want to go there again."

       "Okay," I say. "There are a lot of places to eat around here, so it won't be a loss to eat here again. We can find somewhere new tomorrow. I like trying new places anyway."

       Kiro smiles. "Then we'll find somewhere new tomorrow."

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kiro was trying his best not to fight the barista, but he really doesn't start fights (he just ends them lol).

anyway stream guts (spilled). so american is probably going to end up as my most listened song at this rate (that or a song from hazbin hotel lol). (olivia rodgrio is also fern's favourite song thank you for coming to my ted talk).

oh one more thing. fun fact: fern actually looks A LOT like fawn despite marius being the twins' biological father. it helps that fawn's sister is fern's biological mother, and mary-anne and fawn look so alike lol. (harlow looks a lot like marius so they both have their own mini-me hehe)