How Things Changed Forever.. PART - II

CH 24: Didn't Think You'd Actually DO It.

Parties just after exams were always the best for relaxing, though not the best in case they had school the next day, thought Cassandra, rubbing her forehead as she made her way to the main noticeboard.

She'd had a wonderful night until she'd walked into the kitchen for water. Laura stood in a corner, furiously whispering something to Kai. She would have approached them if not for the fact that she still wasn't on speaking terms with Laura. Kai looked more annoyed than furious with her, but it was still there.

"You never stay long enough to enjoy!" She heard Laura complain. "That's because I don't enjoy it here." "But I do!" "Just so you haven't noticed it by now, that's why I've been here for the last fifteen minutes. I'm pretty sure that's more than enough time for you to remind everyone of your newest hot boyfriend." Laura, god bless her, didn't rise to the jab. "I want you to stay longer, at least today." She said, with as much patience as she could muster. Maybe another time, not today" Kai was adamant about it. Laura got furious at this.

"I'm not going to be anybody's pass-time Kai, especially not yours!" She warned. "You talk as though you haven't gotten through two boys before me since his term started, Lau." He said, making her flinch. Kai  had the ability to male a cute nickname sting. Laura had stormed off at that, shortly followed by Kai.

And now, the first thing she hears after her AP Chemistry class was about how close Kai and Hillary had seemed this morning, before they had been interrupted by a few students.

The entire student body was rushing to the main notice board to check their marks of the tests conducted last week. And while the nerdy students jhosled each other to know their marks, Cassie stood at a corner as Jude and Liz filled her in on what they had seen that morning.

"And then we walk in and they're practically this close!" "Hands touching! A smile on their faces (even Kai, a tiny smile! she emphasized it a dozen times)" "And the moment the girls had walked in, Hillary had jumped apart it seems, blushing furiously." "I swear, there's something going on here. Why would she move away so quickly if she wasn't guilty of doing something wrong?" Jude intoned multiple times, as though Kai was completely innocent in the situation.

As much as she loved her friends, she didn't really believe everything they said. She did realise there was a degree of exaggeration involved.

And no matter how many times she'd warned Laura about Kai, he didn't seem that bad, she thought, thinking of all the times she'd been with him in the past few weeks. He valued his closest of friends beyond measure. She'd seen his focus and determination in both academics and beyblading. And unlike the other red flags her best friend had dated in the past, he was so far the best amongst them.

Not the greatest compliment she realised, but still,  Kai did have the basic decency of at least breaking up with his current interest before pursuing his next one. And Hillary, as much as she hated her, just didn't seem like the type who would go for the likes of him.

But nonetheless, she was glad Jude and Liz had come to her, rather than going to Laura directly. Given what had happened yesterday, she was sure that Laura would take this news/rumour in the wrongest way possible and make a huge scene out of it.

All she had to do now was to find Kai and talk to him, because voluntarily talking to Hillary today was out of the question.

Kai, as usual, was nowhere to be seen. She didn't understand how he managed to practically stay hidden until he wanted to be found. Hillary, on the other hand, stood in the centre of her vision, beside Aubery, absolutely glowing with the knowledge that she'd secured the highest marks in all her classes except for AP chemistry, where she'd lost to Kai by a mark.