redemption | kai parker • au

t w o

"Okay so do you have everything, Mom?"

"Yes, honey, of course I do." Claudia's mother replied with a chuckle.

"Passport? Toothbrush? Tampons?" Claudia questioned. Today was the day that her mother was leaving for Virginia and although she was incredibly proud of her and her new job offer, she was freaking the hell out. Yeah, she's been alone in the house for a few days before, she's not twelve. But never for two weeks! That's the longest time that her and her mom have been apart, which was a little embarrassing on Claudia's behalf.

"Oh my God, seriously? Did you really say that out loud?" her mom replied with a small smile creeping on her face. Oh how she will miss her daughter's worried humor.

"A woman's health is nothing to be embarrassed about, mom. I just want to make sure that you're all set, you know? I don't want you feeling like you've forgotten something," the young girl replied, trailing off at the end. They both shared a knowing glance.

"Sweetie, I'll be fine. I promise. We'll text everyday and I'll take lots of pictures for you!" her mom replied excitedly. She then placed a hand on her daughter's cheek and kept it there, realizing what was really wrong with Claudia. "You'll be fine, Claudia. You've done this before."

"Yeah but what if I run out of food, or money, or someone tries to kill me?" Claudia stated, half joking about the last part. She's been a little freaked ever since her encounter the strange boy yesterday.

"Don't be silly, sweetie. There is plenty of food in the freezer, I left $100 on the counter and if someone tries to kill you, it was lovely knowing you," her mother retorted with laughter.

"Last call for flight 227 to Virginia, boarding at gate 6." Both girls turned to face the overhead speaker above them.

"Well that's me," Claudia's mother shrugged, "stay safe, sweetie, and call me every day, okay?"

"I will, I will, mom." Claudia reached out for her mom and pulled her into a warm embrace. "I love you mom, have a safe flight."

"I love you too." Both of them untangled themselves from the other and Claudia watched her mom make her way to the boarding gate. They gave each other one last glance and waved, and within seconds her mother was out of sight.

For a few minutes, Claudia just stared into the distance with a blank mind, not really thinking about anything in particular. That is until she remembered she had school in less than 40 minutes. With the thought in her mind, Claudia jogged to her car with her bag in hand, thanking her mother for telling her to pack her school books the previous night. Luckily for Claudia, the airport and the school were quite close to each other so she didn't have long to drive but today, of all days, the traffic was insane. So what was meant to be a 20 minute drive, turned into a 50 minute drive.

When Claudia eventually did arrive at school, she was 10 minutes late to her first class which just so happened to be Biology. Now, it's not every day that a teacher had a problem with Claudia because, naturally, Claudia's a gifted academic student, but Mrs Smithson wasn't a very pleasant person. If you literally showed up one minute late to any of her classes, she'd straight away give you a detention. So God knows the surprise she had in store for Claudia.

Claudia wasn't even through the door two seconds before she heard the dreaded, dull voice.

"I trust you don't need me to tell you that you have detention today, Miss Stanford. If it wasn't for your impeccable grades, you'd be here after school all week. Sit."

Claudia gave her a slight nod and a half smile, hearing some of her classmates snicker or whisper a "tough break, man" or a "you show her, Claudia." She more or less kept her head down the entire way to her usual seat and when she got there, she was surprised to see that the normally vacant seat beside her was no longer empty. There was a boy on it. Must be the new guy, Claudia thought. She didn't even bother to look up until she heard the oddly familiar voice.

"Oh hey, stutters. Fancy seeing you here."

No. Freaking. Way.

Claudia hesitantly looked up at the boy who's voice she recognised to be the guy in the forest from yesterday. When they eventually met eyes, Claudia became still. He was just staring at her with a cheerful grin slapped on his face.

"You," Claudia spoke gently.

"Really? My house magically appeared and disappeared in front of you, I threatened to severely hurt you and all you can say is 'you'?" The boy replied, slightly smiling. "That's fantastic, honestly," he finished with soft laughter.

Why the hell is he laughing? Claudia thought, this is so not funny.

"Oh sorry, manners. I'm Kai," the boy – Kai – spoke, reaching his hand out for Claudia to shake it. She didn't. In fact, she didn't even look at him. Her eyes were fixated on the blank paper in her notebook, where the notes Mrs Smithson was writing on the board, should be.

"Okay, I get it. Crazy threatening guy isn't really the vibe I'm going for here. But then again, how could you blame me," Kai's voice getting darker, "you saw too much."

"Why are you here?" Claudia blurted out, which even amazed herself.

"Ah, she speaks" Kai replied with his usual sarcastic tone. Claudia was instantly getting annoyed because he was avoiding the question and Kai could tell. "Well stutters, I was home schooled but seeing as my parents are no longer around, I brought it upon myself to finish my senior year," he answered smiling, "that... and I needed to keep an eye on you. Make sure you don't go blabbering to all your little friends about what happened in the woods."

"I- I won't say anything, I- I'm not even sure w- what I saw," she rambled.

"Good. Keep it that way." Kai said with a wink, which made Claudia feel uneasy.

Claudia got through the rest of class in peace, thank God. Kai seemed to get the hint and left her alone, only making a few comments here and there like, "you missed a word" and "that's definitely not a fibula." She couldn't get out of that room quick enough when the bell rang, and luckily she was able to catch a glimpse of Kai's timetable and to her delight she had no more classes with him.

Just five more hours, she thought to herself, just five more hours.

~

Weirdly enough, the school day seemed to pass by a lot quicker without Kai's presence constantly around her. But the time had come. It was time for detention. While everyone else in the school was leaving to go home to eat food and watch re-runs of their favourite TV shows, Claudia was staying here, in school. Alone in school for 2 hours, or at least that's what she thought.

As she opened the door to the next two hours of hell, she saw another student sitting at the back of the room.

No.

"We've got to stop meeting each other like this, stutters."

Shit.

Okay so here's chapter two and I know it's not the best, I'm really sorry. Its been super busy around here because of Christmas and all that. But anyway, here you guys go. I hope you like it despite the awful writing but yeah, it'll get better, I have a few ideas for the next chapter which are mega awesome.

Don't forget to vote and comment because I love hearing your guys' feedback!!

p.s. MERRY CHRISTMAS LADS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

p.p.s. it's like 10 days until 5b of teen wolf and its getting difficult to brEATHE

also btw I know I sound v cheesey like all the time but actually promise you I'm not lmaooo