15 Seconds Of Fame

TWO

2011
Evan and Kai

It was after school on her first day. The new girl had found a safe haven at a café on the town. Out of all of her new classmates, there was only one that attempted to be friendly towards her.

Fourteen-year-old Kailani Hale sat on the community couch, a couple of feet from the entrance to Café Joie. Her eyes were plastered to one of the soft covers that Mason, her father, had given her as a sort of peace offering for moving her all the way across the world with a one month notice.

Evan Thomas, the corky, brown-haired boy that was in Kai's class, walked into the Café with a hardcover and sat down on the armchair opposite her. Evan had noticed her and her brother at school that day, but he instead of introducing himself, he stuck around the group of friends with whom he had grown up with. This was the third time he saw her in the café. The first couple times was when she walked in and he was just leaving.

"The catcher in the rye," he read from the softcover she held over her lap, "Great minds think alike?"

He displayed his hardcover to her, the same book but a different edition. She hadn't spoken to anyone besides her brother, mother and some teachers since leaving her home in California and she had almost forgotten how to socialize.

"I guess so." she shrugged.

Kai didn't know whether to close her book and talk to the boy next to her or keep reading. She supposed that if she was ever going to make any friends here, she had to be more polite. She placed the leather bookmark back in her book and looked up at Evan.

"I'm Kai," she quickly introduced herself.

"I'm Evan. Judging by your accent, I'm assuming you aren't from around here. Like very very far from here,"

"Yeah. My 'accent' kinda makes me stick out like a sore thumb, doesn't it?"

"I'd say that it makes you more interesting to people around here, it definitely gives them something to wonder about, kind of like I am doing right now," he explained, "So, Kai, where are you from?"

"Los Angeles."

"That's really cool. I've always wanted to go there."

"I didn't live close to all the glamour that most people associate with LA, so I didn't really experience it," Kai shrugged.

"Why did you move all the way here?"

"Long story. I'll tell you when we know each other better."

"Oh, so you plan on getting to know me?"

There was chemistry between the two. Nothing like either of them had ever felt before. As silly as it sounded, back then Evan thought that they were meant to meet and that whatever brought Kai and her family to this one-horse town happened so that they could meet. Of course, as he got older and learned more about why she moved all the way to a different continent, he adopted a much less romanticized view.

"We'll see."

Kai was about the remove the leather bookmark and start reading when Evan spoke again.