Puppy Love

Chapter 7

"Mom, c'mon, I have to go." Kate looked at her mom as she held onto her.

"I know but I'm nervous about letting you go to this alone. Your father freaked out when I told him you wanted to go, it wasn't pretty."

"Well, I'm worried for my only little girl. There's going to be tons of people there who have their eye on her. Who knows what will happen?" Kate's father butt in and crossed his arms.

"I'm going with a friend so it'll be fine dad," Kate reassured him. Her father sighed and shook his head, obviously not convinced.

"Make sure to answer if we call you. I don't want anything happening to you," her mom told her.

"Stay safe Honey, and make sure to stay away from-"

"Yes dad, I know!" Kate yelled. She ran outside the door and waved bye to them.

"She'll be fine."

"I know, I'm just worried about her ever since what happened."

Kate ran down the street faster than she had ever ran before. She stopped in front of the gate where students were flooding in. Gomi stood by the front and looked around with a nervous look.

"Gomi!" Kate yelled out. Gomi looked over and grew a big smile on her face. She ran up and hugged Kate tightly.

"Are you ready for your first festival? Sorry you had to come so early, I had representative duties and I didn't want you to miss out on anything." Gomi asked with excitement. She noticed how Kate fiddled with her fingers and avoided eye contact.

"It's going to be my first time so I don't know what to do," Kate looked up at Gomi and angled her head."Will you show me around?"

Gomi gulped and turned away. "Y-Yeah, of course. L-Let's go look around."

Kate noticed Gomi's sudden embarrassment but didn't know why. She brushed it off and followed the red-faced Gomi.

"There's going to be a concert after the drama club performs. That's in about a couple of hours. Since we're here early, we'll have to wait for some of the more exciting stuff." Gomi looked off to the side bashfully. "We can look around and see everything before it gets crowded."

"Where are you going to take me first?" Kate asked looking up at the sky as Gomi looked at her with a smile. "I don't even think I've seen half of the school."

"Do you want me to show you around? Most of the stuff isn't ready yet so this will be a nice way to kill time."

"Yeah."

They both walked together in silence looking around the school.

This atmosphere, Gomi thought, it's too awkward.

Gomi then got an idea of how to start a conversation.

"Hey, do you want to know how I met Mollie?" It wasn't the best topic for the two new friends but it was all Gomi could think of.

"Sure," Kate replied with a smile. Gomi blushed lightly and laughed softly.

"Well, we've been together for so long. She's helped me a lot, in fact, the first time I met her, she helped me!"

Kate watched as Gomi recalled their meeting. She noticed how giddy Gomi had become and couldn't help but laugh to herself. It seems that Gomi's carefree attitude let Kate's guard down.

"Well, I was at the park playing on the swing. I was kinda dumb and decided to jump off and try to stick the landing. I instead just faceplanted into the concrete and lost five teeth. I also lost consciousness for a whole minute."