How Jesse Got His Karma

twenty-two

Third Person
Pt.2 of 2

Storming over to the infuriating woman that he's come to know, Jesse stops in front of her expecting some form of explanation as to why he just walked in on what looked like a cutthroat game of musical chairs being played by a bunch of mini people.

If you can even call them that.

For Godsakes, it smells like plastic and fresh tears in here.

Karma stares at him with her lips curled into her mouth and he can tell she's proud of herself in tricking him into coming here.

He knew he should've typed in the address to google earth or something before just blindly following the directions.

She smiles at him widely as he stands in front of him almost mocking him and the look on his face.

Holding up a finger towards him she looks back at the kids and tells them, "I'm sorry Destiny. We can always play again and I promise you'll do great next time." She says while Destiny is currently in another volunteer, Angela's arms as she puts her back.

She walks over to the blue playmat as Jesse stands in her spot watching her with his arms crossed as she removes a red chair so there are six left now.

Walking back over to Jesse, she begins to play the next nursery rhyme and the kids continue to play again.

Jesse elbows Karma and says, "You fucking tricked me." Causing Karma to laugh and throw her head back. Giovanni, one of the kids in the room, turns his head and sees this exchange as he's playing and it causes him to stumble one of the chairs slowing down the kids behind him again.

Karma shakes her head as she keeps an eye on the kids and the game, "I didn't trick you I just didn't tell you the whole truth. Look, I couldn't bring you to my house for personal reasons so I just thought that this would be easier. I'm closing up tonight after the kids leave we could just hang here." She pauses and Jesse still looks irritated, "What do you even have to lose?" She pauses, "The snacks are on me?" She says continuing to smile

Jesse looks at her long and hard, still irritated at the fact that the girl who lost the game when he first walked on was still crying in the distance. He shakes his head and says, "Whatever." As he goes back to looking at the kids and Karma takes this as an opportunity to freeze the music again

The kids scramble to the seats again, a boy being the last one and the one to lose.

The game continues to be played as Jesse tries to rush her saying that she's letting the music play too long because he was tired of standing next to her.

Karma told him that he could sit down next to the other volunteers and hesitated for a while before walking to his seat, mumbling to himself as he gets there.

The other volunteers are waiting for the game to be over so they can start the next activity. Jesse goes to the far back of the room wondering why he even showed up for Karma in the first place.

He sits down next to a red-headed girl who's scrolling on her phone but then does a double-take looking at Jesse and then back to her phone, back to Jesse again.

Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she straightens her posture as he crosses his arms staring at the little people ahead of him watching as Karma controls the game.

He didn't know why he was tolerating Karma but he knew there was something familiar about her personality that he was drawn to. He couldn't help but to want to be around her even if it was just to make fun of her so he could see her roll her eyes at him again.

She didn't take his shit half the time and it was nice.

The girl next to him, Olivia, taps his shoulder as she tries to get his attention. Looking over at her, he raises an eyebrow expecting her to continue. "Are you a new volunteer?" She says lowering her voice and he could almost laugh at her attempt to seduce him with his voice.