School of Elementals: Karen Killer

1 | New Country, New Enemy

The plane landed with a slight bumping motion, and Keith looked outside to the sight of the city nearby. He was excited to move into a city where nearly everyone spoke his first language, but still had a little grievance for his family. He followed his grandparents as they headed out from the plane.

The airport was one he hadn't seen in years - the crowded atmosphere of the place, the stores all selling whatever they wanted to, the people being quite friendly. They made their way to the entrance, having finished their breakfast on the plane, and his grandpa asked a nearby taxi driver, "Are there any good hotels around here?"

"Yes, sir. There's a hotel close by with excellent services and multiple rooms, although the look is for you to decide whether it's great or not." he answered.

"We'll take that one, please."

"Alright, sir. Please come into the taxi."

The driver opened the taxi door and the three of them got inside, the driver sitting in the driver's seat. He strapped on his seatbelt, and once the doors closed, they started the final stretch of their journey.

Keith stared outside the window, looking at the tall skyscrapers and giant buildings, thinking how it would - or wouldn't - fit in with his old home. "Been a while since I saw these." he thought. As the driver struck a conversation with his grandparents, he asked, "By the way, that boy, is he your son?"

"No, sir. He's our grandson." his grandpa said.

"I see. Boy, make sure you watch out for these Karens. They like to hurt your feelings with words just to get free iced tea."

"How cruel." Keith answered, in a cold, emotionless tone.

"Does your grandson usually have this kind of attitude?"

"No. It's just that he lost most of his family earlier today." his grandpa said.

"Ah, sorry about that."

"No need to apologize. I bet the one who exploded the house got arrested or something. Wait, no, they couldn't be arrested within hours of committing a crime." Keith said.

"Yeah."

No one said a word for the next 10 minutes of the trip. When they arrived, the driver shook his grandpa's hand, and said, "It's been a pleasure driving you here, sir."

"Yeah. I hope that someday we'll meet you again." he answered.

They both smiled, and parted ways. Keith dragged along his luggage as his grandparents talked with each other, and not long after, they made it to their room.

They opened the door to a corner room tall enough for them to see most of the city outside their window. Keith put down his luggage, took off his shoes, and was about to instinctively take out his tablet when he remembered it got destroyed in the explosion. Instead, he took out his phone, and saw an unread message from a friend named Alexandra. He opened it, and it read,

"u here yet?"

He tapped the message bar, disabled the automatic capitalization, and typed in, "yeah"

Not more than half a minute later, she replied, "we're gonna be at the restaurant with your grandparents tonight"

He silently rejoiced at the thought of seeing her again, and typed in, "k"

He then closed the phone, not forgetting to close the program window, and put it back in his pocket before flopping on the bed. He then realized there was actually another smaller bed somewhere else, and looked around to find it. It was in another bedroom beside the bathroom, and he walked straight into it. As his grandparents were talking with one another, discussing where to go, he flopped onto the other bed. He laid on it for a moment until he realized he should actually prepare, so he changed his clothes and put the rest in the closet.