Kinora: Blind

Kai's House

My dad and I are in the car, driving down the street. I give him the address on my hand and off we go.

"Ok, if anything goes wrong I want you to have this friend of yours call me." Dad instructs. "Don't do anything you don't feel comfortable with, don't drink anything strange, don't-"

"Dad! I'll be fine. I'm a teenager who can take care of myself, calm down. Have some faith in me please!" He sighs.

"I'm sorry Jinora, I'm just worried about-"

"Dad!" I interrupt again. "We've been through this already. I know you're worried about me going out and being blind, but I'll be ok; Kai's a good kid. It'll be fine."

He sighs again. "If you say so."

When we pull up to the apartment complex Dad walks me up to the door, up several flights of stairs. Finally we reach the right apartment and he knocks on the door.

"Light wood?" I ask after hearing the sound his fist made. He laughs. "Yes. Light wood."

The door opens and I hear a voice. "Are you Jinora?" I nod.

"And I'm her father Tenzin." They probably shake hands. "And who are you?"

"I'm Kai's brother Bolin! Nice to meet you! Kai's been very excited to have Jinora over. He doesn't have many friends over."

"Why is that?" I groan, facepalming.

"Honestly, it's probably because he's embarrassed. Not many people his age live with two foster brothers." I look up. I didn't know he lived with foster parents.

"I wasn't aware Kai lived with foster parents." My dad voices my thoughts. Bolin makes an uncertain sound.

"Uh, he doesn't. It's just my older brother Mako and I. Kai's been with us for a few years now-five next month. It's a big deal. The three of us have a real good dynamic and we're proud of it. Kai goes to school, I work part time so I can be home when Kai is, and Mako works full time; he'll be home in a little bit. But of course, we're not his parents by a long shot, so he's gonna be a little self-conscious about that. He's been talking about Jinora nonstop ever since he met her, so Mako and I have been excited to meet you. Well, more me than Mako. He's more of a stick. We'll take good care of her sir." I hear my dad's hesitation.

"...Alright. Jinora I'll be back at eight thirty-"

"On the dot, yeah I know. Bye Dad." I give him a quick hug and step into the door. I hear it shut behind me, then Bolin speaks. "You know, when you started tutoring Kai, Mako and I could both see the difference in his demeanor. He was a lot happier; he didn't come home defeated every day. But when Kai met Skoochy, he came home really upset. He said math made even less sense than ever, and he missed you." Bolin laughs. "He told us that every day. Kai misses Jinora. By the sound of it, you're really something special Jinora. He came home today on cloud nine." He laughs again. "And then he started ranting. Ranting all about how you managed to teach him better than Skoochy and his math teacher even though you're blind. Now that was impressive. I don't think I've seen him so excited about something since we told him we wanted him to stay with us."

I'm staring at the floor, trying not to show the tears in my eyes. Sure, I have my glasses on, but it's hard not letting my tears fall. I didn't know I meant that much to Kai. Nor did I know his home life was this... interesting.

"Ok, um.. I didn't know that." I admit. I shoulder my bag. "Where is he?" Bolin puts a hand on my shoulder and leads me out of the front room. "He's just in his room. I'll show you." I nod and we walk down a wooden hallway.