Malia was good at a lot of things.
For example, bartending. The girl could put together any drink in less than a minute. She was also really good at science which was weird because the human body made her uncomfortable. Lastly, she was an amazing cook, courtesy to her grandmother who had her in the kitchen since she could hold a fork.
One thing, Malia couldn't do to save her life, was care for children.
Babies and toddlers were weird to her because she never could tell what they wanted. They just cried and expected you to be a mind reader.
That could be in large part because Malia didn't spend any time around children. She had family members with children but she was never around them. Malia was the odd man out in her family, having had two drug addicted parents.
She met Kaari once before at the end of a basketball game, but that was briefly for about 5 minutes before she was passed off to Ja's mother.
Now, as Malia drove home from her job interview, she wasn't sure how to feel. She took the advice from Ja and his teammates and applied to be a teacher at an Elementary a few minutes away from her.
Malia knew she did well but she also knew that she wasn't prepared to spend an entire day with children.
"So, are they gonna have you on the bench for the rest of the season?"
Ja cleared his throat. "Yeah. No point in me playin' no way."
"True." Malia said, stopping at the red light. "I'm sorry, honey. Next year, you guys will be fine and everything will be good."
He shrugged. "Ain't our year, man. We finna win the Championship next year."
"You sure will." She says. "And you'll play every game next season. So will Jaren. No injuries, or anything like that."
"Fa' sho." Ja watched Kaari attempt to dribble the basketball that was too close in size to her. "What you doin' when you get back ta' the house?"
Malia made the turn into her apartment complex. "I don't have anything to do. I'm just gonna chill until I have to go to work later. You wanna come by?"
"I'm bringin' Kaari."
"That's cool with me." She pulled into her parking spot. "Can you buy us Chick Fil A if I send you the money?"
Ja lifted Kaari, looking around for her shoes. "You'on gotta send me no money, Malia. My girl ain't gotta pay for nothing."
"Sure, Temetrius." Malia pushed her car door open, grabbing her purse. "Spicy chicken sandwich meal with tea."
"Aight." The guard sat Kaari down slipping the crocs onto her feet. "Baby, you want chicken? Daddy 'bouta take you to Chick Fil A."
Kaari's eyes lit up. "Chicken nuggets?"
"Yeah." Ja took her hand, sliding the wallet into the pocket of his sweats. "Malia."
"Yes?" She said sweetly. "I feel so weird being to my apartment. Devon might pop up anywhere."
The point guard smirked as he thought about what happened during the early hours of the morning.
After giving Devon a jaw laceration, the cops showed up a little bit later but Devon was gone by then so not much could be done. Ja didn't tell Malia he'd put his hands on Devon, but he was able to assure her that he wouldn't be coming to her apartment any time soon.
"You good." Ja kept it simple. "I'm finna be there soon, so you good."
Malia hummed in response, looking around before pushing her apartment door open. "Mhm. Can you hurry, though? Hurry safely."
