Knowing Kiara

1

* rewritten 22/06/2023 *

"What's with the new table?"

I smile, skipping the greetings and sliding into the last spare seat at my friends' table in our favourite restaurant.

For the average Sally this place would be a hotspot for special one off proposals or lottery winners discovering new ways to splash their cash but for the legacies of millionaires at the local private college, this is our Starbucks equivalent. We come here to meet friends, to study or to grab a casual scoop of world famous gelato from the most famous chef in Italy.

I smooth down my pink ballet skirt and sit on the cushioned seat, brushing through the soggy locks of my wig with my manicured fingers. The Italian rain showed me no mercy on my way out of the ballet studio this afternoon. I suppose that is my karma for being the campuses golden girl and staying behind to help Signorina Fran tidy the place.

"Don't get them started again." Temaia Alligara groans, her chin cupped in the palm of her hand.

Temaia, 'Maia' or 'Tem' as we call her, is one of the old money rich kids from Kingston College. She was introduced to the group the first year we all moved to Italy to attend Kingston at the age of eleven. Ever since our group formed, we've been inseparable.

Temaia's family has some sort of dynasty going back generations. No one knows exactly what they do, only that it earns them a pretty penny and it's not interesting enough to dig further into.

"We had to restrain thing one and thing two over there from starting a fight with the rugby boys that they couldn't finish."

Grayson summarises, in reference to the ruthless couple sitting opposite us.

A match made in heaven wouldn't be the correct description for Annalaise and Aera. A match made in hell would be more accurate.

They have more arguments than a lawyer and often find themselves at each other's throats but they've been going strong in their relationship since we were all thirteen and they love one another in their own insane way.

Anna is a honey coloured hair, blue eyed angel dressed most frequently in frilly whites and pretty pinks but deep down she's every bit the devil that Aera appears to be with her jet black hair and soulless dark eyes. Aera Jae claims that if she wore colour she'd break into hives which means her wardrobe is entirely monochrome.

"I don't know who you think you're calling a thing gay boy, but you know we would have finished that fight and won it." Anna takes the bait as per usual and snaps back at Gray. It's their usual dynamic. They do love each other even if they'd rather take a nap on live train tracks then admit it.

Annalaise Jane Dara is the daughter of the famous American model Jane Dara and a total bitch to anyone who crosses her or her friends. Whenever she's confronted about her prickly ways, she blames her mommy issues and takes zero responsibility.

She's been friends with Grey since they started at nursery together back in LA, soon joined by myself when Dad was convinced enough to let me out of his sight.

"I'm not holding back next time. That smug fucking captain of theirs has a face begging for a black eye." Aera adds on in a collected grumble. Her specialty isn't being a hot head so much as it is her girlfriend's. Her type of violence is quiet and controlled. Her expressionless features never give her next moves away and her threats are spoken as casually as the weather forecast.

Aera Jae is an entitled new money from Korea that joined our group with Temaia when her father moved to Europe to expand his buisness.

Majority of the kids at Kingston come not from celebrities but buisness men and women. They don't necessarily have any fame, asides from their beloved social media accounts, although they'd die fighting to prove that they are in fact celebrities of a sort.