Bad Girls

History

By the next day, Kyla was back to normal. Emma-Lynn and the twins were acting as though none of that happened and I knew I'd have to ask about it later.

A week ago, I was definitely not close enough to any of them except Kyla to talk to about something serious, but suddenly I found Emma-Lynn bearable.

Even though Dylan was closest to her, now that I understood her cold bitchy thing, it made it easier to deal with. 

As for Kyla, I was completely confused. She was acting fine now, laughing and talking and doodling and ignoring Cassie whenever she came up to me.

But I was still subconsciously nervous about that tantrum she had. Where did that come from? What did her parents do?

And...what if something even worse happened? How would she react?

For a few days I watched her and people's reactions to her and I noticed things I had definitely missed before. No one spoke to her, except me, Emma-Lynn, and the twins, but everyone respected her.

The teachers and counselors didn't like to let her talk but occasionally picked her to answer a simple question so that no kids would notice and go complain to the administrators. 

There was one counselor who acted different around Kyla. The rest just acknowledged her as one of the students and yet avoided having conversations with her.

This one was different. He was younger, around twenty or twenty-one. I caught his name from his name tag.

Samuel Moore. He would often look at Kyla, with an unreadable expression on his face. She would purposefully not meet his guys even though it was obvious to me that she knew he was looking at her.

He wouldn't speak when she was in the room, even though I could tell he was dying to tell her something. And if he was the only counselor in the area, she would get out as quick as possible.

Normally I would've just asked her, but after the 25th I knew that Kyla would never be the same in my eyes, so I couldn't.

I was waiting until I could get back for free period time to ask Emma-Lynn. From 3:30 till 4:00 was the time for girls to do laundry and shower and crap and all of us managed to shift every other day.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays were when the twins and Kyla did laundry and Emma-Lynn and I stayed in to take our showers after each other. And then Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were vice versa. And it was Wednesday.

So when Dylan, Ryan, and Kyla left to do laundry, I had a good half hour to talk to Emma-Lynn. But when Kyla and I walked into our cabin, there were two girls sitting there. Making out.

An awkward position for me to be in. And Kyla, I assume. The girls looked at us and broke apart, both blushing a deep color.

"Where's Ryan?" Kyla asked.
"Um...I don't know...somewhere..." Dylan responded, looking more awkward and embarrassed than I've ever seen her. Ever. Emma-Lynn was blushing and not speaking.
Whoa. my mind screamed at me. Dylan. Emma-Lynn. Oh my God. 

Ryan had come in a little later and nobody felt the need to explain what had just happened. Dylan, Ryan and Kyla all jumped out and I had time to talk to Emma-Lynn. First thing's first though.

"Emma-Lynn, what just happened?"
She gave me her best glare. "Nothing."

I grinned. "Come on, you know I'm fine with it, just tell me. How did that happen?"
"I don't know." she sighed. "It just kinda did. We were just talking and then..."
She smiled, and it wasn't a fake smile or a bitchy smile or any of the smiles of Emma-Lynn that I knew. She was smiling, big and real and sweet.
"Oh my God." I beamed at her. "You like her! You like Dylan!"
"Shut up, I do not!"
"Yes you do! You totally do, I can see it in your face. You know, Dylan probably likes you back."
"That's bullshit, Joelle."
"Are you kidding me, Emma-Lynn? Have you even seen the way Dylan looks at you? She's nuts about you." As I said the words, I realized they were extremely true.

Dylan not only liked Emma-Lynn, she desperately liked her, and we had all been too blind to see. Emma-Lynn sighed.

"Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about Kyla."
Emma-Lynn sat up straighter. "What about her?"
"What's the deal with that whole parent yelling craziness thing on parent visitation day?"
"Oh that. That was just a Kyla-mood."
"Huh?"
She laughed. "Well, to start, do you know why her name is Kyla instead of the traditional Kyra?"
I shook my head.

"Kyla wasn't a planned baby. And not just unplanned. Unwanted. Her parents were seriously considering an abortion. And then when they decided against it, they were desperate for a boy. Desperate. Honestly. They were all giddy about it, about naming him Kyle, which was her mom's favorite name or something like that. And then they were cursed with a girl. Kyla. They hated her. Despised her. And that's the real reason she's in this dump. She hates her parents and they hate her so much that they couldn't stand to be around her. So here she is."
"Woah." I soaked it all in. Kyla was an unwanted baby. Wow. That was why she was like she was. Aggressive and refusing with her parents. Moody, crazy.

I thought about Kyla until I remembered what I had also wanted to ask Emma-Lynn.
"What do you know about Kyla and Samuel Moore?"
She raised her eyebrows. "How did you find out about Samuel Moore?"
"I saw how he was acting around Kyla. I thought there must be some kind of history."
"There is." Emma-Lynn said. "Last year, he and Kyla had a thing."
"Woah! Kyla and a counselor?" That was not what I was expecting. "No way."
"Yes way. It started out as a couple winks and flirty laughs and then got so close that if Kyla hadn't ended it, he might have stolen her still intact virginity."
I just stood there, gaping at her.
"I don't think Kyla knew what she was doing until her shirt was off." Emma-Lynn continued. "Then suddenly she saw herself and backtracked so quickly that she completely broke poor old Samuel's heart."
"Wow" was all I could say.
"Yeah." Emma-Lynn nodded. "I knew for a fact that Samuel was going to tell Kyla that he loved her, but didn't get a chance. He thought Kyla didn't love him and went from sad to angry. But I think it really broke Kyla too."
"Man, that sucks. Kyla's been through some serious shit, hasn't she?"
Emma-Lynn leaned back. "Haven't we all?"