Island.

Chapter 5

Five.

I woke up to the sound of pots and pans hitting the tiled floors. You would think with a house this big, and with my room all the way at the top, that I wouldn’t hear any of it. But the sounds echoed through the still empty rooms of the ‘house’. I rolled over to my side, only to fall off the bed. I groaned and just laid there. Could this get any worse?

It has been two weeks since we moved here. My room still consisted of empty draws and bare walls. I honestly didn’t own that much stuff. I headed down to the kitchen, after I’d gotten dressed and glanced at my mother who was sat on the floor trying to gather all the pots and pans that had fallen.

I just ignored her. I wasn’t in the mood to talk. But then it occurred to me. She was handling pots and pans. Which were used to cook with. My mother never cooked. We always had a personal chef and she moved with us here.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

She sighed and looked up from the floor.

“I’m trying to find the frying pan, so I can make you your favorite breakfast. French toast.” She said it like it was a normal thing.

I just looked at her clearly seeing that something was up, and she wasn’t just in a jolly old mood for making breakfast. She sensed that I knew something and just decided to come out with it.

“I took some time off from work. So I can be at home and get settled. We have been here two weeks already and it looks like we’re just crashing here for a while.” She finished with a sheepish grin.

My mother was a lawyer. She was always busy. It was either she was studying case notes for court, or she was gathering information for a new client, which was frequent. How she managed to get time off from that hectic job, was a complete mystery to me.

“Okay” I said, dropping the subject and pouring myself a glass of orange juice.

“I think I’ll skip breakfast today. I want to walk to school.” I told her whilst downing the juice and grabbing my backpack.

I walked to the foyer, where the front door was to see my dad walking down the stairs, his buzzing beeper in hand.

“Leaving already?” he asked. I just nodded, and stepped out.

~

Monalua high was entirely different from all the other schools I’ve attended. The classes were really small with about twenty five students in each class. Their most popular sports were basketball, baseball, beach volley ball, and surfing. They actually had local surfing contests, where various trained surfers competed for trophies. They also had volley ball matches with other teams from other nearby towns, since this was the only high school in this so called ‘district’.

I met only one person, who seemed nice enough to ignore my accent altogether. Her name was Leia Kealoha. She had the most divine hair I’ve ever had the opportunity to gaze at. Her hair was of course blacker than coal. Her skin was amazingly tanned, flawless. She had almond eyes, which were lined in black liner and she always had a flower in her hair, resting above her hair. She told me it was a tradition.

Leia was a person worthy of the ‘best friend’ title. She looked past my pale skin and brown hair. She was genuinely interested in my life because she had never lived anywhere but here, in Honolulu.

She made it easier to fit in at school, partly because we had the same schedule and partly because her very aura was calming. She took things slowly and never complained about anything, because she said complaining about something wouldn’t change it.

We were sitting on the grass outside of  school at our lunch break. She was telling me about her little brother, Keoni. He was just a baby learning to sit up.

“You should see him,” she laughed,

“trying to sit up and giggling the whole time. He’s so cute, and he just learned how to bite. Something my mother and I were hoping to avoid.” 

We were both laughing when a shadow was cast over us. I looked up to see Weirdo standing there. He looked to me and said,

 “We have to stop meeting like this. You’re in my spot. Again.” It was the most I ever heard from him. I looked at Leia, who was just as shocked as I was.

“Um, sorry.” I told him while getting up.

Leia and I walked across the field and sat down at a safe enough distance to talk about what just happened.

“Why does he always do that?” I asked her.

She looked at me confused and finally she understood what I meant.
“ That kid? His name is Keanu Nahele.” All of the Hawaiian names were beautiful.

“Why is he always alone?” I asked her.

 I was curious at this point. I glanced over at him and saw that he had his sketching pad out and his oil pastels. I took this opportunity to get a good thorough at him. He was lean and his skin had an olive complexion. His black shiny hair was tied into a ponytail at the base of his head. He had a strong jaw, and his almond shaped eyes were fixed in a studious gaze. He was working feverishly at his sketching and that just made me all the more curious.

The bell rang, before I got my answer. I reluctantly grabbed my books and headed off to class with Leia at my side.