Tale Of Two Worlds

1

Earth

Kailee jumped up, spiking the volleyball back over the net. The opposing team threw themselves at the ball, but to no avail. The ball touched the ground, giving the winning point to Kailee and her team. The crowd in the stands stood up cheering; her teammates surrounded her, patting her on the back, giving her high fives and hugs. Kailee really didn't understand why. It wasn't like she performed a miracle.
The spot-light had always made her feel somewhat uncomfortable. She didn't feel like she deserved the amount of praise that was dished out. But it wasn't that so much as she didn't understand why people went to such extremities in order to give said praise. She thought it was going way too overboard, like the people who go to basketball games without their shirts and have paint all over their body. Why do people do that?
"Hey Kai! You should come with us! You of all people deserve a treat for the way you played tonight. Come on, it's on us."
Jen, one of her teammates and a friend, bounced up to her as the crowd was still leaving the stadium. Kailee smiled at her before turning and walking toward the bench that held her gear bag on top of it.
"Jen, I love that you offer, I really do, but--" Jen cut her off with a sigh and a major eye roll, flipping loose hair of her blond ponytail behind her in the process.
"I know. But it'd be so much better if you came."
Kailee scoffed. "I doubt that the others would feel that way."
Jen grabbed Kailee's shoulder, forcing her to turn around and look her in the eyes.
"Is this about Steph and that new kid?" Now Kailee gave an eye roll. She shrugged off Jen's hand and turned back to her gear.
The 'new kid' they were referring to was a boy named Mitch. He basically embodied the traits of tall, dark and handsome, and within his first week, he had half of the school female population throwing themselves at him. He didn't seem bothered by it, but it was also clear that he didn't exactly enjoy it either.
After her previous experience with a Tall Dark & Handsome, Kailee had implicated a personal rule regarding guys like him; and that was to keep away. If, for some reason, they were to work together, she would. She just wouldn't do anything to let them in on a personal level. She'd make sure that it stayed professional at all times. Plus, after what happened the year before... She just couldn't let herself trust guys like that. Not again.
Kailee huffed loose strands of her brown hair into the air as she roughly stuffed her knee pads into her navy-blue bag.
"Stephanie can have him for all I care. He has way too much mystery in his bad boy aura for my liking."
Jen laughed and slung an arm around Kailee's shoulders. "But I thought that you had a thing for that kind of stuff. Besides, didn't he stand up for you the other day?"
"Yeah, when he had no business to!" Kailee pulled away. " I was perfectly fine, there was no need for him to jump in. I had it under control."
Jen put her hands on her hips. "Kai, you know that that is not true. Will had you up against a wall; he was seriously going to hurt you!"
Kailee whipped around. "How do you know so much about this?"
Jen folded her arms and scrunched up her face. "I hate to tell you hon, but the entire school has been talking about it for a while."
Kailee sank down onto the bench, her head hanging toward the floor. "Great."
Jen sat down next to her. "If Mitch hadn't jumped in when he had... I really don't know what Will would've done. He's a scary dude!"
Kailee couldn't bring herself to look at Jen, and she couldn't think of a response. Instead she stood, grabbed her gear, and walked toward the locker-room. Jen jumped up and followed her, snatching her own gear on the way.
"I know you had a thing for him, and he totally played you, but--"
Kailee whirled around and stared Jen down. "Just forget it, okay? It's in the past, so let's keep it that way, alright? Please."
Jen looked like she had just been slapped, the freckles across her nose standing out. Kailee sighed, rubbing a hand across her face.
"Jen, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be rude, I didn't mean it like that. It's just... A lot happened last year. Dad's... anniversary is coming up, the whole crappy thing with that idiot Will, and what happened the other day with Mitch. I guess I'm more shook up about what happened than I thought."
While she was explaining herself, Kailee had looked away from Jen and had been pacing, but she stopped short in front of the stands. She waited for an answer, but she didn't hear anything. "Jen, please say something."
"She says it's fine but you'll have to make it up to her later."
Kailee jumped with surprise, not recognising the voice. Twirling around, she was greeted with the sly, dimpled grin of Mitch Callahan. Jen was nowhere in sight. Kailee was in no mood for this. She couldn't let him see her vulnerable again. Once was bad enough.
Her blood starting to boil she asked; "What are you doing here? And where's Jen?"
Pulling them out of the pockets of his dark jeans, Mitch raised his hands in a mock surrender. His deep blue eyes gleamed mischievously as he stepped closer.
"Jen is fine. She left when she saw me, even seemed to give me a smile of encouragement." Mitch looked away and rubbed the back of his neck as Kailee folded her arms and glared at him. "Erm, right. The reason I'm here is because I wanted to congratulate you on winning the game--"
"Thanks, you've done that, now we can both leave." Kailee had started to walk past him toward the locker-room, but he caught her arm and closed the space between them.
"And, I wanted to see how you were doing. See if you were okay."
Kailee could only stare at him. "I'm fine." Why did he care, of all people?
"Well, I saw a maiden in distress. I couldn't simply walk past like nothing was wrong, now could I?" Crap, had she said that out loud?
"Right, um... Sorry." Kailee pulled her arm out of Mitch's grip. "And, I guess I should thank you. Even though you really didn't need to step in. I was fine."
"Hm, that's not exactly what I saw."
"Are you saying I can't take care of myself?"
"He had you pinned against wall!"
Kailee couldn't think of a comeback and looked at the ground, angry and ashamed. She didn't want to try to defend Will, especially since he scared her so badly, but she certainly didn't want to seem weak. She could take care of herself. She left Will once, she could find a way to stay away from him
Mitch stuck his hands back into his pockets as he sighed, looking at Kailee through his dark shaggy hair with his piercing bright eyes.
"Kailee, I know Will. He's not the guy you think he is, not even close. Kailee," he said, gently grabbing her arms above the elbow, "He was going to hurt you." He said it hushed and slow, the emphasis making the hairs on Kailee's arms stand.
Kailee was getting really creeped out, so it took a moment before Kailee gathered her wits. "Wait, you know Will? How do you know him?"
Mitch looked away, seemingly frustrated with himself.
"Yeah, uh... we used to live in the same neighborhood a few years back. When we were young. It was a long while ago."
"Huh." Kailee puzzled over this. From the way they acted toward each other the other day, you'd think that they were never friends. When Mitch stepped in between Kailee and Will's fight, both of the guys acted like angry strangers. No, that wasn't right... It was more like they hated each other.
"Well, for my heroic actions, I think I deserve a thank you."
"Um... I already said that."
Mitch grinned, this one lighting up his face. "No, I mean a proper thank you. I put myself in harm's way in order to rescue you. Now it's your turn to do something in return."
Oh, so he was one of those guys. Only doing something generous for someone so they could be repaid. Kailee rolled her eyes and groaned. "Fine, I'll take you out for ice cream or something. If we go now we can meet up with others from the game. I just have to put my stuff away and then we can go, alright?"
She moved again towards the locker-room, but Mitch stopped her once more.
"That's not, exactly, what I had in mind."
"Um, okay. What did you have in mind?"
Mitch leaned back and looked up at the ceiling high above their heads. "Well," he said, drawing the word out; "I hadn't really given it a whole lot of thought..."
Kailee huffed in annoyance as she tightly folded her arms. She started tapping her foot on the floor in impatience.
Mitch suddenly snapped his fingers. "Ooo, I know. On Saturday, meet me outside of... Cindy's Shack. Say, nine o'clock?"
Kailee could only stare at him for a moment. "I'm sorry, you want to take me on a date? Tomorrow?"
"Oh, gosh no, nothing like that. Unless, of course, you want to think of it in that way. For me, you could say it's something more like a business thing."
"Well, what kind of business do you do? Where do you work?"
Mitch waved a hand in the air between them, dismissing the question. "Oh, don't worry about that. It's a small company that I'm pretty sure you've never heard of."
Kailee stood straight, challenging Mitch as she glared at him. "Oh come on. Try me."
This seemed to fluster Mitch a bit. He shifted his weight between his feet, his eyes floating from one side to the other. Making his face fierce as he squared his jaw he said evenly; "Look. Are you going to come or not?"
Kailee took note that he didn't answer any of her questions. "Depends."
"On what?"
"On what we'll be doing there."
Mitch scoffed and took a step back in mock horror. "Really Kailee? You don't trust me?"
"Don't try to act so surprised. Either tell me what we're going to do or leave me alone!" Kailee whirled around and began to storm off toward the locker-room...again.
Mitch called out to her; "We'll only be talking!"
Kailee turned around, but continued walking backwards toward the room that had been her destination for the last 20 or so minutes. "Talking? About what?"
She waited for a response, but none came.
Turning back towards the door, she put a hand up and called loudly; "That's fine, you'll just have to find another date. See ya la--nope, never mind, I hope I don't have to see you again."
"Kailee--"
"Goodbye, Mitch."
By now Kailee reached the door and pulled it open, about to step inside.
"I knew your dad!"
Kailee froze, the door slamming against her leg.
Slowly, she turned so she could see Mitch, using the door as a barrier between them. "How?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Can I see you on Saturday?"
Just then Kailee's phone rang. She dug around in her bag to fish it out. It was her mom.
"Hi Mom."
"Hi Kai. Where are you? The game ended a while ago, and nearly everyone is gone. Is everything okay?"
Kailee glanced over at Mitch.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I ran into someone while trying to put my stuff away. I should be done any minute."
"All right. See you soon."
"Bye."
Putting her phone back into her bag, she looked back up at Mitch. He was walking away, out of the gym.
"Mitch!"
He put a hand in the air behind him. "I'll see you Tomorrow! Don't be late!"
With that he was gone and out of hearing range.
Kailee wasn't very fond of the idea of going on a date with someone she barely knew, especially if that person was Mitch. Something about him bothered her. He wouldn't answer any of her questions, he had been uncomfortable at some points in their conversation.... He was definitely hiding something. Possibly something big. Kailee wanted to find out what that something was.
But that would mean going on a date.... which meant above all that she would have to tell everything to Jen. Whether she wanted to or not.