Little London

Chapter 1: Little London

Chapter 1: Little London

Kyla's POV


"I hate my life", Finna grumbled as she slumped her head against the breakfast bar counter. I chuckled and shook my head.

"Here, drink this", I smiled as I shoved a strawberry smoothie towards her. Finna is one of my best friends, but her social skills in the morning aren't always up to par. "What's got you hating your life this time?".

"Too. Much. Lager.", Finna said quietly while holding her temples and squinting her eyes at the light.

Finna and I live in a two bedroom apartment with out two other best friends, Emily and Tianna. Emily, Tianna and I go to college, but Finna landed a job at a radio station in Seattle called KEXP. She gets to interview a plethora of musicians and bands, and goes to numerous festivals, which frequently involves more than a small amount of alcohol. Finna is as hipster as it comes, even though she denies it. Her style is a mix between old lady thrift store items, and quirky patterns. Her ombre hair is normally up in a tangled bun, and her black cat eye glasses sit delicately on her pale face. This morning Finna had somehow acquired the talent to look good, even if she was hungover. Her curly hair tumbled recklessly around her shoulders, and she donned a bubblegum pink dress covered in pink swans. The flowers tattooed on her hands matched the earrings dangling out of one of her many piercings. I looked to her face and saw that her eyes had been lined with thick black liner to help conceal the hangover.

"Finna, is that a new piercing?", I asked as I tried to get a better look at her studded nose.

"I've always had a nose stud", she grunted.

"Yeah, now you have two apparently".

"Wha?", she questioned confused. "........Well, does it look good?".

"Yeah it suits you", I nodded.

"Cool. Good job, drunk me", she mumbled as she placed her head back on the counter. I laughed and shook my head.

"Good morning!!!!!!!", Emily chirped as she came into the kitchen.

"Shhhhhhhhh", Finna said, waving at Emily.

"Someone had fun at the festival last night", Emily chuckled in a quiet tone. "And acquired a new piercing, I see. I like it". In response Finna grunted.

"So, Emily. How was your sleep?", I asked.

"It was swell", She smiled while shaking her thick brown hair that reached the top of her butt. "What did you and Tianna do last night?".

"You'd know if you didn't go to bed at nine every night", I teased. Emily stuck her tongue out at me.

"Speak of the devil!", Emily exclaimed as she noticed Tianna coming hastily out of the bedroom we shared.

"WHY DIDN'T ANY ONE WAKE ME UP??!?!?!", Tianna shouted frantically.

"God invented alarm clocks for a reason", Finna grunted while glaring at Tianna for yelling.

"WELL MY ALARM DID. NOT. GO. OFF", She stressed. "SOMEBODY PICK ME OUT AN OUTFIT WHILE I SHOWER". Tianna rushed into the hall and yanked a towel out of the closet before racing into the bathroom and shutting the door. "CALIFORNIA", she called out of the bathroom at me, "YOU DO IT".

"AY AY CAPTAIN", I yelled back.

I had donned the nickname California because I always looked like a girl who lived there. My straight, blonde hair flowed to my bellybutton, and my outfits always seemed to have a surfer vibe. Today for example, I was wearing a flowy, long sleeved billabong shirt and a pair of light jeans that had rips up and down the legs. Before I went to pick out Tianna's outfit, I poured a glass of smoothie for Emily, and I put some in a travel mug for Tianna to take with her to school. I went to Tianna's section of our closet and picked out a pair of camouflage pants, her black leather jacket, a black t-shirt to go underneath, and her pair of worn out combat boots. Her favourite outfit, one I had seen her wear many times. I sauntered out of the room and knocked on the bathroom door.

"I got your clothes Ti", I stated loudly. A small hand stuck out of the bathroom door and grabbed the items from me.

"THANKS. I LOVE YOU", Tianna yelled out at me.

"I know", I called back. I walked into the kitchen and sat at one of stools around the breakfast bar to finish the smoothie I had made for everyone.

Tianna, Emily, Finna and I had become friends in the beginning of elementary school. We had bonded over the fact that we all had different eye colors. I have brown eyes, Emily has green eyes, Finna has hazel eyes, and Tianna has silvery blue eyes. That may not seem exciting, but when you're in second grade.. It's a pretty big deal. Tianna is the collected one of the group, except in the mornings. Her alarm never does seem to go off, and she's the one who tends to need the most time to get ready. Her mid-length blonde hair is always crazy curly, and really messy in the mornings. Her personality tends to contrast with her style. While she wears camo and appears tough, she's always bubbly. Tianna is extremely protective. Her switch goes from sweet to sassy the moment someone is being a jerk to one of us girls. This one time in elementary school a girl named Dayna tried to steal Emily's gummies and she kicked her right in the shins. Hard. She got suspended for three days.

"Alright, I'm ready", Tianna smiled as she exited the bathroom. "And just in time. Emily, Kyla, the bus is gonna be here soon. We should start walking." Emily and I nodded and I handed her the travel mug that contained her smoothie. "Thanks Ky".

"See you later Finna! Have a good day at work!", I smiled.

"You're all too cheery in the morninng", She grunted as she waved at us going out the door.

"Shoot! I forgot my sketchbook!", Emily exclaimed when we were halfway to our bus stop. "I have to get it! I have an assignment in there that's due today and is worth 40% of my grade this term".

"Do you want us to go with you?", I asked.

"It's okay, you guys have classes first thing. I have a spare that I wanted to use to catch up, but i guess i'll just do extra work tonight. See you guys at home", Emily said as she turned around to go home.

"Have fun at art college", Tianna shouted at her back. "Look at her hair", Tianna giggled to me.

I laughed. Emily's majestic wavy hair was bouncing everywhere while she ran in her boat shoes. It was quite cute. "It's too bad Emily goes to the school of art instead of UVIC. We'd get to have lunch with her".

"Yeah, that would be awesome", Tianna smiled as we reached our bus stop. "But I'm proud of her. Her art is so amazing and she really deserved to get in to such a good school".

"True that", I nodded. Tianna and I stood closer together as our bus approached and a crowd struggled to get off. We pushed through the line and swiped our bus passes.

"Open seat", Tianna nudged me as she pointed to a pair of empty plastic chairs. Just as we came close to the seats, a good-looking black guy and his friend sat in 'our' seats. "Aw man", Tianna groaned. "Now we have to stand again".

"Hey sorry, were you guys trying to sit here?", the black guy asked us in an adorable accent.

"Yeah, but that's okay", Tianna smiled at him.

"No, I insist", He smiled at me. "Come on dude", He waved at his friend to get up.

"Really, you don't have to do that", I pleaded feeling bad for the imposition. In response, he winked a green eye at me.

"My name's Will, and this is my friend, Trevor. Nice to meet you", he said pointing at his friend before he rubbed his hand against his short, dark hair.  He smiled revealing pearly whites that contrasted against his smooth, dark skin. 

"I'm Tianna", she waved at Will and then at Trevor before sitting down. She smiled cheekily at me and then patted the seat beside her. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm Kyla", I smiled before sitting beside Tianna.

"Where are you guys from,if you don't mind me asking? I love your accent", Tianna commented. Both of the guys chuckled.

"We're from Doncaster", Trevor smiled. Trevor wasn't bad looking either. He had curly brown locks and pale blue eyes, with the same build that Will possessed. Will possessed a dang good one.

"What are you guys doing in Victoria? Canada is a far cry from the U.K.", I questioned.

"Well that's why we chose this city, actually. Out of the colleges in all of the places, Victoria seems the most like home", Will answered.  "Well, maybe not home exactly. We call Victoria 'Little London'. All of the houses, streets and shops remind us of London".

"Except it's better because it's on the seaside", Trevor added. "We transfered to a college here called UVIC. We decided we needed an adventure".

"No way! Kyla and I go to UVIC", Tianna exclaimed as the bus pulled to a stop in front of the college.

"Maybe you could show us around sometime, yeah?", He asked while looking directly at me.

"Definitely", I answered with a smile. The bus started unloading and we all pushed our way out of the doors. When we reached out side Tianna grabbed a map from one of her textbooks.

"The admissions office is right here", She said while pointing to the location on the map.

"Thanks Ladies", Trevor nodded.

"Anytime", Tianna replied, smiling.

"See you soon", Will said.

"Bye!", I returned before we turned around to head to our classes.

"I just found your dream guy", Tianna smirked at me. 

"Whatever", I rolled me eyes.

"Don't even. You totally thought he was attractive, and you have this thing for black dudes. Not to mention how he doubled in attractiveness when he spoke in that wonderful accent of his. Kyla, I've known you since elementary. I can read you like a book", She grinned mischeviously.

"Well what about you? You sure smiled a lot during the bus ride", I challenged.

"Kyla, I always smile a lot", she raised an eyebrow.

"True", I mumbled. "He was dang attractive".

"Indeed he was", she stopped in front of her class. "See you later, California. Think of beautiful, british boys for me".

I stuck my tongue out at her childishly. "Don't fall asleep in class again, McCay", I called her out by her last name before I walked on towardsn my first class.