On a seemingly ordinary summer day, timid Alice Gardner crosses paths with Kai Anderson, a notorious figure in their small town. As serendipitous encounters bring them together, they find themselves irresistibly drawn to each other, driven by a mutu...
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Kai heard from Gabe that class starts today. He couldn't believe how time flew so fast, like summer break had easily ended with just a snap of a finger.
On the bright side, he didn't have to worry about term papers, lectures, maintaining his GPA, or dreaded student loans like his other friends who go to university do.
Kai dropped out of high school before senior year even started and he doesn't plan to attend university anytime soon. On the other hand, it's another school year for Marco who's a repeater. Gabe's the only diligent one amongst all of them while Alex is trying to balance academics and varsity trainings.
But that doesn't mean Kai is way behind his friends. He's actually a fast learner, and because his uncle was once a college professor, he could read all the textbooks and manuals hidden at home whenever he had nothing better to do.
Since summer break's over now, he was feeling lonely. He had no one to talk to nor to hang out with except his grumpy cat or James back at the sandwich shop or the gray-haired truckers at the diner, since everyone's going to be busy hitting the books.
In the end, his feet took him all the way across the entire neighborhood looking for Alice without no apparent reason, whatsoever.
The habit of looking for the girl was steadily becoming instinct to him now.
There's a saying that sometimes what you're looking for comes when you're not looking at all. What if it were some kind of great and higher force trying to pull them together? Like it was all premeditated?
As if someone like Kai would believe that. He's much more of a realist.
The thought of it only crossed his mind because he was bored. And by bored, he really meant it. He was utterly, definitely bored.
There was nothing to do at all. The same scenery, the same people, the same thing, over and over . . . Nothing's new.
When he met Alice who looked like she could use a sugary drink for herself that day back at the café, he thought that she was a breath of fresh air, and if he could he would suck up all the oxygen from the planet.
Every single alleyway and every single face in town have already been ingrained in Kai's mind. But then this girl shows up and all at once, everything felt unfamiliar.
The few things he had caught on was that she's introverted, walks like she's skipping, an art major, and it looks like she doesn't bother much about fixing her hair from time to time, among others.
"I wonder where peanut went."
He wanted to hang out Alice today because he's so intrigued by her, but how is he supposed to do that when she's not even around?
"Guess I'll go look for a job."
"Alice!"
A girl with strawberry blonde hair wearing a floral dress ran towards Alice. People often think that Daisy Howard-Monagham is Alice's sister because they look kind of similar.
She met Daisy during the welcoming party last year. It was grueling for someone like her to be in such a situation, especially since she was a freshman and doesn't know anyone at all, unlike the sophomores who seemed to have adjusted pretty well.
It felt like a miracle happened when Daisy approached her, telling her that it was better to make friends than spend the entire party brooding in a corner. The rest was history.
Daisy wrapped an arm around her friend's neck, "How was summer? I heard there was this huge concert at the neighboring state! Did you go?"
Alice smiled, "There was? Never heard of it . . . Well, it was fun. I mostly spent my summer working at the café and going around town."
"That kinda didn't sound fun, though."
"Do you think so?" Alice chuckled.
"How's Tamara by the way? I didn't have the chance to see you two during summer break. We went out of town and explored the mountains! It sucked because there was no signal and there were tons of bugs but the view was amazing! Wait, wait! I have pictures!"
Daisy was rummaging through her gallery and Alice found it endearing how excited her friend was.
She could've spent her summer vacation like how Daisy did. But recalling how thrilling it was to run away from the cops or discovering new flavor combinations for noodles and taking in a troublemaker, among other things, she felt content.
Speaking of the café, she remembered paying her boss and her co-workers a visit.
Xavier placed an iced caramel macchiato on Alice's table. She looked at him in surprise, her expression was something along the lines of 'But I didn't order this!'.
"It's on the house." He grinned and nodded at her, urging her to drink.
"How's work?" She asked after taking a sip of coffee.
"It looks like I'll be working part-time." Xavier smiled and adjusted his glasses, "I kinda like the vibe here and my schedule doesn't clash with work, so everything's good!"
"That's great! But don't you film majors have a lot of work to do?"
"It's the graduating ones who have a lot of projects to work on. We're mostly chill during these times."
"Good for you then. I have to report after a week." Alice sulked and Xavier laughed at her misfortune.
