Aaron and Kat (Wattys 2017)

Chapter 3

KAT Monday January 4th

'Okay, I have interesting news.' Marie says when we get on the bus after the last bell has rung. We sit down in our usual seats and Marie props her feet against the back of the seat in front of her.

'Okay, spill it.' I tell her, curious for what she has to say. After all: the smaller the school, the bigger the gossip and Marie is always on top of it.

'There's a new guy.' She says, popping a gum in her mouth and offering me one as well. 'He's in our year and he's in my French class.' She smiles smugly.

'What's his name?' New people in this town are about as rare as a winter where the Niagara Falls don't freeze over.

'Michael Twain.' She holds up her phone to show me his Facebook page. He already has thirteen mutual friends with Marie, all classmates of ours. I quickly scroll through his page and see a lot of hockey related pictures of a guy with short blonde hair and a sharp jawline.

'He's kinda hot.' Marie says, studying the picture. 'Which is good, cause a few new cuties would not hurt this town.'

I just roll my eyes. 'And he doesn't even look like a fuckboy.' Lately, Marie's taste in guys can be described as 'troublemaker'.

'He also has a sister.' Marie ignores my comment and takes the phone from me to find another Facebook profile. It's from a girl named Sheila who has the same blonde hair as her brother, but hers reaches her waist. On her profile picture, she can be seen with a few other girls with a volleyball net in the background.

'Is she a freshman?' I ask Marie, who immediately dives into the personal information of Sheila's profile.

'Judging from her date of birth, I would say she's a sophomore.' My friend says. She drops her phone in her handbag. 'New blood in Lake View.' She muses. 'I can't wait to find out about their backstories. How does one from Vancouver end up in Lake View?'

'They're from Vancouver?' I ask incredulously.

Marie nods. 'O yeah, they are. I heard their mom is from here and that they were forced to move here for some reason I have yet to figure out.'

'Interesting, interesting.' I mutter.

'Carrie was all over him, I felt so bad for him.' Marie shakes her head. 'I have to give it to him, he handled her exquisitely. You should have seen the look on her face when he told her he was not very interested in a tour of the town.'

I grin. 'I can't wait to see how this will unfold.' I might not be in the drama club, but drama is still very entertaining.

'O yes girl, get your popcorn ready, because this guy is in for a show.' Marie grins.

KAT Saturday January 9th

I have survived a whole week at school, so I can survive an hour more of Bath & Body Works, I tell myself. It's twelve and I've already been here for two hours. Today is a particularly boring day because there have been exactly two customers and I'm wiping the counter for about the tenth time just so I have something to do. I guess now that the holidays are over people are investing their money in more useful things like food and rent. Because who needs thyme scented candles anyway? Or whatever they smell like. The only other person working today is my boss Mandy McCany, who is doing some paperwork in the back.

While I'm wiping the already clean counter, my thoughts wander to the week that has passed by. On Wednesday we got to work on our law projects, but Aaron Reynolds, who is my partner, and I only picked out a few cases that we will study and wasted the rest of the period on talking with our friends. I'm definitely lucky I ended up with him though, and not with Toby Griar, like Marie, because most of the time he is too stoned to focus on anything but being an ass. At least Aaron is nice.