Not That Bad

FIVE

After three months, Kaya had a routine: every morning she would wake up at six and take a half-mile run on her own before going back home to make breakfast. After, she would gather her things for the day and head to the community center, usually arriving at eight. She would set up the activities for the day—sometimes they would watch a movie, or she would have a group circle with them where they talked about something positive they learned or did—before checking in with Alison (they were on fairly even ground since Kaya was pretty independent and Alison felt no need to check up after the first week) and doing a bit of paperwork. The center opened at nine and from then, Kaya was busy until it closed at seven. Once that was over, she usually went to meet Ty at the gym before they went their separate ways. Kaya usually went home, with takeout in hand or something that Ty had cooked and brought with him to have Kaya try. Slowly but surely, her friendship with the man was growing and she wasn't sure what to make of it.

After her orientation was out of the way at the community center, she learned that she loved the kids that had been placed with her. There were three of them: a kid named Gabriel and two Hispanic kids named Miguel and Santiago. Each of them were about to enter different stages of life, and she was proud to say that they called her someone that they could trust.

It meant a lot, especially since, when she first started, she was told that the three young boys had to be watched because of their home lives. As someone who acknowledged that poor communities contributed to the school-to-prison pipeline and that most of the kids and teenagers at the center came from troubled neighborhoods around the area, Kaya took extra care to make sure that the boys knew that they had someone to talk to and a place to go if they ever needed it.

Kaya had also taken to making an effort to talk to Santiago's older sister, Ximena. The seventeen year-old girl had approached her one day after Santiago had mentioned that his sister had wanted to meet.

Ximena was suspicious of Kaya when they met, as Kaya was new and Ximena hadn't seen her around the community before she had started working at the center. She had told Kaya that Santiago tended to latch on to people and that if her younger brother was hurt, then Kaya would be the first person Ximena would blame.

After reassuring the teenager that she didn't want to hurt Santiago and that all of her intentions were pure, Ximena had relaxed a bit but was still protective over her brother. It took a month for Kaya to show Ximena that she as serious as to how much she cared for Santiago.

Not only was her job going surprisingly well, but at least once a week—sometimes two or three times a week—Olivia invited her to different outings, be it a dinner party hosted by her girlfriend Lauren or just to relax on Olivia's back porch with a beer (which Kaya repeatedly declined). The beginnings of a social life in Layton was throwing her for a loop. She'd never felt or seen anything like it.

A couple of times she hung out with Ty and Julian, and more and more she could feel that crush she had on Julian ebbing each time they talked. She couldn't help, she realized, but to think about Alison every time they hung out and she would cringe. Julian also wasn't doing much with his life; He didn't go to college and worked in his father's garage, where he'd been working since high school. He didn't appear to have any drive and, to be honest, Kaya really only liked him for his looks instead of his personality. She was probably being a bit judgmental towards him, as he didn't talk much about himself and was much quieter now than he had been in high school, but at times she couldn't help it. Until she saw changes in behavior and the willingness to change and make amends like Olivia, people that were associated with Alison just made Kaya think the worst of them without hesitation.