A Month Of Kaider

Eleven: Suspicious Colours

Cinder stops, staring.

Kai's talking to someone.

It's not that he never talks to people – quite the opposite in fact; Kai's one of the most sociable people in the whole school, somehow able to converse with just about anyone about pretty much anything at any given time.

But Cinder's stomach awkwardly flips as she sees Kai talking to a girl.

He's outright told Cinder that he loves her, but she can't help the burning feeling of unease that overtake her senses when she scans the girl.

She doesn't seem to be a student, wearing a dark, shimmering bodycon dress that leaves her shoulders and collarbones bare, the unpatented material elegantly draped around her upper arms and hugging her curves as she leans against the classroom door.

Her hair is shorter than Cinder's, the pressed locks cascading to a stop just past her shoulders. And yet, it's far more mesmerising than Cinder's, clearly meant to attract attention.

Cinder's not the only one staring, practically everyone is.

Her hair is dyed blue, but not a simple blue. It's darker than the ocean but lighter than a winter sky, sleeker than a river but livelier than thickened paint. It's the colour of a chilled night, the colour of rich silk, the colour of deep sadness, the colour of poisoned ice, the colour of midnight.

And it perfectly matches her outfit.

A plain silver chain hangs around her neck, a small pendant, in the shape of an 's', dangling just beneath her jugular notch.

Kai is almost six foot tall but the girl's battle stilettos make her so much taller, almost as tall as him, the velvet straps fastened around her skin like small curtains of confidence.

Cinder nervously walks up to them, schooling a scowl onto her face.

But the girl laughs, flicks her hair with a perfectly manicured hand – her nails, unsurprisingly, also painted the same shade of blue – and turns on her heel, sashaying through the staffroom door, completely ignoring Cinder.

"Cinder, hey!" Kai beams, lacing his fingers with hers.

"Who was that?" Cinder asks. "Hey to you too, by the way."

"I'm not fully certain but I believe she's one of the teacher's daughters."

Cinder hums in response, a little more relieved but not sure why.

"Kai, I, um, I need advice," Cinder blurts awkwardly.

Kai smiles. "Sure, fire away."

Cinder grins before she can. "You and slang..."

Kai winks and pulls her over outside, where nobody can eavesdrop. Cinder makes sure there' nobody around before taking a deep breath.

"You know Jacin's car?" she waits for Kai to nod before continuing, "I think I know who crashed into it."

Kai's eyes widen. "You do?"

"Yeah. I think... I think it was my Aunt."

Kai looks stunned, his eyebrows furrowing. "You think it was your Aunt?"

Cinder nods. "She's the only person I know with auburn hair, it has to be her."

Kai bites his lip. "Cinder, it could have been someone else with the same colour hair."

"Kai, how many people have auburn hair?"

"Statistically, less than two percent of the world's population..." Kai informs her, then sighs.

"Of course you'd know that." Cinder gives him a fond, exasperated look. "And, exactly. It had to be her, I just don't know if I should tell Winter's parents or not."

"Of course you should," Kai replies immediately. "You should tell them about anything that puts you and Winter in danger."

"But what if they don't believe me?"

Kai shrugs, squeezing her hand. "It's worth a shot anyway if it gives us even the slimmest chance of keeping you both safe, unhurt."

Cinder smiles at him. "You're amazing."

Kai kisses her cheek. "So you've said," he murmurs.

Cinder blushes, grinning, and the two of them head back.

Kai and Cinder are deep in conversation when the Principal coughs next to them, making Cinder jump and Kai stand up with a smile on his face.

"Hello, is everything okay?" he asks, as if on autopilot.

Cinder rolls her eyes.

"Actually, could I ask you to do something?"

Of course he'd ask that, Cinder thinks, why else would he approach Kai in the middle of lunchtime?

"Of course," Kai replies brightly.

"Could you show my daughter around school? I'd like her to enrol here but she's not sure about her decision yet."

Cinder looks up, curious, and freezes.

Turns out that Kai was right about the girl being someone's daughter.

Kai looks somewhat tense but nods at the Principal. "Of course, I'd love to."

The girl smiles, brushing her hair over her shoulder and grinning, looking between Cinder and Kai with a curious glance; that's when Cinder catches sight of her eyes.

She gasps.

The orange, yellow and brown strokes of colour melting together in the girl's eyes are stunning, in both a good and bad way.

Amber eyes.

She's only ever known one group of people to have such eyes, such vibrant, mesmerising, deceitfully beautiful eyes.

Cinder mumbles something about needing to go see their art teacher to collect the homework before grabbing Kai's wrist and pulling him with her as she makes her way out of the room.

Kai looks confused for a moment, but goes with her plan, trusting that she has a good reason to be borderline insulting to the Principal – which isn't an unusual occurrence anyway.

Cinder sighs as they get far enough. "Kai, she's with her."

"Who's with who?" Kai asks, sounding utterly oblivious.

Cinder nudges him. "I am not going to let her trick you away from me."

"I don't understand," Kai says truthfully.

"The blue girl, she's with my Aunt."

Kai takes a few second to connect the dots but eventually nods in understanding, much to her relief, and asks: "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. Kai, statistics for amber eyes?" Cinder asks, knowing that he's able to store all this information with no extra effort.

Well, no extra effort when compared to most. Cinder knows that he works hard to be on top of his game, genuinely spending an unhealthy amount of time in the library for both leisure and research.

"Maybe five percent? They're extremely rare."

"But everyone who works with my Aunt has them, it's how we recognise her employees."

"Cinder, I don't understand what you want me to do," Kai confesses.

"Just... don't trust her, okay?"

Kai shrugs. "Okay, I'll stay on alert."

"Thank you," Cinder breathes, hugging him.

He hugs back, passing comfort, reassurance and trust between them.

Cinder just hopes her Aunt isn't here to stay.

Ayy, drama! How's that? Yup, I've got a somewhat plot going on :) Thanks for one hundred reads and see you tomorrow!