Sophomore Year || Parenthood Series, Book One || WATTYS 2018

Chapter Sixteen

SOUNDTRACK: "Human" - Rag n Bone Man

The next morning, Kate was woken up by Vedder licking her face. She groaned and rolled away from him. He whined and she sat up stretching.

"Alright. Let's go outside," she muttered as she stood.

Her room was small, really only big enough for her bed and a dresser. The closet was partially filled by a file cabinet that Emma and Reni used. She had no idea where she was going to do her homework when she got it since there seemed to be employees scattered all around the house. Emma, Reni, and Shayla were nice enough to her, but she couldn't cram herself into their already-packed office. She was already convinced one of them had to sit on another person's lap just to make it all work.

Kate passed Emma on her way to the kitchen. "Hey, who's driving me to school?" she asked.

Emma barely looked up from her phone. "I - school? Huh?" she asked in confusion.

"School? My first day is today," Kate explained as she opened the back door for Vedder. "I need a ride."

"Oh - right. You should ask your - Jared. You should ask Jared about that," Emma replied before walking into her office.

Kate watched in annoyed silence. She was going to have to get used to being an afterthought to everyone. They were all too busy with work and networking and their own lives to really pay attention to her or even remember she existed. Jared was worse. Over the weekend, one of his female friends had come by and spent the entire time lounging by the pool in her barely-there bikini. Kate didn't need to be told twice what happened when the two of them disappeared to his room for an hour or two. He had barely said ten words to her until yesterday morning when they went for the tour of Winterlake.

Granted, some of it was her fault; she wasn't exactly welcoming of him into her life and she was still pissed at him for uprooting her from San Diego. She was also pissed about her entire life being in this weird state of flux at the house. She'd gone from her own room and her own bathroom to a bedroom she basically had to leave available to Emma and Reni at any time and a bathroom shared by seven other people. It was a nightmare.

She ignored her growling stomach and walked down the hall to Jared's room. She paused before knocking, praying to God he wasn't still with his 'friend'. "Jared?" she asked, knocking tentatively.

A muffled groan came from behind the door.

"I wanted to know how I was getting to school today," she called through the door.

There was a squeal and a laugh and then a second later the door opened. Jared looked at her like he was surprised to see her.

"Oh - Kate. Right," he said. He took a deep breath. "I - uh - I'll have an intern take you."

"You forgot, didn't you?" she demanded. "How the hell could you forget when you signed everything yesterday?"

He grumbled and walked away, leaving the bedroom door open. Kate could see a model laying on his bed, covered in a sheet and wearing one of his shirts before he realized and shut it. Kate grumbled and walked back into the kitchen to find two of Jared's interns in it raiding the fridge. She reached around one of them and grabbed a granola bar, glad to leave the awkward silence behind.

Her uniform hung in her half of the closet, clean, pressed and ready for the day. She looked at it apprehensively as she ate. A knock came at her door.

"Yeah!" she replied.

Emma stuck her head in. "I need to get something," she said with an apologetic look.