Woke

5.)

Kiara:

"Kiara, wait up!"

I pretended not to hear Christiano, as I hastily made my way towards the cafeteria. I was hoping that he'd get lost in the crowd and find someone else to eat lunch with... that or hit his head against a locker and die. Whichever was alright with me, so long as he left me the hell alone.

Literally every single teacher we had was out to get me. We had the exact same schedule, so I just couldn't get away. They made us sit beside each other in each class we had so far. There was fucking English, we were lab mates in AP chemistry, spotting partners for Advanced gym, as well as debate partners for AP U.S. History. We were both assigned to the library for our free block, and we shared the same lunch. After lunch was part two of our free block, AP Spanish, then Advanced Band. If I so much as sat in the same row as that dude, I was going to pop off.

But in that moment, lunch was a whole other obstacle to overcome. I was closing in on the cafeteria, only increasing my stride. "Miss Washington!" Principal Karr's voice caused me to halt. "What's the hurry?"

"Oh, you know." I forced a smile. "Just hungry."

"Where's Mr. Marks? Surely he must be very lost."

My heart skipped a beat, and my face grew hot in irritation. "Actually, I haven't seen him since free-block let out. He's probably already in the--"

"There you are!" Christiano gasped. He was breathless, placing his hands on his knees. "You sure can book it. Are you on the track team?"

"That's the plan." Karr smiled at Christiano, causing him to look up in surprise. "Nice to see you, Mr. Marks. Welcome to Chancely High. I trust that your... new friend has been making you feel at home?"

My eyes turned towards Christiano in anticipation. I was waiting for him to rat me out. He could tell Principal Karr every single thing I'd done and said to him since the beginning of the day. Christiano knew he had the power to get me in trouble, and he'd literally been threatening to use it all day. I knew he always said it in a joking manner, but the perfect opportunity to make due on his threat was laying nicely at his feet. With the way I'd been treating him since the first moment we'd met, he had every right to want to get me back. I was imagining different ways to explain to my mom the situation, when he finally answered Mr. Karr.

"Yes sir, she sure is." Chris smiled and looped an arm around my shoulders. I fought back the impulsive urge to slap it away. "Kiara's great. It was my fault she wasn't walking with me. I had dropped my papers on the way out of the library, and she didn't see me bend down to get them."

I kept a poker face but on the inside, I was stunned. He lied for me to our principal? Why in the world would he do that? What was his motive?

Principal Karr looked nearly as confused as I felt. He cocked an eyebrow and nodded slowly. "I see... well I hope you have a great junior year. Kiara... keep up the good work."

With that, he walked away.

Once our principal was out of sight, I sighed in frustration. Yanking out of Christiano's hold, I yelled, "why do you keep doing that?!"

"Huh? What did I do?" He sounded genuinely confused, only frustrating me more.

"Saving my ass! This is the third time you've done something nice for me, and the second time you've kept me from getting expelled today. I've been nothing but rude to you, yet you keep doing nice things for me. What's your game? What outcome are you expecting from this?"

His smile was wide and annoyingly sincere. "There's not always an agenda, Kiara. I'm starving; what's for lunch?"

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