[𝟗] 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 ( descendants ) [DISCONTINUED]

─ chapter nineteen

Mackenzie walked on over to the lockers where Ari was standing, with a smile on her lips.

"Hi, Ari." She greeted him.

"Oh- hey." He replied, turning to face the redhead as he put his hands in his jean pockets. A small smile spreading across his face.

"How have you been?" She asked, playing with a bit of her hair as she looked up at the boy. He shrugged a bit as he looked at her, his smile growing a bit.

"Alright, just got a literal mountain of schoolwork which has been a bit of a mess to finish." He responded.

"Yeah, they do like to give out a lot of... what's it called?" She paused for a moment. "Oh yeah. Homework. They like to give a lot of homework here." She said, her gaze moving to the floor.

"Yeah, it's annoying. My desk is literally covered in homework assignments. It's like mayhem in my dorm, I don't know how Hunter doesn't shout at me."

"I haven't been given much yet. Apparently they're taking it easy on me." Kenzie said with a small shrug.

"Oh, you should be glad. It gets hellish after like the first month of classes." He muttered, running his fingers through his short brown hair. He then cleared his throat, and glanced around, "So how have your classes been? Anyone causing you trouble?" He asked.

"They haven't been too bad." She shrugged a bit. "And no, not really. Surprisingly I've been left alone." She added with a small smile.

"Well, that's good. Just come tell me though, If anyone's causing you trouble I mean. I'll put them in their place." He replied, pushing his hand back into the pocket of his jeans.

"Yeah, uh, thanks." She smiled. "I have at least four people behind me now. I think I'll be fine." She added as she began to play with her hair again. He nodded and just grinned a little bit as he looked at her.

"Yeah, just well, my dad is the God of War so I could definitely help you." He shrugged.

"Oh, yeah." Kenzie nodded. "Does that mean you're a God too then?" She asked.

"I guess so yeah." Ari nodded.

"That's so cool." She smiled up at him. "I'm just a crazy, tea-obsessed human." She muttered.

"Isn't everyone a little crazy? And tea is by far the best hot drink ever." He defended the girl.

"Tea is the best thing in the world." She said with a sudden burst of excitement. "What's your favourite?" She asked.

"Mint tea, probably. I've always loved mint and putting it in tea was like the best decision a human made." Ari decided with an enthusiastic grin.

"Elyse's favourite too..." Kenzie smiled, her mind drifting for a moment before she shook her head. "Mint tea is amazing. Especially after a long day working in the Tea Shoppe." She came back to reality, a smile on her lips. He nodded and grinned at her before he glanced around again. He had no idea what to say now, he was lost for words as he just moved his gaze to the floor. "Oh! There was something I wanted to ask you actually." Kenzie piped up after a moment of silence. He raised an eyebrow as he looked back up at her.

"Yeah, what is it?" He asked curiously.

"We're organising something for... Christmas? Is that what it's called?" She questioned, more to  herself but she shook her head. "Anyway, do you want to be involved with Secret Santa?" She asked.

"Uh-sure, yeah, I'm cool with that." He said, with the smile on his lips turning to a grin, "I'd love it." He added, just for good measure.

"Great! That's great. I'll let them know." Kenzie nodded and then smiled excitedly. "Thank you. It's my first thing I've ever done to do with Christmas so it means a lot that I have all of my new friends join, including you." She said, her smile still wide. He grinned back at her.

"Do they not have Christmas on the Isle then?" He asked, curiously. He never really knew anything about the Isle so always wanted to know more.

"Oh no, not at all." She shook her head. "We didn't have anything of the sort. I'd never heard of it until it was mentioned here." She explained. "Not that it matters really since it seems like a family thing and I... I didn't have much of a family to celebrate with." She muttered, a frown replacing her smile. He frowned a bit and stepped towards her, gently taking a hold of her hand.

"It's alright, you've got all of us now who you can celebrate it with." He spoke softly. She glanced down at their hands and then looked up at him.

"Yeah... you're right." She nodded, smiling once again.

"Do you want to meet up later so we can catch up a bit?" Ari asked after a brief moment of silence between the two. Kenzie looked up at him and started to grin again.

"Oh, yeah. Yes. Of course. That sounds good." She nodded in agreement. "I have some work to do first but then yes." She nodded again, smiling.

"Yeah, that's fine. Just like do you want me to come to your dorm or do you want to come to mine? Mine's a mess though but I could clean it up." He suggested.

"Well, I don't really know my way around this place yet so I would probably get lost trying to find your dorm."  She said with a small shrug. "It might be better if you come to mine." The redhead added.

"Yeah, where is your dorm?" Ari asked curiously.

"I'm awful at directions, but I can give you the number?" Kenzie suggested after letting out a brief laugh at herself. "It's room four." She said. He nodded and pulled out a pen from his pocket. He wrote the number down on his hand before looking up at her, smiling.

"Got it." Ari smiled.

"I'll see you later then, Ari." She smiled and then started to back away a bit.

"Yeah, I'll talk to you later, wait what time will you be done?" He asked, quickly realising he had forgotten to.

"Um, probably around five, five-thirty." She responded with a small shrug.

"Okay, cool. I'll see you then." He smiled before backing away from the girl a bit, "Bye, Kenz."

"Bye, Ari." She waved and then smiled slightly before turning around on her heel, walking off in the direction of her dorm.

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