First day back

Kai woke up on Monday morning to a screeching phone alarm. How he had slept through this discordant cacophony on Friday he did not know.

He attempted to leap out of bed when the strange occurrence from the previous morning repeated itself.

He leapt, yet his body only seemed to follow like an after-image.

It took him a full 25 seconds to reach his alarm on the other side of the room… an unbearably long time to be listening to his alarm ringtone.

Kai headed to his dresser to pick out his clothes, only to notice he was still out of sync with his body.

Remembering his mental exercises from the previous morning, he once again matched up his hands until his body was in time with his commands.

After a nice warm shower and a thorough gelling of his hair, Kai was nearly ready to leave for school. He just had one last thing on his to-do list.

~~~~

[Mountain View High Yearbooks]

After a quick scroll through the yearbooks, Kai had hopefully 'acquired' knowledge of anyone he might run into throughout the day.

Despite his disgust for the previous inhabitant's actions, Kai was beginning to appreciate what he had built around himself. Just because he was unwilling to be an immature, egotistical jerk didn't mean he didn't want to slip under the radar as often as possible.

Using the time it took him to drive himself to school to process the new information, Kai, or more aptly, 'Kyle,' was ready to tackle the day ahead of him.

~~~~

By the time lunch rolled around, Kai was mentally fatigued. Despite his research on his host's past, the overload of new information was still enough to give him a bit of a headache.

Ready for a short rest, he set a 25 minute timer on his phone, lay his head down on the table, and closed his eyes.

Unfortunately, Kai was inhabiting the body of the star quarterback of the varsity football team, making him a prime target for status-seeking teenage girls. Or just any teenage girls in general.

The cheerleaders were easy on the eyes, but the same could not be said about his ears.

"Oh my god… it's Kyle! He's sitting here at MY table!!"

"Chelsea… shut up… the way you follow him around is already kinda creepy. I honestly think this table was just empty."

"But Kendra… this is the table that I sit at! There are plenty of other empty tables around he could choose to sleep at… but he chose MINE!!"

"Chels… literally every other table here is so full that kids have to air-sit on the short edges to have a table to eat at. Largely in part because this man is taking up so much god-damn SPACE! MOVE IT, BUCKO!"

Kai groaned, looking up at the faces belonging to the voices he was trying so hard to tune out.

"Alright, alright, I'm moving… just… give me a second…"

With a loud internal (and external) groan, Kai pulled his body off of the table, grabbed his bag, and headed out to his car.

As he headed out the front door, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Becca was leaning against the hood of his car.

Kai attempted to sleep on a pillow of books in the library but was kicked out for being a noisy disturbance when his phone alarm went off.

He then tried to take a nap in the hallway in front of his 5th hour class, but the bell rang soon after and he was stampeded by students.

Perhaps he should've put down UnOrdinary a few hours sooner and slept.

~~~~

Becca hurried out to Kyle's car like she used to the instant the bell rang. She knew she needed to beat him to his car before he could zoom off to hide from her, ordering lunch at some cruddy fast food joint.

Oh boy how her guess had been wrong. She was about to call it after 20 minutes, shivering like nobody's business, when Kyle finally walked out the front of the school.

Their eyes locked.

She raised her arm to wave, but by then Kyle had already turned around, headed back inside the school.

The poor girl felt an icy tear trickle down her cheek as her shivering intensified, the heat loss from the attempted wave only making the situation worse.

Becca trodded back inside, having doubts about her methods for the first time.

~~~~

As students began to file into his biology class, Kai felt his stomach rumble.

'Crud. I forgot lunch hour was for eating food.'

Seated in the same order as the days prior, he was careful to not look at the girl seated next to him for fear of incurring her wrath once again.

'Staying under the radar… staying under the radar… don't let them in, don't let them see…"

With his notebook out on his desk, Kai was ready to begin class when a 'familiar' face from his 'memories' marched in.

Logan Harler, Kyle's best friend, swaggered into the classroom.

'Oh 'crats no, please do not come over here.'

Logan slammed his palm down on Kai's desk and placed a palm on his shoulder. He squatted down to eye level and began to speak.

"Alright, buddy. You've been pretty out of it these past few days, but I know just what will cheer you up. Cmon, we're gonna go watch the 5th hour dance class."

Kai wished to protest, but Logan had already snagged his notebook and grabbed his bag. With a bit of indignation, he began to follow his supposed friend out the door.