2

A few minutes into my conversation with the teacher she walked through the door with her best friend Yasmine, 'I guess Cat was right. Her walk looks like an actual zombie shuffle.' observing how she dragged her feet against the floor of the classroom and as she reached her seat she kinda plopped down into it.

I wanted to end my conversation with the teacher right then and there, but one she was acting weird or at least different from what I was used to, and two she just looks I don't know how to describe it, she looked like she was in a fog or daze. Her eyes weren't the same. When I looked at her earlier as we made eye contact she had a red tint to her caramel cheeks.

'Is she sick or something? Maybe she's warm? Wearing that and the heat in this classroom I'm not surprised if she burning up under there.' I shrugged it off thinking it was because of the red wool sweater she was wearing, but I did want to ask her, but out the corner of my eye I saw teach prepping some papers, I looked towards D and Cat, they made a hurry-up motion. I looked back at Kal and she didn't look like herself so I nodded.

Turning toward the teacher and spoke, "Hey teach these guys are seniors I should tell them what college life is like. I wouldn't wanna be an inconvenience though." I said. The class had varied responses to that, and teach calmed them down.

"Alright, we can listen to Darren and ask questions alright? It's better than what I had planned." Teach mumbled the last part but spoke the other part clearly making the class cheer in happiness while D and Cat were dapping each other up in the back.

I began talking about my schedule and other things, before shifting it to my dorm room. I described it and what type of room I had. I noticed Kal writing in a journal as I talked. 'She's not even paying attention, wait.' I looked at her as she tucked her hair behind her ear, sit up while still being hunched over, 'I take that back. She's paying attention to what I'm saying, but she's not looking at me. That's still strange even by Kalina standards. She usually looks me in my eyes when I talk but then again, she's been acting weird since I've seen her.' I think while side eyeing her as I spoke and answered questions. I continued to talk to the class until the school day was finally over.

D came up to me when everyone started filling out of the classroom. Kal was still writing and looked like she was in a daze. D disrupted my looking when she spoke.

"So best friend since this is our last class why don't we all do something after class?" D asked with her orange curly afro bouncing around as she hugged me.

"I'm down, who's 'we all' though?" I responded with a careless shrug of my shoulders.

"Cat, Yas, Kalina, and me obviously." 'Kalina.' her name made me shiver and smile lightly.

Although seeing her now since the summer is interesting. She looked different from the last one I saw her, she had shoulder-length dyed rose gold curly hair, she wasn't wearing her glasses that enhanced her beautiful eyes and her style was different, but it suited her. 'Honestly, anything she wears suits Kal. She's unique and the clothes she wears are unique also, so it fits.'

I threw my hands up in surrender, "I was making sure. I'm down if everyone else is." seeing the two girls smile, but Kal was still dazed, 'What's up with her?' I thought watching D snap Kal out of her funk.

"Yo Kalina, you ready to go or what?" D snapped her fingers in front of Kal's face breaking her out of her thoughts.

Her smile is tight as she spoke, "Yes, let's go. Sorry about that." She grabs her things and started walking with us with Yas walking beside her. Cat and D jumped at the chance to talk to talk to me as we walked to the park.

"You guys are awfully quiet back there," I said. Usually, I can hear Kal talking but she's being really quiet so I turned around, "you guys can go home if you arent up for hanging out today."

"Nonononono, I- we wanna hangout. I don't have anything to add to the convo, so I'd rather stay silent." I bunched my face up slightly but ultimately waved it off and we continued to the park.

Then I heard a smack and Kal cry out, "What the hell was that for?" 'What the fuck is going back there?' my face scrunched up in confusion and the girls were probably wondering the same thing as we halted. I got my answer when Kal ran in front of us as she was being chased she cried, "Why aren't you hitting Cat and D?"

"Don't worry trick they're next." Yas said running behind Kal.

"Leave me out of this." Both Cat and D said Kal ran closer to them so instead of being hit, Yas hit D. D left my side to chase after Yas further into the park. Cat then also left my side and spoke.

"Imma go after them to make sure they don't kill each other or get stuck on the fence," Cat said winking at me then slightly jogging after them leaving Kal and me by ourselves. 'I'm going to hope that was a coincidence.' I pause and look at Kalina smiling shyly at me, 'On second thought. This is a great accident.' I thought with a smile as I walked closer to her.

I placed my arm around her neck and pulled her into my side almost like a side hug of sorts. She wraps her left arm around my neck as we continued to walk slowly towards the park.

She was quiet at first and I was beginning to pull away to make sure she was comfortable, but her hold on me tightened so I just stayed in her hold, 'I guess I'm overthinking things.' I thought as I leaned my head over to lightly tap our heads together.