first meeting

So this is the middle school?" Kelly looked around in awe, this place was over three times hers. August paused her with a polite smile as he picked his phone. His smile turned forced.

"Are you kidding me?" Was the only thing she heard before he turned to her with a sigh,

"I have to go. I'll be right back. Stay here," he ordered, "would you like something to eat? There's an ice-cream bar, somewhere around here."

"Yeah, I love ice-cream," she said.

"You," he pointed at a kid with glasses, before passing a card, "here, take her to a bar, a candy shop, a sandwich shop, I don't care. Get her whatever she wants,"

The boy looked starstruck as he froze, his jaws dropping, and literal stars in his eyes.

"Are we clear?"

"Yes sir!" He actually did a little salute.

August nodded and turned to her, "stay, I'll find you."

"Okay," she could stay, that wasn't hard.

"Hi," the boy said with a stretch of his hand, "I'm Zora,"

"Kelly," she replied. Zora was a lanky kid, cute in a nerd sort of way.

"I'm actually in Junior high, but the middle school is where you get the best stuff," he nodded her along, "come on,"

They got to a sandwich ice-cream shop, yeah they really had the best stuff. They both got something and took a seat. Zora was surprisingly wonderful company. He got to talking about all the facilities. And they were quite a lot for the middle school. She had one week here to mess around with them so that would be fun.

She'd almost forgotten, her mom packed her lunch. She could eat that in the dorms; this ice-cream sandwich was way too good.

Kelly felt a pull on her ponytail.

"I smell human," came a deep voice, it sent tremors through her heart.

"Kronk, back off." Zora sprang from his seat. She felt a release and turned to look at him. He was a tad taller than Zora, buffer too. Probably had his growth spurt and wasn't afraid to show it, was that voice real?!

"Little Zora talks," he teased.

"That wasn't very nice," Kelly said, standing up as well. Her mother taught her to always stand up for herself, she was to back away from trouble but it didn't mean to let herself be bullied even if he was a tad bigger than her. What was she saying?

"Apologize," she said. Yeah, there was no going back now.

The boy, Kronk, turned to her, his eyes narrowing, "why?"

"You literally just yanked my ponytail, apologize" okay, yanking of her ponytail wasn't a big deal now that she thought about it, she might have overreacted with Zora's reaction, but she was too deep to back out now. Curse you, Zora!

He shrugged, "I was saying hello,"

"That's how you say hello? You weren't taught manners?" She asked. Little as the yanking was, it hurt, she deserved her apology.

A growl. She heard a freaking growl! And for a moment light glinted off his eyes in a strange way before someone pulled him aside.

It was a girl. She looked up and Kelly froze for a moment. Purple irises. She'd never seen those colors before. Oh, it was probably due to her being an albino.

"He's sorry," she said, before pulling him away.

Kelly sighed feeling her adrenaline rush come down, that was intense.

"You're brave," Zora said. Awwwn, she gave him a polite smile before he said, "or stupid, I'm not sure which one,"

"Hey, he started it! Plus you jumped in too!" She defended

"That different, you're hu-new. Kronk and I already have history. People here are...strange." he shook his head, and took his seat "don't get in trouble,"

"I'll try not to," she muttered begrudgingly. She had no intentions of getting in trouble. She was here to enjoy her one week and leave. Simple as that.

The rest of her day was mundane, aside from the huge buildings Zora showed her. August never showed up, even when she retired to the female dorms. Her heart hurt at the thought of him ditching her, it made sense, why would he want to spend his day with a kid?

She pulled the strap of her backpack as she nervously approached room 205. She was never good around girls her age, being nose deep in a book or her art, it wasn't easy being social.

She raised her hand to knock when the door was pulled open. Her eyes trailed up the tall older girl.

She smiled and nodded her along, "well, come on! You're just gonna wait there all day?"

Kelly frowned, how did she know she was at the door?

She practically pulled her in before pulling off her backpack.

"Whoa, that's mine!" Kelly protested.

"Let's see what we have here," the girl said, ignoring Kelly.