Southern Love
Chapter 1: The Friendship
(Kaiti's POV)
The bright morning sun shines overhead as I drive to school. My name is Kaiti Shealy, and today is my first day as a high school junior. As of right now, I am 16 years old (until October 5th that is). I am a red-headed girl with baby blue eyes and a ton of dang freckles all over my face and arms. I'm about 5'6'' tall and weigh around 135 lb, give or take. I didn't always have a slim figure though. A few months ago, I was chubby, very chubby. Then my parent's helped to intervene and now I am finally slender. Damn, I don't even know what bread or sugar taste like anymore. But yeah, today is the first day of school, and I'm finally a junior. I just hope that today is as good as I hope it'll be.
I drive into the school parking lot and easily slide my car into my spot. I'm early, but that's a usual for me. I usually panic if I'm not early. Just as every band and colorguard student says, "To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late!." Yeah, I was a band geek. I still kinda am, if you count marching with the band as a flag girl. And just so you know, we spin our flags, not twirl. Glad that I have a good 20 minutes before I have to be in class, I flip out my phone and text a quick, "Hey r u here yet?" to my dear adopted sister Marrissa. The two of us have been bff's since 8th grade, when we had language class together every morning. We're basically sisters now, almost like twins. But we can't ever really be twins unless I either dye my hair dark brown, or she dyes hers red. We both know that'll never happen. Finally after about a minute, my phone vibrates. "Yeah," she has text back, "I'm in the library. Wbu?" "On my way," I text back and close my phone.
With a happy sigh, I hop out of my car and grin when a few of my fellow junior classmates look my way. All of their faces read, "OMG! Look at Kaiti! She's skinny!" I giggle slightly at their faces. "Hey y'all," I say with a grin. "Wow Kaiti," my friend Gemma exclaims, "You look good girl!" "Thanks Gem," I reply, "I worked really hard over the summer. I swear, I don't even remember what bread or sugar tastes like." Gemma gives me a warm hug and says, "Well I'm proud of you girl. You finally did it." "Yeah," I say with a smile and hug her back, "Thanks." Feeling my phone vibrate in my pocket I sigh. Grabbing my phone, I see that it's Marrissa, wanting to know where in the hell I am. "Got to go Gem," I say with a smile, "Rissa's waiting on me in the library." "Ok," she says, "See you later in AP Chem. girl!" "Alright," I holler over my shoulder as I head towards the school building. Then I see him. Right in front of me, about to enter the building, is a tall, muscular guy with long black hair. Damn, he's gorgeous. "Wow," I whisper, "Some new kid."
Almost as if he hears me, the new guy looks over at me and smiles. My heart skips a beat when he holds the door open for me and says, "After you ma'am." "Thanks," I reply, "So are you new here?" "Yeah," he says with a grin, "I'm Kenmaru and I'm a junior." "Hi Kenmaru," I say with a smile, "I'm Kaiti and I'm also a junior." "Cool," he replies, "I hope to see you around." He then flashes another smile at me and I swear that if he keeps doing that I'm going to one day just melt into a puddle of love-struck teenager. Then, he's gone. "Wow," I whisper again, "I hope he's in at least one of my classes."
After I meet Rissa in the library and tell her about my run in with the hot new guy, I head off to my AP Statistics class. (Yeah I know, I'm a nerd. But I like it that way.) As soon as I walk in, I can't help but smile. There, sitting in one of the first seats is Kenmaru, the hot guy from earlier. "Hey," he says with an almost wild grin, "Long time, no see huh?" I giggle at his joke and sit beside him. "Yeah I guess," I reply with a smile, "What other classes do you have?" With a grin he replies, "Here just look at my schedule. I bet you'll be able to tell if we have any other classes together." I smile and take the bit of paper from his outstretched hand. Glancing down at it I gasp and then laugh in wonder. "Wow," I say still laughing, "We have every single class together today and tomorrow. What are the odds huh?" "That's cool with me," he replies as I hand him back his schedule, "At least I'll know at least one person in every class today and tomorrow." I smile at him and turn to face the front as the bell rings and our teacher, Mrs. Taylor, begins the class.
(Kenmaru's POV)
I can't help but smile as I walk to my next class with Kaiti. Even with my hanyou senses slightly dulled by the cloaking charm around my neck, for some odd reason the only thing I can smell is her sweet scent. Her voice is the only one that my supersensitive ears hear. This spunky, fiery red-head walking beside me is absolutely amazing. Keh, as if I'd let my guard down and tell her though. "Here we are," Kaiti finally says as we stand in front of our third class of the day, "This is Mrs. Weathersbee's room. I think you'll like her. I had her for honors English last year, and the class was amazing and really funny." "Cool," I reply and smile at her, "Well let's go in and get our seats. Want to sit by me again?" She looks at me and her face reads a, "NO DIP Sherlock," kind of expression. I laugh and say, "So I take that as a yes?" "Heck yeah," she says and blushes slightly, which I find kind of cute, "And if any of my friends are already here, they'll have to move if they want to sit near me. I'll be damned if they try to get me to move." I laugh slightly and reply, "Ok. That's fine with me." I smile at her again. Damn, she's so fiery. It must be that red hair of hers, or it's just her personality. Whatever it is though, I like it a lot.
We walk into the classroom and I smirk when I see that just like in our last two classes, there are a few other disguised youkai and hanyou. Kaiti takes a seat and I set my stuff down at the desk next to hers. A few of the disguised youkai and hanyou look at me curiously. I growl lowly so that only they can hear. It sends a clear message, "This human is my friend, leave her alone." A few give low growls in understanding responses. "Good," I think as they stop staring, "I just hope that none of them recognize my blood line. They'd all jump at the chance to be friends with the nephew of the current Inu no Taisho and son of the legendary hanyou Inuyasha. Yep, the manga and anime are completely true. My older sister, Rumiko, is the author. Not long after we sit down in our desks, a small disguised neko hanyou whirls into the room and automatically goes up to Kaiti. "Sis," she exclaims happily, "I'm so happy that we have at least one class together this year! It'll be just like 8th grade huh?" 'Sis,' I think to myself curiously, 'But Kaiti is completely human.' "Hey Rissa," Kaiti says with a grin, "I'm glad too. Oh, but I'm kinda sad too! We don't have BJ in here, so we can't call him a banana-cherry hybrid like we did back in 8th grade!"
The neko hanyou, Rissa, laughs happily. "Oh I remember that," she says still laughing, "He was our special fruit! We called all of the other guys in our class lemons or oranges and stuff, but we couldn't decide what BJ was, so we mixed the too most likely." "Yep," Kaiti says with a laugh, "And he still is a banana-cherry hybrid. Always will be." "Yep yep," Rissa replies and then looks at me. "Who's this Kaiti," she asks with a suspicious look on her face. "Oh," Kaiti says with a gasp and turns to me, "I'm so sorry! Sis, this is Kenmaru. Kenmaru, this is Marrissa. We're adopted-sisters. Or at least in our minds." Marrissa grins and says, "Yep, have been since 8th grade. It's all apart of the school family." Still grinning she says, "It's nice to meet you Kenmaru. How many other classes do you have with Kaiti since it's apparent that she already knows you?" "All of them," I say with a grin, "Weird huh?" A look of shock crosses the neko hanyou's face. "Wow really," she asks in shock. "Yep, he's right sis," Kaiti replies, "We have every single class together."
I hear Marrissa growl softly, and a few of the other youkai and hanyou look at her in fear. Apparently, no one messed with Kaiti without going through Marrissa. I growl in return to reassure her that I don't want to harm her best friend. "I don't want to hurt her," my growl says, "Right now she's one of my only new friends here." Marrissa grins at me and says, "Well now that you're here at Chapin and are friends with Kaiti, we need to fit you into the family some way." "Family," I ask slightly confused. "Yep," Kaiti says with a grin, "We have our own little school family. Me and Rissa are sisters, which makes her boyfriend, Darnell, my brother-in-law. Then Rissa has adopted a ton of younger kids as her children. My favorite is Sarah, who I love to call my niece. There's more to the family than that, but after a while it gets complicated." "Oh," I say still confused, "So how are you going to fit me in?" "You could be a pet," Rissa says with a knowing grin. "Aww come on sis," Kaiti replies, "Just make him like a friend of the family or something. Cody's our pet already." Marrissa sighs and says, "Yeah that's true," and then grins suddenly. "How about he can be the family body guard," she asks with a grin, "Or at least for you clumsy." Kaiti glares at Rissa with a look that says, "I'm so going to get you for this later." "Fine," she huffs when she realizes that Rissa won't budge. Nekos always get their way it seems. Then our teacher walks in and Rissa takes her seat behind Kaiti. The class begins.
(Kaiti's POV)
I grumble to myself in my thoughts at how Rissa had treated Kenmaru. "It's almost as if she doesn't trust him," I grumble to myself, "Or she thinks that he's some sort of dog." While we sit at lunch, Kenmaru and Rissa seem to be having some sort of battle for dominance. What do they think they are, youkai? Kenmaru sits on my right and Rissa sits in her usual spot on my left. "Will you two please chill," I ask them with a huff, "I feel like WWIII is about to start and I'll be smack dab in the middle of it. Damnit, just knock off the whole staring contest you guys." "Aww," Rissa grumbles with a pout, "But it's fun! I like teasing him." "Why," I ask her with a glare, "Do you like him or something?" Both Rissa and Kenmaru glare at me. "Heck no sis," Rissa replies, "Just the opposite." "I haven't done anything to you," Kenmaru says while glaring at her, "Why don't you trust me?"
"Oh you two knock it off," I almost yell, "It's the first day of school, and already two of my friends are about at each other's throats! Thank god the stress of band practice isn't on my shoulders for today, or I would really get pissed off." Kenmaru grins at me and says, "Don't worry Kaiti. I think Rissa is just trying to protect you from me for some odd reason. But she's got nothing to worry about. I wouldn't ever intentionally hurt a friend. So you're in band?" "Used to be," I say with a sigh, "I played clarinet up until last year. But right now I'm on the colorguard team, which still makes me apart of the marching band." "I'm on the colorguard team too," Rissa tells him with a smile, "Kaiti convinced me to try out." "Cool," Kenmaru says, "So you two twirl flags together?" "Spin," I say quickly, "We spin our flags, not twirl." "Oh ok," Kenmaru replies with a grin, "Thanks for correcting my terminology." I giggle slightly and then glare at my sister, who is glaring at me for giggling. I can't help it if the boy's grin makes me want to melt into a puddle of goo. Damn, he's so hot! And he actually wants to hang with me and not any of those popular preppy, model wannabes! What more could a girl ask for huh? Even if two of my friends are already in a scuffle, I can tell that this year is going to be great.