It was lunchtime, Haylirain was sitting with Tenkai and Novalee was sitting with Shui. "Did you solve your math problem?" The white haired girl asked before taking a bite from her apple.
"Yeah. Kyo is going to tutor me." Nova replied, causing Shui to choke.
"What?! I heard that he is barely passing at all." She exclaimed, after regaining most of her composure.
"Why is everyone so surprised? Kyo's really smart."
"Hmm...I suppose."
After a few moments of the friends eating in silence, Nova surprised Shui by waving someone over to their table. "Hey Haru!"
The stone faced boy walked over. "Yo."
"Shui, this is Haru the boy I was talking about the other day. Haru, this is Shui. She's Chinese." Nova explained.
The gray eyed boy looked over to Shui, examining her. "Nice hair." He stated, making her face turn a bright shade of pink.
"T-Th-Thanks. Yous too." She replied. At this, Haru seemed satisfied and walked away. Novalee smirked at her friend. "What?" Shui asked, trying to hide her face
"Nothing." Novalee stated, triumphantly. "I wonder how old he is."
"Fifteen." Shui answered, without hesitation.
"How do you know that?" She was now looking at the Chinese girl with suspicion.
"I don't!" Shui hurried, covering her face once more in embarrassment. Novalee laughed at her friend, shaking her head as they finished their lunch.
At the end of the day Kyo and Novalee met up with Hayli and they began their walk home. "Who's this?" Hayli asked, gesturing to Kyo and fixing the strap of her messenger bag.
"This is my friend Kyo. Kyo this is my sister, Haylirain."
"I remember." He muttered.
"We're still grounded." Hayli commented.
"He's my tutor."
"What the hell!" Hayli yelled, going off on a tangent.
"Why are you grounded?" Kyo asked.
"Well, we stole our uncle's car and we got pulled over and Hayli had weapons so we went to jail." Nova admitted, guiltily.
Hayli giggled innocently as Kyo stared at the two wide eyed at the twins, possibly questioning their sanity. "Wow..." He managed.
"Yeah, but it was a one time thing." Novalee said, reassuring him.
"Maybe for you." Hayli commented, causing a punch to the arm from her sister.
Once they were home Nova grabbed a quick snack for Kyo and herself from the pantry before they started working. Kyo helped her in the living room until Ronny got home from work and interrupted them. "How is the tutoring going?" He asked sternly at the pair. Novalee looked to Kyo, unsure of the answer.
Kyo perked up looking up at Nova's uncle from his seat on the floor. "Pretty well sir. We hit a few rough patches but Lee seems to be getting the basic ideas for the most part." He replied, confidently.
A smile played at Ronny's lips. "That's good to hear. So 'Lee' when is the next session going to be?" He asked, acknowledging Kyo's nickname for his niece. Again, she turned to Kyo for the answer.
"Uh..." He thought aloud, rubbing the back of his orange head. "I know you're grounded and all so when would be good?"
"How about next Tuesday and Thursday?" Ronny suggested.
"Yeah that works for me."
"Now I assume Novalee has already offered to pay you for your tutoring services." Ronny asked, reaching for his wallet.
"Nah, it's fine. I don't need money." Kyo replied gruffly, his gaze on the ground.
"I see. We must repay you somehow. Why don't you stay for dinner?"
"I couldn't impose."
"Nonsense." Ronny stated in a kind but firm tone that allowed no room for objection.
Dinner was slightly awkward. Ronny kept asking Kyo questions about his life, not in an interrogating way but still enough to be slightly intrusive. "Uncle Ronny!" Nova exclaimed, grabbing the blond man's attention. "He will be back. You don't have to know everything tonight."
"Well excuse me for trying to get to know the boy." He replied, then sighed. "I apologize if I made you uncomfortable." He told Kyo.
"It's fine sir." Kyo replied, picking at his plate, obviously uncomfortable.
"So Uncle Ronny, since Nova has a tutor can I have one too?" Haylirain asked, stealing the spotlight.
"Did you have someone in mind?" He asked.
"Tenkai."
"He is probably doing worse than you are!" Nova couldn't stop herself from exclaiming the rude comment.
"You don't know that."
"I'm just saying, he's probably not the best one to be teaching you anything."
"That's none of your business."
"Fine." Ronny agreed, causing everyone to look at him. "He can come over on Tuesday and we will see how it goes." He said, letting out a deep sigh.
"Thank you!" Hayli squealed and jumped up from her seat to give her uncle a hug.
After dinner Novalee was saying her goodbye to Kyo. "Are you sure you don't want a ride home? It's no trouble." she stated.
"It's not far, besides I like walking." He replied.
"If your sure. Umm... Kyo.. Thank you for doing this for me. I really appreciate it. And to be honest your the first real friend I've made here, so thank you for that too." She said with a small blush added to her smile.
His face began to match hers and he looked away. "No problem. I'll see you later."
"Bye Kyo. Be safe." Nova called out, closing the door behind him.
"So you two dating?" Nova turned to see Haylirain sitting on the living room couch, drawing on her leg with an ink pen.
"No. It's not like that. Kyo and I are just friends. Besides he's like a male version of you." Nova admitted with a chuckle.
Hayli glanced sideways to look at her sister. "Please, he will never be as awesome as I am." She said with a smirk.
