Follow Me Through
Chapter 2: A Lesson in Chivalry

"So, Kari," Davis started. "So, when's my cooking lesson, huh?"
"Hmm… let's put it on the calendar for…" Kari pretended to think this abnormal possibility over. He looked. So hopeful. So gullible. So stupid. "How about…never, Davis! You know, you can be so stupid, insensitive and ignorant sometimes!" with that, Kari stormed away.
"But what about the other times that I'm not those things?" Davis called after her.
"What just happened?" Yolie asked, coming up behind Davis and hearing only his deft protest.
"Kari just blew up at me because I asked her a simple question." Davis whined. Yolie slapped him in the back of the head.
"You're so stupid, Davis," Yolie snapped. "Kari and TK are a thing now and you know it. A thing! A couple! An ITEM!!! And your not part of any kind of relationship with Kari!"
She walked away and found Kari crying in the girls bathroom. She was hysterical.
"Stupid idiot… insensitive clod… " Kari babbled. She calmed down a bit and her sobs subsided. "IDIOT!!!" She screamed and following that was a fresh batch of sobs.
"Shh… calm down, Kari… everything's gonna be fine… I talked to Davis and I'm sure he's sorry, though I can tell you that he still is a stupid, insensitive clod, as you called him," Yolie encouraged soothingly.
"I don't know why I'm crying, though, Yolie. It's like I actually cared for him once. He used to call me his girlfriend and I didn't care. Then when TK came, everything just changed. Everything was just different. Everything…" A sobs got free and the rest came tumbling down. Yolie got up, got some paper towels wet half of them with cold water and gave the pack to Kari.
"Thanks, Yolie," Kari managed to whisper.
When they finally made it out of the bathroom, the two of them headed to Kari's locker and TK was there, waiting.
"What happened? What's wrong, Kari?" he was really worried when he saw her face.
"Nothing, TK. I'm fine. Thanks Yolie. See you tomorrow," she waved at her and buried her head in TK's shoulder. A contented sigh escaped her lips and they stayed in that position for a while.
"We'd better get going," he said, not wanting to break the position himself. "I called Tai and Matt and told them that we'd just drop of stuff at our places and then go our, okay? It's a little surprise I had in mind. That okay with you?" he sounded worried again, hoping she wouldn't be mad with his little adjustment of arrangements.
That's so sweet, Kari thought as she nodded and started loading stuff into her bag. But Davis, yuk, used to do this all that time, not telling me when we were going to go out or what. It used to annoy me so much! But when TK does it, it sounds so sweet. Kari got up, dusted her knees and leaned in on TK's shoulder. He put his arm around her shoulders and they walked through the park using the short cut that connected their apartments. They first stopped by TK's place then on to Kari's and going out back through the long way of the park, you could practically hear the people think how cute they were, what it being spring and all.
"What happened at school today, Kari?" TK asked as they sat on a park bench and fed the birds the breadcrumbs from a pretzel they had bought from a vendor.
"Nothing," she simply replied.
"C'mon. You know you can tell me."
"Well, it was Davis."
"What did he do?"
"Well, he heard what happened on the weekend and asked when his cooking lesson was."
"That guy better wat-"
"No, TK. Don't hurt him. He was just being ignorant. Stupid. Don't worry. I'm okay now." He calmed down a little bit, but in the back of his mind he vowed to pay Davis back some how.
After the park, they went to the mall, then bowling and last the movies. When they were walking home towards Kari's place, she stopped in front of the building, head on TK's shoulder and gazed at the star-filled, moon lit sky. After a few minutes of stargazing, TK's face loomed over her and she started gazing into his eyes. And before they went in, TK gave her one final goodnight kiss.