Chapter Five – Waffles

"Thanks," Kai said to the girl with bright, coppery red hair. Zarine looked at him, she was sure she had never heard him talk to anyone in that kind of tone before. It held respect, quiet respect for this girl who had just saved her from that creep, Gavin.

"You're welcome," she said before leaving them standing in the hallway.

"Who was that?" Zarine asked.

Kai had a faraway look in his eyes, looking at the spot where that girl had been only a moment ago. "That was Jewels," he answered.

"Jewels? Carrie's twin sister?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Yep," Kai answered, and motioned for her to follow him. "Why are you so surprised?"

"First of all, they look nothing alike. Sure, their hair is the same. Jewels is at least a head taller than Carrie. Second, they don't seem like they are even a bit alike. Carrie's you know, warm, and bubbly, but Jewels seem distant," she said.

"Well, they're as different as twins can be," Kai said.

"What took you so long?" Max questioned as they sat down with the rest of the gang in the cafeteria.

"Gavin was hitting on her," Kai replied, and got out his lunch, which were sandwiches.

"Ah, well, he had hit on every girl in the school," Max remarked. "Anyone want some Cherry Blasters?"

"ME!!!" Tyson answered thickly, with bits of lettuce on his chin.

"Tyson! At least eat decently when you are in public!" Hilary scolded.

"I don't need a lecture right now, Hilary," he said absently, and continued eating his submarine sandwich.

"You don't need lettuce on your chin either," Zarine said dryly. "One of these days, you're going to die choking on your food."

"Well, at least I'll die happy," Tyson retorted.

"We'll see," she said, munching on a cookie.

"Why were you late again today?" the brunette demanded. "This is the whatever time you've been late this year."

"Get off my case! I just overslept, besides Grandpa didn't bother to wake me today," Tyson said.

"You are fifteen, you should be able to get up early enough for school," she said, frustrated.

"Hilary, shut it already!"

"Don't tell me to shut up!"

"What am I suppose to do? You are screeching in my ear while I want to have a peaceful lunch for once!"

"Well, maybe if you didn't have so many faults, I wouldn't be doing this!"

"WHO TOLD YOU TO ANYWAY? I CERTAINLY DIDN'T!"

"I JUST WANT TO HELP!"

"WELL, YOU AREN'T! SO JUST GET OUT OF MY FACE!"

Max sighed, shaking his head. "I didn't expect it to happen so soon today."

"You mean, this is a regular thing?" Zarine asked.

"Ya. They yell at each other everyday at lunch," Kenny answered. "It always ends up with one of them storming off and one of them here, sulking. Usually, Hilary is the one who walks away."

Zarine spotted Carrie talking with the dark haired guy that helped her with her locker that morning. Carrie had a happy look on her face when she came over. She winced when she saw Tyson and Hilary yelling at each other. "Have they started already?"

"Yeah, but I think it'll be over soon," Kenny said.

Sure enough, Hilary yelled, "YOU'RE SUCH A JERK!" before storming away, fuming.

Tyson sat down, glaring at her shrinking figure. The submarine sandwich lay forgotten beside him.

"I would expect steam to be coming out of her ears by now," Carrie remarked.

"Carrie, who was that person you were just talking to?" Zarine asked.

"That was Leo, the school's second hottest guy," Carrie answered in a dreamy voice. "He's a sex god."

"Who's the hottest one here?" asked Zarine curiously.

Carrie replied, "Kai."

The silver haired girl's eyes went wide with surprise. "Then why doesn't he have a girlfriend?"

"Because Mr. Sourpuss doesn't want one," Carrie answered, making a face at Kai. She said in a deep voice, mimicking Kai, "They all sluts, why would I want to go out with any of them."

The girls laughed. Kai's eyelid twitched, irritated with the girls' conversation.

Carrie continued as if she hadn't noticed. "I'd say he's just waiting for a certain someone to tell him that she likes him before confessing that he has feelings for her."

"Mind stop talking as if I'm not here?" Kai growled.

"Kai, who's the lucky girl?" Tyson asked, joining in.

"There's no girl!" Kai snapped. "There never was!"

"Whatever," the red haired girl said in a skeptical tone.
After school, when Zarine went down to the front doors, Kai was already there, standing against the wall as usual, waiting for her.

"Let's go!" she said brightly.

"Hiwatari, is she your girlfriend?" someone asked from behind. "Because it sure seems like it." Lots of girls stopped to listen to Gavin. Kai Hiwatari, the school's hottest guy, had a girlfriend?

"It really is none of your business who her boyfriend is," Kai replied before walking away. Zarine followed after him, excited to go back to Kai's house and see Ray. It seemed like forever since she was last with him, even though it had only been six hours.

Ray was watching TV in his room when Zarine burst in with a bowl of ice cream in her hand. She put the bowl down and gave him a hug. "So how are you?"

"I'm better," he said, coughing a little. "The headache is gone, and my throat is not as sore. So how was your first day?" He gestured for her to sit down beside him on his bed.

Zarine leaned back onto some pillows, eating ice cream. "It was okay. First, I couldn't get my locker open because I didn't know how, but then this guy, Leo, came along and told me. Then, I got lost. Luckily, Tyson, who was late, came around the corner and took me along with him to our class. I wished he didn't drag me into the class like that though," she said, wincing at the memory.

"Sounds like you had an exciting day," Ray remarked. "Mine was boring. All I did was watching TV all day."

Zarine asked, "Do you think you can help me with math? I don't get any of it. Kenny tried to explain it, but he was just repeating the teacher."

"Sure, why don't you go and get it?" he said.

"My backpack is in the kitchen, I'll go get it," she said.

Ten minutes later, she was sitting beside Ray with her binder on her knees. Ray had to explain it to her several times before she understood.

"I'm so hopeless at math," she sighed. "It's my worst subject ever." She stared moodily at the TV. "Why do you have a TV and a computer in your room? It's not fair, I don't have either of them."

Her boyfriend said defensively, "You don't have to get all jealous. If you want one, just ask Kai. He's got several of them in the house."
At four o'clock, Jewels finally got out of her detention. She hoped she wouldn't get into trouble for the rest of the year. Detention was torture. Today, she had to help the creepy janitor to clean up the teachers' lounge. She shuddered at the thought of being stuck with him again alone for another hour.

When she got home, she found Carrie playing with their little white puppy, Waffles, in the front yard. Waffles ran up to Jewels with her tail wagging when she spotted her owner.

"Hey, honey," she said, petting Waffles' soft white fur.

"So what kind of ice cream would you like today?" her sister asked.

"Strawberry," Jewels answered without hesitation. She had been craving for it all afternoon.

"Let's go into our kitchen for our daily ritual, then," Carrie said.

"All right," the taller twin said. Before she closed the door, she called, "Waffles, come on!" Her dog ran to her, with a stick in her mouth, her eyes pleading. "Not right now, dear. I'll play with you later."

Waffle's ears drooped but she dropped the stick and went into the house obediently. "Good girl," Jewels said, and picked her up to carry her into the kitchen.

"So I heard you got yet another detention from Nowak," the hazel eyed girl said, placing a bowl of strawberry ice cream in front of her.

She watched her sister scooped some chocolate ice cream into a bowl. "Yeah, he's such an asshole." Jewels imitated Mr. Nowak's voice, "Miss Satsuki, a detention after school for making faces in class."

"Who were you making a face at?" Carrie asked, sitting down at the round table.

"Hiwatari," her sister answered.

"Why do you never call him Kai now?" she asked.

"Why should I? We never even talk anymore. It's not like we're still friends," Jewels said, in a careless tone.

"I don't understand why you stopped talking to each other. Things were going along great with you to. Then, the next thing I know, you two were avoiding each other," said Carrie.

"It wouldn't even have happened if he wasn't such a jerk," Jewels said, getting annoyed with her sister.

"You can't put all the blame on him. What about you? Why didn't you try talking to him?" Carrie pressed on.

"Don't you think I've tried? But Hiwatari had made it clear that he didn't want me near him. If you think I'm desperate enough to continue sticking around him, then you know me less than I thought," Jewels said, her violet eyes angry.

"Why don't you try again now?" Carrie suggested gently. "Don't you like him?"

"Sure, I still like him as my friend, but that doesn't mean we have to be friends. Our friendship had ended a year ago. His stupid pride wouldn't let us be friends again," Jewels said, before walking out, ending the conversation.

Carrie sighed. She knew that Jewels was still hurt by Kai abruptly ending their friendship. She had to make things right between them again.

Jewels collapsed onto her soft bed. The detention had drained her energy. She looked out at the bright sunshine and watched the butterflies flying outside in the backyard. It was almost the end of the school year. This year had seemed much longer than the last. She snorted, it was probably because of Kai. Last year, they had been known as the Wonder Couple, terrorizing the others. Maybe not terrorizing, but what they wanted, they got. However, this year, it was only Jewels, and it was only Kai.

The bedroom door suddenly opened wider, and Waffles came running in, and jumped onto the bed. The puppy licked Jewels' face, and lay beside her. Jewels put an arm around her white puppy. She was so cute.

Carrie came in and smiled at the sight. "Have you met Zarine?"

"Yeah, she's in two of my classes today, Math and History. Gavin tried hitting on her today," Jewels said.

"Well, I guess I should have been expecting that. He's hit on every girl in the school. I remembered when he tried to corner me in the girls' bathroom," Carrie said, and made a face of disgust. "And remember when he tried to hit on you?"

"Yeah, he was dumb enough to do it in front of Kai too. Kai gave him a black eye before he finished the first sentence," Jewels said, laughing at the memory. "He even told Gavin that he would kill him if he looked at me the wrong way. Then when people asked him why he had a black eye, he told them that he ran into a door!"
After getting off the phone with her family, Zarine returned to her homework. Okay, maybe they weren't her real family, but they were the closest thing to one. She could still hear her brother telling her not to let Ray push her around. As if her boyfriend ever did that.

It was ten before she finished. Yawning, she got ready for bed. She was just about to turn off her lamp when something caught her eye. It was the wooden box on the other night table. She had never bothered to open it before. Carefully, taking it from the table, she put it on her lap. She opened it. It had white satin on the inside and contained a small notebook that looked a lot like a diary. Taking it out, she gasped...and turned pale. On the bottom of the box was......
Ha! I'm so evil...ending it at a cliffy! Muhahaha! Review!!! I named the chapter after the dog because I didn't know what else to put down.