Chapter Three: Attitude Suits You

'Bla bla bla…' was all he actually took from the lecture. It didn't matter anyways because nothing that Mr. Bright was telling him now would make any difference. He really wondered why the hell the dude still even tried. Kai had been lucky because Mr. Bright had chosen the angry lecture, so now he was sitting opposite him, separated from him by Mr. Bright's desk, and wasn't even pretending to listen to what he was saying.

"Are you even listening to anything I just said?" Mr. Brights voice cut through Kai's thick cloudy thoughts.

"Let me guess, I need to finally wake up and understand that I can't keep staying away from school. You want me to focus my energy on school projects rather than alcohol and you think I am wasting so much potential with the way I am acting around people. Did I miss anything?" Kai put all the boredom he had into his voice to make it clear he gave a shit about it.

"I am sorry if my lecture is boring you, but I am not the one in trouble here, so I suggest you pay more attention, Mr. Parker." Mr. Bright was eyeing Kai intensely.

"Maybe I would if I haven't heard all of it before."

"You stopped listening to anything I was telling you the past years the first time you were in my office. Do you even remember what that was about?"

"Tzz, how would I?" Kai didn't like the way this conversation had turned. Mr. Bright had changed his tactic. He was now trying to get Kai to talk. Good thing that Kai knew all of his techniques and was very capable of doing exactly the opposite thing. If Mr. Bright wanted to play games, Kai was in and he knew he would win.

"Well, I remember like it was yesterday. It was in your freshman year, in the middle of the school year. I never figured out what happened because for half a year you had been a good student. But then your teacher sent you to me. You had punched poor Mitchell Wonderson in the face during lunch. He had a broken nose because of this. And that was the first time of many meetings between the two of us. Wanna know why I remember this so well? I actually had a lot of those incidents during my time as principle, but yours got stuck in my mind. Why? Because you didn't fit the profile of a troublemaker. And I thought this would have been the first and the last time you would ever be called to my office. But a week later, you sat in that exact same chair again. And I would think that maybe you were going through a rough time and just needed someone to talk to. But you completely blocked me from day one. And now we're here, almost three years later, knowing each other pretty well and I have to admit I was wrong about you. You may have not fit the profile of a troublemaker but you sure turned out to be my most nerve wrecking case."

"You're welcome!" was Kais only reply to that.

"You don't understand, boy. This was not a complement. It was basically my last try to make you see that you cannot keep up your reign of terror in this school. I am not going to let you continue this. From this day forward your actions will have consequences. "

"Mr. Bright as you have just stated we know each other pretty well. This is why I cannot take your announcement seriously. If you wanted to punish me for my actions you could have done so a long time ago, but you didn't. I actually have a lot of respect for you, in comparison to your colleagues, but please don't make a fool out of yourself. We both know that you won't punish me for anything. And even if you do I will just continue to do whatever I like, and you know that. I just wished you would start accepting that I am a lost cause. Accept that you can't safe everyone that walks your halls and that it is okay. I am fine and I will be fine, I promise."

"If you would understand the meaning of school and the job of teachers, you would understand why I cannot accept it at all."

"Did my father put you up to this? Because, I have to say, we had way better talks back in the day when you did not let my father command you to look after me."

"Your father has nothing to do with any of my work. Especially my work with you, young man." Mr. Bright started to sound annoyed. Oh, yes. Kai's scheme had turned out right how he wanted it.

"Then why is it that you can't leave me alone?"

"Because there are laws. Because I take my job seriously and because I still have hope to find out what bothers you so much that you have to act out like this! I just want to help you, Malachai, that's all. Because that is my job." Mr. Bright would have looked menacing to others but Kai had seen this face too often to get scared. Then Mr. Bright resumed "Have you ever thought about your future, Malachai?"

"Oh god, not that again!" Kai hid his face in his palm to avoid looking at Mr. Bright. He hated it the most when he brought that theme up.

"Oh yes, that again. Because you do realize your potential, don't you? If you would put just a little bit more effort into school every college in the country would be fighting each other over you and offer you the best scholarships they can, because you are a smart boy! You are more than that. You might be the smartest kid I ever had in this school. But your attitude is going to get you nowhere. You have to start taking action otherwise you won't go to college at all."

"Yeah, maybe I don't even want to go. Did no one ever think of that?!" Kai was angry now. He had this conversation with way too many people already and he was annoyed by it.

"Than what would you want to do after school? There is not that much time left. And to be honest, I can't see you anywhere else but in a good school. Brown, Yale, Stanford. This is actually an opportunity for you."

"Be sure, I have known about my opportunities since I was born." Kai turned his head to the window on the right side of the room. Outside he saw a bunch of students walking back inside the building to head to their next class. Some of them were laughing, some looked tired. Kai didn't care about any of them.

"You do know there are ways for me to help you figure out what you want to do in the future, right? This is what I am here for. Just say a word; it has to come from you because I can't help you if you don't say anything."

Kai looked back at his headmaster "Wow, you are really committed to your job. Maybe you should take a break from it. Seems like your priorities are not in line. Maybe you should take your wife and make a nice little trip around Europe, just to relax a little." Kai said in a mocking tone.

"THIS is not a game, Mr. Parker. I am not kidding. I will see that you are finally taken responsible for your actions. I just want you to know that your life in this school is not going to be as easy as you are used to."

Kai nodded and pretended to be thinking about what Mr. Bright had just said. But of course the two of them had spent way too much time together so he was not fooled by his move.

"So what are you gonna do? Kick me off the school? You and I both know this is not going to happen. And my test results are too good to make me redo the year. And if you can't to either of those things… I don't think that I need to be too afraid. Can I go now?"

"There are more ways of punishment I can choose from then just those two, be aware of that. So, I give you permission to leave my office and go to your next class! If I have to hear that you left the building I will start my measures right away."

Kai rose from the seat and headed to the door. This conversation was just as useless as all the others before that. He did not take anything Mr. Bright had told him serious. When he opened the door, Mr. Bright stopped him again.

"One more thing: I saw you talk to Ms. Bennet outside. Since when are you two on the talking basis? Are you friends?"

"I don't think it is any of your business what my connection to Bonnie Bennet is. She is just as interesting as watching a tomato turn red. She can barely talk to the people she actually knows and likes because she is so shy. So I'd say my interest in her is somewhere between attending school and checking if Mitchell Wonderson is still mad at me for breaking his nose three years ago."

"Hm, interesting." Mr. Bright stated. "I heard she kind of made a scene this morning."

Kai turned to look at his headmaster. So that little incident had also raised the teachers' interests?
"I don't think you know what really happened, sir."

"Wanna fill me in then?"

"I'd rather not, because I am already late for my class and you just told me to start being responsible about my education. So, I will just go!" With these words Kai stepped out of the office and closed the door behind him.

They day had turned out to be huge freaking joke and that conversation had made him pretty mad. So he ignored what Mr. Bright had said and went to the cafeteria to see if any of his pals would still be there. He saw Brian and Zach hanging around and nodded to them to indicate they should come to him.

They rose and headed to him.

"Hey, pal. Where have you been all this time?" Zach asked in his usual monotone voice he got from smoking pot all the time.

"Bright's office. The dude tried to brainwash me again. Let's get out of here; I'd really like to get wasted." Kai quickly explained.

"Well, that sounds more like it." Brian smiled and punched Kai lightly on the shoulder as he headed to the entrance. Zach only nodded and followed Brian's lead. Kai turned around and followed his friends.

The day had finally come. Her presentation about photosynthesis that she had spent hours and hours preparing was due today. She was pretty nervous about it because biology wasn't her strong suit. She needed this presentation to be good to get a good mark. She was in no way endangered to redo the year but she was a perfectionist and didn't want to have any bad marks in her certification.

Lianne and Dave had outdone themselves with the visuals. They had noticed that Bonnie did all the hard work so they decided to do a good job of their own. But in the end the visuals would only be a small part of the mark they would get but Bonnie still appreciated the gesture.

Shortly before the class would start Bonnie went to the girl's room. She had waited as long as possible so all the students would already be in their classrooms or at their lockers. She was trying to avoid running into anyone. Even though she had to admit that her plan had some flaws, because she was actually only trying to avoid running into one particular person and this person gave a crab about staying in the hallways longer or being late for class. That person lived in his own rhythm.

She hadn't seen Kai around for the last week. After their encounter at Mr. Bright's office he hadn't attended school. Bonnie had seen Jo, his twin sister, once talking to another of his siblings. She was close enough to hear them talking about Kai being home. The other sibling, Bonnie thought she remembered his name to be Joey, asked Jo weather he was sick but he had to laugh so hard that Bonnie understood that he knew his brother was nowhere near being sick. He had probably been drinking his ass off the past week. Jo had hit Joey on the back of his head to make clear she didn't like the way Joey was talking about his older brother.

After that Bonnie went to her locker. She had to tell herself that she did not give a crab about Kai Parkers whereabouts or anything Kai Parker. But right now, when she was cautiously walking the hallways of the school, she had to question that.

She didn't expect him to show up. In the past Kai had been MIA from school for a longer period every once in a while. She had seen all his friend during the past week but he had never been with them. And he had not shown up to history class.

If she would run into him now, she felt that he was going to make her so unsure of herself that she couldn't do the presentation. As she reached the girl's room Bonnie sighed out load. She was halfway safe from the Parker kid. Bonnie went to a booth. She didn't have to wait for one to be free like she normally would, because everyone was already in class. She was alone. Or so she thought.

When Bonnie was about to close the booth door, she heard a girl talking. At first she couldn't make out what the girl was talking about- or who she was talking to. She seemed to be alone and not recognize that Bonnie had entered. Bonnie figured the girl had to be talking to someone on the phone. Bonnie didn't want to have an awkward meeting later so she kept very quiet to not draw attention to herself.

Right about now she could hear the girl more clearly and could make out that she was sobbing.

"Can you come here? I really need to…" She was interrupted by the person on the other end.

"Well, can't you pull yourself together? I really need you right now." The girl tried to hold it together, Bonnie could tell. The person on the other end was probably not too pleased with the way that call had turned out.

"I don't care, you know that. I'm begging you. Please, come pick me up." This time it was only a short break after she started to talk again. Now she sounded angrier.

"Are you serious? I have your back all the time! And now I need you, just this once! And you can't get your ass up and come pick me up?" Silence.

"You know exactly that I can't go alone! And no, I cannot go after school, imagine if Dad finds out. He is going to kill me!" She sounded really scared. Bonnie was feeling really bad for eavesdropping on that poor girl, because this conversation was making the impression to be a really serious one. Bonnie thought she might just try to get out of the booth and get back to class, because it seemed like the girl on the phone would take a whole lot more time to finish her conversation and Bonnie needed to do the presentation. Just as she was about to leave the booth she heard the girl leave hers and walk to the sink. Bonnie stayed where she was.

"You know what, asshole? Just forget I called you. I am going to figure something out. It is just so nice to know my own brother it there for me when I need him. Have a nice life!" She yelled into her phone. Something about her voice seemed familiar to Bonnie. She knew this girl; at least she had heard her talk more than once because her voice sounded familiar. And then it came to her. 'Oh, shit. This wasn't happening!' Bonnie thought.

Bonnie heard the girl open the bathroom door but she didn't hear it shut, so she figured the girl did not hang up on her brother just yet. And then she heard her talk again. With the familiar voice of the head girl of her school.

"I'm in the girl's room on the first floor." She sounded relieved.

"Alright, I'll be there. Please hurry, Kai." And with that she hung up. Bonnie was scared to her bone now. She overheard Josette Parker on the phone with her bad excuse of a twin brother and she had a serious problem. Right now she could hear Jo starting to cry again. Bonnie wished for Jo to leave because Bonnie was already late for her class and the presentation she had to do. For once she wished for Kai to hurry up and get to the school fast, so Jo would leave.

Bonnie sighed silently. Then she felt her phone vibrate. Panic rose in her again. The phone was silent but she had the vibration mode on and in a very silent bathroom it was almost as loud as a ringtone would have been. Bonnie tried to grab her phone in her pocket but she was too clumsy and the phone fell to the ground.
'Well done, Bonnie. No way she did not hear that!' she was lecturing herself. She finally got a hold of her phone and declined the call so the phone would shut up. She just saw the name of the caller for a short time. It had been Dave. God no!

Bonnie was thinking about her next move. If she was lucky Jo would just leave in the next 10 seconds and she could slip out of the girl's room without getting caught. But then she wasn't the luckiest person these days and 10 seconds later she heard Jo move in her direction.

"Hello? Is someone there?" the girl asked.

Shit! Now Bonnie had just one chance to get out of this situation unharmed. She pushed the flush and pretended to unlock her booth.

She looked around the corner to see Jo staring in her general direction. Now that she could see the girl she was a little shocked. She was aware that she had been crying but the naturally pretty face of Jo Parker had been suffering a lot due to her crying. Her makeup was blurred but Bonnie could see that Jo had been trying to fix that. Her eyes were red from all the tears – she must have spent longer that these few moment crying – and so was her face, probably due to her annoyance by her dumb ass brother.

Bonnie decided to ignore all that and put all effort into looking as innocent as possible.

"Are you talking to me?" Bonnie asked with her eyes wide open to seem surprised by Jo's reaction to her.

"Oh, it's you." Jo turned her back on Bonnie and faced the mirror again to fix her face with a little water. Bonnie wondered what her reaction meant. She had never talked to Josette Parker before and she was pretty sure she didn't have a reputation or anything so Jo had probably never heard of her either. So what was that "Oh, it's you!" all about? Sure, Jo had probably seen Bonnie around but even though they were in the same age group and had attended the same schools for years now, the two girls had never shared a class. Jo was one of the popular girls. No cheerleader, she was too smart for that. But everybody liked her, she was the sunshine student and the schools head girl.

"How long have you been in here?" Jo's voice reminded Bonnie of the situation she was in. Jo had turned around again to watch Bonnie carefully and a little judgy. Her gaze was almost disgusted and Bonnie wondered what went on with this girl.

Then she remembered that she seemingly had been to the toilet a few seconds ago and Jo was expecting her to wash her hands. Bonnie did that the second she realized it and Jo resumed to her fixture. Incredible how a few drops of water could change a pretty girl that looked a little damaged into her normal perfect self again.

"Not long. I hurried inside because I have to do a presentation just about now." Bonnie answered the question Jo had asked.

She was still eying Bonnie closely. Bonnie didn't know if Jo believed her but some part of her brain must have considered the possibility that she might have just overheard Bonnie's arrival because she was now nodding to herself.

Bonnie dried her hands and was heading to the door as Jo blocked her way. Bonnie looked surprised because she had thought that maybe she could just get away with this. But apparently she was wrong.

"I don't know what or how much you witnessed, but I just want to make sure that I can trust you to tell nobody about it." Jo's voice was harsh. She sounded a little like her brother just now but not completely. Kai had more ice and casualness in his tone and Jo still sounded somewhat… nice. Bonnie thought about pretending to not know what Jo was talking about but she already had the feeling that Jo suspected something so she decided to admit to just this much.

"Of course. Are you okay, though? Is there something I can do for you?" Bonnie said.

Jo gave Bonnie a bright smile, a smile she had seen on her so many times. But right now it didn't fit her at all but it took Jo no effort to put it up. That made Bonnie wonder how many times the smile she was wearing in public was indeed fake. Maybe she wasn't too different from her brother after all. Maybe the Parker kids were a little damaged, all of them.

"Nope, everything is alright. I got it all covered but thanks for your concern, really. I appreciate it. Don't you have a presentation to hold?" Jo asked with a worried expression of a big sister on her face.

Bonnie panicked a little and said a quick goodbye to Jo. She stopped at the door and took a short look back at the dark haired girl. She was watching Bonnie through the mirror and smiled at her.

"Good luck to you!" She said in a honey like voice.

'You too' was what Bonnie would have liked to say but instead she only said "Thanks." And with those words Bonnie rushed to the biology classroom.

With quick steps he rushed to the girl's room on the first floor. His head was pounding heavier with every stride he made. He was getting angrier by the second. Jo hadn't been in the parking lot as they had agreed on over the phone. He thought it had been clear that he didn't want to search for her in the whole school as he agreed to pick her up and drive her to the damn appointment.

He opened the door to the girl's room without any second thought. He didn't care if any girl would scream at him to get out, even though he was pretty sure there would be no one in there but- hopefully- his idiotic sister.

He saw her right when he set his first step in the room.

"Good, you're still alive. I thought that maybe you were killed on your way to the parking lot. That would have explained why you weren't there five minutes ago, at least. But now I must wonder if you lost your ability to think." Kai said with rising annoyance.

Jo glared at him and she put all of her own anger into it, Kai could tell. Another girl that was just coming out of a booth was looking at him with eyes ripped open. He ignored her.

"Sorry that I engrossed five minutes more of your valuable time, mister perfect, but my head is not exactly in the game today." Jo replied.

"And is that my fault?" Kai had really tried to be nicer to his sister due to her situation. He really resolved to be his best self today because he really wanted to be there for her but the fact that he was hung-over and was not to keen to spent hours waiting with her and holding her hand, plus the fact that she wasn't were she said she would be made it nearly impossible for him to contain himself.

Jo fizzled snippily and turned back to the mirror. The other girl was washing her hand next to Jo but kept her gaze on Kai through the mirror.

Kai sighed. "So, can we go?" he asked a little nicer now.

"Just a second." Jo replied.

"Jo!" Kai said warningly.

"I said just a second, just go and wait outside." Jo was screaming at him. Kai shook his head and went to wait for his sister in the hallway. A few seconds later the other girl left the bathroom and tried not to look into Kai face as she did. Good for her, because in his mood right now he would have probably said something really mean if she had bothered to look at him.

Then after what had felt like hours, Jo came out too. During his wait a few teachers had crossed by him and had looked at him inquiring. He didn't know any of them but of course they knew him. Some of his teachers had probably told them that he hadn't been in school this week and seeing him now made them wonder.

Jo turned left to head to the parking lot and Kai followed her with quick steps. He needed to get out of here.

"You look terrible." Jo stated on their way to the car.

"Thanks, I can only give that back."

"Well, maybe you should consider slowing down on the alcohol. I heard it does wonder for the health." Kai looked at his sister and she was fake-smiling at him.

"And I heard that giving advice to others if you can't even help yourself isn't helping you with your reputation, my sweet Josette." Now Jo was back to glaring at him. Good, he could handle her better if she wasn't as worried about him. It was his job to worry about her today.

They reached his car without running into anyone else. He clicked on his keys and the doors of the car unlocked. He smoothly slipped onto the driver's seat and waited for Jo to take her own. Then he started the engine.

"Are you sure you are good to drive?" Jo asked again with her concerned big sister voice.

"Jo, you called me here to get you to the freaking counseling appointment. If I wasn't able to drive I wouldn't be here alright? I have a hangover not the pest."

"Alright, no need to be grumpy." She searched for something in her bag and got her phone out.

He was turning left and leaving the school area to get to the main road.

"Did anybody see you?" he asked her now.

"Not sure, there was this girl in the girl's room. Don't know how much she heard about our conversation."

"The scared one? How long do you girls need to pee?" Kai was thinking about the girl he saw in the bathroom, shocked to her core to see a boy in the girl's room.

"No, not that one. Your new friend."

"My what now?" Kai was confused and gave Jo a quick look after he refocused his eyes on the road.

"The one that stood up to you on the first day back, Bonnie was her name?" Kai could hear the grin widening on Jo's face even though he didn't take a look. But he knew his twin sister, she always interpreted thing the wrong way. And she never gave up the hope that some girl would rise from the flavor of the month status to something more. But if it came to him, Bonnie was nowhere near being anything like that.

"Bonnie is definitely not a friend." He briefly paused. "So you're sure she won't say anything? Because I can make sure her mouth is shut." Kai had to grin a little while he said that.

"Positive, I don't even think she would know what to tell. And please, don't do your usual toying around with her. She is actually really nice and she doesn't deserve someone like you to screw up her life."

"I don't know why you would say something like that but I can assure you I have no plan to involve Bonnie Bennet any further into my life."

"Oh, please. I know you better than anyone else, Kai. And I can read the signs; this is how it always starts."

They had reached their destination. Kai parked the car and Jo stepped out. Kai stayed seated a little while longer. Jo was right. She did know him best. But he did not have any special interest in Bonnie Bennet, but his twin sister might have just made him aware of the challenge she would present and he was in desperate need of some distraction.

As he got out of his car and followed Jo inside the building he was grinning wickedly and started to form a plan to lure Bonnie Bennet into his game.

Author's note: So, here you go. The third chapter is a little different. I wasn't going to switch perspectives but I felt the need to tell a part of the story Bonnie wasn't a part of and there was just no other option than to take Kai's perspective. I will tap into his perspective every now and then when I feel like I need to but Bonnie's perspective will he my priority. Hope you still liked it. Pleas, leave your opinion, good or bad or any ideas. I appreciate it all. It may be a while until I update my other story because I feel more inspired to do this one right now. But I promise to get back to Obstacles in due time. Until next time, LiLaAir.