Hello again! I'm so sorry that I don't update a lot. School has been super crazy and lots of stuff has happened. So sorry for the wait and enjoy! :)
"Kendra!" someone yells right into my ear. I sit straight up and almost hit my head on something. That "something" turns out to be Gabriel. I look around my room and see that Victor, Sang, and Luke are all there too.
"I hate you all," I say. I lay back down and cover my face with a pillow. I groan when I hear everyone laugh at my expense. The past two months have flown by. I had become close friends with most of the group. They stepped in and saved me in the worst time of my life. They've stuck by my side and we've done nearly everything together. They had to leave at the strangest times, but I never questioned it.
"School starts tomorrow. You have to wake up so that we can celebrate," says Victor. I lift up my pillow and glare at him.
"We don't even go to the same school, you twit."
Victor laughs, "Yah, but both schools start on the same day."
"Whatever." I mumble. I grab my glasses and stumble to the hallway bathroom. I quickly put my contacts in and brush my teeth. I then fix my hair into a braid and put heling cream on my burns. I walk back to my room to pick out an outfit. Sang and the boys always dress rather nice, so I stand out quite often. I hadn't been able to go shopping for clothes yet. Aunt Susan has offered, but I don't want her to have to spend even more money on me. I pick one of my nicer jean shorts and a plain black tank-top. Then I walk to my dresser and grab a necklace with a silver pendent on it. It has a "K" engraved in it. I got it as a gift from my brother a couple years ago and now I rarely leave the house without it. After I change in the bathroom I walk through the hallway towards my room. I stop when I hear the others talking in hushed tones.
"The new recruits start tomorrow." I hear Luke whisper.
"Yah. I'm worried that Kendra will feel left out when we bring another girl in." Victor's voice says.
"I'm honestly scared," Sang says, "Kendra is the first girl I feel safe around. I don't want another girl here." I peek around the corner and see Sang practically crying. Luke has his arm around her shoulders, trying to comfort her.
"Couldn't we just take Kendra and train her?" asks Luke.
"I wish." both Gabriel and Victor say. I take a step back, worried that I'm hearing something that I shouldn't. The floor board behind me creaks, giving away my position. I gather my courage and walk into my room. Sang quickly wipes her eyes and gives me a huge smile. I smile back and look at them.
"So what's the plan for today?" I ask. All of their faces brighten. Sang and Gabriel share a suspicious look as Victor walks over and puts an arm around my shoulders.
"We, my dear, are going shopping." he says with a smirk. I look at him with wide-eyes.
"What…" I stammer, "I can't." Gabriel gives me a strange look.
"Why not?" Gabriel asks.
"I don't have enough money left."
"That's where we come in." says Victor. "I already talked to your aunt and she is on board. We are officially kidnapping you for a day and getting you a new wardrobe for the school year."
My jaw drops. I feel tears coming to my eyes but I quickly blink them away. Victor smirks at me and I quickly tackle him in a hug. "Thank you." I say.
"No problem, Tiny." he says while returning the hug. We all walk to Victor's car out in the driveway. I immediately call shotgun, knowing how I get motion sick if I'm in the back. We drive to the mall and park near a store called American Eagle. I see a store called Old Navy and the windows show that the store is having I sale. I start walking over but I feel a hand grab mine and drag me into a different store. My jaw drops again when I see the size of the store. This one store is nearly the size of a mall back in Iowa.
"Okay. Let's get started." says Gabriel. He walks over to the Women's section and starts browsing. He grabs a dress and holds it up to me. "Your aunt said you need nice clothes and athletic clothes for school, but that you also need some casual clothes. So first I need to find your style."
"Uh. Comfy and casual?" I say, not sure what my style is.
"Nope. It is a bit more casual than Sang's style but not too casual. You also have a bit of edge but cute too. I think it's because of your eyes."
"Oh." I say, subconsciously moving a hand up to my eyes. Victor grabs my hand and moves it to hold it by his side. He looks at me and smiles.
"He means that as a compliment. Your eyes are great," he says. I blush, not fully believing him because my eyes aren't very interesting. Gabriel hold about 50 other items up to see before he forces me to walk over to a fitting room. He has me try on a pink sundress with flower and a yellow cardigan. I cringe looking at it. I'm not a huge fan of bright colors. I walk out and I see that everyone agrees with me.
"Hold on." Gabriel says. He digs around in the pile of clothes and grabs a thin gray sweater-jacket. He slips the cardigan off my shoulders and hands me the gray one. I put it on and it reaches the bottom of the dress. He gives his nob of approval and I turn and look in the mirror. They outfit looks a ton better with the dark jacket. Gabriel stands up and starts pulling at the dress by my waist. His eyes widen when the fabric pulls away from my skin a ways.
"I'm gonna grab a smaller size." he mumbles looking distressed. I look at Sang, confused. She walks over and looks at the size of the dress.
"Oh." she says and runs out after Gabriel.
"What did I do?" I ask Luke and Victor.
"I'm not sure." says Luke, "I'm going to see what's up."
I sit on the bench by Victor and rest my head on his shoulder. We wait until they all come back. Now Luke looks distressed as well. Gabriel has me try on a handful of new clothes and they fit a lot better but are still a tad big. Gabriel says that this is the smallest size so we buy them and leave. We walk out of the store and I clutch Victor's arm. I'm worried that I did something to upset them. Were they worried about the burns? They had seen those before.
"How about we head back to my place for lunch?" says Sang.
Luke's eyes light up. "Yes!" he says pumping a fist in the air. We all laugh and load into the car. The car ride is oddly silent as we travel back to Sang's. When we get there Gabriel and Sang exchange a look and head to the kitchen while Luke pulls Victor to a side room. I walk alone to the Living room and curl up on a couch. Luke and Victor walk in the room and they both look upset. Then Sang and Gabriel walk in with tons of sandwiches.
"Eat up." says Gabriel. I grab one off the top and take a couple bites. Everyone else does the same. I see them all watch me eat. I give them all odd looks and set down my sandwich when I'm full. I ate half of it, which is normal for me. Sang looks at it and it looks like she wants to cry. All the boys look distressed as well.
"What the heck is going on." I finally say. They all jump and look at each other sheepishly.
"Kendra…" Gabriel starts, "Please don't take this as us attacking you."
"Huh?" I mumble confused. Then I realize. They worried about my dress size, them watching me eat, making a ton of food. They knew. I stand up and trip over the table trying to get away. I had tried to hard to hide my eating habits from them.
"Tiny! No. Come back. Please, we just want to talk." Victor says. I feel the tears starting to run down my cheeks. They know I'm broken now. They will leave me. I look at them and I step back again.
"What. What do you want" I whisper.
"We want to help you," Victor says as he takes a step closer. He reaches a hand out but I move away from it. "We won't tell Susan. Just let us help you." I drop to my knees and cover my face, ashamed. I immediately feel strong arms surround me and I lean into them. He picks me up and brings me back over to the couch where the others are watching with concerned looks. I look up and nod at them to continue.
"Ken, you wear a smaller size than Sang, and she is almost 5 inches shorter than you. That wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but Sang is recovering from an eating disorder." Gabriel says. I flinch when he mentions an eating disorder. "I hate to ask this, but are you eating enough? Please tell us the truth." I look up and I break a little when I see all their stressed faces.
"No… I probably don't. I forget most times. Sometimes I just sleep through the meals." I keep looking at my hands in my lap as I answer. I feel another pair of arms pick me up away from Victor. I soon feel tears on my head and I look up to see Gabriel crying.
"Why didn't you tell us?" he asks.
"I didn't think it was important. You guys would probably think it was stupid and leave." His arms tighten around me and I see the others huddle around us for a group hug.
"We would never do that. You have to trust us."
"I do." I say as I look up at them. I scoot back so that everyone can see me.
"It started when I was still back in Iowa." Everyone almost looks sadder knowing how long this has been going on. "My mum stopped helping me pay for clothes and I was too young to get a job. My dad would give me as much as he could, but my mum would find out if he gave too much. It got to the point when I could only afford children's clothes. So I started watching what I ate so that I could fit into them. Soon it was me making sure I was small enough, but I kept telling myself I wasn't. After a while, I wouldn't get hungry anymore so I just stopped eating. I'm not even sure how much I weigh anymore or what size I am. Aunt Susan has been making me eat though. She doesn't know about before, but she says I need extra protein for school."
"She's smart to do that." says Luke.
"Thank you for trusting us, Tiny" Victor whispers as he gives me a hug. I give all of them a hug and I sit down and force down the other half of the sandwich. They all looked extremely happy at that. We sit and talk for a couple more hours until the rest of the group comes over to watch a movie. It was Sang's turn to pick so we ended up watching a classic. Victor walks me to my house after the movie ends and wishes me luck with school tomorrow. I wave goodbye as he walks away.
"Hey Kenny." Aunt Susan says when I walk in. "Let's get you set up for school so you can leave once you wake up." I groan remembering the 6 a.m. work-out class that was mandatory at this school. We pack my backpack with all my toiletries for the morning and a blue dress with a gray jacket for classes after lunch. I take my contacts out and head to bed, knowing I'll need all the sleep I can get. I set my alarm for 5, leaving myself extra time to eat and get to school. Then I drift off to my dream world.
"Tomorrow the first recruits come in. I want you guys to be training just as hard as these new girls. No slacking. They will be joining you in your classes in a few weeks. Be prepared." Mr. Blackbourne keeps talking about the coming weeks but Victor can hardly focus. His mind keeps drifting back to Kendra. He can't help but worry about how she'll fit in at her new school. She has always had a problem with being shy around new people. She didn't like talking to new people. He decided he would visit her after school and make sure she was alright.
"Mr. Morgan." Victor snaps out of his thoughts at the sound of his name. "Did you hear a single thing I just said?" Mr. Blackbourne asks.
"No, sir. Sorry."
"Pay attention. Your job is to look at all the stats we send to you to analyze. We won't reveal any names but we want you to know who we are having you work with." with that, he closes the meeting and lets them go.
Why can't we know their names? Victor thinks. I wonder what they are hiding.
Yay! Kendra starts school tomorrow and it's gonna be a fun time. :)