Jack was at home, for once free of any obligations and wondered if he should have gone to movies, because he couldn't quite right remember the last did something like that.
He got up and was ready to go to out, when he recalled suddenly that his mother was at home, alone, like many other afternoons. At once chastened, he went downstairs to find his mom reading in the living room. She lifted her head and looked at him with a small smile.
"You are back early. Aren't there some business to do or a dinner to attend?" Her tone was even and her face placid, but Jack thought he saw a glimmer of something in her eyes.
"I am free tonight. I think father will be out for the evening though..."
"Oh... are you going out then?"
"I thought I might stay here with you... Unless you have other plans..." to his absolute dismay Jack couldn't remember what his mom do for fun or if she had any friends.
If he felt bad then it was nothing compared to the feeling of disgust at himself at the sight of his mom's face: shock and pleasure in equal measure.
"Are you sure? Maybe you want to go with your friends?"
He shook his head and she beamed at him. Together they decided to visit the small music shop, where Jack got his first music lessons then maybe have dinner. The store was just like he remembered it: small, cramped space full of instruments and music sheet. There were obviously lesson being given out here and Jack recalled his own first year of lessons here. Later, he had a tutor come to the house and he stopped coming to this place. But apparently his mother didn't. She knew people here and they knew her. He must have looked puzzled, because his mom just smiled and told him that she used to teach music (piano, he knew at least that) before she had him and that she knew the proprietor of this music shop from that time. He was re-introduced to them and once again he felt shame for knowing so little about his own mother.
They left the store armed with some new sheet music for her and his own determination to learn more about his mother. There were more smiles and jokes shared between the two of them that he remembered having in two years past. They made their way to a grocery store and decided to make their own dinner, his mother vowing to prepare his favorite dish growing up: stuffed peppers. They went around the store remembering Grandma and her constant foisting of food on her grandkids.
In the end, it was a far more enjoyable evening that Jack had in a long while. His mom made the peppers and baked a small Nutella cake that was as delicious and melt-y as he remembered.
Sleep came easier to him that night and he had strange incoherent dreams of a family dinner that had his grandfather, Grandma and Kim there.
Kim was once again at her volunteer charity work. She stretched, her back aching from the several straight hours of sitting in a stiff chair at her desk. It didn't even have wheels which was shocking since she thought every office, even the most bare bones one, would have a chair with wheels.
"Kim have you finished the previous folder gave you yet?" A hassled Steve asked as he stepped up to her desk, sequestered at the very back of the essentially a file room, hidden behind a column.
She glanced at her watch and shook her head, forcing a wan smile, "Not yet, Steven."
"Steve," He reminded before handing her three tanned dossiers. "If you don't mind looking at these for me."
She accepted the files and added them to the already growing tower she'd accumulated over the past four days and nodded, "Of course, I will."
Her shift over, she went home, for once not trying to rush to get home before nightfall (one almost mugging incident was enough, thank you very much).
The next day, at lunch break she Still had the files that Steve have her. She reached into her bag and pulled out a dossier, flipping it open with a sigh. "Homework?" Milton asked, pulling her from her concentrated reverie.
Kim shrugged, "No, my volunteer job, you know how it is." He studied her, waiting for her to explain. She sighed, "My job is cool but... Steve, the supervisor, gives me a lot of work." She laughed, shaking her head, "I sound ridiculous."
"How much?" Julie asked seriously.
"Enough that I'm starting to think everyone doesn't really do their job and now Steve wants me to look over a very important task that technically I'm not qualified to do." She explained wishing she could feel bad for laying her problems at her new friends' feet.
"And that's going to stop you?" Julie asked, curiosity lacing his words.
She glanced at him with a sardonic smirk, "Of course not, I'm just going to prove to all of them that I'm better than they are at doing they're own job."
When she was back in the charity's office, the endless data entry was surprisingly interesting today. She thought she found that there was a double entry of one animal shelter. She called the number associated with the application, but the number was either wrongly entered or disconnected. She had checked the website, which was up, but had the same wrong number. She brought it up with Steve, who just shrugged it off. According to him, this was not that unusual: the shelters were volunteer run on shoe string budget and often had their phone plans change because of that. Kim was a little doubtful. Keeping their contact information the same made more sense for donations and grants. The shelter was in the next county and Kim thought she might check it out for herself.
That plan had to wait: there was more work at school leading to the fall break and she was in the middle of setting up Milton and Julie. The two of them were like two peas in a pod and only needed a nudge in the right direction. She knew from talking to Julie that she really was interested in Milton (so smart and manly). Milton might not have said it outright, but he admired Julie a great deal and thought he had no chance with her.
For her part, Kim had invited Julie to sit with them as often as possible, brought Julie to the GreenBean and even organized a group trip to the movies with Jerry and her as a buffer.
It was before the movies that she had another interaction with the increasingly puzzling boy, Jack. He surprised her by telling her about his cousin and his childhood. She suspected that he was talking about the Black Dragons' best student. She learned more about the rivalry between the dojos and the two cousins. Julie was a treasure trove of information. Apparently, the boys continued the rivalry of their fathers, who were sons of a famed Grand Master. The said grandfather was a trainer for Bobby Wasabi.
She felt sympathy for Jack. It must be hard trying to live up to a legend and meet expectations of a father. Besides, it sounded like the cousin was quite a bad apple. On top of that he had a family business to inherit. She could understand his often surly mood. Understand, but not excuse. He was beyond aloof. Sometimes he was downright condescending: she saw how he talked to Milton and Jerry. Like he was certainly better than them and that talking to them was some sort of favor. She noticed that one of the cheerleaders, a friend of Donna's, was chasing after him. And his cold treatment of her was chaffing Kim vicariously. She thought he could just be straightforward with the girl, instead of acting so high and mighty.
Still, she was surprised how good-looking the full smile made him. He looked much more like a teenager and his eyes warmed over. His bright smile turned his face much more welcoming and open. He should smile more often, she thought to herself. It made him approachable.
The rest of the week she tried her match making skills and made significant progress: Milton admitted that he liked Julie, but was not so sure of her liking him back. Despite all of Kim's efforts, he refused to make the first move and didn't want Kim to tell Julie of his interest. So frustrating.
But she didn't dwell on that: she as sure that it was only a matter of time before they got together. She also had another possible match to make. Grace, her once and again friend, mentioned Jerry twice during their chats at the GreenBean. If Kim wasn't mistaken, Grace liked Jerry. He, of course, wasn't even aware of her possible interest. To him she was in a different league.
She wasn't sure, but it seemed like Grace wanted out of the very restrictive sphere she was in. In general, the popular group was small in number, barely associated outside their group and was essentially controlled by Donna, who was unafraid of confrontation and gossip.
Beside them, there were a lot of others groups, more fluid and interactive. It made sense that Grace wanted out. Who wanted to be only a follower?
Kim herself was mostly left to her own devices. She was friends with Milton and Jerry, which meant that many students branded as dorks and geeks were friendly with her. Jerry was part of the dance group and because of him she was on good terms with both dance and drama kids. It helped too that she could play the piano and could pitch in as an accompanist.
She already talked to Grace and Kelsey, though they preferred to talk to her at the GreenBean. The jocks, when they were not with the cheerleaders, would talk to her in hallways and the coffee house, but most of them were too aware of their own perceived worth to pursue anything with a girl, who was shunned by the cheer squad.
And she was shunned. Very obviously. Donna wasn't quiet about Kim's bottle blondness. Or her bad choice of friends. Or her poverty. Although no one knew about her family, it was generally known that she came back to Seaford from the South and the number of Southern blonde comments that Kim overheard was astounding. All of this happened at school, without confronting Kim directly. Donna did that only once more, when she showed up at the GreenBean one more time.
The football team had a home game of some importance coming up, so the football team and the cheer squad were all present. Kim was alone manning the shop and it was a big rush to finish all their orders quickly and without mistakes. She was done with most of them, finishing only the green tea skinny lattes, when Donna, who was waiting for the drinks, addressed her loudly.
"Ah, Kim - wasn't it? - did you have to learn all the drinks here in Seaford? I can't imagine that the Chattanooga coffeehouse would have more than sweat tea offered." She smiled brightly at her own cleverness.
"There are also virgin Mint Julep and basil-lime spritzer, cucumber mint water, ginger limeade, peach tea punch, summer breeze, ginger fizz, cantaloupe cooler, mulled cranberry sipper, mint sparklers, and, of course, ice cold lemonade. But, you are right, in the South we prefer our drinks sweet, not bitter." Let it be known that Kim Crawford was not ashamed of her Southern roots. "Here are your skinny green tea lattes. You'll find artificial sweeteners to your left. Enjoy."
Kim finished her statement with the brightest of smiles and the drawl-est of accents. She knew she won this round because she saw the jocks biting their lips and hiding their smiles and some of the cheerleaders looking at her with a new appreciattion.
She never saw Donna at her shop again.
The day after the impromptu afternoon with his mom, Jack saw Kim talking to Milton and they were obviously deep in discussion. It must have been very serious because Milton was acting agitated, shaking his head at Kim, who appeared to be arguing with the tall boy. At some point she sighed dramatically and turned to leave only for Milton to grab her hand and plead with her. What was going on with the two of them? He once again remembered the blushing, the choice of coffeehouse, the outing last night... Were they a couple? About to become one? Why did he care?
He was at lunch sitting at the usual table, Lindsay once again by his side, when he heard Donna mention Milton (there were only so many 'reedy dorks with high IQ' in school). Apparently he was so embarrassingly showing his interest in a girl, that Donna was experiencing schadenfreude. Of course, she didn't quite use that term. She said she would be embarrassed if someone like him liked her, entertaining as it was for them all of observe this mating dance. Lindsay only scoffed saying that for such a homely girl with such a low standing this would be the only option.
"Like, I heard that she had a chance with some Karate guys, but turned them down. Apparently she prefers brainy types. Of course, the only reason anyone would want her is because of her own karate connection."
Jack wondered if Lindsay realized the contradiction contained in her statements: how was the girl both too plain to attract anyone and spurning guys at the same time? But that thought only stayed in his head for so long. The rest of the time he was thinking about the interaction he saw between Kim and Milton and was unpleasantly facing the conclusion that the two were most likely to become a couple. He refused to dwell on the strange hollow and angry feeling in his chest.
He remained in bad mood for the rest of the week, despite good performance at his training sparring sessions. His eyes followed her whenever they were in the same space, whiсh he accommodated by going to the GreenBean as often as he could. By the end of the week he realized that he was beyond being curious about her and maybe, sort of, a little bit, liked her.
It came to a head when he sort of followed her into the lunch room and she dropped the apple she was juggling. He caught it and returned it back to her. She laughed and thanked his quick reflexes, because this was half of her lunch. He blurted that he liked apples too and forgot to bring one today. She looked pensive for a moment and then offered the apple back, saying this was the only appropriate thank you. He stared at it, the red-red apple on her small-small palm, and his clothes were suddenly too small for him and there wasn't enough air for him to breathe.
He didn't remember what he said and how he got to the car in the parking lot, but he spent the lunch hour there trying to bring himself under control. He felt betrayed by his body and mind. How, how did she affect him so much? He could not afford distractions now: there were his father's business and the tournament. 'Remember, Jack, that men rarely go onto history books for being good people. History remembers only the great, the brave, the successful. Consider what people say describing others: it's always their jobs, their successes, their achievements. What do you want people to say about you?'
He didn't want to be known as a love sick fool.
Also, he suspected that this interest was one-sided. She really wasn't trying to catch his attention: she wasn't even friendly in the beginning. And now she might be with someone else. His treacherous mind supplied that Kim and Milton were really mismatched together. He forcibly stopped that train of thought. Even if she was available, he did not have time for this. And he was afraid that if she was aware of his interest, she would turn into another Lindsay, annoying and grasping. No. He must stop this before it got too far.
