Chapter 7- Trapped! part 2
Pitch darkness surrounded the basement, while the noise of rain was flickering in the background. The lights were on before for a brief while, but they ended up being turned off by the Janitor at the end of lunch. To Jinora's dismay she was already further in the basement, so she couldn't get out in time leaving her trapped inside the dark. The basement was long and very thin in width, so there wasn't much space, but only long ground to cover. Now all alone, Jinora decided to sit down to avoid tripping over something as she listen to the rain pouring outside. Footsteps could be heard and was coming from the right side of the basement, towards the entrance. Clink! Clink! Clink!, the noise got louder and louder, which caused Jinora to become afraid. Was anyone else in here, Jinora questioned and held in her breath. The footsteps now stopped and while the rain still continued, and the area remained dead silent. A drop of sweat fell down the side of Jinora's face, as she held herself in fear. ''Jinora! Jinora…are you down here?'', Jinora was brought back to reality. The voice sounded too familiar, to someone she knew. It was husky, a bit pitchy and had a somewhat low tone. ''Kai!?'' Jinora yelled in suspicion, ''Yeah it's me. Jinora are you okay? What happened?'' ''I'm fine, some girl just stole my book from me. I think she's friends with your friend Ying. So I ran after her and threw it inside here.'' Jinora explained. ''Oh okay…as long as your fine it's all good. I'm sorry about Ying, she can be a bit clingy. I'm going to try and switch on the lights'' and Kai started to walk off ''Stay where you are, so you don't get hurt.'' ''Okay.'' Jinora replied.
''What was that back there? Why do I care if she's fine? I shouldn't but I do.'' Kai thought in his mind while walking with his arms and hands out in pitch darkness. Due to his lose in thought, Kai's left foot got caught in something making him crash and fall hard. Banging the floor, Kai grunted while a loud sound echoed through the room. ''Kai are you ok?'' ''I'm fine. Don't wrong about it'' Kai lied, as he got up he felt a little pain in his left foot, but kept on going until he reached a wall. Using his hands as eyes, Kai scanned the wall until he felt something metallic. He inspected the metal object carefully, until he realised it was a switch. Pulling it up, the switch cranked as light began to flicker. Kai's eye eventually landed on Jinora's who had been on the ground, so he went over to her slowly and bended down beside her. ''Come on lets go.'' Jinora however didn't respond. Kai had come to help her, and the two had just started to became good friends. Before Jinora hated Kai but now she was thankful for him. ''Thank you…Kai'' the way she said his name just then gave Kai chills. He knew from the sound of her voice that she appreciated him, making Kai feel somewhat happy. No one in his life ever did appreciate Kai. Not in a polite and respective way. And since Jinora just did, he knew she was a well mannered and respectful girl. ''Your welcome. Did you get your book?'' Kai asked and Jinora picked up her history book from the floor and showed Kai ''Okay now lets go. You strike me as the person who hates tardiness.'' Kai chuckled ''Your right I do'' she briefly smiled and Kai smiled in return. The two made there way to the door, and Jinora used her right hand to turn the door nob, but it wasn't opening the door. With common sense Jinora tried to twist the door nob again, but it didn't open. In realisation of what was going on, Jinora started using effort to open the door as she grunted in displeasure, making Kai catch on to what was going on. ''It won't budge?'' ''No. Ugh I don't understand.'' Kai now tapped Jinora's shoulder so he could try. Twisting, turning and pulling the nob, the door rejected to open which made Kai a little angry. ''What the hell is going on with this door.'' Kai grunted slamming his hand on the door, ''I think we might be locked in.'' Jinora suggested ''How?'' ''When I first got in here I could see, but then the lights switched off and I heard the door close of something.'' Kai had a look of realisation ''Oh yeah I did hear something close, but I never knew it was the door.'' ''Maybe the janitor closed it and locked it. Not knowing we are inside.'' Jinora said. ''In that case we're trapped!''.
Kai now turned to the door and started banging on it, with a crazed expression in his face. ''What are you doing Kai? Banging the door isn't going to work, everyone is in class already.'' Jinora told Kai while he still banged on the door, looking at her ''Yeah but we got no option. How else can we get out, if no one can hear us?'' Kai asked. Jinora stood in thought and then reached into Kai's leather jacket pockets. In surprise Kai stood with his hand up, shifting a little as he started to laugh. ''What so funny?'' Jinora asked now stopping, ''I'm kinda..'' Kai was cut of by his laughing but finished off ''ticklish..'' he signed and stopped laughing ''What are you looking for?'' ''Your phone. I left mine in my locker, and I thought we could call someone to get help.'' Kai nodded, put his hand in his pocket and gave Jinora a black mobile phone, which looked a bit archaic. ''Well at least I know the tin man's got a weakness'' Jinora said simply as she started to use the phone, ''Huh, me? A tin man? I show a lot more emotion than you, ice queen.'' Jinora stopped using the phone and gave Kai a stern stare, ''I'm not a ice queen, I'm just in control of my emotions.'' Jinora said calmly with a hit of hurt in her voice, ''Well you don't always have to be. I'd prefer it if you'd let yourself a bit lose. Just like when we had lunch together.'' While saying this Kai took the phone away from Jinora's hand and dialled Skoochy's number. Jinora stood there and looked a bit sad at what he said, but tried to brush it off. Kai on the other hand was preoccupied with his call, but there was no reception. ''My phone isn't getting any bars in here.'' Kai said now putting his hand up, ''I need a signal.''. Jinora was now looking around the basement. It had a lot of equipment like mops, dusters, vacuum cleaners, tissues and dusting clothes. There was also a big tall shelf at the side, at the middle of the basement with cleaning supplies. While looking at this Jinora came up with an idea. ''Kai why don't I climb that shelf over there, and hold your phone to get a signal?'' Kai was now looking at Jinora in a confused state ''You climb up there? Remember what happened the last time you did that, in the library?'' Kai chuckled but Jinora was not amused, ''I'll be fine Kai.'' and Jinora started removing all the supplies, seeing this Kai started to help until the supplies were all gone. Jinora now gave Kai a nod, and he returned one back, and started climbing up the shelf. It started to wobble a little causing Kai to be concerned ''Be careful.'' ''I will''. Jinora was now at the top of the shelf, and reached her hand out to find a signal. ''Is it working?'' Kai asked looking up, '' Err yeah I got a bar, but your phone it's almost dead.'' Jinora said with her hand still out ''Kai I'm going to recall your friend, and tell him what's going on okay?'' ''Sure go for it.'' Kai scram. Jinora dialled Skoochy, however the shelf started wobbling causing Jinora to lose balance. ''Are you okay?'' Jinora's hands felt slippery and accidentally let go leaving her to fall down the shelf. Screaming in horror, Jinora fell backwards, turning herself forward. Releasing this Kai ran forward and put his hands out, leaving Jinora to land on Kai's shoulder, on her bare stomach. Kai now put his arm around the end of her back. ''Wow I think just had a bit of Deja Vu there for a sec. I told you that was a bad idea.'' Kai said slowly ''Well your a bad idea'', Kai chuckled once again and shock his head, while placing Jinora down ''So did the call go through?'', Jinora looked at the phone, but it was now dead and in frustration Jinora closed her eyes. ''It's dead.'' Jinora deadpanned, as Kai placed his head down. The odds of getting out of this trapped basement, was against them both.
30 mins had now passed since Kai's phone battery died, and the two were now sitting on the ground. The rain had continued to pour heavily outside, and the basement was starting to get cold. Jinora started rubbing her arms, as she stared to the ground. Seeing as Jinora was cold, Kai took off his leather jacket and gave it to her. Jinora just stared at him, ''Take it. Your cold aren't you?'' Kai said. For the whole moment Jinora was staring at Kai's arm. He was wearing a black t shirt, so his tattoos was visible. Near the end of his right arm was a tattoo of a black dragon, while on his other arm had a Ying/Yang tattoo. ''You like my tattoos?'' after hearing this Jinora instantly stopped staring. ''They're okay, I've seen better.'' Kai now turned around to Jinora, interested to learn more. ''Like what!?' You don't look like the girl who hangs out with people with tattoos'. Well besides me'' ''That is true.'' ''So what you have your own tattoo or something?'' Kai joked. Jinora had gone quiet, since she didn't know what to say for once. In her family it was a tradition to get an blue arrow at the back of their necks. This was to honour their people, called ''air-benders'' who were spiritual monks. Each person gets a blue arrow tattoo when their parents thought they were at the stage of coming age. Kai instantly noticed Jinora's silence, knowing what she implied and instantly spoke in surprise. ''You have a tattoo?'' before answering Jinora looked to the ground, hesitated for a moment and looked back at him ''Yeah I do. So what's so surprising, you have tattoos Kai!'' Jinora said all in one breath, ''Yell well I'm me. I'm a screw up, but you have the whole good girl persona'' Kai babbled on. ''I didn't get the tattoo for any bad reasons. Its a traditional tattoo.'' ''Really? Well…here's my jacket'' Jinora took the jacket suspiciously and wondered what Kai was going to do before he asked ''Can I see it…?'' he whispered slowly with his husky voice, leaving Jinora feeling a little hypnotised. Something about Kai's voice was intriguing, to Jinora. She never knew Kai had such a nice voice, especially his tone. Jinora now looked at Kai and started noticing a lot of things about him. He had a undercut hair style that was incredibly messy, but it worked for him as the hairs fell into place. He had a dark caramel completion, which looked soothing and his arms were quite bulky and muscular. The biggest thing Jinora noticed was that Kai's emerald eyes had some sort of effective on her. Jinora couldn't deny that Kai had some sort of attractiveness about him. ''Jinora?'' ''Um yeah'' Jinora now blinked quickly ''i asked if I could see your tattoo. Could I?'' taking a deep breath Jinora turned her back towards Kai, and took off her black panama hat. She then lifted up her brown wavy hair, from behind her neck, and showed off a blue arrow tattoo facing down words. Kai was lost for words. Seeing the tattoo made Kai know there was more to Jinora that meets the eye. Right now he wasn't even thinking about the bet, but about Jinora. He wanted to know the story behind her tattoo. He had to. ''Whats the story behind the tattoo?'' Kai asked calmly, while Jinora let her hair back down. ''Well…my family and me are very spiritual and religious. We come from a line of air benders who are spiritual monks.'' Jinora paused before carrying on ''When a person of our people reaches coming of age, they place an blue arrow tattoo at the back of your neck. It's a sign of spiritual maturity and is used for remembrance.'' ''Amazing'' Kai whispered as Jinora gave a small smile ''Your tattoo is basically a connection to your heritage. I wish I had something like that.'' ''You don't know your family?'' Jinora asked, leaving Kai quiet. It was Kai's turn to reveal something. ''Umm not really no.'', the area was now quiet as the rain still poured, ''Oh. Just because you don't know your family, doesn't mean you don't have one.'' Jinora reassured Kai but she could see he didn't want to talk about that, so she stopped herself from going on. ''I can see I'm making you uncomfortable, so I'm just going to let you be. But whenever your ready to talk, remember I'll be here to listen.'' after saying this Kai smiled and nodded at her in appreciation. ''She's so understanding'' Kai thought ''Thank you'' ''No problem. So…Why do you have tattoos and why did you say you were a screw up?'' Jinora asked plainly ''I have tattoos because I like art. I find art mysterious and….I'm kind of the same. So whenever I see something mysterious that connects to my life, whether it's a symbol, writing or whatever, I decide to get a tattoo of it.'' ''Is that why you was amazed by my tattoo?'' ''Yeah. I felt like your tattoo had a connection to you, because of that story you told me.'' The two both looked at each other smiling for a brief moment before Kai went on to say something, ''I normally get tattoos if I have any bad or good experiences, that connects to the any kind of art I see. And I've been through a lot of hell, which is why I could myself a screw up.'' Kai said in a slight mumble ''Your not a screw up. I mean you did seem like one to me when we first met.'' Kai now laughed as Jinora went on ''But we all go through hell at some parts of our life. I did for most of mine, remember I was scared to open up to people and if we're going by that logic I must be a screw up too'', now Jinora started to laugh at what she was saying, while Kai had been laughing before.''I guess were all screw ups'' Kai added on.
The two were laughing so much it felt like they were doing it in harmony. After a few mins they stopped, now grinning towards each other, like a cheshire cat. They had now been in the basement for 2 hours, but they didn't notice since they were talking the time away. Jinora and Kai were now laying down on the ground, staring at the wall above them. ''I like it when you open up to me Jinora.'' Kai mumbled out of the blue, which made Jinora blush slightly. Jinora didn't seem ti care she was blushing, and never mentally denied it. ''I like it when your you. The real you.'' Jinora whispered somewhat shyly, ''I like that we both got tattoos, with meanings'' he continued on ''I like your tickling weakness'' she added on. This went into a competitive game, that kept the two at it for at least another hour. ''I like how we both resemble fictional characters, tin man'' Jinora said tiredly as she closed her eyes, while Kai laughed and said ''That's true Ice queen'' as she chuckled he continued on ''I like how we're both screw ups. I never thought anyone else or even someone as timid as you could be a screw up. But I see you for the better because of that…Maybe we can be screw ups together?'' Kai said genuinely and got up to look at Jinora with a small smile on his face. Everything Kai had said was real, and wondered how he felt so free with Jinora. He actually felt at peace for once. However Jinora was already fast asleep, eyes closed as she breathed softly. A strand of brown hair was on the middle of her face, at the centre of her nose. Her leg was crippled upwards and her body was covered with Kai's jacket, as she used her history book as a pillow. Being so close to Jinora, Kai could smell her scent. She smaller of jasmine and panda lilies, which made Kai feel comfortable next to her. All Kai could do was smile at Jinora, he had never seem someone with such beauty who could be so peaceful. Kai moved closer to Jinora and laid next to her, turning his face towards hers, smiling once again. He then closed his eyes, and he could honestly say he has never felt so peaceful.