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[right][i][b]Date[/b] [color=white]—[/color] Sunday, January 20th, 2019[/i][/right]

Kavi felt weird coming out of a pretty eventful week. With how it started, he didn’t think he’d find himself in a decent place. After what happened with Chanel and the rest of the trinity, not to mention the tense first encounter he had with Ariel’s friend, Ryland, he thought for sure he was going to be in the doghouse a lot longer than he was. When he had made the initial attempts to talk to Ariel on that same day, he assumed the few hours spent in classes were going to be enough, that maybe Ariel calmed down.

Kavi was wrong.

So he tried again the next day and the same result happened. It wasn’t until nearly a couple of days later, that after she calmed down and after she was able to look at him without either a, forming tears in her eyes and b, wanting to punch him, Ariel was ready to talk to him. Their conversation was short, though. It only went on for as long as it needed to. When their heart-to-heart was finished, it had resulted in Ariel saying that maybe they shouldn’t have rushed into their relationship. Even though love was present and they cared deeply for each other, that couldn’t cover up that the wounds were too fresh and they had to work on themselves a bit more before they got back together. 

They went back and forth about it but in the end, they both agreed to hit the reset button and just being friends was for the best.

Since that conversation at lunch, Kavi was a single boy once again. For the first time in months, he wasn’t in a relationship. Word spread about it and those who were previously staying away because of Ariel had flooded his DMs as if it was Junior Year again. From Hannah Weston from Palm Beach High to Paula Castro from Miami U (a freshman and Kavi’s ex friends-with-benefits), he was getting all sorts of requests but it didn’t matter. He told them all no and closed them off.

Even now, as he sat in the backyard in one of the lawn chairs, he kept getting DMs on Twitter. He turned his phone on silent and placed it screen side first on the table next to him. He glanced up at the sky, the clear blue skies relaxed him. He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them, only to see his sister’s curly hair cloud his sight of the sky. 

[color=teal]“Jesus fuck, Nik!”[/color] Kavi gasped from the surprise of his sister, nearly falling out of his chair. 

Nikki laughed and came around to his front and sat at the edge of the chair, forcing Kavi to scoot his legs closer to his stomach. [color=fdc68a]“Jesus bro, you must’ve been in quite the trance. I [i]never[/i] get you like that!”[/color] She snickered (much to his annoyance).

He rolled his eyes. [color=teal]“Yeah, yeah!”[/color] He scooted up so he could meet her at eye- level. [color=teal]“What’s up? Aren’t you supposed to be bothering someone else?”[/color]

Nikki absentmindedly shrugged, kicking her feet back and forth against the metal railings of the chair. She intentionally did it knowing well that it was something Kavi detested.

[color=teal]“Are you intent on getting on my nerves today?”[/color]

[color=fdc68a]“No, not at all!”[/color] She poked him in his thigh. [color=teal]“Just wanted to spend time with my brother is all!”[/color] She poked him again.

As she continued to test his patience, Kavi stood up, refusing to stoop to her level. [color=teal]“If you wanna be a child, then I’m going to just leave.”[/color]

Nikki took his spot on the chair and giggled. [color=fdc68a]“You know, everyone knows about what you called CoCo!”[/color]

Kavi’s movements halted and he turned around, glaring at his sister who was going through his phone. He snatched it out of her hands and pocketed it into the front pocket of the blue polo shirt he was wearing. [color=teal]“And why do you care about that?”[/color]

[color=fdc68a]“I don’t.”[/color] Her response was quick and casual.  [color=fdc68a]“I mean, Chanel isn’t really important to us lower classmen but I’m sure it couldn’t have been fun for you and Ariel and her seeing your claims of changing were just hot air.”[/color]

Kavi didn’t know what Nikki’s deal was. She had been on the fritz ever since their parents have been having problems and it didn’t help that ever since then, she has been doing everything possible to intentionally piss him off. But he could deal with that. Kavi has been learning to have more patience. He liked to think that his time with Ariel and [i]trying[/i] to improve himself for her (but also for himself) was starting to work, but he would be lying to himself if he didn’t suspect Nikki knew that and was doing everything she could to test him.

About every single brain cell was trying to guide him away from his little sister. Engaging her when she was being even brattier than usual was only going to drive up his stress past a healthy point but Kavi was genuinely worried for her. Whether he wanted to or not, he loved her and he had to act like the older brother she knew he could be.

[color=teal]“I know I asked you this last week and you brushed it off but,”[/color] he paused, looking at her not even bothering to turn his direction. So he walked over to her and stood over her until she gave him her undivided attention. After nearly a minute of silence, she gave in. [color=teal]“Listen, kiddo, what mom and dad are going through right now is tough, I know. If you think you’re the only one who is hurting, then look at me! I’m not okay either. My girlfriend decided we were better off as friends after I called Chanel a word I shouldn’t have. Because of that, I’ve lost friends and now I’m probably going to be shunned at school for a while.”[/color]

[color=fdc68a]“I fail to see how any of that affects me.”[/color]

He shook his head in frustration. [color=teal]“I’m saying that we can’t do anything about what is out of our control. I can’t make Ariel want to be with me right now, not after I royally screwed up. I’ll probably never get on good terms with the trinity for a long time.”[/color] More live as long as he was breathing. [color=teal]“And just like I can't control that part of my life, you can’t control what happens with our parents. As for what we can do with that?”[/color] Kavi smiled at Nikki. [color=teal]“We can control that part.”[/color]

Kavi stared her down, hoping his words were reaching her. [color=teal]”You and I need to stick together, kiddo. If you have any problems, come to me, okay?” [/color]He relaxed his hand on her shoulder.

Nikki remained quiet for a few moments, something Kavi couldn’t remember happening since they were a lot younger. Then, as she smiled, a few tears falling down her face, she spoke. [color=fdc68a]“Since when did you become good at these kinds of talks, huh?”[/color] She shook her head, laughing.

Kavi hummed with a chuckle. [color=teal]“I guess I’m just that damn good!”[/color] He laughed and Nikki playfully punched him in the shoulder. [color=teal]“Ouch! That hurt, stupid!”[/color]

As Kavi rubbed his shoulder, he was taken by surprise when his little sister suddenly hugged him. Caught off guard for all of three seconds, Kavi embraced her back. She had been so on edge ever since their parents’ problems came to their attention and her acting out had gotten out of hand, but it became apparent to Kavi right now, as soon as she was silent and hugged him that was she really wanted was someone to tell her it was going to be okay and that she wasn’t alone. She needed someone to remind her that it was okay to not be in control of everything.

Simply put: Nikki just needed a hug and Kavi would give her that for as long as she needed. If everyone were to decide he was a scum human being, at least he knew he could do right by his sister. That was more important to him than any shit Chanel or Julie could ever say or do to him.
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[right][b]Date[/b] — February 8th, 2019[/right]
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After having a heart-to-heart with his sister a couple of weeks ago, life for Kavi had been as well as could be expected. People who were in the Trinity’s corner still dogged him any chance they could get, which he fully expected. Maybe it was karma coming back to bite him in the ass for the weeks upon weeks he spent giving people like Elijah Abrams a hard time. Or maybe it was organized by two halves of the trinity. Honestly, at this point, he didn’t really care. Kavi was over it. If they wanted to pick fights with him, they could. He wasn’t going to hit back or anything. He’d defend himself but if they felt the need to punch or insult him, he’d just let them so he could go about his day.

Keeping that mentality throughout the day, right before lunch but specifically, at around third period, which Kavi had Trig, he, along with the others in his class, was hauled out of their classrooms in what felt like familiar situations. Even before he knew exactly what was going on, he began to suspect the faculty was up to something. With a big date-centric day not far away, they were bound to be up to [i]something[/i]. What that was, however, Kavi couldn’t say with any certainty. The only thing he knew was when he and some others were escorted into a classroom -- a crowded one at that -- he took an empty seat and saw a somewhat nervous Mrs. Sanders waiting for everyone to settle in.

[color=FFDEAD]“Hello guys! How’s it going?”[/color]

Kavi cringed as she tried her best to ease the rest of them into some false sense of ‘nothing suspicious going on here’. Her approach had as much subtlety as a big red button flashing and a sign above it reading ‘danger! Don’t press the red button!” Kavi wasn’t gullible like some people he knew, so he was already onto her but he wouldn’t distract himself too much from thinking about what they were planning. Instead, Kavi settled into his seat and let her finish.

As if reading his mind, along with others’, she jumped straight into the deep end as she brought up the valentine’s day event next week, Kavi felt an uneasy feeling start to boil in his gut. It was a similar feeling he had last year for Homecoming and they had forced pairings on them. Despite how grateful he was for his friendship he had with April, a lot of unforeseen consequences came from that one dance. So, he was lowkey praying they weren’t gonna go down that route again.

[color=FFDEAD]“But Mrs. Chamberlain and the faculty have decided to try a little bit of a different approach this time around.”[/color]

[color=teal]“Son of a fucking bitch!”[/color] Kavi mouthed under his breath, earning a glare from Mrs. Sanders, to which he laughed, allowing her to continue.

Her explanation, while intriguing, didn’t sit well with him. He appreciated they were allowing the students to choose this time around. Given how chaotic things were at Homecoming, Kavi knew now more than ever, especially with how recent events unfolded, a forced pairing would bring a Russian Roulette effect to some people. God forbid if he had gotten paired up with either Chanel or Julie. He knew that would’ve been catastrophic.

When it was all said and done and Kavi left, he hoisted his bag over his shoulder and made a casual beeline for the door and went off to lunch, thinking occasionally about the new rules for the dance. He couldn’t help but think about Ariel and how they weren’t technically dating. He couldn’t stop thinking about Chanel and how he deeply regretted what he said to her. He could apologize but that would imply she would allow him enough time. Lord knows a few weeks wasn’t enough time to let the wound heal. So he had resigned to avoid her and even April at all costs. The less time the three had to deal with him the better.

Kavi parked himself in the quad and sat at an unoccupied table. He wasn’t even hungry, to be honest. He was mostly fixated on who he was going to ask. [color=teal]“There’s always Stella but I don’t know,”[/color] he murmured to himself, going through his list of contacts. [color=teal]“One of these people had to like me at least a little bit.”[/color][/indent][/indent][/color]