New Friend

"Why are you late? And where's your tie?" The teacher scolded Kaia.

She pulled her away from the stares of her schoolmates to a corner of the school. There she started to interrogate her.

Kaia took out the tie from her bag and showed it to her, smiling sheepishly.

"I don't know how to tie a tie." She signed. "And . . . I got lost."

"You still came here with the possibility that they might punish you for not wearing your full uniform? Not to mention that you're late. Your uniform looks like you ran a marathon in them. And how could you lose your way?" She continued to scold her while doing her tie and helping her fix her uniform. "Who did your hair? It's all sticking out of your ponytail."

She pulled her to the stairwell and made her sit on the bottom stair as she redid her ponytail, still scolding her.

"There. Done. And here's your tie. Next time you get lost, you can use your ID to find your location. See."

She took her ID and double-tapped it. A map of the town projected out with a blinking red dot on the school, another green dot blinked beside it.

"Green is you. Red is the school. Ok?" She glanced at Kaia who was staring at the ID map in awe. "How do you think I knew you were right outside the gate? As your class teacher, I have everyone's ID codes on my phone. So I saw your location and came running."

How did she not know this? This girl is hopeless.

She typed something onto the ID and handed it back to Kaia.

"If you need any help on how to do your ponytail or to do your tie, even for assignments, just tell the ID to call me. I have inputted my code so you can contact me anytime."

Kaia embraced the teacher tightly. She appreciates her so much more now than she did before. She really deserves the world.

She embraced her back, saying, "I don't know what you're going through. I am also not going to ask why you changed your appearance either. Because-" she pulled out of the hug and leaned to her height "- Kaia is still Kaia. No matter how different you look. You're the strongest person I know. And I'm sure you know what you're doing. Just . . . don't lose yourself, ok?"

She patted her head and smiled. This was the first time, besides her childhood friends, that Kaia wasn't repulsed by someone's contact.

She's so warm. Not the burning heat she felt but warm.

"Ok, now off to class. What do you have for the first period?"

Kaia looked at her blankly, making her sigh heavily.

"Your ID, Kaia. See here?" She pointed at the left corner and her class routine displayed itself on the ID. "Oh! You have a guest from a prestigious company. Remember to try and make an impression, they might consider you as interns if you make a good enough impression."

"Thank you and . . . I'll try." Kaia turned to run, she is fortunate that assembly is a thing otherwise she would be very late by now.

"Wait, Kaia! The jacket you're holding, you better keep it inside your bag before the other teachers confiscate it."

She looks at her hand, completely forgetting that she still had the jacket from the boy she was chasing. With a nod, she shoved it into her bag and ran to her classroom.

It seems as though all she's been doing is run for the past two days.

This is getting exhausting.

She made it to the classroom just as the teacher was closing the door. They have a rule in the school; the moment the door to the classroom is closed, no one can enter anymore.

Sometimes Kaia arrived just as they were closing the door, this meant that she would have to wait outside until the next period.

Kaia reached the door with just an inch left to close and made eye contact with the teacher. Instantly, the teacher opened the door again and allowed her to enter.

She just stared at her, they would close the door on her for being earlier than she was now. Why the leniency suddenly?

"Oh my gosh. I just made it." A girl student gasped, she was completely out of breath from the running she also did.

Faith. She was always bullied for her skin tone, it's the same as Shia's though and Shia is as beautiful as the sky for Kaia and her friends.

"You're late. You can't enter. Only she can enter." The teacher told Faith and pointed at Kaia.

Wait, that's not fair. We were only three seconds apart on our arrival.

"Please, ma'am. I was so nervous about the meeting today I couldn't sleep." Faith begged. " And my alarm didn't wake me up, that's why I'm late."

"Kaia? Are you coming inside?"

She completely ignored her.

By this time the students inside have their full attention on the scene in front of them, whispering and murmuring to each other.

"I will come in only if she can too." She wrote on a paper and pointed to Faith, who gave her a confused look.

"I can't do that. We need to follow school rules. If you're late then you're late. No exceptions. Now, come inside. We have to begin."

"But I'm just as late as her."

"You were earlier, why else do you think I'm allowing you to enter? Come."

"You should go inside." Faith said, her voice quivered. "Ma'am is getting mad."

Kaia frowned and walked away, bag in hand.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" She shouted at her. "I'm being so kind to you and you're just walking away? You will be reported for bunking and your parents will be called."

Kaia scribbled on a paper and held it high enough that even the students at the back could read it.

"Your kindness? You can keep it. And if you find my father, tell him I said 'hi'."

She smiled at her as whispers around the classroom became louder. Kaia waved at the teacher and continued to walk away, Faith scurried behind her.

"Well, that wasn't something I expected to see so early in the morning." A man in suit popped his head out from inside the classroom. "Who was that?"

"Kaia Marschall. She changed her appearance and now she thinks she can whatever she wants. I will have to report her to the principal, after this class. Now! Why don't we begin?"

She closed the door a little too hard, the sound echoed throughout the empty hall.

♣

"Why would you do that?!" Faith exclaimed. "Now you're in trouble because of me."

"You didn't force me to do this, you didn't even ask. So why are you taking the blame?" She wrote as they walked down the stairs.

"If only I wasn't late, you wouldn't have to do this. I should have just tried to wake up earlier. I am so sorry. You even lost your opportunity to get an internship in that company. Why do I have such bad luck?"

Faith ran her hair through her dark, tight curls, pulling them down only for them to spring back up again.

Kaia could only stare at her hair bouncing as Faith continued to talk and apologise.

"Hey, you ok? You've been looking at my head for an uncomfortably long time."

"Fluffy?"

"My hair?"

Kaia nodded, her eyes sparkling.

"Do you . . . want to touch it?"

"Can I?" Kaia looked nervously at her. "Don't feel obligated to say yes if it will make you uncomfortable."

"No. Really. It's fine. Mama is the best when it comes to hairstyles but I was in too much of a rush to do any today. Here."

She took Kaia's hand and put it on her hair. Kaia reluctantly patted it, her amazement continued to grow when she felt how soft it is.

"Soft right?"

Kaia vigorously nodded her head, pulling her hand away.

"Mama and I mask our hair once a week. Do you want to know how to make it? I'm sure it'll work on your hair too." She gasped happily. "You could do it with your mama too. Is her hair like yours?"

"I don't know. I have never seen it. She's had no hair ever since I can remember." Kaia said it as a matter of fact.

"Is she sick?" Faith's enthusiasm died down immediately.

"Not anymore. She'll never be able to get sick anymore." Kaia wrote, beaming.

Faith gasped. "I am so sorry, Kaia. I didn't know."

"Why are you sorry? She is happy now. Let's go to the cafeteria. I want juice." Kaia took off in one direction, pulling Faith with her.

Do not pity me. Do anything but pity me, otherwise, I will lose it.

♣

"Is this correct?" Faith asked, doing a flying kiss gesture. "Thank you?"

Kaia nodded her head while repositioning Faith's hand.

They were in the cafeteria, with biscuit wrappers and teacups lying scattered around the table.

Faith asked Kaia to teach her sign language while they waited for the next period.

"What about my name?"

"There aren't individual signs for a person's name so we just spell the alphabet of their name out. But that isn't always easy to associate them with a sign. For example, I have a friend with the most beautiful red hair, like a flower so when I sign her name I use flower sign."

"That's so cool. What about me? What would my sign be?"

Kaia made a signing gesture.

"What's that?"

"Soft." Kaia smiled. "Personality and hair."

Faith became flustered. "I don't want anything about me to be soft except my hair. I want to be hard and strong and beautiful, like those warriors of old. Nobody messes with the strong."

Kaia shook her head and did another gesture.

"What does that mean?"

"You're beautiful." Kaia smiled at seeing her get more flustered."

"Even with my gap teeth? My skin colour? My hair?" She mumbled.

"You're all beautiful."

"You're the first one I've met, outside of my family, that's told me this. Thank you." Faith sniffled.

"It's no problem." She wrote just as the bell rang. "Also, know this, being soft doesn't mean being weak."

"What do you mean? Soft people are kind and keep being taken advantage of, right?"

Kaia shook her head. "You'll understand one day. But right now its time for the next class."

"We have to run to the classroom as fast as we can. Come on."

This time, Faith was the one pulling Kaia to the direction of the classroom.

♣

"Safe!" She shouted as she entered the classroom, just as the teacher and the man in a suit walked out.

"Kaia, we made it-"

She turned around to see the teacher and the man talking to Kaia. She tried to go to her but they made eye contact and Kaia shook her head.

The teacher was shouting at Kaia now, while the man tried to calm her down but she could see how amusing he found this situation to be.

Kaia just stood there with a completely bored expression on her face. She looked like she wanted to say, "Are you finished?"

The student's voices in the classroom got louder as Faith accidentally tuned into the popular kids' conversation.

She felt her heart drop, they were talking about Kaia.