What We Learned at Rokudai (Chapter 1 Draft)

-Sunday, August 24th-

But she was never sure about that.

Having read the final sentence of printed text in the novel she'd been re-reading that weekend, Katrina lingered at the end. She re-read that last paragraph again, soaking it in, letting it settle, filling the cracks and wrinkles of her cortex. So bittersweet, so...real to her understanding. Inbetween her recent coffee date and before her roommate arrive on campus, Katrina had taken some time in her mostly set-up half of a dorm room to drink in the ending of the beloved novel. She flipped the last page pf narration and stared absent-mindedly at the flyleaf. The final page of the book, just like the first page: utterly blank.

A blank page – one at the beginning, and one at the end. Blank pages had so much potential. A scribble, a sketch, a note, a letter, or a story. Any manner of things could find its way onto a blank page.

Katrina took in a deep breath as the fictional faces she'd just revisited – for a third trip – flashed through her memories. She'd really marathoned through the book this time. Something about it...she hadn't been able to put it down. Despite being a book intended for children, Katrina felt she understood and appreciated it so much more now than she had back then.

Flipping the pages backward against her thumb, Katrina wandered back to the dedication page. It contained a solitary clump of words, two thirds of the way up.

To all children
who have ever felt different

Katrina let the theoretical empathy wash over her, grateful for the work of one Eloise McGraw – the author of The Moorchild, the book in her hands. With a sigh, Katrina did what she knew she shouldn't do: she glanced at the first flyleaf. The one at the beginning of the book. The one that was not, in fact, blank.

Never forget where you came from,
Never forget where you're going.
~ Atiqtalik
Kesuk

That half-faded marker scribble had been left by Katrina's late mother. A birthday present in her youth, Katrina had loved The Moorchild right at the start, if only because her mother had read it aloud to her. She had fond memories of listening to that foreign accent come from her mother's lips. Mom had always loved the accents. She had really nailed the Harry Potter books. The thing Mom had taught Kat with all those stories about folks from other countries, other worlds, other accents, and other walks of life was how there was always something anyone could find to take away from their stories.

And now – especially now – her mother's written advice felt so appropriate. The Moorchild was a story about a halfling of sorts, someone who was a hybrid of species trying to figure out her place in the world. Katrina herself wasn't technically one to share in this struggle – she was a full on Inuk, from a pretty decidedly Inuk heritage. But Mom's words and the fictional child's story were still applicable.

After having stared at the handwritten note on the book's flyleaf for a few moments of contemplation, Katrina tucked her Hermione Granger bookmark between it and the hardcover.

The impending Junior year of university studies in America was just another flyleaf awaiting its hand-scribbled notation.

Aaron glared at the sketch book with thoughtful wonder for a moment, chewing the eraser end of his pencil. Inspiration was not coming, but Aaron Leekpai was determined to defeat his lifelong adversary: the blank page. The gentle bustle of his peers whirled around him as he sat alone on the sofa against the wall. His lanky shins and purple paisley socks were exposed in his cross-legged stance, his tight patchworked jeans taut against his knobbly knees. With the sigh of one whose mind was scattered, he removed his white newsie hat, scratching at his dried scalp. It was warm that day – he probably should've worn shorts and a t-shirt. Aaron readjusted his position to more of a slouch, his socked feet encompassing his sandals on the hideously vomit-colored carpet of the campus center.

His friends had to show up pretty soon, or else they'd miss their first dinner of the schoolyear. Aaron's right leg jiggled up and down as his left hand tapped his pencil's eraser against the empty page. He was getting pretty antsy. It had been a couple of months since he had seen anyone in the group face to face, and the summer had been a rather drawn out rinse-repeat process of working at a grocery store in the small town he had been moved to that summer. Inspiration. Hm. He needed something to spur his soul to draw.

Rrrrmmm.

The sound had come from the arm of the couch - his cell phone. He immediately set down his notebook and grabbed the device, flipping it open to read the message he'd received.

[From: Zeke]
[The girls are ready. I'm gonna go pick 'em up and meet you at the CC in a few.]
[Sent: 6:34pm]

Finally. The wait was almost over. Aaron was already crafting plans for their first weekend of the school year: a trip in the nearby woods, with a campfire, s'mores, swimming in a pond, petting salamanders and newts and frogs and-...
Newt! Newt, newt, newt...chicken? No. Monkey? No, no. Dog?
Dog. Newt-Dog. Bingo.

His pencil savagely attacked the blank space of his sketch book in a flurry of curved lines and shade scratching, whittling out the basic structure of a mutated combination between a German Shepherd and an amphibian lizard. He'd work out a finalized design later using photo references but the idea was set - another creature added to his ever growing zoo of mix-and-match animals. His task complete, he inhaled a deep breath of satisfaction, closed his notebook, and leaned back, soaking in the much-needed atmosphere around him after a long and lonely summer.

Stray tables and couches were sparsely populated, but within the next day or two they'd fill up quite nicely around this time of the day. A small shop carrying school supplies, souvenirs, and textbooks resided ahead, past the open stairwell that led upstairs to the cafeteria. A lounge area was to his left, and the security office was off in a corner beyond. An elevator and an information desk were to the right. The basement contained a recreation room for billiards, ping-pong, and Foosball, along with the college post office, some student resource and study rooms, and the social hotspot that was the burger and fast food joint, B&S. This place was like his home away from home - away from his dorm room, anyway.

This was the Campus Center, located smack in the middle of Rokudai College. This was where college memories were made: two-in-the-morning heart-to-hearts, pizza parties, passing time away while you waited for your friends to show up so you could finally go eat dinner...Some people practically lived there. Aaron anticipated that this year would be no different. It'd be better, even, because the hard part was already over: he'd found his group, his niche, his clam-shell in the ocean of college.

Rrrrmmm.

Ripped from his nostalgia and startled back to his senses, Aaron's attention focused back on his phone, which was vibrating in his pants pocket.

[From: Zeke]
[We're in the parking lot.]
[Sent: August 22nd, 7:03pm]

The time had passed swiftly while Aaron had been sketching.

A quick survey of the building yielded no sarcastic grin or wave from his partner in crime, so Aaron whipped his body up off the couch, jammed his paisley-clad feet into his sandals, stuffed his notebook into his shoulder bag, and burst through the entrance double doors beyond the Information Desk, shoving his phone into his unnecessarily tight pocket as he pushed his way out with his shoulder. His well-worn sandals merrily bounced along the sidewalk in brisk steps - they had been tired out from their first year of use but Aaron had faith that they would carry him through the months to come, and they seemed determined enough to oblige.

Aaron reached The Circle - a large, round path of sidewalk that surrounded the CC. Different branches of campus trickled off from this Mayan path, and all roads on campus led to The Circle. Straight ahead was the particular road that Aaron was looking for: the entrance gates and parking lot. Not wanting to get too lost, he stayed put at the point where The Circle and the entrance path joined, and within moments the figures of his three favorite people in the world came into view, including that anticipated sarcastic grin of the brown-skinned Siku Kesuk – aka 'Zeke' – the closest thing Aaron had to a brother.

Without a doubt, it was Siku: blue button-down shirt, not tucked in, black slacks, and those ever-present brown loafers of his, accented by loose hair over the sides of his face that evoked the image of a 'surfer-dude' archetype. Aaron wasn't so sure how he felt about the new hair, but that wily smile had been unmistakably missed. Aaron thrust his arms up and waved like a crazed bullfighter, bellowing out a war cry to his roommate that was reciprocated.

"Aer-ooooohhh!"
"-rooooohhhhh!"

"Oh, my God," snickered Siku's younger sister, coming from behind, her arm latched to her own roommate's. "The boys are back in town," she muttered with an eyeroll above a smirk. "Jun, are you sure we can handle it?"

"Pff, I have no idea," sighed the girl at her side, fidgeting with the sunglasses over her eyes. "I immediately regret this decision."

"Don't act so surprised, Kat," Siku scolded his younger sister. "Men of the House of Aero have a certain obligation to uphold tradition," Siku clarified with pride, puffing out his chest as Aaron drew near. Upon the word 'tradition' being thrown into the air, Aaron pumped his fist into the air and repeated the word 'tradition' in the thundering melody from the opening moments of Fiddler on the Roof. Upon concluding the word, both boys cried out, "Tradition!" before joining tunes and continuing the song of their own accord.

"OK, there, Tevye," Siku's sister cut them off right after the second pair of 'tradition's.'

"Yea, thanks for that," Juniper joked, rubbing her pinky finger against her inner ear. "Two flat notes are not better than one."

But the boys were too enraptured in a manly hug full of superfluous back pounding to pay the girls any heed. It would normally be uncharacteristic of them, but when it came to expressing pride in their dormitory, nothing quite seemed out of place for Aaron and Siku, no matter how extravagant or loud.

"You guys live in a dorm," Katrina pointed out. "Not a frat."

"Ignorance is bliss," Siku countered, glaring at Kat with a manic grin as he practically punched Aaron's back with the side of his fist. Aaron choked a bit.

"Don't hurt him," Kat sighed. Not even two minutes and she was already needing to play the part of Big Sister, despite being the younger one.

"He's fine," Siku scoffed.

"I'm fine," Aaron not-as-confidently agreed before choking a bit from the pressure. Katrina just shook her head slightly.

Eventually the boys' hug died down to a more gentle embrace.

"Damn, I missed you, dude," Siku sighed out.

"Missed you, too," Aaron replied.

"Being roommates is going to be epic," Siku affirmed.

"Totally." Aaron nodded, and Kat was reminded of the boy's goofy grin. She'd missed that.

To her side, Juniper was scowling, despite not being able to see what was happening around her. Heck, Kat even missed Jun's scowl.

"They're still hugging, aren't they?" Juniper grumbled, her free hand on her hip.

"Yep," Katrina dully explained, rubbing her fingers across Juniper's wrist before leaving her side and approaching the two interlocked men. "Hey," she grunted, pulling them apart as they laughed at their own behavior. "My turn."

"Katrina!" Siku gasped incredulously. "We were hav-ing a mo-ment!" he whined with exuberance.

Katrina couldn't help but smile. Her brother just never quite seemed like himself these days unless he was with Aaron. Brothers to the end, they were. She appreciated that. Aaron deserved a brother. And a sister, for that matter. Poor guy had been through some rough times. She was pleased that she and her sibling had seemed to make a difference in Aaron's life.

"Come here," Kat said to Aaron warmly, wrapping her arms around her lanky sophomore friend and squeezing him tight.

"What?" Juniper growled, tapping her flip-flop impatiently against the concrete. "How come I go last?"

"I think you know," Siku coyly prodded, jabbing her in the arm with his knuckle. He delighted at how her cheeks went pink instantaneously. It was just too easy.

"Boy, did I miss you, Buddy," Katrina expressed with a delighted hum.

"Me, too, Katrina," came Aaron's equally affectionate reply.

"You missed yourself?" she teased.

"You know what I meant!" he chuckled back.

If Siku was like his brother, it came as no surprise that Katrina Kesuk had rapidly become like Aaron's sister. In truth, it had really been the other way around. Katrina had been his anchor during the beginning of college the year prior. She had been the first real friend he had made on campus, and it was through her that he had become such good friends with Siku, resulting in their decision to room together this year. Without Katrina, Aaron didn't know where he would've been cast in the wide sea of college life, but he sure was glad she had caught him in her net and hauled him ashore.

"OK, all right, girlfriend coming through," Juniper jokingly dismissed, wandering over to them slowly with arms spread open wide.

"Don't trip!" Siku teased.

"Shut-yer-face," Jun quipped in a growl, holding her arms out before her as she made cautious but confident steps.

"Should I get your cane from the car?" Kat offered Jun, a bit wary at watching her roommate fumble along on her own.

"Nah," Jun dismissed. "Mr. Twinkles here is about to swap places as my Seeing-Eye-Servant."

"Am I, now?" Aaron coyly rebuffed.

Jun replied, "That's the toll you pay if you want kissin'."

Katrina grinned at Aaron's flushed face and she gave him a pat on the shoulder before watching him catch Juniper in his arms. Her grip around him was tight and intense, her hands feeling their way around his back, his shoulders, his neck. 'Seeing' him again now that summer was over. Aaron's hands had found their way down to her hips, grasping them with tender relief in that they were together again after months of agonizing separation. At their age, even a week apart could feel agonizing.

Her head tilted forward, and Aaron caught it with his own. With foreheads pressed together, they both relished the sudden proximity - this was a moment they had each been yearning for since the early days of summer. Aaron nudged Jun's sunglasses up over her forehead with his nose, and stared carefully at her milky white eyes that focused on nothing, yet focused on him somehow through their glint. Her expression reciprocated his attraction.

A thick girl with a curvy build born into a wealthy family, Juniper Fong had been completely blind from birth, but she never let this fact tie her down. Whenever someone approached Juniper's blindness with an "I'm sorry," she would respond without skipping a beat with, "Don't be. I'm not."

Aaron admired her fiery determination, the way she picked on him relentlessly, the way she was able to poke fun at herself, as well, and the fact that beneath her rough attitude was a steadfast soul with a caring heart despite all she had to deal with - her blindness, her over-controlling parents, the pity that people tried to enforce upon her. Her independence always shone through, though that certainly had its drawbacks.

Juniper tended to dress very casual - a t-shirt and shorts pretty much did the trick, hair in a bun or tied into a convenient and bushy ponytail. On this day she had a green theme going on - green was her favorite color, which at first didn't make sense to most people, given that she had no concept of what colors were like. The way she explained it was that green was the color of grass, and the feeling of grass beneath her toes was one of her favorite things in the world. Given her penchant for walking barefoot as often as possible (which was not near as often a she'd like, unfortunately), she was quite familiar with grass.

Beneath the floppy lock of black bangs that hung between white eyes, her pale face taunted Aaron with a mischievous smile enveloped in reddened cheeks. He poked at her left earring, a fluffy ball of white fur. Those were new, and they were cute. Juniper reached her chunky arms up over Aaron's shoulders and draped her hands over his back, her fingertips tickling an excited chill up his spine. Their foreheads remained pressed together, neither going all in to lock lips.

Siku spewed forth an exaggerated groan.

"Gawd, kiss each other already, I'm hungry!"

Aaron and Juniper's already colored faces flashed red like stop lights.

Katrina cast her brother a sly smirk, citing flatly, "You're always hungry, let them have their cuddles."

"We are hav-ing a mo-ment!" Juniper mimicked Siku's earlier complaint, feeling her nose forward and nuzzling it against Aaron's. Her position confirmed, she leaned in and gave him a gentle peck on the lips. He returned the gesture, which she responded back to with more ferocity, and back and forth they went for a few moments until palms were planted on skulls and mouths were opening over top one another.

"Aw, ech, ewwww," Siku growled. "Come aahhn."

Katrina found it adorable. Aaron and Juniper had both struggled in their freshman year trying to find a place where they belonged, and she was more than happy to accommodate this need, delighted with their company and companionship. She had seen their budding little romance coming from a mile away the prior spring, and she had a bit of a pride in playing matchmaker. Her brother's lack of maturity was ruining the ambiance, though, so she slapped him on the chest and nodded her head to the CC, motioning him to follow.

"OK, so, yea! You guys have fun with that," Siku called out to their still interlocked bodies, his back turned. "We're gonna go and get some food now." He received no reply - as expected - and shook his head as they entered a side entrance that directly led downstairs.

"They're so cute," Katrina mused, hands clasped behind her back and a beaming little smile about her.

"Yea," Siku admitted, his sarcasm melting away. "Sure. They seem happy. As long as they don't get 'cute' all over our dorm room, I'm all good. What about you? Where's your little...hunk-o'-burning-street-thug?"

"Hey," Katrina snapped defensively, her cheerful demeanor swiftly receding. "He is not a street thug."

"Isn't he the leader of a gang?" Siku blurted out with spread arms, aghast at her nitpick.

"They're an organization," Katrina tartly clarified, index finger waving at him as their descent concluded and the CC basement welcomed them with wafting scents of burgers and fries. "They manage community events. Just because they're a little less formal doesn't make them a gang."

"Yea, yea," Siku dismissed with a flick of his wrist, crossing his arms. "Peter Pan and the Lost Boys weren't technically a 'gang' either, but...Anyway. The guy just rubs me the wrong way, Katrina."

"That's just because you don't understand him," she insisted, attempting to keep the recurring conversation calm. She had been debating this enough times over the summer and was far from being in the mood to go through the motions again. Siku always would criticize, nitpick, but then never let Katrina explain, never express interest in spending time with the guy...

"Maybe that's because he's made no effort to let me understand him," Siku testily pointed out, the booths of the B&S Grill restaurant mostly empty. "How about a, 'Hey, there, brother of the girl I'm dating, how are you?'" He mocked the gruff voice of the boy in question with jest. "I never see the guy, Kat. I know nothing about him. Maybe if I knew his name, that'd be a good start."

"His name is Jack," came an irritable specification from Kat. How many times had she told him this by now?

"Oh, good," Siku retorted with sarcasm. "Now tell me, is he a pina-coladas-and-walking-in-the-rain type?"

"What has he ever done to you, anyway?" Kat demanded.

"I've read some stuff on his crew," Siku cited. "Just seems suspicious."

"Read some stuff? What, were you, like, snooping around, trying to dig up dirt on them? Maybe you're just being paranoid because I finally have a boyfriend again."

"It's more than that."

"Uh-huh. Just like my last boyfriend."

"And I was right about him, wasn't I?"

"Whatever," Katrina huffed, already exhausted. Why was he ruining this moment of arriving on campus? What did it matter? "Can we just...drop this, Siku?" she pleaded in a whisper, unnerved, arms latched around her stomach. They stood in line behind a gigantic student in a basketball jersey - number 14 - who was placing his order at the counter.

"Fine by me," Siku muttered wth nonchalance, tilting his head to the side. "I'm just sayin'...I don't like the guy."

"Yes," Katrina hissed. "You refuse to support any love life I hope to have. You've made that pretty clear. Thanks."
It's none of your business, Siku. Butt out of it.

"And what I can get you today, guys?" greeted the familiar tone of the fellow student working the counter. His greasy hair was smoothed back into a thick ponytail that trailed out of the back of his white baseball-styled cap - part of the restaurant uniform. His skin looked a bit darker than Kat recollected – a tan?. It looked nice on him. Made a nice accent to his dirty blonde hair.

"Manu," Katrina acknowledged him, eager to use sociability to push her sibling conflict aside. "Hey, how are you doing? How was your summer? Got a tan?"

"Fer sure, fer sure...Aw, man, it was good stuff, yo," He always spoke with a relaxed tone, which made him incredibly easy to approach with even the most mundane of conversation. "Spent a lotta time out on the beach, worked construction for the first time. Hella hard – hella cash, though."

"That's right, you're from...-" Katrina fished through her memories and retrieved the answer. "San Francisco?"

"Honolulu," he corrected with a sly grin. Oops - wrong answer.

"Oh, yea," Katrina sputtered sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Nah, 's all good, Kat. I've got family in the Bay, so sometimes I chill down there." Ah, so maybe Kat's memory was misguided for a reason? "So what can I get you Kesuks, unh?"

"Double-Bacon-Cheeseburgerrrr," Siku mechanically spouted with rapid execution, like a flare firing from a gun held by a twitchy hand.

"I'll...-" Katrina shot an embarrassed glance at her brother, his hands casually tucked in his pockets. He gave her a perplexed look that read, 'What?' She finished by deciding, "-take a BLT wrap please."

"Oh, and a large drink," Siku added.

"Yea, and I'll have one, too." Katrina squeezed in.

"Gotcha." Manu scribbled some code onto his order sheet: 1 DBC, 1 BLTW, 2 CUP. Katrina studied his handwriting. Had she ever taken a good look at his handwriting before? She figured you could tell a lot about a person based on their handwriting. His was mostly print, but some of the letters were cursive. It bothered Kat's inner writer, but it was also kind of adorable. Or maybe that was his tan talking. Either way...

She watched his hands jot down numbers on their slips before tearing it off his pad and hanging it above the grill behind him. He rapidly punched some keys into his electronic register to ring up the price, and requested the amount. Katrina caught his eyes gawking at her brother, who was whistling as he rocked on his heels. The two boys nodded nonchalantly to one another as Katrina slapped a twenty dollar bill on the countertop, shyly gazing behind Manu to his co-workers who were busy with other orders. Manu stuck out his hand for her to take her change, and she accepted it in such a way as to allow unnecessary fingertip-grazing against her palm. Hm, kind of rough, calloused, dry fingertips.

In was this exchange that reminded Katrina that she been missing the physical contact of her boyfriend. If hands could be hungry, hers...certainly were. Being surrounded by cute college boys was probably only worsening the appetite.

Manu slid a couple of tall paper cups across the counter, and the two siblings took them. Siku went to fill his up right away, while Katrina lingered awkwardly, staring down at her cup. They had a new design on them; a sort of wave-like pattern running around the edge, forming a connected chain of brown bears grabbing panda bear feet grabbing brown bear feet. Cute.

Siku eagerly scooped up his drink and was immediately sucking down his carbonated nectar.

"So, uh, Zeke, man," Manu said to Siku. "We gotta get some game-time on ASAP, yea?"

"Mm-hm," Siku passively agreed, guzzling down his drink.

"What rank you at in League, yo?"

"Bleh," Siku shook his head. "Still stuck in Bronze Five Hell."

"Harsh," Manu sympathized with a nod. "Me n' Nestor still gotta shot at gettin' to Gold before Worlds."

"Psh. Good luck," Siku offered with a dubious shake of his head.

Katrina was a little lost in what she at least understood to be some 'gamer talk.' Katrina had a mild curiosity – probably instilled from her brother's hobbies. Aaron was pretty big into them, too. But the culture wasn't terribly welcoming, and Siku no longer seemed to invite her into such activities as he once had when they were younger.

Her lack of inclusion on the discussion didn't prevent her from taking something away from Manu's aid back posture. Manu caught her staring, and she immediately gazed off elsewhere – to her brother, as Siku sucked at his straw loudly. Jeez, the guy had already downed the whole cup? No wonder he was putting on weight...

"Anyway." Manu nodded at the trailed end of their conversation. He informed the siblings, "Be a few minutes."

"Thanks, Manu," Katrina mumbled sheepishly and spun around, forgetting her own drink in her flustered mindset. Siku grabbed it for her and joined her at a nearby booth.

The dim lighting of B&S was comforting and warm, like a crackling campfire at sunset on a windy summer's day. The practically empty restaurant was oddly welcoming, offering a homey feeling of privacy and comfort in a public place. Recognizing this reminded Katrina of why, exactly, this place had become such a hotspot for their social meetings.

"Why don't ya give that Manu guy a shot?" Siku suddenly asked in a subdued tone, seemingly out of nowhere. "I saw you checkin' him out."

"Wow," she murmured with bashful humor. "My brother is pitching men at me. You must really not like my boyfriend."

Siku, slurping down root beer through his straw, shrugged, waggling his eyebrows up and down.

"He's a soccer player," Katrina mumbled with some disdain. Secretly, she felt charmed by this fact, but acknowledged the lack of practicality of the idea in her tone. "Not exactly my type."

"Hey, he's a nerd in his off-time, too," Siku defended. "We were talking about a video game just now."

"Yes, I'm not ignorant, I caught that," Kat sighed. "You know, you could always invite me to play with you sometime..."

Siku seemed taken aback by that remark.

"Uhhh...Yea, didn't...know you were interested."

Katrina shrugged, her eyes darting around a little. Was she interested? She didn't really know.

"W-well, I...won't know if I don't get...like...a chance to try it, right?"

Siku reciprocated his sister's shrug.

"Mm, true story," he conceded. "Maybe I'll get you hooked, you n' Manu will bond, and you can ditch this other tool."

"Hey," Kat snapped in a quiet but severe syllable. "I just told you, he's not my type. And maybe you could invite me to play just to, you know, have you sister around?"

"Yea-yea-yea. All right. But not your type? And guys who carry around switch-blades?" Cynicism dripped from Siku's every word. "Hey, that's just fine."

"He doesn't-" she instinctively began, but gave pause when she seriously considered his remark upon the wide expression on her brother's face. "O-OK, maybe he does," she admitted, recalling him showing it off to her in a fleeting moment at the end of the previous school year. Funny how Siku had clung to that fact while she had put it off. "But he lives in the city - that's for self defense."

"And why would he be that concerned with defending himself?" criticized her concerned sibling. "And from who?"

Schluurrrpp. Sklllllurp. Schlp. Schlp. He'd hit the end of his beverage and was sucking up remnants through the ice, giving her a raised brow.

"I thought we were done talking about this?" Katrina seethed, bottom lip propped out in vexation.

To her rescue, a giggling couple emerged from the stairway they had come in through.

"Can't you come up with something else? Something...not girly?"

"You gettin' sick of it? You don't like Mr. Twinkles? I like Mr. Twinkles."

Aaron made a pouting whimper. "It makes me sound like a ballerina."

Juniper retorted insidiously, "Maybe you are like a ballerina."

Siku cut into their twittering debate with a wave: "Yo! Lovebirds, we're over here!"

Katrina twisted around to see Aaron leading Juniper to the counter, her arm amorously linked around his as the large boy in the jersey from before grabbed his food and headed off upstairs. Aaron emphatically waved to them while Juniper tossed out an aloof, "Hey, guys," before they went to order.

Katrina found herself longing what they had - side by side, hand in hand, accepted by their peers...All of Siku's nagging over the summer hadn't shaken her. Every time she had called him he'd bother her about it afterward. Every time they'd comment on each other's Facebook photos and Siku would catch wind of it, another dismayed comment. All of this hadn't shaken her will at all, yet seeing her two friends together, in that moment, and comprehending how different her relationship was from theirs...it planted a seed a doubt in her mind.

Before she knew it, Juniper was scooting into the booth at her side and Aaron was slapping his arm across Siku's back from across the table.

"So!" Siku began, his eyes suspiciously wandering to Aaron. "You two get all that lovey crap oughtta your system?" he badgered.

"Nope," Juniper matter-of-factly bucked back. "We're gonna pick up where we left off later. Months of catching up to do, ya know?" A gratified smile popped onto her face as she slipped her sandals off, rubbing her bare feet across the tile floor.

Aaron shook his head in amused chagrin, eyes rolled back at her blunt humor as the shape of his mouth gradually matched her own: a smirk of mischief.

"Good to know," Siku hurriedly dismissed with a jovial 'too much information' tone.

"So what do we wanna do tonight?" Aaron wondered.

"The evening is our oyster, ladies and gents," Siku smoothly proclaimed, leaning back and stretching. "Anybody got suggestions?"

"We should take our food outside - it's pretty nice out." Katrina suggested.

"Oh, sweet," Juniper cried, slapping her palm on the table. "Yea-yea. Sounds good to me."

As Siku proceeded to shoot off a quick-fire summary of his summer vacation, Aaron pulled out his notepad flipped to his second page, sketching a rough drawing: two boys and two girls sitting at a table who bore a vague resemblance to their own group. One of the girls had pencil-mark bangs covering where her eyes would go. After a moment of staring at Juniper from across the way, her engaged expression unable to detect his gaze, he bit on his eraser and made an addition. Above this girl's head he drew a heart, taking care to shade it and fill it with a level of detail that exceeded the rest of the picture. He signed it in the corner, 'Aaron,' with the end of the 'g' curving into a spiral, and inscribed '8/24/2014' in tiny writing with the title, 'Inspiration.'