Chapter Text
Shattered Sea High School. Kit stares up at it from her parking spot in the senior lot. It’s far too early in the morning for anyone else who’d drive themselves to school to be here, but Kit has a tradition to uphold, and she refuses to fail at the very first one of her senior year.
She’s leant up against the freshly waxed Range Rover that her mother gifted her with for her sweet 16th. She sips at her coffee, a second one cooling on the hood of the car while she impatiently waits for Bus 64 to pull into the unloading zone.
There were a few early birds fluttering about, some had said good morning to her in a far to chipper voice for the morning hour. Her brother was more than likely still at home drooling into his pillows. So far, the only face she recognizes is Elora’s, whom she only knows because she’s on the debate team with Jade, and even that exchange is brief as Elora heads inside the school leaving Kit with a greeting that’s at least civil. They weren’t exactly each other’s favorite people. Not since Kit had caught her in a compromising position with her twin brother and then got into an argument over it last year. A nasty one, that left the twins not talking for a few weeks till Jade called her out on it and forced Kit to talk to her brother again. So, naturally, she blamed Elora for all the drama and pretended Airk never said what he had.
She’s so caught up in her irritation of having to return Elora’s polite smile and wave that she misses which bus pulls up and starts unloading. It doesn’t stop her eyes from naturally finding the one person she’s been waiting for, the one person she’d always wait for. Jade bounces off the last step and seems to instantly find Kit’s gaze. The smile that is on Jade’s face sends that familiar flutter in Kit’s gut.
She stands up straight from her vehicle, shifts the leather messenger bag on her shoulder and grabs Jade’s coffee. By the time Jade is shifting her backpack properly on her shoulders, Kit is at her side and offering the cooling drink to her best friend.
“Why on Earth are you here this early?” Jade’s morning voice is thicker, but her eyes are bright as she looks Kit over.
The corner of Kit’s lip curls and she tugs at the edge of Jade’s t-shirt. She’s wearing one of their soccer logo practice shirts. Most everyone dresses up for the first day of school but not them. Neither of them would trade the comfort of a soft t-shirt and ripped jeans. Though her mother had insisted on her wearing something a little nicer today because it was her first last day of high school. So, while Jade looked the embodiment of extreme comfort, Kit wished she could lose the nice blue button down she’d been talked into.
Jade seems to be checking over her outfit as well, also tugging at the folded end of her tucked in shirt, though Kit thinks she catches Jade’s eyeline more at the last buttoned slot just above what could get her sent to the office.
“It’s tradition,” Kit just shrugs and then watches the grimace on Jade’s face as she takes a sip of the coffee, “Would have been hot if you’d just let me pick you up.”
Since Kit had gotten her license and car a couple of years ago, she was always there to give Jade a ride, except for the first and last day of school. A tradition that Jade’s long-lost sister had insisted upon once she’d gotten Guardianship during the summer break between their Freshman and Sophomore year.
“Last time we have to do that,” Jade falls into step next to Kit as they make their way inside to go collect their schedules and compare notes. Kit dreads the unknown of which, if any, classes they have or don’t have together. As long as they have at least one it’ll be better than their freshman year where even their lunch periods didn’t overlap. Everyone in their friend group called it the Dark Age. Kit could admit she was a bit unbearable to be around that year. She hated that year.
“On the bright side we can sleep in tomorrow and be fashionably late,” Kit grins, already planning away when Jade slaps at her elbow.
“Absolutely not. If you are planning to kidnap me at any point this year, I will stop riding with you,” Jades voice is stern, and Kit knows a valid threat when she hears one.
She throws up her hands in surrender, putting the plans into the back of her mind to revisit later, “Okay, no stealing you away to ride off on an adventure.”
“This year is too important.”
Kit doesn’t follow up on that statement. Jade has always been the more academic of all of them. Meaning she’s always been more serious than any of them when it came to schoolwork, or extracurriculars. However, when they were on the soccer field, Kit loved the competition. Jade was a goddess on the field, and Kit often thought off the field too.
The line to pick up schedules isn’t that long but it doesn’t stop her from chewing down her thumb nail while they wait. Their lockers aren’t close to one another’s and never have been, but they quickly developed a system of storing whatever books for each other closest to the classrooms they’d need them for. At least that way they’d have some time in the day to cross paths. They’d also have practice throughout the week too, but Kit was anxious that wouldn’t be all they have together this year. While Jade was the academic one, Kit was not.
They stand next to Jade’s locker, the closest to the parking lot door and rip open the envelopes. Kit can’t help the sigh of relief that rips from her chest when she sees that they share two classes together, better than none, although Kit is disappointed to see they won’t be sharing History together this year. It’s her least favorite meaning it’ll be the most torturous to endure at the end of her day without her best friend to focus on.
“Oh wow, there was room,” Jade lights up when she sees the classes they don’t share together and it being some AP class that Kit would never care for, but Jade seems excited, so Kit is too.
“This one of those things that you were worried about over the summer?” Kit remembers how Jade at times was caught just staring off into the distance when they were practicing or spending time together. At one point Kit nearly took Jade’s face off with a too high kick of the soccer ball and finally said something. Jade had promised to try and be in the moment for their summer break, but she was stressing about their senior year. Something about a lot of pressures that Kit wouldn’t understand.
That had bothered Kit a bit, but she’d left it well enough alone. Jade would talk to her when her best friend felt comfortable enough.
“One of them. This is a great start to the year though.”
“I thought seeing me would be a great start?” Kit jokes but folds up her schedule and shoves it into her breast pocket.
“You are always the highlight of my day,” Jade opens her locker after leveling Kit with a smile and shoves her backpack inside after pulling out her notebook for their first class together.
“You’re the highlight of mine too,” Kit leans against the lockers and finishes her coffee, mostly to hide her warm cheeks behind the cup. Her nerves settle, now that she has an idea of what their fall semester is going to look like, and she can’t help all the plans that pop up into her head. It’s their senior year, they’re top dogs, and she’s practically high school royalty. It’s going to be an amazing year and she gets to spend it with the one person in her life she wants to experience everything with.
She just hopes she finally gets the bravery to tell Jade that. She wants this to be their year. But there’s something about this year and things being the last and the biggest fear Kit has is that if she tells Jade, confesses all the mess she holds inside, it’ll be the last thing between her and Jade. And Kit doesn’t think she’d survive if that happened.
Right now, though, Kit just needs to survive the first day of school.