October 24, 2061

Monday, October 24, 2061

Her day at school started like any other regular day at school. She finished whatever homework she needed to do since she got to school an hour early, knocked out all of her classes till lunch and sat with her only two friends, T.D. and Amir. They were talking about Halloween and using archaic words like "spoopy"- words that only old people would use. Getting a bit bored of their conversation, she got up and left the table. Halloween wasn't really her thing.

Walking around the hallway, she went to her usual spot of being by herself- her locker. Sitting down near it, she took her gaming laptop out of her computer and unlocked her locker. Her locker had an outlet in it as well as a personal hotspot for her to play all the new trendy games, so she plugged it in. Her computer instantly connected to her hotspot. She then got her gaming headphones out and hooked them up to her computer.

While she was in the process of doing so, a random guy in her grade approached her. She glanced up at him- he was 5'11, a light skin black person, had a loose pompadour, sideburns and mustache and chin hairs. His style of dress was a bit exotic as well- not something you would see in Houston, Texas every day. He was wearing a casual suit and had a scarf with African patterns as well as a long wooden African amulet around his neck. That sorta surprised Renee.

He squatted down and waved at her. "Hey. My name is Kaelum ver Kreuzer and I'm from Saiwabet, Africa. I think we have some of the same classes. I'm a sophomore- is that what you Americans call it?" He had a slight African accent, though if you never heard an African before, you'd think he's American.

That explained his attire. Renee glanced up at him saying, "Renee Sandoval Cabal. If you're trying to be friends with me, I don't want to be your friend."

That surprised Kaelum a bit. "You know, I thought Americans would be a bit more social-"

"I'm not that person. If you're going to keep talking to me, I'm leaving." Renee was shutting him down.

Kaelum thought about what to say. He did that thing most Americans did- sucked his teeth. He then tried to put on his best American impression to be funny. "Come on, man! That's totally not tubular, dude! Or is it dudette-"

Renee started unplugging her stuff and putting it in her backpack, locking her locker and heading away to another of her spots where she'd like to be alone. Kaelum started following her. "Wait up! It's just a joke! I just wanna know a bit more about you, Re!"

Renee pinched the bridge of her nose. "Don't call me Re..." It was obvious she wasn't having any of Kaelum's shenanigans.

Renee was trying to get him away from her, and she did succeed. However, he said that line. "I wish you could realize how adorable you are." At that moment, Renee didn't really think much of it. However, when she got home, it really hit her pubescent mind- she was, like, 16 when he said that. Did she really come off as adorable when she really wasn't trying to be? How could someone think SHE of all people was adorable? Renee was well aware that people really wanted to be her friend, and she scared them most of the time, which was good for her. And she did have T.D., but how that came to be was much more dramatic. But calling her adorable...

The next day, Renee actually went up to this guy, which was unusual for her to even do. It was lunchtime, and she sat across him at his table. He was a new kid, so he didn't really have any friends at his table. Renee's friends were sitting at their usual table, watching her. Even they were surprised because they knew how much of a hermit Renee was. Kaelum said, "Hey, Re." Renee didn't exactly like being called just Re, so she gave him her signature cold look and said, "Don't blow it." Kaelum put his hands up, nodding.

There was silence at the table with Kaelum eating his food and wondering what Renee was doing at his table, and Renee wondering what she was doing at his table in the first place. She wanted to speak, but she knew how antisocial she was. She was fiddling a bit with her hands. Renee was too scared to speak. She doesn't ever use that word "scared" for anything, but there weren't any other words to describe how she was feeling at that moment. Her heart was beating more than a drummer banging and playing his drums. She was honestly blushing to, a bit embarrassed.

Kaelum looked at her with his burger to his mouth, a bit confused. "You okay?"

Renee sucked her teeth and looked to him. "Yes, I'm okay." Perhaps this was her chance to speak. Sighing a bit and looking at the table, she finally spoke. "I'll cut to the chase. You said 'I wish you could realize how adorable you are,' to me yesterday. What did you mean?"

Kaelum was pretty blunt about the whole situation. "Renee, I think you're cute. In Saiwabet, us Saiwabetnese (the plural demonym and adjective for Saiwabetno) believe that you should just tell people what you think of them instead of saving it for later. I think you're cute, but I also think you're mean."

Renee gave him another cold look. "Gee, thanks. I didn't know that. That's beside the point. So, you think I'm cute-"

Kaelum just told Renee the truth. "Renee, I want to go out with you. You're pretty beautiful and I think you might be a..." Kaelum was muttering in his native language. "A cold person? I think that's the word."

Renee was honestly a bit taken back by his honesty. It reminded her of her own honesty. Even if he got the wrong word- he wasn't lying, but still... "You want to go out with me because you think I'm attractive and I might be a cool- that's the word, by the way- person? You don't even know anything about me. You're not lying about me being a cold person either, regardless if that's what you meant or not."

"I don't got to know everything about you. Isn't there like an English phrase that's like 'Don't judge a book by it is cover?"

"'It's' and 'its' are two different things. Trust me, this confused me when I started learning English too."

"You speak another language too?"

"El español es mi lengua materna."

Kaelum looked confused, but that didn't sound English. "I'm taking that as a yes! See, we already have something in common!" He was really joyed about this.

"Calm down. It's not that big of a deal. Most people in Texas speak a different language."

"But still, Renee, there might be something else we got in common! I speak Saiwabetnese, and you speak... is that French?"

Renee gave him once another cold look, gritting her teeth. "It's Spanish-"

"That's beside the point, Re! Listen." He calmed down again, holding her hands. Even with her gloves on, they were cold. Renee didn't really want him to hold her hands, but she just let it happened. "I think we would be a really cool couple, Renee! I just don't think you want to be my friend because you're a bit too scared..."

He sort of got in Renee feelings, and it was obvious. She was trying to pull her hands back. "Listen, I've had enough-"

"No, I don't mean it in a bad way, Renee. I just think you're too scared of someone... Give me a few seconds." He took his hands back and took out his phone, seemingly translating something while muttering his mother tongue. Once he translated what he needed, he put his phone on the table and grabbed her hands again.

Renee spoke. "Extra, really."

Kaelum finished. "I just think you're scared of someone..." He looked at his phone while saying what was on it. "...taking... advantage...? Uh, taking advantage of you. Renee, I will never take your advantage from you. You can tee-roost me. Really."

Renee tried to say something snarky in return to show that she really didn't care about his feelings, but really, she couldn't. She was deep in thought, thinking of something to actually say before saying, "Follow me." She took her hands back and got up, heading somewhere. Kaelum looked confused but followed her.

He followed her to her locker where she leaned on it and pointed to where she wanted him to stand. Putting on foot on her locker and crossing her arms, she thought of what to say. She looked to him. "If I do... go out with you, you're not going to try to take advantage of me. Can you promise me that?" She put her pinky out.

Kaelum looked confused.

Renee explained what she wanted him to do. "It's a pinky promise. You say "I promise 'blah blah blah' and you lock your pinky with mine."

Kaelum nodded, understanding what she wanted him to do. He locked his pinky with her before saying, "I promise I won't take advantage of you."

They locked pinkies for a bit before her came back and touched his neck. He felt something shock him, stepping back. "What was that?!"

Renee materialized a mirror before showing him it. Kaelum was pretty confused now- where did she get a mirror from? There was a black origami swan mark on both of their necks- she pointed to the one on hers as well.

Renee explained it. "It's magic. Let this be a manifestation..." She thought about that word before switching it. "A symbol. A symbol of our promise. If you break it, it glows white. And when you break it, I'm whupping your ass. I don't know if you know any English swear words- you probably do, but just remember that's a bad thing."

Kaelum nodded, listening to her. "Is that it?"

"That's it, besides the symbols will only be visible to us." She nodded a bit before thinking of what this actually meant. "I guess I'm... really going out with you, huh?"

"Yea."

She nodded. The bell rang for the next class and Renee started heading to her class. "So, what class do you have next? If it's the same thing as mine, I can show you."

"Geome-tee-ry? I think that is what it is called."

"Okay, so the 'Tr' sound is probably different in English than from your language..." It was a bit awkward at first, but Renee supposed she had to grow on having a boyfriend.