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It took them a year to adjust to the fact that they’d never see their father again and since then, they loved me just as much as I loved them. Even when we returned to Canada four years later, they chose to follow me when I rented my own house.
My mother had been worried about them living with me because of my lifestyle and I was too, but they had refused to stay where I wasn't and I had sworn to protect them with my life.
As I continued to wait for Kendal, two girls passed, signing to each other. There was no need to ask anybody to know that they were seniors, they were charismatic enough to show that. The girl on the left signed fast, literally huffing, shaking and rolling her eyes. Wow she was sassy. The girl beside her laughed and I chuckled too. She had said; ‘he was so annoying, I wanted to kick him in the balls.’
They looked at me and I signed back, also shaking my head to match their energy. ‘Boys. They’re so stupid, right?’ They shared eye contact and laughed, as they covered their mouths and scampered away.
As long as they weren’t talking about my Kendal, I was happy to join in the gossip.
I saw him coming from the other side and I smiled, which he returned as he approached me. He was almost too tall for his age, but he was cute. The cutest boy I’d ever seen in my life.
He had white skin, brown hair, with honey brown eyes. He had thick black eyebrows and his sister did too, but being the Ariana she was, she complained about it every time she looked in the mirror.
They really looked alike, but while he had brown hair, Ariana had blonde hair, and while he had white skin, Ariana’s was more warm. Their father had blonde hair so I guessed Kendal inherited the brown hair from their mother. My karate teacher had said their father was American and their mother was South African.
Like my parents.
Behind him, two girls tapped each other as he passed them and one of them blushed, almost turning pink. Someone was falling for him, I chuckled to myself.
Damn, he just started last week, let him adjust.
“Hey,” I started, suddenly feeling nervous. I didn’t want them to feel bad, but what could I do? They were the easiest to kill around me.
Cedric wouldn’t even need to strain his hands too long to snap their necks and I’d rather gush out my eyeballs than watch that happen.
‘Hi Lexi, did you miss me or something?’ He asked, squinting his eyes playfully. I snorted, trying to lessen the tension building inside me as I titled my head toward the girls who were now focused on the information board, or maybe they saw me turn and pretended.
I watched as he glanced at them and rolled his eyes. He was going to be a heartbreaker. “I think the girl in braids likes you.”
‘Wow what a coincidence, I thought so too.’ I glared at him, but he ignored me.‘She gave me a chocolate yesterday, I didn’t know they do that in real life,’ he muttered, shaking his head. He most definitely rejected that chocolate.
I would have loved to tease him if he liked her too, but that was not why I was here. I was here for something more important.
I sighed and he looked up at me immediately. “Kendal, I came to talk to you.” He snorted at me and I could have sworn I heard ‘obviously’ in the uncomfortable silence.
How was I supposed to start? How was I supposed to ask? How was I supposed to even bring it up? He tapped me and I blurted out, “what do you think about adoption?”
He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and slowly, my inside sweated from the heat of his realization gaze. ‘What are you doing?’ He carefully asked, narrowing his eyes in a warning expression. He wasn’t even trying to hide that he was mad at me.
“I–I found this really nice family, they want to adopt you. They’ll take good care of you and Ariana, and the best part is that… you can call them mother and father.” It was a lie, I hadn’t found any family, but I would eventually.
Kendal stood up and I frowned. ‘Leave.’
“Kendal I… please listen to me.”
‘First of all, I’m even surprised you spoke to me about it. You are Lexi, you could have just given us up without hearing our opinions. But now that you want to hear it, it’s a no.’ He signed and tried to walk off, but I held his hand to stop him.
He was making this hard for me. “Kendal listen to me.” My voice was quiet but stern. “Look I know it’s absurd, but they will really take care of you. They’ll remove you from boarding school and take you to another school, they’ll do so many things for you, many things I can’t do.”
“I’m doing a really big thing right now and I won’t be around for areallylong time. I have to make sure you will be safe when I go to attend to that thing I have.” I clenched my hand together and continued. “And this school, I don’t trust them that much…”
‘You brought us here,’ he sighed, his face void of any emotion.
“I know, which is why I’m doing this.”
‘Ariana will never agree to this.’ He shook his head.
“She’ll never,” I agreed.