Chapter 9

"New year, new me." Kayla thought to herself as she entered her highschool as a second year student. When she entered the school she directly went to one of her classes and sat down. She had let go off her hood and instead she wore tight blue jeans with a green off shoulder top. She didn't forget to keep her head high and make eye contact with everyone. Whenever someone would look at her direction she would put on a big smile and they would smile back at her too. During recess when Kayla spotted Parker and Cosmos she waved at them with a big smile. "Hey K! Long time no see." Parker said while giving her a high five which she returned back. "I know right. How you been?" "Good." "Well we would've seen each other if you had responded to my many texts and knocking." Cosmos remarked sarcastically. "Yeah but I was really busy." "Doing what?" "Something called none of your business." "Hey that's new." "What? Clapping back at you?" "Yeah but I'm not sure if I really like this new side of you." Kayla just smiled at his response.

Kayla was chatting with the two guys when Tina approached her and whispered in her ears. "Hey Kayla. Do you have an extra pad?" "Yeah but I don't usually give this to stuck up bitches who degrade sick people and call them an attention seeker." "You don't have to give it if you don't want to" Tina said loudly. " I don't want to but I am really kind unlike some certain people. Now, you should get going before that red juice starts spilling even more or you could stay here and embarrass yourself even more and here take this." Kayla said the last part in Tina's ear while she put the pad in her hands. Tina ran away from the class while turning red. "Hey what was that about?" Parker asked in a surprised tone. "Oh nothing. We had some stuffs to sort out." Kayla replied with a smile.

At the end of the day, the three of them were walking home together when she let the two guys go first. "Where are you going?" Cosmos asked her. "To smoke. Wanna join." The two of them were shocked to hear that but they just kept calm and followed her. "What if someone sees you?" Parker worriedly asked. "Nobody comes here and there are no CCTVs either." "How can you be so sure about that?" "Hmmm.....maybe cause I've done it a million times before." "So when you said you were busy. You were up to doing this?" "Why bother to give an answer when you already know it." Parker shut his mouth after that and the two guys patiently waited for Kayla to finish smoking which seemed like it would never end. "Hey K! Do you have any plans to stop?" Cosmos asked her while giving her a half hearted smile. "Yeah I'm done." Kayla replied after finishing her eleventh piece.

After Kayla was done, all of them left for their respective home after the two of them hugged Kayla and as always Kayla didn't hug them back. "Where were you?" Kayla's uncle questioned her when she entered the house. "School." "Does your school keep you that late?" Kayla ignored him and walked towards her room. She changed into some comfortable clothes and started doing her workout. After a hour she was done and had took a shower and then she went to bed. Kayla was about to fall asleep when she heard soft knocking on her window and she already knew that it was Parker and Cosmos. "Don't you guys ever sleep?" Kayla was annoyed at them for disturbing her sleep. "Well for your information it's just 7:50 so you're the one who is going to bed at an unusual time." Parker replied with a cute smile. "Well according to psychology sleep is just as important as diet and exercise." "Well according to psychology people who regularly sleep for longer than 10 hours have greater risk of heart disease, stroke , type 2 diabetes and depression." "Hey! Do you also like psychology?" "Nah. I just saw it online." "And here I thought you were involved in something productive." "At least I don't smoke like it's the end of the world tomorrow." "Shut up." "I'll consider it if you come outside for a while." "Roger that." "Is your family asleep?" "No." "Then how will you come outside?" "I hope you are a better catcher than thinker." Kayla said while she made him climb down and then jumping from the window herself. Kayla had expected that she would be kissing the ground but when she opened her eyes she found herself laying on top of Parker while he groaned in pain underneath her. "I'm guessing you're a better thinker than a catcher. But hey! Who doesn't have flaws?" Kayla stood up and extended her hands towards him. He took it and then stood up on his two feet while he brushed off the dirt from his clothes. "Now let's go." Kayla said while giving him a bright smile. "Where?" "You lost your memory or something? Didn't you come here to pick me up so you could take me to Cosmos's house?" "Yeah." "Thought so. Now, less talkie and more walkie."

The two of them crossed the road to Cosmos's house and entered inside. "Hey K!" "Hey Mos!" Kayla occupied one of the couches and looked at them. "I don't know about you Parks but I like this new Kayla." "Everyone does honey." Kayla replied smugly. "And who is this everyone?" "Me, myself and I." "Your perspective of 'everyone' is very narrow." Cosmos said while putting more emphasis on the everyone part. "Actually I have a very vast concept for my definition of 'everyone'." "And how's that?" "I'm glad you asked. In order for the world to love you back what is the first most important step that you should take? The obvious answer is loving yourself. If you love yourself, you find a new sort of confidence in yourself that becomes unbreakable. The answer is simple, you want to make peace with this world then you've got to make peace with yourself first. But unfortunately, I still lack some of that aspect in my life so I still need to work on myself." "What the hell? I was so moved by that emotional speech of yours so I thought that you were already successful in achieving that." "I still have some work left to do on myself." "You're not a project, you know?" Parker suddenly began. "You keep on referring to yourself like a business project. You're perfect just the way you are so I don't see any works to be done." "Yeah but you got to look pretty to be accepted and once you accept that fact then your life seems easier." "If that's your definition of finding happiness then I'm sorry to say that you're going in the wrong direction. Finding happiness means you learn to accept yourself and live with it. It doesn't matter how many flaws you have, you still accept yourself and you learn to love yourself for just the way you are. Not for the way you aspire to be." "Guys take a chill. We're here just to hangout not to write a sentimental book about self acceptance." Cosmos jokingly said.