Chapters 6 and 7

I'M SORRY! I know I said I would get the chapter a couple days ago but I didn't. I'm so sorry! To make it up to you, here's an extra chapter. They're both pretty long. Voila!

Chapter Six
Bells

Ksenia was the first to know when Flix came back to school. After the accident, Flix had become a temporary celebrity at the high school. It turned out that he had taken a picture of his father before the glass had knocked him unconscious. After it was sold to various magazines, Stud McKean was going through court under child abuse. Everyone was whispering about what Flix was going through, and where he would go after the court locked up his father for good. Ksenia found herself disturbed by this news. Why should Flix have to leave for his father’s mistake? She dismissed this thought almost immediately; she should have no interest in this boy. He was human! Patamon would be furious if he knew that she was worried about a foolish human teenager. And yet…. Stop that! Ksenia thought angrily, mentally kicking herself. He’s not average, and he’s in the spotlight right now. If we were to start dating- No! We will not! And so Ksenia’s thoughts continued to spin, all day.
Then, during seventh period, gym, Ksenia was caught off guard. Though he’d been sitting next to her in three of her other classes, in gym, an unnaturally kind thought startled her. Is Ksenia okay? She’s just been staring at the floor all day. I wonder if I should help her. Is she sick? She just seems so sad. I wish I could do something for her. I will. I’ll talk to her after class. This thought came from Flix. Meanwhile, her so-called “boyfriend” was wondering if Ksenia and his new interest, Ashley, thought he was ugly, and if he should dye his hair.
Infuriated, Ksenia sprung to her feet to yell at Daniel when she remembered that none of this information had been spoken aloud. At the moment, she looked as if she was hallucinating. Ksenia sat down quickly and longed for home.
After an aggravating gym class, Ksenia sprinted from the building, pulling out a dated C.D. player from her bag. She had picked this up at a second hand store over the weekend with Hypate, claiming that there was nothing to do when she was home alone. She had searched hundreds of websites for music she actually liked, and had burned herself a C.D. at the music store while the manager wasn’t looking. She loved music from the sixties and eighties. Modern music disgusted her. All the men crooned of sex and drugs, and the women whined of breakups and money. Ksenia preferred old fashioned love songs by far.
She hit the fast forward button a couple of times, to get a random song and Ray Charles’s “Georgia on my Mind” sounded in her ears. Calmed by the sweet harmonies, Ksenia wondered why she had been so angry in her gym class. That was when she heard Flix’s voice from behind her.
“Ksenia! Are you okay? You looked really angry in gym class.” Ksenia grimaced as her fears that someone had seen her outburst were confirmed. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know, I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.” Ksenia was once again thrown back by his kindness; all in all, he was so much nicer than the other students at this high school. She turned off her C.D. player and stared at him.
“Thank you!” She exclaimed. “That’s so, nice of you! Do you want to keep talking at a café or something? I’m going to miss my subway-”
“Bus.” Flix corrected quietly. “It’s not a subway, it’s a school bus.”
“Oh! I’m sorry, I’m still new at all of this- I mean there weren’t any buses in, um, Russia! Yeah! In Russia. So, do you want to go?”
“Uh, sure! I’ll see you in ten-fifteen minutes, okay? At Starbucks on Thirteenth Street.” Flix laughed then, a joyous sound. The noise echoed like bells around the almost empty parking lot. Ksenia waved and stuffed her headphones into her ears, rapidly hitting fast forward. She ended on a desolate song, “Cry,” also by Ray Charles. How wonderful. Ksenia thought sarcastically. I have a nice plan worked out and I completely ignore it. I’m an idiot. Patamon will be furious. Well, I might as well try and enjoy it. No! I, I wonder if I should get a drink while we’re there…. Is that average? And with that state of mind, Ksenia hopped off her school bus and rushed to the public bus headed to Thirteenth Street.

Chapter Seven
Café

Flix’s mind was spinning as he called over a taxi cab. When had Ksenia taken such sudden interest in him? Why had she been so angry in gym? What was he supposed to do for twenty minutes, or more, alone with Ksenia? Surely Daniel was going to mind this “date.” Was it even a date? Flix’s head began to throb as the cab pulled up to the Thirteenth Street Starbucks. He paid the driver and walked into the café. Well this is just great. Flix thought. I’m ten minutes early. He walked over to the C.D. display and began flipping through the titles. There was nothing too fantastic in his opinion. Mostly there was a lot of folk music, and one weird mix of Bob Dylan’s favorite songs. Next to him, an extremely pale girl with a familiar shock of ultra white-blonde hair was picking up a C.D. titled “John Lennon’s Jukebox.” No way. Flix thought in disbelief. But there was Ksenia, picking up her ancient Walkman and pulling out a C.D. covered with song names and bands. All of these names were written in a tiny and neat script. There were dozens of names written down. These were just some of them:
Across the Universe- The Beatles
2,000 Light Years from Home- The Rolling Stones
Moonlight- Bob Dylan
Third Stone from the Sun- Jimi Hendrix
Andromeda Domine- Pink Floyd
Standing on the Moon- The Grateful Dead
She must be big on oldies. Flix thought. Then he noticed an eerie connection between all of the songs on her mix. “Narooma,” it was titled. Flix felt chills surge down his spine, and cold rippled through his blood. He had the strangest feeling that he had just uncovered another secret, just like the eye that was repeatedly drawn on Ksenia’s papers. Flix knew this all connected somehow. Then Ksenia turned around, humming, to stare at Flix.
“Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t see you there. Did you just get here?” She asked, startled.
“Yeah, just a couple minutes ago. You?” Flix mumbled, still thinking about her space C.D.
“Yeah, I was just looking at the music. I just love John Lennon, and The Beatles for that matter, but his taste in music is awful! I can’t stand music from the forties or fifties. Chuck Berry? Come on!” This was the most Flix had ever heard Ksenia speak. He was thrown back a minute until something dawned upon him. A familiar ballad weaved its way through his train of thought and he decided it couldn’t hurt to ask Ksenia of one song. It was not like she would know he had seen her play list.
“Have you ever heard ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong? I would have thought you’d like that one.” Ksenia’s eyes went blank for a moment and a look of pure horror flashed on and off her face. She then suggested in a quiet voice that they should go order and sit down, avoiding Flix’s question.
When they were seated, Flix looked over at Ksenia. It was still so strange to not have to look down at her. Flix wondered if she was anorexic; she was so thin, and always acted as though the concept of food was new to her. She always ate just a tiny portion of a normal girl’s diet at lunch, and never snacked in class. She also cringed whenever someone chewing gum was talking to her. Even now, she played silently with her straw, twirling around the ice cubes in her iced latte; of course she only drank small sips whenever she noticed Flix looking at her. The drink looked untouched.
“So….” Flix volunteered. “How do you like L.A.? It must be so different from Russia.”
“It’s very strange. I have to try so hard to seem normal compared to other students.” Ksenia sighed, a sound so miserable that Flix started cracking up. The expression on Ksenia’s face was that of a child asked to finish a heaping plate of lima beans. Ksenia stared incredulously at him, obviously confused by the laughter.
“Sorry!” Flix snickered. “It was the look on your face that did it. Sorry.” And then Flix started laughing again, this time so hard that he didn’t notice when Ksenia’s eyes went blank before she joined in the laughter.

xoxo,
Samanthadinkly