Her first day at Lakeview Academy without Jon had been an interesting one, starting with her somewhat lonely walk to school. She could have gotten a ride from her sister, but didn't think to until she was already unconsciously walking the path that would have taken her by Jon's old house. Grumbling to herself, she'd turned back from her detour and went on towards school alone. That happened a couple of times throughout the day, momentarily forgetting Jon-boy was gone only to be reminded. Honestly she felt lonely, both from missing Jon and the realization she didn't really have any other close friends unless you counted her sister. 'I mean, Jon was always cool hanging out with just the two of us, and it was easy I guess...' she'd reflected. In truth, Jon had been a major contributing factor to that small friend group, dissuading Karyn from getting involved in clubs, or going to parties and so on, even if she hadn't made that connection so far; her friendship with Jon had been easy and she'd been fine with that.
The day actually hadn't been a total bust on the socialization front. Karyn did have several friendly acquaintances who had the potential to turn into friends, and was generally fairly well liked by the other students; she wasn't crazy popular, in part because she'd consciously avoided the popular crowd to avoid Sarah, but she generally got along with people. She'd tried to make a concerted effort to chat with people in between classes, and found it went a lot more smoothly than she expected.
At lunch she'd bitten back her nervousness and sat with a new group, ending up spending the period with Yuki Meshida, her boyfriend Deshawn Wilkes, and the twins Christopher and Aileen Hawkes. She knew Yuki fairly well from having been lab partners the previous year, and the Japanese girl had happily welcomed her to their little group. Yuki had come a long way in the two and a half years since the Meshidas had moved from Japan, speaking English fluently at this point and embracing more and more American culture, coming out of her shell in the process. Karyn knew the other three less well, but found herself easily slipping into the conversation at lunch.
Deshawn had been complaining about Steve, which was a topic nearly every student at Lakeview could agree on. Deshawn was the vice-captain of the basketball team but there was no love lost between him and Farber, who was the captain, due to the other's arrogance and bullying, which was a major reason Deshawn didn't sit with the other jocks. Chris and Aileen were fraternal twins of Danish descent, with pale skin, blonde hair and light blue eyes. Unlike Karyn, Deshawn, and Yuki they were also seniors rather than juniors. She'd mostly known Chris as a photographer for the yearbook committee, but found he had a genial if quiet personality, with a subtle sense of humor. His sister on the other hand was a bit of a skater chick, boarding to school every day. Aileen was also more forward than her brother, and made an appreciated effort to always loop Karyn into their group's conversation. In general she found herself really getting along with all four and wondering why she'd let herself become so closed the last two years.
The rest of the day had passed pretty quickly, and she was soon walking back towards home. Unfortunately Kimberly had softball after class, and couldn't give her a lift home, so she'd been walking again, though not entirely alone as she'd bumped into Rebecca Hart taking a similar route and they'd chatted a bit. Karyn had always thought the theatre kid was a bit much, but maybe she'd mellowed out over the summer or maybe Karyn was just more willing to overlook little flaws. Either way, it had been nice not to walk alone the whole route and she returned home feeling a bit better than when she'd left that morning.
Dinner had been nice, their mom Alyssa had made Karyn's favorite lasagna, even if they had to endure the start of term interrogation. Her moms wanted to know all about their classes, their friends and so on; Karyn wanted to be annoyed, but honestly it was nice how invested her parents were in her and Kim. She knew a lot of kids, in particular Sarah, didn't have that and it made her appreciative of both her moms. That said there wasn't much to report only one day into school particularly for Karyn; at least Kimberly had softball practice to talk about. 'Maybe I should get involved in a club or something' Karyn mused as she helped wash up after the meal; it might be a good way to make some new friends. Speaking of her sister though, Karyn kind of suspected her sister was talking around something, or at least keeping something to herself all through dinner; she skipped over talking about parts of her day and had been checking her phone and texting pretty much constantly since she got home from practice.
Including now, as the two were sat on the black leather couch in the den, nominally watching TV. Nominally because Kimberly was glued to her phone, texting and snickering under her breath until, "Okay, who are you texting?" Karyn finally asked her sister.
Kimberly tried to blow her off, saying "what? Oh, no one you know..." but her focus never left her phone, rather undermining the attempted downplaying.
A slight feeling of dread rooted itself in Karyn's stomach, "please tell me it's not Tanya." Tanya Steele had been Kimberly's first girlfriend, and to date only serious relationship and Karyn couldn't stand the other girl. She'd done her best to hide it, trying to be supportive of her older sister, both during the relationship and immediately after the breakup, but eventually, once Kimberly had some distance from it, Karyn had let her know how she felt. Tanya was annoying, frequently rude to Karyn and her mothers, and way too self absorbed in her opinion. However, the root of Karyn's dislike for her was how she treated Kimberly, disrespecting Kimber's time and commitments, always needing to be the number one priority but never reciprocating in kind, dismissing Kimberly's wants and needs and in general being a terrible partner; honestly, if they hadn't broken up on their own, Kimberly's family might have tried to start encouraging her to split with Tanya, which was why Karyn was dreading the thought of them getting back together.
Kimberly looked up, confused, "why on earth would I be texting my ex?" After the breakup, Kimberly had seen how shitty her relationship had been and had no intention of renewing it, despite her sister's fears. Honestly it probably lasted as long as it did because it was her first real girlfriend, her first relationship after coming out and she'd overly romanticized it a bit.
"Uh, because you keep giggling and blushing when you think I'm not looking," Karyn explained, "and all those signs point to you texting someone you like or have a crush on."
"Well, I'm definitely not texting Tanya," Kimberly explained definitively as if to end the conversation.
However, this actually had the reverse effect as Karyn now leaned forward, interested. "Wait, that means you have a crush on someone new" Karyn shifted over on the couch towards Kimberly to try and read the texts, making Kim hug her phone to her chest. "C'mon, who is it?" Karyn demanded.
Kimberly playfully swatted her sister away, "Like I said it's no one you know, just a new girl in my Psych class."
"Wait, new girl; is it that new Australian girl, Mackenzie?" Karyn asked. That was the only new student she knew about apart from the freshmen of course, but she'd be shocked if her sister had her sights set on someone that much younger.
Kimberly gave a little nod, "yeah, you know her?" Kimber was hoping the new girl she liked wasn't already on her sister's shit list like Tanya had been; there might have been good reason for the latter, but Karyn could hold a grudge whether you deserved it or not and if Kimberly was going to date Mackenzie, which she was pretty confident she wanted to at this point, she didn't want Kenzie and her sister to hate each other out of the gate.
Karyn looked thoughtful before shaking her head, "not really. She's in my chemistry class but she was partnered with Elizabeth and on the opposite side of the room, so we didn't really get the chance to talk. She's definitely pretty, but I'm sure you realized that," Karyn teased making Kimberly blush, "and according to Becca Hart she sings like an angel."
"Since when do you and Becca Hart hang out?" Kimberly asked, while filing away the information regarding Makenzie's singing ability for later.
Karyn gave a little shrug, "Since today I guess? It wasn't really intentional, we just kept bumping into each other." Really, it was almost strange how their paths kept crossing; they shared all but one class, they'd been partnered up as lab partners in Chem, and of course they'd run into one another on the walk home. Hell, when Karyn had first gotten to school that morning, she'd even literally run right into the other girl, knocking the flyers she was carrying to the ground for them both to scramble to pick up, like something out of a cheesy rom-com. Not that Karyn was suddenly in crush mode like her sister; the bubbly brunette Becca was cute enough but she wasn't exactly Karyn's type. Or, actually, she was too close in some ways to a girl who definitely was Karyn's type and Karyn tried very hard not to think of her dormant crush on her ex-best friend.
Karyn shook her head back and forth and narrowed her eyes mischievously towards Kimberly, "Hey, no distracting me!" she declared. "It's been ages since you've been interested in anyone, so you gotta spill! I need to know if this Mackenzie is good enough for my sister."
