I haven't updated this in a very long time. Oops. Anyway, here is the latest chapter. Have fun reading!

It seemed like summer was passing by faster than it usually did. It felt like it was only a week ago that Kimby started working for her father at the museum. It was already the tail end of August and school was starting in the next few days. Kimby's latest days off had been occupied by her mother taking her clothes shopping in the next town over. And she wasn't even finished yet. The two of them still had to hit up the local Staples to get school supplies.

Kimby sighed as she doodled absent-mindedly in the margins of her word find. Three months and she could count how many times she hung out with her friends on her hands. Everyone was too preoccupied doing their own things. Chelsea in particular was going to the skate park constantly to hang out with Sumo. Malessica was reading like, an entire book store. Courtlin was in Florida visiting her grandparents for the last two months. Even Ashley was working at McDonalds to have a rainy day fund. The only upside to this month was that Suzanne brought her new baby in to visit. Kimby smiled at the thought of Suzanne walking through the door with a three month old.

"Mornin' Kimby," Suzanne said, sweeping through the door like she had a million times before. Only this time she was extra careful with the cargo she had cradled in her left arm.

"Oh, my God," Kimby stood straight up from where she was sitting, her magazine falling to the floor. She rushed towards Suzanne, where her baby was gurgling and sucking on their fingers.

"We were going to the grocery store, but I wanted to stop in. This is Kamden, say 'hi', Kamden." Suzanne picked up his chubby arm and waved to Kimby.

"Hi, Kamden. I'm Kimby," Kimby whispered excitedly.

"So where is your father?"

"He's in his office. I'll call him in." And with that, Kimby walked towards the phone and in just a few seconds, her father came barreling towards the lobby.

"Suzanne!" He announced a little too loudly. "Oh, sorry," he said. Then a little quieter he added, "Is that little Kamden?"

"Yes, want to hold him?"

"Absolutely," he said.

Suzanne shoved Kamden into his arms and he started to fuss a little.

"Hey, don't you fuss for your Uncle Barry," he said with a wide smile.

Kamden quieted down for a bit, twisting his head back to look at Suzanne.

"He's so cute, look at these chubby arms. I remember when you were this small kiddo," Barry reminisced as he looked towards Kimby.

"I want to hold him next," Kimby bounced on the balls of her feet in anticipation.

"As if, you're gonna have to pry him from my cold, dead arms."

"Dad!" Kimby whispered harshly.

"I hope you both know that I need him back eventually."

"Yeah, okay. Here K-baby," Barry said as he handed him to Kimby.

"So how have things been here at the museum?"

"Everything is just how you left it. Besides a few new exhibits. Kimby has been doing an exceptional job—but she's no you."

"Ha ha, I bet."

"How are you and Micah? Kamden has got to be giving your sleeping schedule a run for its money."

"The first month had me and the boyfriend at each other's throats. That postpartum had me for a while."

Barry nodded, "I totally understand. Jane and I," instead of continuing, he just shook his head.

"Micah is super helpful though, kind of makes me sad that I didn't think he was ready."

"Oh, no. I wasn't ready to be a father until the nurse handed me Kimby. And that was with the umbilical cord still attached."

"Ew, dad," Kimby chimed in, a fussy Kamden pulling at her hair.

"I know that look," Suzanne brought her hands up to Kamden, who leaned into them. "I've gotta go before he gets too fussy for the grocery store. No one likes a crying baby."

"Alright, if you and Micah need it, Kimby can babysit."

"I definitely can," Kimby said, waving at Kamden.

"Okay, bye. Kamden say 'bye'."

Kamden seemed to drool and mumble at his mother instead of saying goodbye.

And that was the last time Kimby had fun this summer. She hadn't even seen Haru, who she thought would have showed up for another tour. Apparently her embarrassing scene last time was enough for him. Not that she blamed him; she was incredibly weird around him. Regardless, her shift was almost done and that meant that she could hang out with her mom. Again. Not that it was bad or anything—but it was bad.

It was another bright Monday morning when Kimby walked into the homeroom room she was assigned this year. She double checked and triple checked as she waited for the bus this morning. Her first period class was with Ms. Clarke for Algebra II, and Kimby had the pleasure of already knowing her. She had study hall with Ms. Clarke back in freshman year. She was super nice and treated study hall like a free period. She didn't force anyone to read or do homework. Even if you wanted to nap, she let you catch a few Z's. Although, the rules of her study hall might have changed due to Belson bringing both a pillow and blanket to class one day. Regardless, a few of Kimby's upperclassman friends had told stories of her hilarious tangents and feminist beliefs. She was very interested in starting class with her.

As she walked into the room, she was surrounded by Chelsea and Malessica immediately.

"Hey, K!" Malessica shouted as she hugged Kimby.

"Hey losers. What other classes do we have together?" Kimby asked.

The girls compared their schedules and turned up short. The three of them had only two classes together. Feeling cheated the three of them pouted.

"What the hell? We got stiffed." Chelsea complained.

"Yeah, how am I going to copy your homework if you aren't in my class," Kimby said.

Malessica shook her head but then looked towards the door abruptly. She bounced up.

"Good morning, Haru!"

Kimby and Chelsea both turned their heads. When Kimby's eyes connected with the slouching form of Haru, she cringed. It had been months since she last saw Haru and his sudden appearance in the doorway brought back all of the nauseating memories of their museum tour. It had been so embarrassing Kimby hadn't even told her friends about it. Chelsea would just make fun of her and Malessica would go crazy trying to figure out all of the non-existent juicy details.

Haru waved awkwardly and Kimby remembered that she knew why.

Pushing everything that happened to the back of her mind, she forced a smile as Chelsea signaled him over.

"What classes you got?" Chelsea asked in her usual pushy tone.

"Algebra II, Science, History, English, Lunch, Gym…some random electives," Haru ran through the list smoothly, like he'd memorized it ages ago.

Kimby blinked once she realized that they had three classes together. She thought that she should mention it but once she saw Chelsea's reaction to only having one class with him, she closed her mouth extra tight. It seemed that Malessica and Haru both noticed this and swiped her schedule.

"Kimby's got three classes with him," Malessica announced, laughing. Kimby swore she heard the word "score" come out of her mouth next.

"That's just not fair," Chelsea huffed.

Kimby took her schedule back, giving Malessica a deathly stare.

"I guess we'll just have to suffer," Malessica said.

"Good morning, everyone!"

Everyone's attention was brought to the front of the room where Clarence had rushed in. Sumo and Jeff were tagging along far behind him. The two of them seemed to be in an in-depth conversation about a TV show the two of them watch.

"Hey Kimby, Chelsea, Malessica," Clarence greeted each of them, raising an eyebrow in a gentlemanly way.

"'Sup, Clarence?" Chelsea asked, leaning against a desk.

"Nothin', anyway, who's the new kid?" Clarence gestured towards Haru.

"This is Haru. He moved here just at the start of summer."

Clarence smiled widely, shoving his hand towards Haru's for a friendly handshake. When he and Haru's palms touched, Haru was astonished at the powerful grip that seemed to overtake his hand. Haru replied by adding pressure to Clarence's hand.

"Ah yes, very firm. So where are you fr—Belson!"

And just like that, Clarence was shoving Haru out of the way, breaking through Jeff and Sumo's connection and bothering Belson.

Kimby watched as Haru's face flickered through disbelief to curiosity.

"We don't know either. Clarence is always hanging out with him though."

Haru continued to watch as Belson kept Clarence at an arm's length away. "Hello, Clarence," Belson greeted.

"Good morning, guys," Malessica greeted Sumo and Jeff as they joined the circle.

Chelsea crossed her arms awkwardly and hid her face.

"Morning," Jeff said. "Your name is Haru, right?"

Haru nodded, giving Jeff a once over. He was dressed nicely—khakis and a button down kind of nice. Haru then looked at Sumo. At first he was intimidated—Sumo looked like one of those stereotypical bad boys. His hair was shaved and he had his ears pierced with plugs.

"What's up?" Sumo asked, noticing that Haru was staring.

"Nothing, hi."

"So, why did you move to Aberdale?" Jeff asked, elbowing Sumo slightly.

Haru was uncomfortable talking in front of so many different people but he tried to seem relaxed. "Um, I got kicked out of my old school. Louis Beckham High," Haru said.

"In California?" Jeff announced excitedly.

"Great, you've piqued his interest," Sumo griped.

"Oh shush, Sumo. I bet it was amazing. The campus alone is sparkling."

"I don't know, the students there were a bunch of snobs."

"Oh I bet, but did you ever notice the trees? Louis Beckham is supposed to have exactly four hundred and thirty-seven trees—and that's just surrounding the dorms!"

Haru raised an eyebrow, finally realizing why Sumo was so against Jeff getting excited. "I didn't know that. They were just regular trees to me."

"Oh yeah, so what kind of curriculum did you have there? Was it vigorous? What were the standardized tests like?"

"Oh, my God, Jeff. Shut up," Sumo yelled. He then put his hands over Jeff's mouth.

"Thank you," Kimby laughed.

"Okay, you'll have to talk to me later about it. Hey, Sumo! Ouch! Let g—

And with that, Sumo dragged Jeff to the other corner of the room so they could sit next to each other. It looked like Clarence also got bored of being ignored by Belson and waddled over to the two of them. Belson was sitting all the way in the back, his goons flanking either side of him as they took up the corner.

"Hopefully they didn't weird you out too much," Kimby said. "They aren't that bad." Kimby then realized that she was in no position to say that about the others. Not with the tour she gave Haru.

"It's nothing I haven't already gone through," Haru said, making pointed glances at her.

Kimby blushed and turned towards Malessica and Chelsea who were busy talking about something Sumo-oriented.

"Alright everyone, sit down. I'm gonna hand out a syllabus!" Ms. Clarke announced.

Everyone found somewhere to sit, Kimby sliding into the desk in the second row. Haru was in front of her, Chelsea was to her right and Malessica was to her back.

And then everything went smoothly from there.

It wasn't until Kimby walked into History that she saw Haru again. He was sitting in the back of the room, face hidden in a science syllabus. She walked past everyone to sit in the desk in front of him.

"Mr. Hughes assigns seats, so I hope you don't get attached to that desk," she said, trying to seem cool.

"Really? So does Karcovsky."

"Chemistry? That is way too much math for the morning." Kimby groaned.

"Math is like my favorite subject though."

Kimby laughed. "Any subject would be your favorite subject, nerd." Kimby said playfully.

Haru raised an eyebrow and smirked at her. "Yeah, I guess. What's yours?"

"Don't yell at me for being predictable, but it's gym. I put it on my schedule for the last two years."

Haru laughed and Kimby smiled. "Wow."

"But you do Karate so you probably don't like gym."

"No, not really. Aside from basketball, I don't really like anything else that you play in gym."

"Not even dodge ball? Everyone likes dodge ball here. It's like the crack of physical activities."

"Do you like it?"

"Well, I'm naturally competitive so I would kick major ass," Kimby mused.

"Yeah, okay. Sure," Haru said sarcastically.

"I'm serious. We have gym together. You'll see my skills eventually."

"Alright, fine."

And then class started.

Gym came around after Lunch and Kimby hurried down to the gymnasium. She met Haru halfway there, as he went to his locker after being dismissed from the cafeteria first. Kimby's lunch table was always too noisy so they were told to leave last. She poked his back instead of saying his name and they walked the rest of the way together.

During class there was nothing going on but syllabus stuff. They had to bring in a set of gym clothes—a regular T-shirt and shorts or athletic pants. Kimby was insanely bored, not being one for sitting around and doing nothing but listening. The gym teachers got through their spiel quickly enough and set everyone free to shoot some hoops.

The two of them left the bleachers together, Haru running ahead and grabbing a basketball. The two of them passed to each other for a while but eventually they started stealing from each other.

Haru dribbled the ball between his hands, pivoting away from Kimby as she came up on him. With one quick move, Kimby stole the ball and advanced to the other side of the court. She didn't shoot as another group was using the hoop she was near but she did jump and toss the ball up. Haru caught up to her and snatched the ball from her before she could catch it.

"Hey," she called as Haru left with the ball.

Kimby chased him until he set up for a three point shot and made it in.

"Alright, well I can't beat you in basketball so you'll have to wait for bowling."

"As if, my little sisters and I went bowling every year for my uncle's birthday. I'll destroy you."

"Yeah, well my mom was a crazy bowler before her carpal tunnel started acting up. My skills are genetic."

"Fine, I guess we'll see." Haru said.

Then he went to get the basketball that had bounced towards the far wall.

Kimby thought that meeting Haru again would be the worst thing to happen to her but it was actually really cool. Despite the fact that she got slaughtered in around the world, she had a great time in gym. Things were going really well right now and Kimby made sure to tell her mom all about it on her way home that night. Since she got in the car, Kimby couldn't stop talking about how much she missed everyone and how great her teachers were and especially how cool Haru was. Her mother even accused Kimby of having a crush on him, but she pushed that thought out of her mother's head really fast. Although Haru was like, insanely smart—like, annoyingly so, she was very proud to know him. And that was the extent of her feelings towards him. There was no way romance was involved in her admiration of him. All Kimby could say was that she was really excited for school each day that week. And she would continue to be excited for school.

I have no idea when I'll be updating next but that's okay because it will happen. See you then!