Amber’s Pov

The Next Day At Class

“Is this seat taken?

“No,” I responded looking to see who was asking. “Krystal,” I said smiling at her as she pulled up a foldable chair that no one ever used.

“Hey,” she said sitting down.

“Hey. Listen I’m sorry about last night. My parents can be so awkward sometimes,” I told her.

“No worries I was just surprised when they showed up. I think they’re really nice actually.”

“They are a little overbearing when it comes to me.”

“They just care about you.”

“So anyways I’m sorry you had to leave so quick. I didn’t even say goodbye,” I said with remorse.

“Well say hello to me now. I always like those more than goodbyes.”

“Hello, Krystal. Thanks for sitting back here. No one ever does.”

“Oh I’m not here for you. I think I’ve decided this is the best vantage point for taking notes. I have to be on my a-game if I’m going to beat you on the next test,” she said joking.

“Really? Well I’m here to work too. Let the better person win,” I challenged pulling out my notebook.

Krystal’s Pov

It’s so easy to talk to her. I like sitting here. I’ve been sitting alone in class since I fought with Ailee. She still sits where we used to. But she hasn’t tried to apologize or talk to me since. She suddenly turned around in her seat and met my eyes. She looked disappointed? Angry? What is her problem? I can’t figure out why she snapped at me over Am. I have to just ignore her. By the time class was over felt a hand on my arm.

“If you aren’t doing anything now, do you maybe want to come and watch me play basketball with John?” she asked me.

“Sure, yeah,” I said looking happy.

“Great,” she said dropping her hand. “It’s also really nice day so it will be nice to be outside.”

We started making our way there, it wasn’t too far away.

“So I actually wanted to ask you something,” I said to her as she pushed her chair beside me.

“What is it?”

“Where are your parents from? I mean they have accents so I was just wondering if they are korean, japanese...or something else.”

“They are Taiwanese. They both immigrated here in their twenties and met here in LA. They speak Mandarin a lot to each other actually. I’m not completely fluent. I can’t really read anything in Mandarin either. My dad is a little better at speaking english than my mom. So yeah that’s pretty much their background. My grandparents still live in Taiwan and we visit there every once in a while. Not recently though,” she explained.

“Oh that’s cool. I was just curious. It would be interesting to hear you speak Mandarin sometime.”

“What about you, are your parents just American?” she asked.

“They are Korean. But like you I was born here and so was my sister.”

“Do you speak any Korean?”

“Some, I’m not that good though.
“So you have a sister. Is she older or younger?” she asked.

“Older by two years. She goes to college at NYU.”

“Wow clear across the country. You must miss her.”

“I do. It’s been hard. But I’m getting used to being away from her,” I said.

“There’s John,” she said pointing to him on the court. “Try not to take anything he says too seriously. He didn’t know you were coming,” she told me as we got onto the court.

“Am! And you brought Krystal,” he said wheeling over to us.

“Yep, she’s going to watch us today.”

“Cool. Very cool. I love a cheering squad,” he said smiling at me.

“She’s not your personal cheerleader dude,” Am told him.

“Yeah I’m not. Because I’m somebody else’s,” I said playing along and touching her shoulder for a second while she looked up at me surprised.

“So it’s like that. Ok,” John said rolling away to shoot a basket. 

“You didn’t have to say that,” she said.

“I’ll be sitting in the bleachers right here. Just go out there and beat him or shoot better...I really don’t know that much about basketball,” I admitted backing away.

“That’s ok,” she said a little dazed before she moved over to starting playing with him.

I watched them play with a smile on my face. I wonder how she got back into playing after the accident? Since she had a college scholarship it must’ve been hard to have to play again in such a different way. She looks the happiest I’ve ever seen her. She moves around the court quicker than I ever thought was possible. She must have been an amazing player in high school. She still is. After almost an hour they were done playing. I got up and walked over to where her and John were talking.

“So Krystal, now that you’ve seen our skills you still going to pick her over me?” John asked with a smirk. 

“I think so,” I laughed. “But you held your own.”

“Sorry dude, you’re just not going to win this one,” Am said to him.