“How’s your final semester of high school going so far?” Kai had met up with his friend friend Nam Joon in the student parking lot. They tossed their backpacks in the back seat of Nam Joon’s hand-me-down station wagon and raced out of the parking lot. The traffic became easily congested.

    “Okay, I guess,” Kai replied. “Intro to College Math wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be. And you know how much I hate math. Psychology was interesting. So was African American History. That’s actually my favorite class so far.”

    “You have to be the only Asian kid in that class.”

    “I am. That doesn’t make it any less interesting, though.”

    “What about your first period? Creative writing.”

    “Don’t even get me started on that class,” Kai rolled his eyes so hard it gave him a headache. Nam Joon noticed.

    “Uh-oh,” he shook his head. “What happened?”

    “It’s full of freshman!”

    “So?” Nam Joon looked confused. “you were a freshman once.”

    “That’s exactly why I don’t like them!” Kai was still wasn’t looking forward to his creative writing class. And what a crumby way it was to start off every morning. And it probably isn’t a stretch to say that the smart freshman was still mad at him for shutting him down in class today. “Plus, it’s the only class that I have actual homework in. Can you believe that? It’s not even a real class!” Kai turned to look at Nam Joon. “Stop laughing at me!”

    “I’m not laughing,” Nam Joon bit his lip in an attempt to conceal his laughter, but it was no use. He could try to hide his smile, but he couldn’t hide those dimples. He couldn’t help but laugh at the melodrama that was Kai. “Besides, I thought you liked to write,” he said.

    “I do, but not when it’s forced on me. I hate prompts. Especially this kindergarten bull she gave us. Listen to this.” Kai turned around and reached for his bag in the back seat of the car. He quickly ped it and searched around the bottom of the bag before removing a crumpled piece of paper. “Here it is.” He quickly smoothed the paper over his knee and read, “Your school’s soccer team has just won their first home game and you’re going out for pizza. When you get there, you realize that it’s at a karaoke restaurant. You get on stage and belt your heart out when someone begins to sing with you…,” Kai looks at Nam Joon and raises an eyebrow. “What the is this? Why is it so long? Are there even karaoke restaurants in America? Am I supposed to be on the soccer team? I don’t know what to do with this!”

    “Okay...that is pretty bad. But you should still take this seriously before these freshman flex on yo .” As always, Nam Joon offered no help.

    They pulled up outside of Nam Joon’s home and got out of the car. Kai hated how tall Nam Joon was. He towered a whole six inches over Kai. He was a giant. Kai looked up to him -- literally and metaphorically. Nam Joon stood in front of Kai and tried to unlock the door. Kai slapped him on the nape of the neck.

“Ow! What was that for?!”

“For being useless,” and with that, Kai elbowed him in the side and barreled his way into the home.