Not even close

You had too many topics and events that you were still processing to make any decent headway in sorting out your thoughts and feelings but you'd managed to at least make a decision on your KDK purchases.

If you remembered correctly from the last time you had checked your own profile, you had way too many points, at a total of 114 left unspent that were just sitting there piling up. You hadn’t been able to get as many points recently now that the initial wave of level-ups had finished but you felt that waiting for an unknown purchase to come along wasn’t worth the wait.

Grabbing the intelligence upgrades for both yourself and Emma would only set you back 20 points for the two of you and even with that potential purchase, you were nowhere near running out.

Getting another for yourself was what you had made a decision on and you were happy to give one to Emma if she wanted the same. You’d need to wait until you were alone or with Emma to sort out the rest and the busy classroom you were in currently, definitely wasn’t the place to start your shopping spree.

The bell had already rang out, leaving you to be one of the last few people to leave the classroom before you were out in the corridor and heading back to the meeting place you had decided with Emma. You wanted to not leave her hanging around too long and although your after school plan was important to you, another part of you definitely wanted to get to Emma’s house as soon as possible.

Just as you were about to leave the building, you spotted Sarah heading in your direction from the corridor you had seen her run down earlier in the day. You weren’t surprised to see her given that you were standing at the main entrance/exit to the building but now that you had seen her you decided to try and catch her up on tonight's meal plans.

“Hey you got a sec?” you asked once she was close enough to hear you, making Sarah turn to her friends before telling them to go on ahead.

She had been in a group of 5 that you presumed were all cheerleaders. 3 of them seemed to have no issue with her request and left straight away but the one girl who had been closest to her stuck around for a little bit longer and gave you a quick look up and down before whispered to your sister. She had been the one who also gave you a funny look when Sarah was sat next to you in class yesterday but it seemed that a few back and forth whispers between her and Sarah was enough to get her to leave alongside the rest of her friend group.

You weren’t sure if the girl just didn’t like you or if there was some other reason she seemed to not trust you but you quickly put it out of your mind now that she had gone.

“What’s up?” Sarah asked, watching her friends go with a smile.

The corridor you were in wasn’t the quietest place to start having a conversation so you motioned for Sarah to follow you slightly away from the door where you could speak without having to shout over the rest of the crowd.

“You think you will be home in time for dinner tonight?” you asked, trying to find a way to casually bring up Emma.

“...I mean probably yeah. Cheerleading practice usually doesn’t last all that long. Is that all you stopped me for?” she asked back, giving you a weird look as to why you wanted to speak with her.

“It’s just that Emma ended up getting invited to join us for dinner and I wanted to… I dunno, warn you ahead of time and make sure you were okay with it. It sounds a bit weird now that I’ve said it out loud though.” you admitted, feeling awkward but getting a smile from your sister in return.

“I appreciate the gesture but I have no issue with Emma coming over. You should have just texted me now that we both have phones” she replied, grabbing the phone from her pocket and holding it up for you to see.

Usually, the teachers didn’t seem to care about anyone having their phones out outside of class and as long as they were on silent, none of them batted an eye. It was technically against the rules of the school but it wasn’t really upheld. You yourself were still pretty careful considering how important the KDK now was to you and you felt like Sarah showing you hers would have been perfectly fine if not for the worst possible person showing up at the worst possible time.

“No phones on school premises!” the principal declared, snatching Sarah’s phone out from her hand before she could even react before she carried on walking away.

“But!...” Sarah attempted to reply, getting quickly interrupted before she could say anymore.

“If you want it back then I’ll need a signed letter from a parent on my desk before it's even considered” the principal announced, turning towards Sarah just enough for you to see an almost gleeful grin on her face.

Both you and Sarah stood there in shock for a few seconds, trying to understand what had just happened before Sarah looked at you with a hint of anger growing on her face. Your eyes widened as you realised she was planning on venting your anger on you instead of the principal who was now long gone and although you knew it wasn’t the best idea, you followed your first instinct to get away from her as soon as possible by running away towards the exit.

“You jerk!” you heard Sarah shout behind you, only taking a look back in her direction when you felt you were a safe enough distance away.

You took the cowards way out and hid around the side of the nearest corner as you waited for Sarah to either give up or lose track of you and then once you felt the coast was clear, you headed away from the school entrance where Sarah would probably suspect you went and walked towards the meeting spot you had planned to go to with Emma.

It seemed like you had spent a bit more time messing around than you would have hoped as when you finally made it to the spot, Emma was already standing there leaning against the same tree you had been eating lunch under earlier.

“Sorry I’m late, I got caught up trying to deal with Sarah. Were you waiting long?” you greeted, jogging the last bit towards her so she wouldn’t have to wait any longer

“Only a few minutes but you should know to never keep a lady waiting” she teased back, letting you know she was too bothered by your late arrival with a smile on her face before she continued.

“So, why are we back here instead of going home?” Emma asked, curious about why you had made her stay back here after school.

Author's Note:

I'll shortly be adding the changes to the spoiler page but there isn't much new other than some updated character times if people wanted to take a look.

Feels like it's been a while since I did a self-promotion so I'll be cheeky and do another one. There's a Patreon link below if you wish to read the most recent chapters earlier than they are posted on Chyoa. Any and all support is greatly appreciated :D

https://www.patreon.com/KDKFiction