Chapter 30

-Kevin-

 

I WAS RUSHING in the morning. Trying to get things together, helping my dad and some crewmen he hired, I almost didn't have time to take a shower (but i did)!

   It was 8:00am when we finally left the house, 2 hours later than we had planned. James got the mini limo out and chauffered us around Portland. We drove to other families my dad had on files and asked them if they knew anything about Justin's kidnapping or the family who took him. All of them so far where a "no".

"Yay," I said sarcastically. "7 out of hundreds of families and we've got NOTHING. Let's start a party."

"Kevin shut up. This is serious." Dad checked names off of a list.

"Dad, we've been driving for 2 hours, we've got nothing, can I please go home now. I need to get ready for later."

"My God, Kevin. You will listen to me, and we're not done working until all the families on this page are checked off for today! I don't care what you miss!"

   I rolled my eyes. We had to check out 27 families today, we've only got 7 down, and all these people are scattered across Oregon. At this rate, I'll be clear down to the California Border by the time it's time to go ice skating.

"I just can't cancel a date, dad." I finally said after we checked the 10th family, in GRESHAM.

"I understand you just want to be out with your girlfriend today, son. But we've got work to do."

"Come on, can't you just drop me off at a bus stop or something? I'll take the bus back to St. Johns. I'll get there in an hour!"

"No way! What if another family that doesn't know Justin's already been taken finds you? Then I'll be looking for two of my sons!"

   Why would you care? I said in my head. You said yourself my reason for living was to be taken away. The pawns for the King in chess.

"Well I'll take out the brown contacts. I'll wear a hood. Anything, just let me go! It's already 11:45, I'll be late for sure!"

"D****t Kevin, just shut up!" Dad raged. It was the kind of rage that would make any person be quiet.

   Finally it was 12:30, the time Aika said she and everyone else was going to leave for the ice skating. While waiting in the limo for my dad as he cashed his check in a bank, she called me.

"Hello?" I said into the phone.

"Justin?" She sounded so happy. And I could hear Diane and Issac in the background.

"Yeah."

"Uh, where are you?"

"I'm, uh.." I looked out the window and saw my dad standing in front of the ATM machine. "I'm cashing my paycheck." Ok.. Why did I just say that?

"Uhh, ok? Haha! Well I just wanted to know if you were on your way yet or not, because we're all just leaving my house."

    At the moment I wasn't sure if I was going to even be there or not, so I loosened up a lie.

"Oh, I'm on my way too."

"Oh, cools then! See you there!"

"Yeah, see ya."

   I hung up the phone and my dad came back just as I did. He had a lot of money in his hand.

"What's all that for? We gonna bribe the next family or something?" I asked eagerly.

"No, son." He handed me at least 100 dollars. "It's for you."

He had to be kidding. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. Well, yes and no. $50 is going to be for your haircut."

Oh God.... did he just say I was going to get a haircut? "What? Dad you're joking."

"No I'm not. You can go and see your little friend, but I'm not letting you in public looking just like Justin. Besides, your hair is growing out anyways."

"No it's not!"

"And also, you can go say hi to her and stuff, but our next family lives downtown so you'll have to come back to help me out too."

   Great. I get a haircut I don't want, 5 minutes with my girlfriend, and then I have to go back to work. Pointless.

"Wait, what kind of haircut is it, dad?" I just had to know.

"Oh, that's right, your mom sent me this about a half an hour ago." He pulled out his iPhone and showed me the email.

 

Honey! Don't you think this haircut would look good on Kevin:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NJgZn0NJcDQ/TExCmpoIvHI/AAAAAAAAARw/b_53gZ5plgM/s1600/cool-guys-haircuts.JPG

I think it would look so darling on him! I just found it this morning :D

 

   I clicked on the link which lead me to the picture. I guess it wasn't so bad.. But I've always had my hair at least a little past my ears. I wonder how this new look might be on me... And if Aika would like it.

   We drove an hour to Downtown Portland. I was 30 minutes late. My dad took me to the JC Penny Salon (which I didn't even knew existed) and they worked for 30 minutes cutting my hair. Did you hear that? 30 MINUTES TO CUT MY HAIR. Now I was an hour late.

   I looked at myself in the mirror.

"You like?" The lady who cut my hair asked.

"I don't even recognize myself.." The cut did look good though.

"He likes it." Dad answered for me.

   We paid the clerk and left. Dad told me to meet him at the arpartments by Pioneer Square, this little plaza downtown. I rushed all the way to the ice skating rink at the Lloyd Center mall. When I got there I was almost out of breath; I took the brown contacts out of my eyes and I took my phone out to see if I missed any calls. I had 3 missing calls from Aika and 2 texts from my mom. I could talk to my mom later, so for the mean time I just called Aika.

"Hey, Aika?" I said the second she answered the phone,

"Hey! Where are you? We've been waiting!" They've been waiting? Oh boy..

"Oh I'm really sorry! Hey, I'm by the ice skating rink but I'm just going to say hi then I gotta go."

"Huh? WHAT?!" I could tell she sounded a little angry.

"Listen, just meet me by the Cricket Wireless store on the other side of the ice rink. I'll explain."

"Ahh.. Ok!" She hung up.

   I walked around for a little bit, looking over the crowds of people trying to see if I could spot Aika. I was a bit nervous to see how she would react to my new hairstyle, I hope it doesn't weird her out.

"Kevin?" I heard someone say behind me. It sounded like Aika, but when I turned around it sure didn't look like her..

"Aika?" I said, sounding unsure.

"Kevin!" She ran up to me and gave me a hug. then she looked up at me. "Your hair!" She sounded so terrified. Man, I knew it was a bad cut.

"My hair?" I started. "Look at your hair! It's short!"

"Well yours is too!" She put one hand on her hip. "Why did you cut it??"
"Because I wanted to!"

"Ahh, I don't like it! I hate you!" She pouted, which looked really cute with her new haircut and all.

"Oh so you hate me now?" I joked.

"Ahhg, I'm kidding! I still like you! You're my buddy!" She pushed my arm.

"Honestly, is it really that bad?" I asked.

"Honestly, no. It looks really cute on you. I swear!" She giggled. I know she was telling the truth.

"Anyways, how come you cant stay? And hey, where are your contacts?! If Diane or someone comes over here they're going to be suspicious!"

"I have to go help my dad. Looks like my work was going longer than I had planned. I'm really sorry."

"Ah man. That's no fair."

   I stood closely, next to her. "Don't worry. I'll ask my dad if I could take a break later so I can hang with you guys."

"Ahh. Alright." She smiled. "But then I guess that means you haven't found Justin yet, huh?"

I sighed. "Nah. We haven't. But don't worry."

   I gave her another hug and assured her everything would be alright. After that I bought a bottle of water a nearby CinaBon stand and I left, walking to the Pioneer Square apartments to meet my dad. Sometimes things just don't go the way we plan. Man, life sucks sometimes, doesn't it?

 

-Aika-

 

"IT'S SO NOT FAIR!" I whined to the group while we stood in line to get into the ice rink.

"Wait, so tell me again why Justin can't come?" Issac asked.

"Oh, uh," I pretended to look at something on the second floor. "he had a weekend job to do. With his dad. Downtown, so he couldn't come."

"Darn him." Diane said. "I really wanted to see you two skate!"

    Art and my friend from last year, but now goes to a different school, Eddie laughed. I guess to them when a guy cancels a date with his girlfriend it's funny. Oh wait, did I just say date? Arghhh! No, a meetup a meetup!

   Anyways, we finally paid and got inside. The zamboni was cleaning off the ice rink so we just took our time renting out our shoes and stuff. The boys all took a locker to themselve and Diane and I got our own. Well, that was until we realized we had no money to rent out a locker. So we ended up cramming our stuff into the boy's locker instead. Luckily, Kody, another one of my friends who tagged along, didn't feel like skating so he said he'd hold onto our bags so that there would be room for the shoes in the locker.

   Diane, Art, Eddie, and I where the only ones who knew how to ice skate, although I was still kinda bad but I was good enough to know how to keep my balance. But Issac had no clue what to do. So Diane most of the time helped him when he got onto the ice.

"You know, now that I think about it, Justin really does know how to ice skate!" I whined while Art and I held onto the railing trying to get by some little kids.

"Wow, you could have held onto him if he came. HA!"

"Ughhh.. I wish he was here!"

   Issac and I had a fun time falling on our butts alot. At one point when I caught up with Eddie, he wasn't looking where he was going and some guy started skating out of control. Eddie stepped to the side to avoid being hit but then the guy slammed right into me. And then I fell onto my knees and slid almost halfway across the ice rink! I slammed my knees hard when I stopped, and my butt was all wet, and my phone fell out too. Luckily, the camera I had with me was totally fine!

"That's why we don't use our phone while skating." One of the staff skaters said as he helped me up.

"I wasn't using it, it just fell out of my pocket when I fell." I rubbed my throbbing knee.

"Oh, well just be careful next time." The staff guy said. Then Diane glided over to me, chuckling.

"Haha, looks like you took a fall there, missy!" She tried to keep her self from bursting out laughing.

"It's not funny!" I asserted. "My knee hurts!"

"I bet if Justin was here he'd kiss it."

"Ok, one, that would be weird, and two, no he wouldn't." I laughed.

Then she laughed too. "I know I know, you know what I mean though. And your shoe lace came untied." She bent over and retied it. Then art glided over and I told him what happened. He laughed right in my face and said he wished he got in on tape.

   After about an hour of skating, we all got hungry. Diane gave me some money to get her some food, I got my own money to get myself some food, and Eddie, Kody, and I walked upstairs to the food court to get something to eat.

   Once after waiting in line for about 30 minutes getting food, Kody and I started  walking back down stairs to the ice rink to deliver the food. Eddie already got his food and left us earlier. As we stood on the escalator, I got a call from Kevin!

"Hello, Justin?" I asked.

"Justin? You must be with your friends right now, huh?"

I looked over my shoulder at Kody. "Yupp. Haha."

"Hey. What are you guys doing right now?"

"Oh, we're about to start eating then we're going to go back ice skating."

"Ah, you are? Well ok nevermind."

"Wait, what? Nevermind what?" I almost missed the step getting off the escalator.

"Ok, well you guys said your ice skating again."

"No, we're eating then ice skating."

"Yeah, but you're going to go ice skating still?"

"Yes."

"Well then nevermind! I was going to--"
"Wait, what did you want to tell me! And we are going skating still--"
"Gosh just listen to me!" The way he said that caught my attention. "Ok, anyways, my dad is giving me a little 15 minute break. But I'm all the way down by Pioneer Square."

   Pioneer Square? That's almost a 12 minute walk from here!

"So I was wondering if you wanted to come hang out with me here downtown."

"Oh, well.." I thought about my friends.. they would want to come to! And I couldn't just leave them. So I put him on hold and called my dad.

   I asked him if it was ok if I just went down there for a little bit, but it was almost 4:00 and already getting dark out and my dad didn't want me walking there and back by myself, and plus he didn't want it being just Kevin and I.

"Uh, yeah I can't. I'm sorry." I explained to him why.

"Ah, ok. It's cool. Besides you guys are eating and still skating so that's why I said nevermind."

"Oh, well alright. See you some other time then!"

"Yeah, see you. Sorry I couldn't hang out today."

   Well, it was all ok, in my point of view. I just wish I had the power to re-start this whole week. I could have warned Kaitlin in advance about her getting caught with Ray. I could have re-scheduled the ice skating date to a day when EVERYONE could have gone. But nope, I just don't have that kind of power.

   I brought everyone's food. Diane chowed down on her Teriyaki Chicken and rice, Eddie, Art, and I ate some Cajun Chicken with rice, Kody enjoyed his McDonalds, and all the food was making Issac hungry so he went and bought himself a Cajun Chicken with rice too. And after all that food, I still finished the 8-piece sushi I bought! I wouldn't share it with anyone else, though. I don't know why, but sushi is just something I DO NOT SHARE with other people. I will give someone a piece of chicken, or a scoop of rice, or some of my lunch food, but NEVER do I share my Sushi. Maybe it's just because I don't get to eat is as often. But yeah, I didn't.

   We were so stuffed when we finally finished eating. It was 4:15, which meant we only had 15 minutes left to skate since my dad planned to leave at around 4:30. So we took ourselves back onto the ice and skated, and fell, and glided for 20 minutes. My dad got to us late, and we ended up leaving the mall around 4:50 instead.

   The car ride home, though, was almost the life of the party. Diane, Issac, and I sat in the back of the van my dad drove us in and we had the radio up loud, singing our hearts out to Secrets, DJ Got Us Falling in Love Again, What's my Name, and other hip hop/R&B tunes that rocked out the stereo. Eddie and Art shook their heads in embarssment. Man, I miss those guys. Too bad they had to be at a different school this year.

   We all had a blast overall. We all haven't hung out in forever, not like how we did tonight. That just had to be the best Sunday I've had this year (yet). I almost felt a little sad once we dropped everybody off at their homes. A crazy, loud, fun-filled night was now quiet and subtle. When I got home the first thing I did was call my grandpa and tell him all about the day. He likes to hear from me and my brother since we only get to see him once a month. After that I chatted with my friends online for a bit, and before I got tired and went to bed, I left a final status update for the night on Facebook.

 

Aika Kikai Pasion: ICE SKATING WAS FUN :D Except Justin Hue couldn't make it today. He was too busy working XP (haha). Diane Turner, Issac Avington, and I fell alot on our butts though xD Some guy slammed into me and I slid halfway across the ice rink!   -Sunday, 12/19/2010