1 Day Down, 4 Years to Go - Clara tag Kylie

[Clara Ryerson]

"So I made the boxing team but the coach already informed me that no one is going to want to go against me," Clara said to her foster sister with a roll of her eyes. She'd changed out of her gym clothes and back into her normal clothes which contained a pair of jeans and a lavender knit top which made her look much more innocent than she really was. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she didn't really wear any makeup, but Clara hadn't really reached a makeup phase yet.

"Where's Dom? Did he go with Lila, Miles, and Danielle?" Clara asked as she started to walk. Kylie had agreed to wait for her while she tried out for boxing. "Thanks for waiting though, I f*cking hate taking the bus alone. I need like an ipod or something...or an Nintendo DS or even a cell phone with games on it like an iphone or something," she reasoned as is this was very important. While Clara's foster family wasn't exactly poor, they had so many kids to take care of that she didn't always get everything she liked. However, Clara had never been rich so that wasn't something that really bothered her.

For a 14 year old girl, Clara had led a very troubled life. Her mother had been murdered when she was just a baby and her father, who'd been a cop, had spent the rest of his life trying to avenge her, only to get shot on the job, ending his life as well. Clara had been bounced to a few different foster homes until she landed with the Cooper's. She gave them a lot of trouble at first and still gave them trouble sometimes, but for the most part she at least attempted to be good since she had sort of bonded with them--especially with Kylie. As for her past, she usually tried not to talk about it.

"We need to make more of those cupcakes," she commented as the girls headed out of the building and toward where the bus stop was. "The one's with the strawberry frosting. I finished my last one at lunch and I don't think we have anymore at home," she said as she plopped herself down at the bus stop's bench, glad that the bus they needed stopped right in front of school. "So...what do you think of high school? I think it kind of sucks."

Taggles!!!

[Kylie Cooper]

Her first day had been a hectic one, trying to find classes, making sure she didn't annoy any of the teachers and her fellow peers, and then trying to find her locker and then getting lost in the cafeteria only to end up eating outside without anyone she knew. She was almost in tears by the end of the day but the prospect of meeting up with Clara calmed her down somewhat so it was a good thing the other freshman knew to ask her to wait after she finished with her extracurriculars.

Danielle had told Kylie she was going to the mall after school to pick some things up and Lila had followed her. Dom and Miles had their own thing to do so the first day had pretty much sucked for Kylie but she wasn't about to bring herself down because of it. And seeing Clara come out of the gym, Kylie plastered a smile as her foster sister informed her of her day. Sounded more exciting than hers, that was for sure.

Kylie informed Clara where their other siblings were and smiled when Clara thanked her for waiting. When Clara swore, Kylie winced. She was still not used to the girl's colorful language despite always having to hear it at home. She didn't have that much of a problem with it but hearing things like that from such a delicate looking girl still made Kylie wince. Of course, Kylie knew Clara's past and how she was brought up and she supposed she understood but it still bothers her a little when Clara started swearing. Not that she was going to tell her best friend that of course.

At the mention of cupcakes, Kylie perked up and nodded enthusiastically. "We totally should! I'll make the frosting and you can make the batter. And maybe we could stick in some gummies in there or something to make it look prettier. Yeah that sounds cool." Kylie sat next to Clara on the bench, her legs not really touching the floor just yet. She had yet to grow taller but she thought she had a lot of time for that, so she wasn't too worried.

When Clara asked about her day, Kylie wasn't sure if she should tell how her day went. So she played it cool with a shrug. "It could have been better but I'm not going to complain." She swung her backpack to the front to take out the stash of candy she had brought with her, unbeknownst to her parents. Taking out a gummy bear, she popped it in her mouth and offered some to Clara. "Are you going to join any other clubs besides boxing?" She asked.

The bus didn't take too long to arrive and soon, they were racing down the aisles to the back seat. Giggling, Kylie settled into her window seat and continued to eat her candy. "It sucks we only have like...one class together. We don't even get lunch together which I think sucks really bad."

[Clara Ryerson]

Had Clara known what kind of day that Kylie had had she might have acted more sympathetic to the girl, but having no idea, Clara was much more concerned with her own problems. Mainly, the fact that no one took her seriously even though she could seriously kick their ass, the lack of cupcakes, and the lack of an electronic device of any kind to keep her occupied when she was alone. She shrugged and grabbed some gummy bears. "Gummy bear cupcakes," she said. "We can try that. It's either going to be really great or fucking amazing," Clara said, once again letting an expletive slip into her sentence. Cursing was something she got in trouble for all the time and it was something that she sometimes thought maybe she should stop but it was sort of hard when she'd been raised by her father who'd cursed pretty much all the time.

"I don't know if I'll join anything else. Are you?" she asked, still not satisfied with the whole boxing thing and how it turned out. It would have been better if the school offered karate or something - she was already a black belt - but alas they did not so Clara was probably going to have to settle with only getting to box during practice and not during any actual competitions.

She giggled along with her foster sister, plopping down next to her in the seat in the very back of the bus. "I know. I wish we had me too," she said. "Middle school was just....so much smaller," she commented. And people had been afraid of her in middle school. It seemed that people just laughed at her here and as much as she wanted to kick their asses because of it, she knew her foster parents wouldn't be so happy if she did. So, Clara was containing herself...for now at least.

"We don't have lunch together?" she asked. "I thought everyone did...hmmm...Dom and I looked for you. We probably looked at every table in the cafeteria. We found Danielle and her friends who totally pretended not to know," she said with a roll of her eyes, "and we found Lila. But no you. So we sat at some random table," she said with a shrug. "If you don't have lunch when the rest of us do...when do you have lunch?" she asked, still trying to figure out how this whole high school thing worked.

[Kylie Cooper]

Wincing at the bad word Clara used, Kylie bit her tongue before she could reprimand her foster sister. As close as the two were to each other, Kylie was sure Clara would take it very personally if Kylie were to scold her for her profanity. Either that or she'd kick Kylie's butt. Neither option was appealing so Kylie decided to be quiet about it.

She was glad for the change of topic and happily told Clara of her club choices. "I signed up for track and field and volleyball. I'm thinking of signing up for Student Council. That should be fun." Kylie had always been ambitious and she thought having Student Council on her college application would be good. She knew she was still a bit young to be thinking of college but it never hurt to think ahead, right?

"Middle school had its perks but I think we can make our marks better in high school, don't you?" Kylie was sure her high school experience wasn't going to be based on a crappy first day. She had many other opportunities to establish a better experience for herself. She was also sure that as long as she had Clara, Dom and Miles, she'd be fine.

"I have lunch earlier." Kylie answered with a shrug, munching on her gummy bear. "I think because there are too many students...who knows. We'll figure something out somehow." A lull descended upon the two girls for a bit in which they just enjoyed their candy. Kylie looked out the window and smiled at a bunch of families out and about.

"Hey, made any new friends?"

[Clara Ryerson]

"Hmmm," Clara murmured. She had wanted to do some sort of activity with Kylie but she wasn't exactly interested in running, vollyball, or student council. Unlike, her foster sister, Clara was not an over achiever and was not thinking about anything past tomorrow let alone 4 years from now. "Maybe," she said. "I don't think I'd do well with student council...then I'd have to talk to other students," she said making a face.

Clara shrugged when Kylie said they could make their marks better here. Clara didn't think so. Middle school had been much smaller. Here she was ignored. Here she was no one and she didn't like it much. She wasn't as enthusiastic or optimistic as her foster sister. Clara's life had been riddled with pain and she had a hard time looking at the bright side of things.

"That blows," she said about Kylie having an earlier lunch. "Maybe you have lunch with Miles then. I didn't see him today," she told Kyle. "Yeah, I can just come to your lunch sometimes," Clara said. Maybe she could leave her class half way through and meet Kylie during her lunch sometimes.

Clara rolled her eyes when Kylie asked if she made new friends. "What do you think. Why do I need to meet anyone else for. That's what you, Dom, Lila, and Miles are for...okay and maybe Danielle too...sometimes," she said making another face. "What about you?" she asked, sort of afraid that Kylie had. Clara didn't want to lose her to everyone else.

[Kylie Cooper]

When Clara made a face with her retort, Kylie giggled and punched her foster sister in the arm. "Who are you kidding, you won't talk." She emphasised on the word talk, knowing Clara understood that she meant Kylie would more likely punch and shout at people to agree with her if she were to join student council.

She shrugged when Clara shrugged mostly because she knew Clara wasn't the most school spirited. Not like Kylie who was already looking forward to tomorrow despite having a very bad first day.

"It so does!" Kylie exclaimed to Clara's response. "I didn't see Miles either actually." She admitted, not mentioning that she had eaten outside. Miles must have been looking for her but when Kylie hid, she hid well because she didn't want anyone to find her. The prospect of having Clara join her during her lunch excited Kylie and she showed it by hugging Clara tightly. "You're the best. Bring Dom with you too." She smiled brightly.

"Right." Kylie didn't admit to the fact that she would really rather have Clara all to herself and selfishly, she didn't want Clara to find new friends. At least not ones Kylie herself wouldn't get along with. She laughed when Clara made a face when she mentioned Danielle. Their foster sister was way into boys and makeup and looking sexy for either of them to really hang out with her but they did love her. She was, after all, family.

Shaking her head, she stuffed her mouth with gummy bears. "The boys were too gross," she said after swallowing. "And the girls were kinda like Danielle. Only scared. Which was weird." The freshman shrugged.

[Clara Ryerson]

Clara giggled when Kylie pointed out that she wouldn't talk. This was probably too. Clara was definitely known for relying on fists and threats more than words, but her father had trained her to be defensive...never trust anyone. Well, she'd had to learn to change the last part of that. She trusted her new family at least...for the most part. At least she knew that they had her back. She also kind of suspected that everyone knew her whole story even though she didn't like to talk about it, but it was one of those things that she chose to ignore. Ignorance was bliss when it came to that.

"Totally. I'm sure he won't mind being dragged out of class a little early," she giggled. Dom was Clara's other favorite after Kylie. She and Dom had of course gotten off on the wrong foot. She'd even beaten him up her first week in the Cooper home, however now they hung out all the time and she'd even taught him some karate moves.

Clara hugged her foster sister back. Clara had never had siblings before but over the past year she'd learned to adjust to being surrounded by people all of the time, and almost preferred it sometimes. It had started out as an annoyance but now had turned into a comfort. She reached over and grabbed some gummy bears for herself. "Yeah, that's pretty much it in a nutshell," she said agreeing with Kylie's assessment of everyone. Only Clara thought that she liked the boys better than the girls, not because anything even remotely romantic was on her mind but because she figured if given the choice she'd probably have more in common with the boys than a bunch of giggly girls who probably couldn't stand up for themselves if they tried.

"Two more stops," she said, glancing past Kylie and out the window. "Should we make more cupcakes this afternoon?" she asked. "Or maybe if no one else has claimed the TV we can watch something," she said. With so many kids it was rare to get TV time which wasn't shared which kind of forced Clara to watch less than she might have had she had it all to herself.

[Kylie Cooper]

Nodding enthusiastically at Clara's accurate prediction of their foster brother, Kylie retorted with a "Totally!" and a chuckle. If they knew Dom, he would be chewing at the thought of cutting class early just to have lunch together. Dominic was a tough cookie to crack but Kylie being Kylie, she managed to burst through his defenses and they've been best friends ever since. Dom was absolutely protective of Kylie and Kylie knew Dom and Clara were begrudgingly each other's favourites.

"Right? I totally think so. There's this girl in my English class and her name's Tia Gonzales and she's a total prima donna. I caught her powdering her nose in the toilet and gossipping about a boy named Patrick Donovan and how he's a total stud and she's totally scoring with him soon enough." Kylie made a face as she mimicked Tia powdering her nose. "Yuck." She shuddered before happily munching away on her gummy bears. "Oh Godiva I'm out of gummies. Can we stop by the candy shop before we head home? There's one right around the corner it won't be out of our way. Yes?"

"Cupcakes!" Kylie exclaimed, making the middle aged man in a business suit in front of her jump in his seat. She suppressed a giggle and looked everywhere else but him when he turned around with an annoyed look on his face. The moment he turned back to the front, Kylie quietly giggled on Clara's shoulder. Once she had control over herself, Kylie licked her fingers and nodded at Clara's question. "I think cupcakes should be baked. I'm thinking chocolate cupcakes and raspberry swirlies on top. Wait...did we not talk about this already? Gummy bear cupcakes!"

The bus stopped and the aggravated business suit guy got off. As he walked past their window, Kylie waved at him enthusiastically with a big goofy grin on her face. The guy seemed to bite his lip trying to stop a smile from bursting out. The bus moved forward and Kylie's attention was back on Clara. "The TV's boring anyway. All it has are Lila and Danielle's soap operas. Oh by the way did you know that one of their fave soap stars goes to the school? Greg something or other."

[Clara Ryerson]

"Patrick Donovan," Clara repeated the name. "I heard of him. Some annoying kid in my class was bragging about being his brother or something," she shrugged. "He's probably a huge tool or something," she said not really caring about this boy who apparently people in school thought was special. She giggled at Kylie's impression and showed appropriate concern about the gummies. "Of course we'll go to the candy store," Clara said. "I want to get sour gummies anyway," she said. She did like the regular ones too but she thought the sour ones were the best.

"Yep, gummy cupcakes," she nodded. "Although those other kind sound good. We'll have to make a list or something--otherwise I'll forget," she said, oblivious to the man Kylie was sort of mocking. She was busy watching a little kid who was hiding under one of the seats. It was sort of gross because while the bus was clean for a bus it was still a bus and Clara could only guess that the underneath of the seats were sticky. The kid made a silly face at her and she made one back, her game getting interrupted by the sound of Kylie. She turned back to her foster sister.

"I wouldn't know," she said shaking her head. "I run away when they watch those. They're just so boring and pointless. It will be really funny if one of the guys goes to our school though. I'm sure Danielle's already tried to date him and I bet Lila will follow him around but not say a word if he talks to her," she smirked, feeling as if she'd given an accurate assessment of their sisters.

The bus came to a halt once more and it was their stop. Clara jumped up from her seat, making one more face at the little kid before she exited the bus. "Onto the candy store!" she said enthusiastically as she jumped off of the bus and onto the curb.

[Kylie Cooper]

"Are you talking about Ryan Donovan? I think I have him in one of my classes too. I mean I don't know if he's a huge tool but I doubt he's actually a nice person though. I mean, he hangs out with Haden Kiley. HE is a major tool. But I suppose hanging out with Haden Kiley makes him a tool by association." Kylie was in the bathroom a really long time because she didn't want Tia to know she was in there and Tia and her posse took a really long time to powder their noses. The first day and already Kylie was a gossipmonger. She was utterly ashamed.

"Oh sour gummies are the bomb!" Kylie enthused, using the word her father liked to use. She thought it was cute coming from an old man and with her father's silly accent, it was way funny. "A list of cupcakes to make. Yes, yes, yes. Okay so gummy bear cupcakes should definitely be the top priority and we're making it today. I'll have mom help us with the oven timer thingie because I don't know what the knobs mean and it's all digital and stuff so I'll leave it to her." Kylie spoke a mile a minute, drifting off into her own thoughts about what they needed for their cupcakes.

Laughing at Clara's more than true comments, Kylie piped in with hers. "I bet Lila's already doodled in her notebooks with his name and hears in a heart or Mr and Mrs Greg Something or something." Kylie was not a wordsmith, it seemed. She scrambled for the exit when Clara announced their stop, not noticing the kid under the seat. If she had, she would have probably told the kid that underneath the seats were those little mangy creatures that fed on littler kids like him.

They rushed to the candy store and greeted the owner happily. "Hey kiddos." He returned their greeting as happily. Kylie grabbed the little baggy and a tong so they could pick their candies from the multi-coloured containers that lined the store's interior. Kylie mostly argued with herself which one she should pick since they had a tight budget and Kylie liked to save some of what she got as allowance. Once she had decided, she waited for Clara.

"You think Miles and Dom had a good day at school? I mean I know they've been there longer than us but you know...they could have had less awesome days than we did."