Kiana Cruise

by Jody Studdard

  At Michael’s request, Kiana sat down with them on the couch and listened as they told her all about them and gave her some details about Christine. Her grandfather was originally from Sweden (which explained her gorgeous hair), but he had immigrated to the United States when he was young and he had had lived there ever since. Christine had been born in LA and that’s where she had grown up, with most of her family living in and around Laguna Beach. She was named after her grandmother. She had gone to Laguna Beach High, gotten a bachelor of arts at UCLA, and had been recruited into the CIA shortly thereafter. Like Michael, once the USIA had been formed she had been transferred to it. She and Michael had known each other for about twenty years but things had only started getting serious between them the past year.

  Kiana listened to everything attentively and she tried to be as polite as possible, and as accepting as possible, but deep down she did not like it at all. She and Michael had been a two-person team ever since her mother’s death, and as far as Kiana was concerned, it had been a good team. Granted, there had been a few bad days, and plenty of arguments over the years (some quite heated), but at the same time the good times greatly outnumbered the bad. As such, she was hesitant to see any changes, and she was more than a little worried about the addition of another person to the team. Especially a woman.

  The real blow, however, came the next morning. Kiana was sitting at the breakfast table, like usual, eating a bowl of cereal when she heard Michael’s bedroom door open and footsteps come down the hall. Without looking up, she said, “Dad, I need twenty bucks for –”

  At that point, she realized for the first time who was coming down the hall and much to her surprise it wasn’t Michael. It was Christine and she was dressed in a robe. Her hair was damp and she looked like she had just gotten out of the shower.

  “Morning, Kiana.”

  She opened the refrigerator and helped herself to a glass of lemonade. Kiana, not knowing what to do, and totally caught off guard by Christine’s presence, just sat there, with her spoon hanging out of her mouth, as Christine drank the glass of lemonade and turned to face her.

  “Your dad’s still asleep. But I’ll go wake him. What did you say you needed?”

  “Twenty dollars.”

  “Okay. I’ll get it for you.”

  That day was not an easy one for Kiana. She had a pop quiz in biology and she bombed it because she couldn’t concentrate. All she could do was think about Christine. She couldn’t wait to tell her friends about it.

  “What’s the big deal?” Stacy asked. “A lot of dads date nowadays. Hasn’t your dad dated before?”

  “No. It’s just been the two of us. For years.”

  “Really?” Hailey asked. “I thought you said your mom died a long time ago. And you’re saying your dad’s never dated since? That’s impossible. I’ve seen your dad, at practice, and he’s hot, especially for an older guy. I’d expect women to be all over him.”

  “What?” Kiana asked. As had become common the past two days she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “It’s true,” Stacy said. “I’ve seen your dad, too. He’s ripped. I love his shoulders.”

  “I like his arms,” Hailey said.

  “I like his butt,” Veronica said.

  “Oh my god,” Kiana said. Now she had heard everything. She couldn’t believe her friends were talking about her dad like that. It was starting to freak her out.

  “How old is your dad, anyway?” Stacy asked.

  “Thirty-nine,” Kiana said. “Forty in January.”

  “Really?” Hailey asked. “That’s incredible. He looks a lot younger. I would’ve guessed thirty at most.”

  “Me, too,” Veronica said.

  “Regardless,” Stacy said, bringing them all back to task, “what’s the issue, Kiana? Don’t you like the chick your dad is seeing?”

  Kiana shrugged. “Actually, she seemed pretty nice. But I just don’t like the whole idea. Dads shouldn’t do real stuff like dating. That’s for us teenagers. Dads should do dad stuff.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Stacy asked. There was a puzzled look on her face.

  “You know. He should help me with my homework, and take me to softball practice, and to the mall, and other stuff like that.”

  “He can’t have a life of his own?” Veronica asked.

  “He can,” Kiana said, “but only as long as it involves me. And not someone else like this Christine chick. I hardly know anything about her.”

  That actually wasn’t true. Christine and Michael had told her quite a bit about Christine the night before.

  “That sounds pretty selfish to me,” Stacy said.

  “What? You think so?”

  “Totally. But I don’t blame you. I had the same reaction when my dad started dating for the first time. I got jealous and I was convinced his girlfriend was going to turn into the typical evil stepmom, so I got desperate and I tried to drive her away. And I got really desperate at one point and did something really stupid.”

  “What?”

  “I put some laxative in her mocha. Trust me, it was ugly and I still feel bad about it. And it didn’t work and she stayed around anyway. Which was actually a good thing because she wasn’t bad at all. She’s actually really nice and my dad has never been happier. I bet the same thing will happen to you if you give this Christine chick a chance.”

  Kiana listened attentively and took it all in, but even so she wasn’t certain she agreed. As far as she was concerned, another woman was moving in on her territory, and it was bound to be nothing but trouble.

  Chapter 22

  The next week wasn’t easy. Christine stayed the night two more times, on Wednesday and Thursday. Kiana wasn’t happy about it, at all, but Michael seemed really happy when Christine was around so Kiana didn’t say anything. Michael and Christine invited her to dinner with them on Wednesday night, but she declined, saying she had already eaten (which wasn’t true), and they invited her to a movie on Thursday night, but she declined that, too, saying she had a load of homework to do (which also wasn’t true). Later that night, after they had returned from the movie, Kiana came out of her bedroom to get something from the refrigerator and saw them on the living room couch, kissing.

  How ironic, she thought. If that had been me, sitting on the couch kissing a boy, my dad would have come unglued.

  Regardless, she didn’t interrupt them and instead quietly grabbed a glass of apple juice from the kitchen and headed back upstairs to her room.

  So things were uncomfortable, but cordial, until Friday morning. They were all in the kitchen, finishing breakfast, when Christine got up to leave. Apparently, she was heading for the airport to catch a plane to Paris where she was beginning a new assignment. It would keep her in France for at least a week, which made Kiana happy because she wouldn’t have to see her or deal with her for at least that long. So she was in a pretty good mood until Michael did something completely unexpected and totally unacceptable.

  He walked Christine to the door, gave her a kiss goodbye, and said, “See you soon, sweetie.”

  Kiana’s eyes narrowed the minute he said it.

  “No way. That’s my nickname. Not hers.”

  Michael turned to her. There was a perplexed look on his face. “What?”

  “Don’t call her sweetie. That’s my nickname.”

  “I call you kiddo.”

  “You used to call me sweetie. When I was younger. Before you switched to kiddo.”

  At first Michael looked like he didn’t know what to say. What Kiana had said had indeed been true, he had originally called her sweetie, but he still didn’t see what the issue was. He looked at Kiana, then at Christine, then back at Kiana. There was a long, awkward silence as no one said anything.

  Finally, Christine eased the tension. She looked at Michael and said, “It might be better if you call me Christine from now on.”

  Michael nodded. He clearly didn’t understand what the problem was but at the same ti
me wasn’t looking to upset Kiana in any way.

  A few seconds later, Christine departed and Michael closed the door behind her. He turned back to Kiana, to ask her what was going on, but he never got the chance. She had slipped out the house’s back door and was long gone.

  Chapter 23

  Kiana waited another week for Jacen to finally ask her out but unfortunately it never happened. As such, she decided it just wasn’t meant to be so she decided she better move on and try her luck with another boy (she didn’t really want to, but that’s how life went sometimes). Three different boys asked her out that week and she decided to go out with one named Tyler Davidson. Tyler was a tall, thin boy on the school’s track team and he was really good looking, with short, blond hair and blue eyes. He picked her up at her house, around 8:00 pm, and they went to a nearby Red Robin for dinner. Like most first dates, they spent most of their time with small talk, and she learned he was originally from Chicago but had moved to Mill Creek a few years back when his dad, who was an executive at an accounting firm, was transferred to the company’s Seattle office. Overall, it was an okay time, but to be perfectly honest, Kiana quickly began to realize accepting Tyler’s invitation had been a mistake. She really wanted to be with Jacen, and as such, she just couldn’t get into the date with Tyler at all.

  Regardless, she didn’t want to be rude or hurt Tyler’s feelings, since he seemed nice enough, so she decided she would play along and complete the date. Unfortunately, however, things soured as soon as they finished dinner and went to a local theater to catch a movie. As soon as they took their seats, Tyler placed his hand on her knee.

  She smiled briefly, and as politely as possible, removed it.

  Tyler seemed a little disappointed but he didn’t say anything, so Kiana assumed he had gotten the message and there would be no additional issues. Unfortunately, however, less than ten minutes later, and just after the movie had begun, he did it again. He moved his hand onto her leg, but this time a little higher up, closer to her thigh. Once again, as politely as she could, she removed it.

  Kiana wasn’t overly alarmed, since she had had similar experiences with boys in the past and she knew some of them were more persistent than others, and with them it took a little longer before they figured out exactly where the line was drawn.

  But then it happened again. So finally she had no choice but to say something. “Look. I’m really not into touching, so it would be better if you kept your hands to yourself.”

  “It’s no big deal. It won’t hurt you.”

  “I know. But even so, please don’t do it again.”

  “Whatever.”

  Things were fine for a few minutes and Kiana actually started to have a little fun (the movie was a horror/action adventure with an explosion in every scene), but everything came to a crashing halt about twenty minutes later when Tyler slipped his arm around her, just behind her neck.

  That really irritated her. She had given him three warnings and as far as she was concerned three was more than enough.

  Ever so carefully, she pulled her phone from her purse, touched it gently to his side, and pressed the icon that was shaped like a lightning bolt. Doing so activated the phone’s stun gun feature, and it shocked him so badly it made him pee his pants. It was all Kiana could do to keep from laughing out loud, right there in the middle of the theater, as she looked down and saw the urine stain spreading quickly down the front of his jeans.

  It took him a minute to recover from the shock, and when he finally did he was so upset and so embarrassed he jumped up and stormed out of the room. Kiana thought about going after him, just to make certain he was okay and to try to smooth things out a little, but the movie had gotten to a really intense part where zombies had started to take over the world, so she wanted to see what happened. Unfortunately, however, she didn’t get to see much, since Tyler returned a few minutes later and he had a police officer with him. The officer, who was a heavy, burly man with a bald head, waived at her, and he clearly wanted her to step out into the lobby where they could talk and not disturb the theater’s other patrons.

  Wonderful, she thought. If this doesn’t go well, I’m going to have a tough time explaining it to my dad. And then he’ll probably ban me from going on any more dates until I’m thirty.

  “Thanks for stepping outside, young lady. This young man claims you attacked him with some type of stun gun.”

  Kiana nodded. “I told him not to touch me. But he kept doing it. Four times.”

  The officer raised an eyebrow, then turned back to Tyler. “Is that true?”

  “I wasn’t going to hurt her or nothin’.”

  “Did you touch her after she told you not to?”

  “A little.”

  “Son, in Washington, touching someone without her consent is considered assault.”

  “It’s no big deal. I bought her movie ticket. She should be grateful.”

  The officer clearly did not like that response, not at all. “So let me see if I get this right. What you’re saying is, if you buy her ticket then you get to do whatever you want to her?”

  “Not whatever. But a little touchin’ wouldn’t hurt. She might even like it if she gave it a try.”

  The officer shook his head. “I don’t like that attitude at all. Especially since I have a teenage daughter of my own. Let’s head downtown. I think it’s time for you to spend a little time in the juvenile detention center.”

  He grabbed Tyler by one arm and started to haul him away. But then he stopped and turned back to Kiana.

  “Sorry about the interruption, miss. Feel free to return to your movie.”

  He turned and headed for the theater’s exit with Tyler in tow. The last thing Kiana heard as they exited the theater was the sound of the officer’s voice as he said, “Jesus, boy. You stink. You smell like you pissed yourself.”

  Chapter 24

  The following weekend was a fun one for Kiana. Her softball team, the Washington LadyCats, had a tournament. It was in a city called Kent, which was about twenty minutes west of Seattle and a little to the south. Kiana was really excited because it was her first tournament with the team, but at the same time she was also a little nervous since it was the first time she had played in an actual game since the car accident in LA. She had been practicing with the team a lot lately, usually three or four times a week, and she had been doing quite well, but every player knew that games and practices were completely different animals. Just because you did well in practice didn’t mean you would do well in a game.

  The fields were nice and there were four of them total, all sitting around a central building that had restrooms, storage areas, and a concession stand. There were twenty-four teams in the tournament, most of them from Washington, but also a few from Oregon, California, Idaho, and British Columbia. Their first game was against a team from Washington called the Edmonds Express, and, as could have been expected, Kiana got off to a slow start. She played well on defense and made several nice throws during the first three innings, but she struggled batting. Her timing was off and the Express’s pitcher threw some nasty changeups that fooled her badly. As such, she struck out during her first at-bat, then grounded out weakly during her second.

  “Don’t worry, Kiana,” Michael said. He sat in the bleachers with the rest of the parents and fans. “You’ll get the next one.”

  Much to Kiana’s dismay, sitting right next to him was Christine. That irritated Kiana immensely since softball was supposed to be a dad and daughter thing, not a dad, daughter, and girlfriend thing, but she decided she would have to deal with it later. At that point in time, she had to focus on softball and softball alone.

  She got her next at-bat in the fifth inning. At that point, they were losing 4-3 and they had two outs, but at the same time they had two runners on base (Stacy on second and Veronica on third), so it was a golden opportunity for both the team and Kiana. If she could get a hit, even something as weak as a bloop single, both runners would score and they
would take the lead.

  “Here we go, Kiana,” Michael cheered. “Keep your hands up, your chin down. Eyes on the ball.”

  The first pitch was a fastball and Kiana got a piece of it, but barely, and sent it flying over the first base dugout.

  “Foul ball,” blue said. “One strike, no balls.”

  The next pitch was in the dirt, as was the one after that, so Kiana let them go for balls, but the one after that was pure heat, straight down the middle of the plate. Kiana whipped her bat around, as fast as she could, and lined the ball straight back at the pitcher. The pitcher tried to stab at it with her mitt, to knock it down and grab it, but it was moving too fast and it went right past her and into center field for a single. The parents, fans, and her teammates cheered as Veronica and Stacy raced from their bases and scored easily. The Express’s center fielder tried to throw the ball to home plate to get Stacy but it wasn’t even close. She slid under the catcher’s tag easily.

  As such, Kiana was all smiles as she stood on first base. Thanks to her, they were ahead 5-4, and that actually ended up being the final score. At the end of the game, all of the girls clapped her on the back and gave her hugs, and even though it had been a long time since her last game, she quickly started to remember why she had always enjoyed softball so much. The excitement and camaraderie were unparalleled.

  Their next game was against a team from British Columbia called the Bearcats. Kiana thought it was pretty funny – the Bearcats against the LadyCats. Being from southern California, she hadn’t played too many games against Canadian teams but the other girls warned her about them right from the start.

  “They’re usually pretty good,” Stacy said. “And some of them are downright awesome.”

  The Bearcats appeared to be no exception. They jumped to a quick lead when their center fielder hit a double in the bottom half of the first inning, then they added to the lead in the third when their first baseman hit a triple down the third base foul line, scoring a runner from second. In the meantime, however, Kiana and her teammates battled back, scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth when Stacy hit a single, and two more in the bottom of the fifth when Hailey hit a massive triple off of the fence in left field (for a minute, it looked like it was going to be a home run). In the end, they ended up winning 4-2 and Kiana finished with two hits of her own, a double in the third and a single in the fifth.