Chapter 3
MKW is NOT a Real Person. Probably.
Lunch started like any other.
I was halfway through inhaling my sandwich, nodding along to Ashlee's rant about how the cafeteria should be banned for "crimes against spice," when it happened.
A shadow fell over our table.
I looked up mid-chew.
It was him.
Keifer Watson.
And, weirdly, he wasn't alone. Yuri hovered behind him, clearly enjoying the chaos before it even began.
"What do you want?" I asked, wiping crumbs off my lap.
But Keifer didn't look at me. He turned to Fatima.
Which was already suspicious.
"Hey, Fatima," he said, grinning like the annoying golden retriever he was. "Thought you might want to know... someone has a crush on your best friend."
The table went dead silent.
I blinked. "I'm sorry-what?"
Fatima tilted her head. "On Jay?"
"Yup."
I choked on my juice.
Bianca gasped. Ashlee whispered something that sounded like, "Finally." Freya just raised one eyebrow.
Fatima leaned in like a predator sensing gossip. "Who?"
Keifer smirked. "Not telling. Just... the initials. MKW."
And then he turned around and walked off. Like that was a normal thing to do.
"I swear he's lying," I told Fatima for the sixth time that day.
"He said it so casually," she argued, her eyes gleaming. "MKW. It has to be real."
"It could stand for 'My Keyboard Weeps.' Or 'Maybe Keifer's Weird.' Or 'My Knees Wobble.' It doesn't have to be a person."
"You're deflecting."
"I'm surviving."
The next morning, Fatima showed up to school with a mission.
And a notepad.
I stared. "What is that."
"A list of all the boys in our grade. And the other section."
"Fatima-"
"I will find MKW. And you will fall in love. And I will be maid of honor."
"You need therapy."
But she was already halfway across the courtyard, cornering random boys with the smile of someone who'd watched too many detective dramas.
By lunch, she had crossed off twenty-three names. All no's.
"No Mark. No Michael. No Matthew. No Kyle. No Kevin. One kid whose last name is Wali, but his first name is Habib, so not helping," she reported, dramatically flopping down beside me.
"See?" I said, peeling open my lunch. "It's fake. Keifer was probably bored."
"He's a menace, not a matchmaker."
"Exactly."
She sighed. "Okay. Maybe you're right."
I let my guard down.
That was my first mistake.
Because in the middle of Math class - where I was already dying trying to understand whatever X and Y were arguing about now - Fatima suddenly grabbed my arm and shook me.
Hard.
"Wait. Wait. WAIT!"
I stared at her. "What?! We're in the middle of a-"
She leaned in, eyes wide. "M. K. W. Mark. Keifer. Watson."
My brain stalled.
Mark. Keifer. Watson.
Mark.
Keifer.
Watson.
MK-freaking-W.
"Wait-WHAT?!" I whisper-yelled.
Freya glanced at us from two rows down. Our Math teacher raised her eyebrow.
But I couldn't hear anything anymore. My ears were ringing.
Keifer?
Keifer Watson?
He was the initials?
My worst enemy-slash-human headache-slash-person who stares at me when he thinks I won't notice?
Fatima was already vibrating in her seat. "It makes sense. He said it. He teased it. He stares at you, Jay. Like. All the time."
I shook my head. "No. No way. Not possible. This is a simulation. I'm dreaming. The cafeteria food poisoned me."
She grinned. "Or... maybe you're his type."
"His type is annoying people. We have that in common."
But I couldn't stop thinking about it.
MKW.
Mark Keifer Watson.
What kind of name is that anyway?
End of Chapter 3.
(And the beginning of Jay slowly losing her grip on reality.)