Apokalypsis | Book 6 | Apokalypsis 6 Morris, Kate (cheapest way to read ebooks TXT) 📖

“Oh, right, thanks,” she said. Then she fled down the hall to that bedroom again. “Avery?” she called from the door.

“Yes?”

“Could I…could I borrow some warmer clothes?”

“Kaia will show you where to get them, sweetheart.”

A moment later, Kaia was at the door and leading her back through the kitchen and down another hall.

“This is my room,” she explained. There were a lot of different hallways and rooms in the huge home, so many Jane could easily get lost. She’d never been in such a large home before. It was modern but had a softness to it, too. Everything was pretty centrally located, but the master bedroom was on a different floor above them. The basement was even cool the way it was laid out for the boys. Kaia’s room was in a different wing down the hall from the kitchen and what looked like study nooks. There were wings and off-shoots all over the place, which made her wonder if the parents had built it this way or if they added wings on as their family expanded. With so many kids, neither would’ve surprised her. Jane always wished she had brothers and sisters. “Whenever you need anything, just come back here.”

“Th-thanks, that’s really nice,” she said, so unused to that sort of treatment from a girl her own age.

Kaia dug around in her huge closet and came out with a pair of navy thermal long john’s, the matching top, and a heavy wool sweater.

“What’s up with that Stephanie chick? You two enemies or something?”

“Something,” she answered and began changing.

“Want me to deal with her for you?”

“What?” she gasped and then choked, which was very glamorous as usual. “No! Gosh, no. Thanks, though. That’s…nice to offer.”

Kaia chuckled. She was feisty.

“Well, offer still stands if you need me to deal with her,” she said and tossed a pair of thick socks to her. “I may be homeschooled, but I have a lot of brothers.”

“Thanks, but we’ve been getting along a little better,” she said, which was true. Mostly Jane avoided her when she could.

“Isn’t she living with you at your dad’s house?”

“Yes,” she answered honestly.

Kaia shrugged and turned to sit on the bed, not seeming to notice that Jane was dressing in front of her. Of course, Kaia had sisters. Actually, she only had one now. But still, she was clearly more used to changing in front of other girls than Jane, who had no siblings at all. She never even used to change in front of Destiny, who was her best friend. At school, before gym class, she’d always tried to change last or in a bathroom stall as if she just had to use the restroom anyway and feigned badly at nonchalance.

“Seems to me,” Kaia said, “she ought to be appreciative of your help.”

“She’s had kind of a rough life.” After she had on the thermal underclothes, Jane pulled back on her jeans and sweater for layering warmth.

“So?” she scoffed. “No reason to be a l’ane.”

“A what?”

“A jackass,” she clarified. “Ave doesn’t like it when I swear, so I do it in other languages.”

Jane smiled. This girl was so nice and really, really odd, but that didn’t matter to her. She wasn’t getting her hopes up, though. Just because she was being nice, didn’t mean she wanted to be her friend. Most of the time, she was just scowling, so Jane held out no hope at all of a bosom friend.

“We should be best friends,” Kaia said, shocking her.

“O-oh, okay,” she stammered like a fool because she also wondered if the girl was reading her thoughts or getting ready to drop a bomb on her that she was just kidding. Losing Destiny had damaged a little part of her heart that would probably never mend, but this girl seemed genuine and kind, albeit a little angry. Jane answered with hesitation in case it was a joke, “Sure. I’d like that.”

“Cool,” Kaia said and stood up. “You can use my deodorant, too. I know that hot dude’s your bf. No worries, though. He’s off-limits. I’d never hit him up, not that I’d know how anyway. Homeschool geek here. So, deodorant, girl. I’m sure you don’t want to smell like your dog.”

She left the room, and Jane sniffed her armpits. Then she took her new best friend’s- of exactly thirty-four seconds- advice.

Kaia Andersson was hardly a geek at all. She was actually super-cool and gorgeous. Homeschooled or not, the girl was fascinating and drew stares from people easily. She’d seen a lot of the other people also new to this large and growing, collective group looking at her a lot. Everyone was checking each other out for various reasons, mostly because they were all virtual strangers to each other. Still, there was something energizing and magnetizing about Kaia as if she required a few extra glances to fully process and appreciate. Jane really wanted to be her friend.

“Jane?” Roman called from the hall.

“Coming!”

She rushed to put on the warm socks and joined them in the dining area. Tristan and Spencer were going over last-minute plans and possible evacuation routes were things to go badly.

Jane grabbed her boots and pulled them on, lacing them snugly. Kaia came over and handed her something in a sandwich bag.

“Homemade granola,” she said. “Eat it. Your nerves will eat up all the extra calories in your body once the adrenaline kicks in. You’ll need this just to stay warm.”

“But I’m not hungry,” she said.

“Eat it anyway,” she forced and slapped the bag into her palm. Then she handed her an energy drink that Jane had never seen before in grocery stores. It was written in another language. “It’s fuel for your gas tank. This is full of vitamins, so it’s not like the energy drinks that’ll give you a heart attack or something. Share it with your boyfriend if you want. It helps.”

“How do you know?”

She smiled. “I read a lot.”

“Oh,” Jane said and was surprised when Kaia hugged her.

“Come back safe. I don’t want to have