A few days later, and classes were all set to start at NCAT. Sakari stepped back into her dorm after her shower, getting ready to get dressed and head out for her 10 A.M. lecture.

Sakari was in the Child Development and Family studies program at her school, with a focus on Early Childhood Education. She had wanted to be a preschool teacher for as long as she could remember—Ms. Honey from Matilda was her earliest inspiration.

She loved school and loved to learn new things, so to impart that onto young kids was something she could see herself doing for years. She wanted to be the reason kids were excited to come to school, and tell their parents all the cool things they did in class that day.

Now, she was getting ready for her child development class, which she was excited about. She thought one of the coolest parts of her major were the psychological kind of classes, the ones that helped her learn more about kids, their behavior and how to handle it.

"Have a good day, Jeli!" Sakari called, rubbing cocoa butter into her skin.

Jelani was a Chemical Engineering major, so she had a bit of a more hectic schedule than Sakari.

"Thank you baby, you too! Text me so we can go get lunch, your classes are over at like 1:30 right?" she asked.

"Yep, I'll text you, now go! Before you late on your first day," she waved her off and Jelani took off with a smile.

Sakari took her time picking out something to wear, she wanted to be comfortable since she'd be out till about 3 today, but she also wanted to make a good impression at least once before coming to class in her pajamas—which was her favorite thing to do.

She hummed to herself as she got dressed, when her phone began to ring, and she saw that her sister's iPad was calling, which was slightly confusing because she should have been at school by now.

"Hello?" she answered. "Oh! Hi Big mama," she waved at her grandmother with a smile.

"Hi my baby. How are you?" she wondered. "I hope you're okay all the way up there,"

"I'm good Big mama. How are you? You okay?" she tilted her head. Her grandmother usually would call on her own phone if she wanted to talk, so she was slightly confused.

"Oh I'm fine, love. Your brother keeps calling your name chile and he won't go down for a nap so I figured he misses you," she explained, turning the iPad toward Tyree who was looking all over, most likely for his sister.

"Aw, my baby. Hey fatman!" she called and he turned to face her. "It's Sissa! Hi baby,"

"Sissa!" he cheered, with a grin on his face, little dimples poking into his cheeks. When Ty was born, Sakari fell in love. It happened with all her siblings but as a teenager having such a young sibling was so precious to her. She loved watching him grow into his own little person every day. She felt like his mom when their mom wasn't around.

"I miss you so much, Tyree," she pouted. "Are you being nice to Big mama?" she raised her eyebrows and he just nodded, making her laugh because he probably wasn't. "You need to take a nap, little boy,"

He whined and reached for the iPad like he could get to her, making her a little sad. She blew him a few kisses, making him smile again. "I love you!"

"Luh you" he mumbled back and she cheesed. For eleven months, he talked pretty well sometimes. "Night night?" he tilted his head.

"Mhm, you gotta go night night, baby. Talk to you later, she waved with a a big smile. "He should be okay now, Big mama," she spoke to her grandmother who came back into the camera.

"You're gonna be a fantastic teacher, Sakari," her grandmother smiled and Sakari grinned. They talked for a little while longer before she had to leave for class, and she did so with a smile, happy she got to start her day off on such a good note.

Sakari sat in her Child Development class, slightly annoyed because she was being forced to talk to people. She didn't mind ice breakers but they got slightly repetitive. This one was the same as she was used to—just introduce yourself and give an interesting fact about your life, but this time it was to the person you sat beside, since the class was basically small tables of two.

"Um, I'm Sakari Carter, I'm 19, I'll be 20 in January, and I'm an Early Childhood Education major," she began, turning to face the girl next to her. She was beautiful. Her skin was a pretty caramel hue and her eyes were wide and a warm deep brown that shone even in the dull classroom lights.

She tried to think of a fact, and couldn't think of anything interesting. "Uh...I don't know if this is interesting but I have four siblings...and two middle names?" she added and the girl smiled.

"I think it's interesting," she nodded. "I'm Aja—Aja Simmons, I'll be 20 in May. I'm also an Early Childhood Education major, and I am from Texas," she smiled.

"Really?! Me too!" Sakari grinned. "What part?" she wondered.

"Dallas," she smiled. "How bout you?"

"Houston," she replied.

"Oop, okay, city girl," Aja teased and Sakari laughed.

"I only been to Dallas like twice, but I know it's really nice. Do you fly or drive when you come up here?" she asked.

"Girl, fly. I can't imagine driving here from home," she said, wide eyes just imagining such a long ride. "Do you drive?"

"Yeah," Sakari chuckled. "My best friend and I drive together though, we split the drive up in half. It's hella long, but flying gets expensive, at least for me," she explained.

She and Aja talked for a little while longer before the professor cut in. After that, they just went through the syllabus and class ended. Sakari always loved the first few days of class because most professors didn't assign any work, just a course review.

"I'll see you later, girl," Aja smiled.

Yeah, see you! Be safe wherever you going," she waved. As she went to take her phone out to see what building her next class was in, she heard her name being called, and she looked up to see Mekhi, waving, making her smile.

She waved back, and he jogged over to her. "Wassup? How was class?"

"It was cool, why you in this building? I thought you had practice this morning?" she wondered, as they both started walking off.

"I did, from like 8 to 9:45, it wasn't like real practice, I'on know why he had my ass out there so early," he fussed "I just remembered you had this class, and we both got African American studies next, so I thought you'd wanna walk wit' me," he shrugged, and she could feel butterflies in the pit of her stomach.

"I don't, but thanks for coming anyway," she teased and he smacked his lips, pushing her by her shoulder, causing her to trip over her feet, luckily she caught herself before she fell. "If I would have fell that would have been yo ass Mr. Postman," she pointed.

"That's what you get, smart ass mouth," he bucked at her and she bucked back, then they stared at each other for a second before busting out laughing. "I can't stand you, dawg," he laughed.

As they walked, Khi greeted various people on campus. He was a football player after all, he'd literally been on television before, it seemed like everyone she knew, knew Khi. He spoke to his teammates, classmates, and of course the occasional girl who just wanted to wave at him.

"Okay, superstar, class is this way," she chuckled as he began to walk right past the building, busy saying hello to one of his teammates.

"Oh my bad," he shook his head. "You gon sit by me?"

"Sure, I mean we decided to take this class together," she reminded him. As they got further into their college careers, they wanted to make sure they had time to spend that didn't involve them both being exhausted after class and practice for him. So, they figured this was a happy medium. They both needed an elective anyway.

The pair got settled in seats at the end of the middle row, these were set up as tables as well—but for three. As time went on, nobody took the third seat, so Sakari laid her bag in it before grabbing her phone and seeing a text from Semaja, making her smile a bit.

sugafoot🦄💜✨: miss you sissa 💕
: i miss you too sugarrrrr 🥺

She and Semaja were extremely close, it was only those two for nine years until Shiloh was born anyway. They were very similar in attitudes, both girls being on the quiet side, but Semaja was more aloof. She wasn't necessarily friendly, but she wasn't mean either.

Sakari liked to say she just existed.

She wasn't the sweetest baby, she was slightly mean, so everyone was confused as to why her parents called her Sugarfoot, it was just because she used to dance a lot as a child.

"That's Maja?" Mekhi asked.

"You in my business?!" she whipped around to look at him, as he was blatantly reading her messages. "You need to stop doing that, you gon' see something you'on wanna see one day," she locked her phone.

"Yeah yeah," he waved her off. "I got my game schedule, so dust off that jersey, season starting soon," he mentioned.

"I know, you excited?" she wondered, and he nodded.

"I missed playing, I'm just a lil nervous," he shrugged, and she figured this was coming.

"You'll do great, if you need me I'll be somewhere up there in the stands," she reminded him and he nodded with a short smile. "Don't forget to call Auntie before the game, you know she gon die if she can't pray over you,"

"Dramatic ass," he chuckled.

"Uh uh, don't do my sis, please," she laughed and shortly after, class began.

"Ima see you later, Tootie, be safe aight?" Mekhi said, after their class ended. She had lunch plans, and he did as well, Traveon and two of his other teammates were actually waiting for him a few feet away, and he knew Jelani was waiting on Sakari close by.

"Yeah, you too," she smiled, making him do the same. "Stop smiling like that, weirdo," she teased, and he smacked his teeth.

"I really don't like you, get out my face," he shook his head and she laughed.

"Bye, Khi," she giggled.

"Bye, lil girl," he chuckled and she walked off. He waited till she was out of sight before turning to join his friends.

"Her ass fine as fuck," one of the boys said, leaning over to catch her bending the corner. "Damn," he shook his head. "You sure she not gon give me—"

"No, nigga. Shit," Khi chuckled. "She don't wanna fuck wit' nobody close to me, I told y'all ass this so many times and you still don't believe me?" he asked as they walked off toward their cars. They were going off campus to eat today.

"No! Because why not? The hell wrong wit' us?" the guy— Dontae asked.

He shrugged, knowing the answer. For one, Sakari found men like Dontae, while nice, extremely obnoxious and she couldn't handle too big of an ego. Secondly, ever since high school when he noticed that girls would only try to befriend Sakari because of him, he made an agreement of sorts with her that he wouldn't sleep with anyone who she considered a friend, and although she wasn't active at the time she made the same agreement.

There were exceptions, like if you found yourself actually liking the person and wanting to be in a relationship with them of course the other wouldn't stop you from pursuing it, or unless the person was explicitly okay with it and told the other so. But—as it pertained to casual sex, they'd try to refrain from picking off of the other's friend group.

"Nigga you annoying, she not gon like you anyway," Traveon chuckled and Ethan sucked his teeth, Khi was just grateful for a subject change, because knowing Dontae, he knew exactly what was coming next.

"How I'm annoying? Explain," he clasped his hands together, and Khi shook his head, following them to Trae's car.

After lunch, Khi had one more class and then he was off to practice. As usual, he worked his hardest and was completely worn out by the time it was over, and all he wanted was a hot shower and his bed.

"Hey, Mekhi," he heard from behind him as he walked from the gym to his room. He turned around to see one of his on again off again friends...with benefits. Her name was Amina, she was on the dance team and a nursing major so in their freshman year, they saw a whole lot of each other.

They clicked, she was cool and pretty easy to talk to but he couldn't really see himself in an actual relationship with her, he didn't know why. But he communicated that to her, and apparently she shared the same sentiment so their relationship was purely platonic—and sexual when they wanted it to be. Little to no intimacy, it was like an exchange between them.

"Oh, wassup, Mina? How you been?" he asked, giving her a quick hug before checking his phone as he felt if vibrate.

tutu💕🤞🏾: lmaoooo please, i just bought you some pedialyte. drink water and take your black ass to sleep pls.

He was complaining about how he was almost out of his favorite flavor, which he was always drinking especially after a practice like this one. She had bought him some before they got to school, and he was already running low.

"I been good, I just got off practice myself, I'm hella tired," she said, and he nodded in agreement. They both began to walk, since the sun was set and it was nearly time for bed—at least for Khi. "Had a good summer?" she asked.

He fought the urge to laugh—he knew what she wanted and he didn't understand why she was beating around the bush. "Mina, we'on gotta make no small talk, if you want sum' let me know," he smirked.

"Why you gotta say it like that?" she giggled and he shook his head with the same smug look on his face. "Well, if you already know what I want, what we waiting here for?" she raised her eyebrows.

He knew he couldn't go back to the dorm, Traveon was on his way there, and her roommate was probably in her dorm as well.

"My car's right up there," she pointed, breaking his thoughts. "I know a spot,"

"Bet," he nodded, and followed behind her.

"Cool, goodnight. Lemme know when you get in the room aight?" Khi yawned as he got out of Amina's car. "Be safe,"

"I will," she smiled lazily and he chuckled to himself before heading upstairs. It wasn't long—maybe 30 minutes tops but that was enough to make him want nothing else but sleep at this point, but he knew he needed a shower, he refused to get in his bed dirty.

He said hello to Traveon before quickly grabbing his things to wash up and headed straight for the shower. After that, he brushed his teeth and washed his face, and by that time he was practically dragging his feet back to the dorm.

"Damn nigga," Trae laughed. "You look like you finna pass out,"

"I am," he huffed, getting in bed. "I'on know why you so energetic,"

"Because I didn't decide to go get some ass right after practice, I'm studying like a good student who pays tuition," he teased, knowing a large chunk of Khi's tuition was paid by his sports scholarship.

"Sounds like jealousy to me," Khi chuckled, pulling his charger cord up to plug his phone in for the night. He saw Sakari had texted him back, so he decided to respond before closing his eyes and getting some rest.

tutu💕🤞🏾: khi, go to bed lol. get some sleep.
: always tryna get rid of me. you better be glad im half sleep already or I would have called your mean ass.
tutu💕🤞🏾: and i would have declined.
tutu💕🤞🏾: respectfully ❤️ now goodnight.
: rude ass. goodnight lmao

He sat his phone down then, staring at the ceiling and allowing himself to finally get the rest he needed.

heyyyy y'all, happy friday!

i hope y'all enjoyed this update :) lets get into it shall we?

first, we meet aja! what y'all think?

second, khi and kari's agreement. tell me what we think, smart? at least on sakari's part lol. have y'all messed with y'all friends friends 👀?

thirdlyyyy ms. amina makes an appearance. how y'all feel about that relationship there? you think there's actually something more? lmk!

also—all khi's friends think she fine 💀 hilarious.

lmk your favorite parts! (i might double update this today but you didn't hear that from me 🤫)

till next time 😉