Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ PS15 ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

The next day Sora apologized to emo-boy for lashing out on him the day before. He really did feel bad about it and he assured the guy (whose name turned out to be Roxas) he was not usually that aggressive. Roxas said he didn't mind at all and that life really was a spiraling black bit of doom and despair. Once you got sucked in, despite your constant struggle, there was no way out, the exit blocked by fear and personal weaknesses. There were a couple of dark poems following that and Sora got the feeling this speech wasn't made up off the top of Roxas' head.

 

That was peculiar, Sora thought as Roxas abruptly departed after the discovery of Sora's watch reading three o'clock. Sora hadn't been able to notify him that his watch was actually two hours fast, but he was honestly pretty glad he had left.

 

He should join the poetry club, Sora joked to himself, because everyone knew that the poetry club had turned into skateboarding club quite some time ago, although no one knew how the change came about or why their school had a poetry club in the first place.

 

Sora was just about done with convincing himself of never speaking with Roxas again until he noticed a small paper the boy had left behind during the confusion of the dash to his appointment. It's probably just scrap paper, Sora thought, picking it up and turning it over.

 

It wasn't scrap paper (or else Roxas was a really good artist). It was a picture of four kids. One was blond and grinning wickedly, looking like the cat that ate the canary. His hair was styled strangely; he had spikes, but they didn't have enough form to stay up by themselves and ended up curling down, ruining the effect. Another was a chubby boy who seemed good-natured and friendly from his warm smile. His eyes twinkled at the camera. It was unusual to capture such a natural smile on film. The third was a girl this time. She had two braids of rich brown hair and was holding up a peace sign in the photograph. The last was Roxas, but he was wearing a white jacket and smiling bigger than Sora ever could. They were standing in some sort of playground, seeing as there was a jungle gym in the background, but Sora couldn't recognize the location.

 

Well, that threw his plans out the window. It wouldn't be very fair to Roxas if it ended up that the picture was extremely important to him (and from the worn look of the paper, it seemed Roxas had handled it many times). So now another obligation was added onto his agenda.

 

As for the first obligation, the night before, his mom had been speaking to him about how he never had anyone over anymore. Even Riku, who used to come every day, rain or shine, homework or no homework. Sora rejected that. He lied and persistently vowed Kairi stopped by for a visit during the time his mother had gone out on Sunday, but ended up saying Saturday by accident.

“Do you swear on the Bible?” his mother had retaliated his claims with.

 

“Yes, Mom, I swear on the Bible,” he mumbled.

 

“Really, do you? Are you sure?” she interrogated.

 

“Yes, Mom, I swear on the Bible,” he repeated with more confidence behind his voice.

 

He received a slap in return for that and a shriek of, “Don't you dare use the Bible as some frivolous object! I can't believe you'd lie! You're going to church this Sunday no matter what, you hear me? No more skipping! God will not tolerate this behavior and neither will I!”

 

Despite being an immoral person herself, Sora's mother was surprisingly pious. Sora knew from his mom's previous antics that as long as he solved the original matter, God would apparently have mercy and he'd be back on his way to heaven. (Besides, wasn't the road to hell paved with good intentions?) Which meant as long as he had someone familiar come over for a bit, he could burn the Bible that his mom forced him to keep in his nightstand. Like he was really going to one day get up and read the Bible. Ha!

 

Of course, even if Sora wasn't able to rope someone into rescuing him from boredom, his mom had a poor memory and was so busy, matters with her son were rarely taken care of. Worse case scenario and Sora did have to attend sermons on Sunday, he would at least get hot chocolate afterwards. (How was that religious? He didn't know and didn't care because that was some really good hot chocolate.) All in all, church wasn't terrible, but it wasn't Sora's most favorite thing in the world.

 

Bringing it back the initial matter at hand, the first item on his agenda was finding someone who could waste some time at his house. Currently, his watch read three thirty, which meant it was actually one thirty, which meant he had another hour until school was over, which meant he was leaving early today.

 

No one questioned him as he rose in the middle of a test half the people in the room were folding into paper airplanes. The other half were sleeping for the most part, but there was that pyro-dude in the corner who was rolling his test paper around some greenish-brown leaves. Pillow-lass was dreaming away and snorted a series of oddly disturbing snores right before Sora managed to escape.

He wasn't sure what exactly he'd do at Norton Academy for an hour, so Sora opted for walking at a remarkably slow pace, hoping to trim off at least three-fourths of the wait with the journey. Destiny Islands was uncommonly quiet, he realized during his stroll, when most of the teenagers were at school. This was probably because he had chosen to cross the island by walking along the beach. The sands were usually occupied by beach bunnies and blitzball players, but it seemed school got between them and the waves.

 

I should come out here more often, he thought. Aside from some squawking seagulls and the rumble of the waves, the beach was absolutely silent. The sand made a scrunching sound beneath his feet. He took off his shoes and socks towards the end of his traipse, enjoying the feeling of the sand between his toes. He then rolled up his pant legs and stood in the water for a while, breathing in the scent of the sea.

 

In the distance, a black dot could be made out. The island we all used to play at, Sora recognized. And suddenly, he felt very old, looking out at that island, so he walked out of the water and squished his sandy feet into his socks, then inserting his feet into his shoes and strutting away swiftly. He rolled his pant legs back down as well and they stuck to his legs, causing them to itch. Occasionally, he'd lift up his foot to brush against his leg, trying to scrape the unwanted particles off his skin.

 

I'll soak my feet once I get home, he told himself.

 

Sora ended up exceeding his expectations, killing fifty minutes with his detour to the beach. Soon, the view of a vast building came into his line of vision. Norton Academy was much bigger than PS15 and much more extravagant to boot. There was a silver gate lining the grounds, containing rows of trees and bushes, speckled with pinks, oranges, reds, and yellows, courtesy of the flowers and a winding brick path that led up to the building itself. The campus was tended to with much care, not a single leaf out of place. Some benches lined the path, and a teacher sat on one, a cigarette in one hand and a green pen in the other, some papers below her, which Sora assumed were tests or homework.

 

No one but the students or employees were let inside the actual building, so Sora could only imagine it from Riku's last description (supplied as Sora once again had to sit through the repulsive taste of sea-salt ice cream, eventually feeding it to some cat once Riku left. The next day there was a dead cat lying on Sora's front porch, which he could only take as a bad omen. The artificial flavoring in that ice cream made him cringe.).

 

Nevertheless, the exterior of the building was rumored to be breathtaking. It had a mid-evil style, apparently placed in an old castle in the region. Some new parts had been added on, for safety and convenience, but for the most part, the lessons were taught in the original rooms, so the castle basically looked like it did for the past couple of centuries. The brick was reddish in color with black tiles for the roof. The words “Norton Academy” were no where to be seen, unlike Sora's own school, which had giant gray letters and numbers on the front of the building, making it look even more dumpy.

 

Students emerged from the buildings shortly, chattering softly to one another. As more and more classes were let out, the noise grew louder and louder. The gates were finally opened and Sora was almost run over by the stampede of people. He looked around for a head of silver hair. How many people could have silver hair?

 

A lot of people, was soon revealed to Sora as he mistook another white-haired man for his friend. Sora began to feel very, very stupid. Not only because he could not recognize his friend, but also for being rejected from out of the plethora of students accepted. At least one of them had to be dumber than he!

 

“Sora? What are you doing here?”

 

Sora twisted his head back and forth to track the source of the voice. He finally located Kairi in the middle of a group of girls. They were all dressed in the customary school uniform: a white collared shirt with plaid skirts in blue. Kairi herself was wearing navy socks that rested just below her knees and white sneakers. It had been a while since he saw her because she was occupied for the last couple of group meetings due to a long-term project. Hoping the essay or whatever she had decided to organize her information in was complete, Sora bounded over to her and swept her into a hug, lifting her feet off the ground for a couple of seconds. He had finally become taller than Kairi and took advantage of the height difference as many times as possible, no matter how small it was.

 

She squealed a bit at the sudden elevation and her friends all giggled. Sora may have grown taller, but Kairi had grown prettier, in his mind. She grew her hair out over the summer so that it came down to her shoulders, spreading out over her delicate frame. Her eyes were big and round, giving her an innocent look, almost fragile. Her nose was cute, her lips plump, her skin pale and flawless, and overall she was perfect.

 

“Does Riku mind?” one of her friends butted in. So Tidus wasn't lying, Sora thought bitterly.

 

“No, no. He's just a childhood friend,” Kairi defended. At this point, Sora was forced to let go of the beautiful girl, although it pained his heart now that he could really see how wonderful Kairi was.

 

“Are you sure? You never mentioned any childhood friends. And neither did Riku!” the friend, a brunette, continued to tease.

 

“Oh, shut up! He doesn't matter, okay? He's nothing to me. Why don't you guys go ahead without me. I'll catch up later.” She waved them away with a dainty hand. Her fingernails had been coated with a light pink and trimmed neatly at the ends. Sora focused his attention on Kairi's hand instead of the blatant insult to his role in her life. He was on the brink of kissing the hand he was staring at, but he scolded himself for losing his composure and chose to wrap an arm around her shoulder for consolidation.

 

“Hey Kairi, are you free today?” Sora voiced.

 

“Huh? Today? Sorry, my friends and I were gonna go bowling, so I can't just quit on them.” She punctuated with an apologetic smile and a pat on Sora's back before freeing herself from his clutch. “But hey, I'll see you around, yeah?” With that she scampered off.

 

Sora had to jog to catch up to her. Unfortunately, Kairi had become a much faster runner during the absence of races between she, Riku, and the boy now struggling to go at half the speed that the person he was in pursuit of was zooming at. There were several instances where he thought he had lost her as she rounded sharp turns or began sprinting even faster.

 

“Wait up,”—huff, huff—“I... I just... I just need a favor!” There was another break reserved for panting. PS15 had no gym program and Sora had been slacking off. This isn't working, he thought. He stopped and called out to Kairi, who he hoped could hear from such a distance.

 

“My house is on the way to the bowling alley! It'll just take two seconds!” he reasoned.

 

The figure halted and began to jog back towards the spot where Sora hung his head downwards, hands on his knees, sweat dripping from his forehead.

 

“What do you need?” she asked, not a sign of exhaustion in her tone.

 

“Come over to... to... my house... mom... church...” Sora took a deep breath and started anew. “My mom thinks I'm antisocial and stuff 'cause you guys never come over anymore. She's making me go to church if I don't invite anyone over. You just need to step inside for a second and then she'll be satisfied. Can you? Please?”

 

“Sure thing.”

 

The two old friends continued at a much slower pace.

 

“So... I hear you and Riku are, uh, dating,” Sora began tentatively.

 

“Oh? Whoops! We forgot to tell you! How'd you find that out?” Sora might have been offended if Kairi wasn't smiling as charmingly as she was.

 

“Oh, you know, Tidus with the phone and the gossip and the... yeah...” he murmured. Maybe it would have been better to have stuck around and waited for Riku, he pondered while he attempted to access the part of his brain that pieced together full sentences. How to make a peanut butter sandwich, how to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on the mandolin...

 

“Oh,” she countered. How to create a model airplane out of toothpicks, how to make a card tower...

 

“Oh,” he agreed. How to brush his teeth, how to clear his throat in a way that made him sound like he was about to say something important...

 

“Things have changed,” Kairi mentioned.

 

“Yeah...” Sora had already found how to reply with monosyllabic words, so he decided to stick to what he knew. After the wave of relief that came with that bit of knowledge, it took him a while to process the meaning behind the sentence he'd just automatically acquiesced with. He then felt nothing but guilt, remembering the promise he had once made with Kairi. Don't ever change, she had chided. What was he supposed to do? Drink so much coffee he'd stay small enough to wear the same clothes for the rest of his life? She had changed more than he did anyway. Her personality had shifted as well, as his had stayed the same for the most part, he argued.

 

“Do you remember that promise we made to each other a long time ago?” Kairi inquired with the hint of a smile tugging at her lips, closing her eyes slightly as she reminisced.

 

“Mm?” What about it?

 

“That was stupid of me, wasn't it? Thinking that we'd never change. That wouldn't do us any good, being so rigid and set in our childish behavior. I dunno... I always look back at that moment and feel terrible about it, trying to hold you back with me. I dunno... I'm glad things changed, aren't you?”

 

“Ecstatic,” Sora grumbled.

 

“What?” she replied. He mentally slapped himself, emphasizing the importance of sticking to the most simplistic speech possible. Make it up to her, quickly! he shouted at himself.

 

“Well, lately... I mean, it feels like you've all been ignoring me.” That wasn't making it up to her, he pointed out to himself. Sora felt his eye twitch.

 

Kairi began to fumble over her words and babble. “Not ignoring you, just... well, it's partially because... if you would only... do you think... well, in retrospect and, uh... when you think of our schools and the matter of, well... look, what I'm trying to say is... uh... well, maybe we'd be more willing to hang out with you if you would only value your own education a bit more,” she concluded weakly.

 

“What do you mean by that?” Sora interrogated, becoming cross.

 

“I mean, look at your school. That's not where you go to become a rocket scientist. That's where you go if you're planning on working in a deli or in some illegal sweatshop. It's just, well, it's unnerving is all. Do you even want to go to college?”

 

Sora shook his head in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”

She suddenly looked ashamed. “Just forget it. That wasn't right of me.” She sped up a bit so Sora could only view the back of her head.

 

“Hold on! You can't just take something like that back!” He grabbed her arm and forced her body to face him.

 

“Shut up, Sora. Let it go.” Head turned away, she shook her arm around, trying to free herself from his grasp. With each struggle, he tightened his grip, becoming even angrier.

 

“Let it go? How am I supposed to let something like that go?” He twisted her arm even farther and she began to scream. It was now bent in an odd way that made her elbow stick out in an awkward direction. Blood trickled down her forearm as Sora's fingernails dug into her flesh.

 

“Stop it, Sora! Let go! You're hurting me! What's wrong with you?” Tears bubbled up in her eyes and streaked down her face. She finally yanked her arm away and gingerly touched her fingers to it. “What's wrong with you?” she reiterated, livid.

 

She glared at him through blurred vision, the exclamation hanging over the two, suffocating them.

 

Sora's eyes widened with remorse as he spotted the red liquid. Had he really just done that?

 

“Oh god, Kairi, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. Please, oh god, I'm so sorry. I never meant to, please believe me,” he begged.

 

“I have to go. My friends are waiting,” she uttered in an undertone.

 

“No wait, Kairi, I'm so sorry. I have no idea what got into me,” Sora cried. “Just hold on, just wait.”

 

It was too late though, and she was already jogging off.

 

“Wait, Kairi, wait,” he said even though she had disappeared from his sight. He examined his hand, as if the reasoning behind his behavior would be written there.

 

Back at chess club, where Sora found himself thirty minutes later, they had gone back to checkers. He stuck around for a couple of minutes to see if Roxas would show up and he could return the picture, but the mock-emo wasn't present. There was no reason to stick around much longer. Sora stunk at Connect Four, but checkers were even worse. He wondered how badly to do if they actually played chess for once.

 

“What's wrong with me?” he whispered to himself.

 

“You don't shut up!” pillow-girl hissed.

 

Sora let out a heavy sigh.

 

---

Thanks so much for the review dreamcaster555! I forgot I had promised to upload another chapter as long as I got one review. So here's the next one!

 

I was actually planning on doing this in the first chapter, but I forgot. I remember now though. I was going to say that whoever guessed who emo-boy, pillow-girl, and pyro-dude are would get a cookie, but now everyone knows emo-boy is Roxas. So how about this. A cookie for anyone who can guess who pillow-girl is (because pyro-dude is kind of obvious).