AN: This is my first story in a long time so excuse me for being rusty. Otherwise than that, please enjoy.


Chapter One: Look Whose Coming to Town


"Hey, have you gotten taller?" Riku ruffled Sora's spiky brown hair.

"Hey man, cut it out. You know how hard it is to find gel that actually won't clump up my hair?" Sora fixed his hair back into shape.

Riku rolled his turquoise colored eyes. "Wow, how does Kairi put up with you? You probably take more care of your hair then you do her."

"You're the one to talk man, come on you rock white hair. That's ridiculous." Sora laughed.

"Ha, the ladies don't complain though. You remember Jennifer, right?"

Sora flopped on the couch. A grim expression crossed his face. He remembered Jennifer. He was head over heels in love with her until Riku came along and then she was completely into him. It wasn't like Sora stood a chance anyways. Jennifer was popular, smart, and beautiful and also the team leader of the volleyball team. Sora was short, skinny, not so bright and leader of the video game team. He would always over hear her talk about Riku's 'awesome white hair' and his 'gorgeous turquoise colored eyes'. 'Whatever.' Sora mumbled to himself. That was in middle school and now he had Kairi and he was completely over Jennifer. Kairi was way more interesting than Jennifer. She was a average height, had medium length red hair, bright blue eyes, a slim, tone body and long legs that Sora loved the most. She was smart, funny, a joker, and of course loved playing video games. She was so much better than Jennifer.

He sat with his arms crossed with a glum look on his face. Ever since they were kids, Riku has always excelled in practical everything: sports, races, video games, height and even girls. But the tables were turned when Kairi came around. Sora was sure he'd better Riku this time because he had the hottest girl ever under his arm. There was nothing more satisfying than that.

Riku never even made his move on Jennifer. She followed him everywhere and would stand there and stare at him. Sora noticed this many times because occasionally he would try to talk to her and it was almost as if she was in a trance. The one time she spoke to Riku was to yelp out a 'hey' where then Riku nodded in response. The girl practically fainted and giggled and screamed along with her friends. Sora was disgusted and knew Riku was only doing that because he knew he could.

But now that the past was behind them; Sora glum looked turned into a curling smile. His thoughts were interrupted by a hard blow to his face.

"Hey man cut it out!" Sora yelled throwing the pillow back. He missed (like always) and hit the lamp behind Riku. "Wow, nice throw. I'm not picking that up." Riku smirked.

"Shut up. Anyways, are we going to the court or what?"

"Sure man, there's only one problem." Riku said, tying up his shoes. "What's that?" Sora asked.

"You actually have to be a good player in order to play down at the court."

"I am a good player. I may not be the best, but I'm good."

"Sora you couldn't win a game against me if your life depended on it."

"Oh yeah, well how bout money?" Sora exclaimed jumping up from the couch.

"Seriously? Are you sure bout that? Kairi won't like the fact that you spent her birthday gift money on a bet."

Sora just remembered Kairi's birthday was in two weeks. He had saved up enough money from his part-time job as a video game adviser at GameWorld. He had everything planned. He was going to take her to her favorite restaurant and then surprise her with a diamond incrusted Hello Kitty necklace Kairi picked out last summer.

"I'm confident. Kairi is going to appreciate I'm gong to have even more money for her." Sora beamed with confidence.

"Alright, it's your funeral. Well, one-on-one, winner takes all. First to earn twenty-four points is the winner. Course you'd probably won't make it past four." Riku laughed again.

Sora gulped. He wasn't the best basketball player, Riku always proved that. But he couldn't just let Riku get the best of him right? "You're on." They shook hands and prepared to leave. Riku grabbed the basket ball and headed out. Before Sora headed out, he reached into his pocket for his cell to text Kairi:

'You're going to have the best birthday ever. I love you, babe.'

The two of them arrived around the afternoon to the court. The place was almost deserted with a couple of families at the park. They headed over to the asphalt where the two hoops stood. The court had been decorated by local teenagers. Graffiti covered the two backboards of the goals and one of the nets was removed. The other one the far left side was plastered with girly stickers by one the local young girls.

Riku set his gym bag on the side of the basketball goal. He set out his water bottle and sat down to do a quick stretch.

"Let's go Riku!" Sora was pumped and ready to go. He was jumping up and down and took a big gulp of his water before throwing it down to the side.

"You know you're going to pull something if you don't stretch first. And in your case Sora, I would do a lot of stretches." Riku stood up and stretch his arms popping one into place.

"Yeah I'll stretch when I'm dead! Let's go!"

"Alright, let's go!" Riku and Sora stood in the middle of the court. 'I know I can beat him.' Sora thought to himself.

Riku bounced the ball and it went high into the air. "Let's go!" He shouted. He jumped high into the air. Sora followed jumping even higher. He grabbed the ball first pummeling to the ground landing on his feet. Riku landed behind him and quickly sped to his location knocking the ball out of Sora's grip.

"Gotta be quick buddy." Riku smirked.

Sora quickly raced behind Riku and tried to grab the ball from behind him. Riku blocked him, did a super spin and jumped six feet in the air before making his first shot.

"Two down. Twenty-two points to go." Riku said with a smiled. He brushed his long white hair from his face.

Sora growled. 'We'll just see about that.'

Sora did a quick dash for the ball and bounced it multiple times before dashing down the court. Riku followed close behind him and spun right in front of him. 'How did he get so fast?' Sora wondered. His speed certainly increased. Sora dashed to the left of him and race towards the goal. Riku riled up behind him and elbowed him in the side taking the ball in the process and knocking Sora to the ground.

"Hey what the hell? That's a foul!" Sora screamed jumping to his feet.

"We never agreed on rules lover-boy." Riku came back bouncing the ball. "That's four points. Only twenty to go and your money is mine."

"Ugh! Fine if that's how you wanna play!" Sora grabbed the ball from Riku. He bounced the ball and watched Riku walk around him slowly. 'There's no way I'm going to let him win.'

He burst through the court right passed Riku and jumped for slam dunk. OOF! He felt Riku grab his ankle. "Not on my watch, Sora." He swung Sora around by his ankle high into the air. Sora, still clutching the ball, stopped in mid-air and using the height to his advantage, allowed his body to free fall. Riku stood at the goal waiting for him. This time Sora had his move down packed and when Riku appeared in front of him half-way through his fall, he quickly did an upper cut on Riku and threw the ball into the hoop. Riku landed on his back.

Sora was ecstatic. "Oh yeah, in your face!" He shouted and did a dance. "Go Sora, go Sora, go Sora!"

"Nice shot." Riku said sitting up. "But you're still behind and not even close to beating me." He wiped the blood from his lip. It's only going to get worse from here."

Sora stopped dancing and focused back on the game. "How's the blood?" He laughed.

"How bout you…TELL ME!" Riku quickly rushed Sora and with the ball in his hand slammed it into Sora's stomach. "Urgh!" Sora exclaimed. "Is..that..all..you..got?" Sora gritted through his teeth. The two were face-to-face moving backwards moving fast, but slow to one another. It was like someone recorded their actions and slowed the tape down to see what really happened. The game was becoming pretty intense.

Sora dashed to the right escaping Riku's grasp. He fumbled the ball which kept rolling. Riku still moving in the other direction spun around quickly and dashed for the ball on the concrete. Sora did a quick dash move to the ball and with a close encounter with Riku, grabbed the ball before he did. Riku grabbed Sora by the waist and attempted to throw him to the ground. Before he could Sora threw the ball towards the goal and it hit the backboard. Sora fell to the ground. Riku, with his eyes still glued to the ball, watched it go around the ring and made a dash for it. But it was too late.

Sora's total was now four points.

"Looks like we're even." Sora shot at Riku, clutching his stomach.

"For now." Riku shot back.

The two of them continued like this for most of the afternoon. By then the families had stopped interacting in their activities to witness the brutal game of basketball between the two. Riku and Sora were beaten and battered. They were sweating and tired.

It was now an even score. 22-to-22. Both lay on their sides on the concrete on opposite sides of the court. The ball stood still in the middle of the court. 'You're almost there Sora, you can do this. I won't let him win.' Sora encouraged himself.

He saw Riku inching towards the ball. "Hey Sora, get my money ready." He shouted.

"Funny, I was going to tell you the same thing."

Sora started crawling towards the ball. The two were going at a steady and slow past keeping a fixed eye on the other. Halfway to the ball they started to speed up. They made a quick jump and both grabbed the ball. Riku had one hand on the ball and Sora had the other.

"How bout you let go?" Riku looked at Sora. His long white hair was matte to his face.

"Yeah." Sora was breathing heavy. "How bout we call a truce?"

"We did beat up each other pretty good, huh?" Riku laughed tiredly.

"Yeah." Sora smiled weakly. 'That's it buddy give it up.'

The two laid there for what seemed like hours until Riku got to his knees. "Well then let's finish this."

Sora nodded his head. "Right."

Sora attempted to kicked Riku in the ankle, but missed when Riku jumped up and dash down the court. Sora followed closely and tried to knock the ball out of his hands. Sora was so focused on the ball that he didn't recognize Riku had spun around and slammed the ball in his chest. Sora looked up and saw the smirk Riku gave off. Everything around Sora was moving so slow, but Riku's actions were moving so fast. Before Sora could react, Riku high- kicked Sora sending him all the way across the court into a tree, allowing Riku to slam dunk the final shot.

"Ow!" Sora rubbed his head.

Riku walked over, the ball under his right arm. "Looks like you owe me some money." He laughed and walked away spinning the ball on his finger.

'Aw, fuck.' Sora let his head fall back to the ground.

"Hey are you going to lie there all day?" Riku shouted.

Sora got up and walked over to his bag, head hanging low. He took a gulp out of his water bottle and sat on the concrete. He was upset, defeated and now broke.

He reached into his bag for his cell phone and notice he had one new text message and two missed calls. He checked the calls first. One was from his mom and the other from Kairi. When he read the text message, his heart nearly sank into his stomach.

'Guess what Sora? I'll be in town for my birthday! I can't wait to see you! I know this is going to be the best birthday ever! Luv U'

-Kairi