Wow, would you look at that! A new kh story! Yayyy. Ok so this one is actually going to continue, I promise. I'm still working on my other stories, I just sort of was inspired one day to write this one. Alright so it always takes me like 2349028340 years to think of titles for my stories, so this one is kind of sketchy. Oh well.
On with the story.
Chapter One--That Weird Kid Named Sora. (that was a terrible title, I know.)
Riku absentmindedly doodled on the edge of his white-lined paper, his mind anywhere but on what he considered to be the loud droning of his science teacher, Mrs. Lockheart. She was saying something about the characteristics of multi-cellular organisms; that much he was sure of. He couldn't account for much else, though.
"...due next Friday. I'll assign you your lab partners, and no switching! I have a memory like a wolverine, you know," Mrs. Lockheart continued. Riku snapped back to attention at the mention of lab partners, wondering what kind of lab they could possibly be doing and briefly wishing he had listened to the teacher's explanation of it. Riku just hoped that he got paired with someone worthwhile.
By someone worthwhile, he kind of was thinking of his longtime crush, Kairi. Riku had liked her for who knows how long, but she always had a reason to turn him down when he asked her out. Riku didn't understand it, but it annoyed him nonetheless. If one thing got on his nerves, it was being turned down. Sure, she was pretty, popular, and could have any guy she wanted, but so was Riku. He saw no reason why his looks and charm did not work their magic on her, and for that reason, he needed every opportunity he could get to make her like him.
"…Demyx and Hayner, Kairi and Olette, Leon and Cloud…" Riku inwardly groaned, cursing Mrs. Lockheart for pairing Kairi with Olette and knowing now that any other lab partner that he would have would bound to suck.
"…and Riku and Sora," his teacher finished, looking up from her sheet of paper, " So now that we have that taken care of, please move around to sit with your lab partners, read the procedure, and get crack-a-lackin'!"
Riku didn't move for two reasons. First of all, he was still pouting over his misfortune, and second of all, he had no idea who this Sora folk actually was. Oh well, he thought, he can come to me since he probably knows who I am. I mean, I'm Riku; you'd have to be crazy not to know me.
It turned out Sora did, in fact, recognize him, seeing as a few seconds later, he was sitting in the previously empty seat next to him. If Riku hadn't been waiting for him, he wasn't sure if he would have noticed his arrival; he was that quiet.
"Hey," Riku said, looking the smaller boy up and down. He had spiky brown hair, large, black rimmed glasses that faintly reminded Riku of Harry Potter, and clothes that were much too large for him and hung off of him in baggy folds. He nodded in acknowledge to Riku but kept his eyes glued to the floor in front of him.
Riku, deciding the boy didn't seem too eager to make conversation, took out his procedure and began reading it. He noticed Sora doing the same.
After a minute or two, Riku looked at Sora out of the corner of his eye. Sora, seeming to notice he was being watched, eventually looked up at Riku. For the first time, Riku noticed that his eyes were shocking electric blue in color.
"Hey, are you like…new here?" Riku asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. He couldn't remember seeing the boy around anytime before this, even in this science class, which he thought was odd, seeing as he sat only a few seats away.
"N-no…?" Sora answered, looking incredulously at Riku, "I was in your fifth grade class. You used to make fun of me every day for bringing my teddy bear to school." Recognition dawned on Riku, and he was slightly embarrassed.
"Oh…yeah, sorry about that," he said, feeling kind of bad for 1) making fun of the kid and 2) not remembering that he had made fun of the kid.
"I got rid of that teddy bear anyway, so it's ok," he said, shaking his head. Riku stared at him, unsure of what to say other than something along the lines of "Oh."
"Alright, let's get started then!" Sora said, pumping his fist into the air, "I'll go get the cat!" Riku just shook his head. The kid hadn't changed much since fifth grade, he concluded. What a weirdo.
Sora returned a moment later with, in a fact, a cat. A dead cat.
"What? Is THAT???" Riku practically yelled, jumping to his feet and pointing to the dead mammal.
It was now Sora's turn to be incredulous. "Well, it's a cat," he said, "that we have to dissect. You know, for our lab?"
"No one told me about this," Riku said, crossing his arms in front of him. He jumped when he heard a voice from behind him.
"Now, Riku if you were listening at ALL in class, you would have heard me say at least five times this week that today would be the day that we were dissecting cats to learn about the internal structure of a small mammal. Even then, the smell might have clued you in, but no, you still chose to ignore all of the warning signs and that is one of the reasons why, at this point, you have no chance of passing my class," Mrs. Lockheart finished her speech, turned on her heel, and went back to correcting papers on her desk. Riku just stood there, slightly embarrassed but more angry that she had the nerve to talk to him like that. He turned back to Sora, who seemed to be suppressing laughter.
"Oh, and Riku? See me after class," Mrs. Lockheart continued. Riku resisted the urge to give her the middle finger.
The rest of the class passed without much incident. Well, unless you counted three classmates fainting, two more throwing up, and yet a few more threatening to leave to class as "without much incident." Riku continued to look forward to lunch, when he would be able to yet again try to impress Kairi.
Riku was having a hard time concentrating on the lab, and he was thankful that he had Sora as a lab partner for this reason. Sora, Riku soon found out, was brighter than he looked, and Riku wondered why he wasn't in a higher class. If he had done the lab alone, he would have been done in half the time, but because he insisted Riku take part in the dissecting, when the lunch bell rang, they had only just finished dissecting and hadn't even started the cleaning up portion of the activity.
"Riku?" Mrs. Lockheart said expectantly, raising her eyebrows at him. They were the last group remaining.
"I have to finish cleaning up," he said lamely. At this rate, he would never be able to get to lunch and try to win Kairi over.
"Its ok, Riku, I'll do it!" Sora said brightly. Riku briefly wondered why he seemed so excited to be cleaning up a dead cat, but thanked him nonetheless.
He approached Mrs. Lockheart's desk warily, wondering what he could have possibly done wrong in the past class period, other than the "What? We're dissecting cats?" incident.
"Riku," she sighed, looking at him.
"Mrs. Lockheart," he said, copying her wistful tone of voice. She raised an eyebrow at him.
"I'm worried about your grades, Riku. They've been slipping. On the last test you got a 57, and before that you 54. I've spoken to some of your other teachers, and they say basically the same thing. You need to pull it together, or you're going to have to stay back next year," she said sternly. Riku crossed his arms over his chest. He had heard this sort of thing from his other teachers as well, but not to this extent. Staying back a year? That did not seem fun to him.
"You've got to get your act together, Riku. Slacking off isn't going to get you anywhere in the world," she continued. Riku didn't want to hear anymore. Why was this important, anyhow? Why did he have to know about multi-cellular organisms, or how to multiply fractions, or what a prepositional phrase was?
"If your grades don't improve, I'm going to have to set up a meeting with your parents," Mrs. Lockheart said.
Riku sighed.
"You may go now," she finished, dismissing him. He immediately turned to walk out the door.
Riku, being late for lunch, tried to speed walk out of the classroom, but, not looking where he was going, crashed into something small that happened to make a rather loud yelping noise.
It was Sora again.
"Sorry! Sorry, Riku!" he said, waving his hands in front of him in apology. Riku shrugged.
"No problem," he said, picking up his book bag that had mysteriously fallen to the floor. He continued to walk towards the cafeteria, and it was after a few more steps that he realized that he had a very eager Sora in tow. He could feel Sora staring at him, but as he was a little more than creeped out, chose to ignore him.
By the time they had reached the second floor, Riku couldn't stand it anymore. He turned his head slowly in Sora's direction.
"Do you need something?" he asked sharply.
Sora paused. "No," he said timidly, but continued to trail behind Riku down the staircase.
Then, "Riku?"
Riku groaned softly and turned around so that he was facing Sora.
"Yes?" he said, agitated.
"I heard you talking," Sora said. When Riku only looked at his questioningly, he continued, "To Mrs. Lockheart. About your grades." Riku sighed. Always the grades. Is that all people cared about nowadays?
"Yeah? What about it?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at the smaller boy.
"Well," Sora started, shuffling his feet nervously, "I could help you, you know." Riku raised his eyebrows.
"And why would you want to do that?" Riku asked incredulously.
"Because…because," was all Sora could manage to reply. Riku laughed and continued on his way to the cafeteria.
"Wait!" Sora said, running to catch up with him, "I just want to help, Riku. I could tutor you or something," he offered shyly.
Riku thought about this. Here this kid was, offering to help him with his grades, so who was Riku to decline? Sure, doing extra schoolwork would be a drag, but then again, did he really feel like repeating tenth grade?
"Well," Riku started, considering his options, "I guess if you really want to waste your time on something that's going to get you nowhere, then by all means, go ahead."
Sora's smile brightened to about a thousand watts, "Ok," he agreed.
Riku gave his once last glance, and then headed towards the large double doors of the cafeteria.
Ok so I've already started writing chapter two! Hows that for being motivated. If you review I'll post it, if not...well I'll probably post it anyway :D