I'm really hoping I had a good idea going with this. I'm honestly not sure where the whole 'pen pal' thing came from, but it was fun writing it.

Disclaimer- I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters mentioned.

Chapter 1- Sora's POV

I guess I haven't been completely honest with myself lately.

My english teacher, Ms. Hikaru, is walking the length of the classroom, holding her fine tipped, blue ink-pen and her little clipboard, writing down whether or not kids decided to do the assignment for today. I can see some of them looking worried, or guilty as the case may be. Others can blow the teacher off. They're either carelessly writing a note to another person, talking on a cell phone, or listening to that God-awful heavy metal music on their MP3 players. How can they not feel ashamed? Don't their parents get mad?

Well, to put it simply, I feel ashamed when I don't do my homework. Not only that, but the only time one of my grades ever fell to below a B, I was absolutely disgusted with myself, and my parents weren't convinced that I would ever get into a decent college.

See, my family doesn't have the kind of money to send me to a nice, expensive school after I graduate. We're not poor either. I'd have to say I live in a pretty fair house, with the good kind of cable where you get a lot of channels, a cellphone, some of those nice stained-glass, blue-tinted windows in the bathroom, and a pool in the backyard... With a tube slide.

Okay, so we're wealthy, but my father explained to me that having a great deal of money is no reason to slack off on my grades. If I could get into college through scholarships, that was one more chance for me to prove to myself and others that I'm not just some dumb rich kid who's going to go through life coasting on Daddy's money. No, I could do much better than that. I swore to myself that one day I'd take up the greatest and most interesting and creative and free-spirited occupation I could ever hope to attempt in my life: Writing.

"Sora." Ms. Hikaru had finally reached me, sitting in the second to last row of desks in this particular english room. I knew what she wanted. Pulling out my own english assignment, I gave her what I would describe as "the most innocent smile in the world." She returned the look, pleasently putting a little check next to my name on her clipboard. "I knew I could count on you, Sora. Well done."

I don't mean to brag, but I am the best english student in the sophomore class. 'Currently' isn't a word I want to use, because I intend to keep my place in this grading system. I would have liked to think kids envied me for my outstanding achievements.

"Alright, class." Ms. Hikaru spoke, trying to make her voice heard over all of the yelling and foul language that was going on. "Settle down." She waited until the last paper airplane has zoomed past her face. "As you may have heard by this time, in previous years, we have had the opportunity for students from our school to recieve penpals and write to students from the Ashland school system." She leaned down and quickly confiscated one of the well-known posers of the school, Zexion's, phone.

"I was talking to my agent." Zexion always complains, even though anyone can see he wanted that to happen. Anything to be noticed, I guess.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted... Since we have the ability to have students from our school write to students from Ashland this year, I would greatly appreciate it if at least a few of you decided to take this chance into consideration." I could have sworn she had looked straight at me when she'd said that. No worries, Ms. H. This will certainly look nice on my college application. "If anyone would like to participate, just write your name on the list outside my room and I'll pair you up with someone from Ashland."

"Ms. H, are you done talking now?" Roxas, I swear to God that someday she's going to give you noon detention for how incredibly rude you are in her classes.

"Yes, Roxas." As Ms. Hikaru retreated to her desk, the room got loud again, filled with conversations and more paper airplanes and who knows what else. I sat alone, silently at my desk, and tried to brainstorm ideas for new stories inside my notebook. Before anything interesting came to mind, the bell rang, and I shot up, gathering my things quickly and heading for the door. I wanted to prove I was a good student, maybe even the best. I wanted to show my father that I was worthy of the time it had taken to raise me. I wanted those extra credits for my college applications. I wanted my name to be first on that list.

I guess I really didn't know what I was getting myself into.

- - -

On my way to advanced art class later that day, I was stopped in the hall by Ms. Hikaru. She looked hopeful, still holding her little clipboard in her hands, and what I thought might have been a piece of that sticky note paper with my name boldly written on the top in her favorite blue pen ink. A smile came to her face as I stopped to acknowledge her presense.

"Sora, so nice to see you," She said, truely looking as though she meant it. "I'm happy to see you signed up for the pen-pal extravaganza, because to be honest, I have a task I need you to complete. Don't tell anyone. Can I trust you to handle it?" Even though I had no idea what she was talking about, I was supposed to be her very best student, so I graciously accepted her offer. "Since you seem to have such a free mind in your writing, free-flowing thoughts, and an interest in writing, I was wondering if I could get you to write to one of Ashland's more... Troubled students."

"I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem. I thought it was randomized anyway?" She nodded.

"Well you see, the principal of Ashland thought it would be a wise idea to get this student into a writing excercise, just to see if he's actually capable of anything... Most students are, of course." I can't believe she's actually allowed to talk about students this way. She probably isn't, I know, but it's probably still better if I don't say anything. "Maybe you've heard of him? His name is Riku."

"No, I can't recall knowing any Riku's as of late."

"I guess you'll get to know him then. Do me a favor, and have the letter ready for me by tomorrow? Don't worry what you write. Everything is completely confidential. We just want him to get into something extracurricular for a change." Honestly, she refers to him as though he's one of her own students, but I can't remember him ever going to school here.

"Alright, Ms. Hikaru. I'm sure I can handle it." I was starting to worry about when the bell would be ringing. My reputation was not about to be ruined by something as small as being late for art class.

"Thanks so much, Sora." She took off in the other direction with a little wave. I would have returned the gesture, but my hands were full with the canvas I had taken home with me to work on my project during my free hours. Now that art classes were a requirement for graduation, I had to make sure I was very skillful with a paintbrush.

Ms. Hikaru had been talking to me for approximately two minutes and fifty-one seconds when she'd stopped me in the hallway. How did I know this? My good friend Kairi, who wanted to someday discover something new about the time-space continuum. Funny thing is, I'm not sure she even knows what that is. Maybe she just took the closest-sounding noun of importance she could find.

"So what was that about?" I wondered if I should honestly tell her. The only other people I figured she would say anything to were Selphie and Naminé, and even though Naminé is a nice, quiet little artist, Selphie is a loud mouth.

"I guess I can tell you, if you promise not to say anything to Selphie." She nodded, so I told her. "Ms. Hikaru is doing some penpal thing in her english class, and there's this guy named Riku from Ashland..."

"Riku from Ashland High?" She repeated, sounding excited. "I thought they'd expelled him a long time ago, like last year or what not."

My eyebrows rose. "Do you know him? Is he that bad?" Kairi looked apalled. I was baffled.

"Is he that bad... Honestly, Sora, you've never heard of him? Not even once in your life?" I shook my head. "I'll explain it to you in art class." We let the conversation settle for the time being, and we both took our seats just as the bell rang.

Naminé sat next to me, holding what must have been an award-winning painting, or at least it would be someday. "I didn't think you two were going to make it on time."

"Me? Late for class? You must be insane." I smiled, and she smiled back.

"I know you wouldn't, I was just getting worried," Naminé said. Once again I found myself staring at her artwork, wishing I was that good. I envied her. Every day I complimented her abilities, and every day she just smiled and said nothing. Though, I do recall one day that she read one of my poems and told me she thought it would go well with a picture she'd painted the previous night.

She got the painting from her house and brought it to school the next day. It was awe-inspiring, with so many different bright colors on one side and dark colors on another, all wrapped and woven together so neatly in the middle. One image, the one with the warm colors, gave someone the feeling of heaven. The other was like lying at hell's doorstep on the coldest night you could ever imagine.

When she saw how I stared at it, unable to avert my gaze from the scene she'd drawn out so perfectly, she basically handed it to me and said, "Put it somewhere nice... Like next to that poem you let me read."

I went to the store later that night and bought a plain-looking frame, setting her artwork in carefully so as not to bend any of the corners by accident. I didn't want to get a flashy looking frame, because in all honesty, I thought Naminé's artwork was perfect enough that nothing needed to be added. Naminé's picture went up on my bedroom wall, my poem next to it, also framed. They haven't come down since.

"So Sora, why'd you look so confused when you walked in?" Was Naminé a safe person to tell? Yes, she was.

"You know the penpal thing Ms. Hikaru set up with the Ashland High School district? Well, she stopped me in the hallway after I signed up and said she was happy I was participating, because this other student from Ashland is supposed to need someone experienced in literature to write to. She wants me to write to him."

"You're a very good english student; pretty efficient with those literary terms."

"Yes, I guess," I said, hoping I didn't sound conceited or anything. "But you see, the reason I was confused is because Ms. Hikaru told me his name is Riku, and I've never heard of him before in all my life, yet Kairi seemed suprised to hear about this 'Riku from Ashland High.' You ever heard of him?" She shook her head. "And here I thought I was the only one who'd never heard of him."

"You haven't?" I was confused again.

"What do you mean 'you haven't?' Weren't you just shaking your head when I asked if you knew who he was?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't shaking my head because I don't know who he is. I know very well who he is. I was shaking my head in disbelief of the good luck you have in being able to have him as a penpal. Riku's really good with writing. In fact, he's probably got about as much talent as you do." I wasn't so worried anymore, I guess, but it did make me feel competitive that Naminé thought someone was as good at writing as I was.

"But Kairi looked a bit terrified when I said his name. Are you sure he's not secretly a serial killer or something?"

"Yes, I'm sure... I actually know a lot about him from Roxas."

So right now I think I'm going to stop and tell you what I think about Roxas. Every girl is after him for some unobvious reason that I haven't been able to figure out, plus I'm not even sure he's straight!

...Alright, so I'll just admit that opinion is my sick mind at work.

... And about there being no reason I can see for girls liking him? That's a big lie, too.

Roxas is hot. No, I'm not joking. He's seriously hot.

Maybe I'm completely homosexual. I honestly haven't figured it out yet. I could just be bisexual. Girls were... Alright I guess. Okay, I admit it, girls are weird. But I also have a group of friends that is made entirely out of girls just because I've discovered they're the only ones who ever want to listen to what I have to say. I gave up on guys right after I finished middle school.

All I really have to say about this Riku person is that he'd better be hot.

"Naminé, where's Mr. Valentine?" It seemed a little strange that our teacher wouldn't be there yet. Mr. Valentine was always on time, reguardless of the fact that everyone in the class seemed to know he was having an affair with the principal. Did I say that? Whoops... Naminé simply shrugged. "I want to get my project finished today."

"You and everyone else," I heard Demyx mutter from off to my left side. That kid just didn't shut his mouth, and I hadn't asked for anyone to agree with me...

"Excellent job students. You were successful at being considerably more quiet than you usually are."

So most art classes at private schools like Locania would probably have interpreted Mr. Valentine's last sentence as a compliment, left things as they were and simply gone about their lives. However, my art class, or at least most of my art class, was a raging band of monsters who would rip your head off if given permission.

Basically, the message this sent to me was: Our parents pay a lot of money to send us to this school! How dare you insult us in such a blatant way? Your dumb ass would have no money if it wasn't for us! And I must say, even Kairi looked apalled. For what reason, I wondered. Honestly, these people were babies.

They settled down when Mr. Valentine slapped a ruler across his desk. My ears still throb from the sound...

"So why haven't any of you gotten started? Forget what you were all supposed to do?" I think there may have been some curse words used in the same sentence with 'Mr. Valentine' around this time, but I'm not entirely sure.

Naminé had already gotten out some sketch pencils. They were blue in color, and some of my deeper thoughts were inquiring as to how she would erase it if she made a mistake. Meanwhile, Kairi had wandered across the room to watch me half-sketch an oak tree that I had forgotten to draw on my canopy earlier in the project. Or maybe she just sat there to tell me something about Riku?

"So what do you know about Riku?" Was all I could manage. I was concentraiting on the shading of one of my many leaves, and I heard a rustle of clothing as Naminé looked up.

"He's really a nice person, Sora," Naminé interjected before Kairi could say even one word.

"Don't worry. I wasn't about to say he was bad, or anything. It's just a good thing to know that Riku isn't the nicest person in the world, so try not to get on his nasty side. Mostly, he's just a good kid with a bad reputation."

Why did the idea of writing to him scare me so much?

---

At lunch, Kairi had decided she and Selphie were going to quickly walk downtown and get some pizza, so that left me with Naminé, who had cheerfully agreed to help me write my first letter to Riku.

I had no idea how to even start it. Had Kairi been exagerating when she'd suggested that Riku was generally a good kid with a bad reputation? I was so terrible at starting any version of a conversation with people, and my wrist was trembling so badly as I held the utensil that Naminé had to take the pen away and ask me what I wanted her to write.

"So how should I start out? Hey? Hi? What's up? Just Riku? Maybe nothing at all..." She reached up and put her arm on my shoulder; I must have looked like a freak.

"Why don't we go with 'dear Riku?' That sounds simple enough." She wrote that part down and looked at me, obviously as a gesture that insisted she wanted me to tell her the next sentence. I froze.

"You know what, Naminé? You really don't have to do this. I need to figure it out on my own. A college would never..."

"Sora, grades are not all they look at when they choose their students, and believe me, you're plenty interesting enough of a person that you can at least write a letter. Roxas told me Riku is not that vicious. The last time he almost got expelled was enough to teach him to treat others with more respect..." Naminé, my dear friend, you could have been a councilor.

What I really wanted to ask her was, 'Is Riku hot?' But instead, I ended up making her angry by muttering something obnoxiously rude about Roxas. I don't even remember exactly what it is I said.

Naminé was obviously fed up with me when she set the pen and paper on the table and said, "Write it yourself."

"See, I would, but I'm no good at writing letters to people I don't know," I replied, probably looking pathetic. She sighed and picked the utensils back up again. I smiled, and she smiled back, and then I actually began to come up with some ideas that I thought sounded at least halfway decent.

---

So this is what we came up with:

Dear Riku,
My name is Sora, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be writing to you about.
Naminé (Do you know her? She says she knows you.) insists that I say something
about literature, so I'll tell you that I'm striving to become a famous writer of
some sort and that I enjoy poetry a lot. I'm also supposed to mention that a lot of
people think I'll turn out to be an author when I'm older; not to sound conceited,
or anything... In case you were wondering what I really like, or if we desperately
need something to talk about, I will say that I love writing, literature, artwork,
music, sports, and toblerone. Choclate éclairs are also good. Try and write me a
poem if you can think of anything. A lot of my friends who say they know you also
informed me that you're a pretty good poet yourself.

I guess I'd gone on a bit of a rampage. Naminé generally wrote down everything I said while in the process of brainstorming, which wasn't a whole lot, but I still thought it sounded considerably stupid.

"You might want some type of closure. Why don't you sign your name or something?" She set the letter down on the table and handed me the pen.

I still can't believe I actually signed it.

Revision would have been a much, much better idea. All of the sentences sounded choppy to me. There wasn't enough fluency in the lengths of the words and the sentences or anything like that, and I was beginning to stress over how a college would never accept work like this. I didn't sound like a bright, young literature student. I sounded like a moron. Naminé seemed pleased, however, that I'd actually found the courage to write at all. And to be honest, I was pleased too.

I just knew, that somewhere in some classroom, over in Ashton High School, Riku would open this letter and wonder, 'What the fuck...'

A/N- Alright so, just a few minor details or explanations I really feel like I need to put out in the open for everyone.

1.) Sora's personality- Sora is a very strong, stable character, who really enjoys literature and writing and reading and english class and all of the like. He's a good student who's striving to prove to his wealthy parents and everyone around him that he doesn't need help from other people to reach his goals and go somewhere with his life. Basically, he's good at everything and most of the people at school see him as a geek; but they still like him because he's into sports, music, and artwork. So, in all of Sora's attempts to get into a good college, he is well-coordinated and very well-rounded in his interests and abilities.

Something however, that really sets him different from any other college-bound student is that he's terrible at talking to people. His social life isn't trash or anything; Naminé, Kairi, and Selphie are there to back him up. He hasn't really decided on his sexuality yet either. (It's leaning towards the homosexual side, just a little.) So his ability to write a letter to someone he doesn't know (A.K.A: Riku) isn't that wonderful.

2.) Naminé's roll- Naminé is one of Sora's closest friends, simply because she's willing to listen and eager to help with many of the social problems he faces in his everyday life. She can basically take control of the situation, do something, and always have a good result in the end.

However, Naminé does have a few issues of her own that are to be discussed in later chapters.

3.) Kairi and Sora's relationship- So I haven't said much; I'm sorry. Sora and Kairi are not in love. They see each other as very close siblings (Also to be explained in a later chapter, perhaps three?) because both of them have parents they don't relate to the absolute best in the world.

4.) Self-mutilation- There is NO cutting of either of the main characters (I.E: Sora and Riku)in this story. Why? Because that's just too cliché. I can't promise that others won't walk around hurting themselves though, so I won't say anything else.

5.) POV's- This entire chapter was from Sora's POV. In later chapters, I will randomly switch back and forth from Riku to Sora (I'll lable it, of course.), meaning that it will not just be one character's specific point of view per chapter. In this story, it is just plain faster to switch because of the letters that will be sent; one every day.

6.) Last, please review my story, or I may not post any new chapters at all. The next POV is mostly Riku's; can you just not wait to read? (It's written already, I had too much extra time in study hall. If I get lots of reviews I'll post it really fast... And I could use a beta?) Thanks.