A/N: I know it's too late, but here's my Christmas (and birthday) treat for everyone. I'm sorry to say this to some readers who read my other fanfics, but I won't be able to update for a while, so made this instead to make up for the last few non-updating months.

Also, I just turned this story into a fanfiction. I passed the original one for our school paper. The editors said they liked it, so they planned to include it in the next issue (yay!). I just hope it'll be successful…

Well, here it goes. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

CHAPTER ONE: A PLAN

I won't apologize to her.

That was what Sora had in his mind as he walked home from school. It's not my fault if she's not as good as before, he thought. So why should I say sorry?

He finally arrived home and found his four cousins in the living room. Riku was watching TV, Terra was reading some books, Ven, who was sitting in the floor, was folding some torn magazine pages, and Aqua, the only girl, was making some necklaces. He closed the door angrily behind him, making the four look at him in surprise.

"Sora, you don't look good," Riku remarked as Sora slumped on the couch beside him. "Did something bad happen at school?"

"You don't want to know," Sora grumbled, staring blankly at the television.

His four cousins exchanged concerned looks. "Of course we want to know," Terra said, looking back to him. "Maybe we can help you out, whatever it is."

The other three nodded in agreement. Sora looked at each of them doubtfully, thinking if he should tell them what happened that morning at school. In the end, he decided not to do so, for he knew everything would be alright the following day. And they'll probably lecture me again when I tell them about it, he thought. I really hate being the youngest. Sticking to his decision, he shifted his eyes back to the TV without saying another word.

"Let me guess," Aqua finally said, tying the ends of a now-finished necklace. "It's your best friend, isn't it? What's her name again?" She thought for a while. "Is it Kairi?"

Riku, Terra, and Ven looked at Sora expectantly, waiting for him to answer. He growled in defeat. "How come you can always read my mind, Aqua?" he muttered.

Aqua seemed to hear him, because she smiled in victory. "I don't know," she answered, cutting some nylon thread for her next necklace. "Maybe it's because I'm your cousin."

"That reason is not enough," Sora murmured to himself, making sure that this time Aqua won't hear him.

"So, are you going to tell us about it or not?" Ven said, tearing a page from a magazine. "We—I mean Aqua—already spilt it out of you, y'know?"

Sora sighed. Well, looks like I don't have a choice, he told himself. "Well, Kairi let me borrow something she made," he started. "A pendant made of shells. Actually, it looks like the lucky charm she gave me." He took out the said charm from one of his pockets and showed it to his cousins. Aqua stared at it in interest. "I played with her pendant for a while before I gave it back to her. Suddenly, she was marching angrily towards me, saying that I broke it. She even showed it to me as proof."

"And then?" Riku asked.

"We began arguing," Sora explained. "We didn't even talk for the rest of the day. But, seriously, I don't think it's my fault it broke. Maybe she's not that good anymore when it comes to making stuff like that."

He saw the scowl on his cousins' faces. "What?"

I think it's coming, he added to himself.

"Actually, I really think it's your fault," Aqua said.

"Yeah, you should apologize to her," Ven agreed.

I knew it.

"I'm going to apologize to her?" Sora asked in disbelief. "Why would I do that?"

"Because it is your fault," Terra insisted. "You said you played with it for a while, right? That must be the reason why it broke."

"There's no way I'm going to—"

"Don't be too proud of yourself!" Riku suddenly exclaimed, slowly beginning to get annoyed and surprising Sora. His cousin was always calm, so his sudden annoyance came as a surprise to him.

"And saying that someone is not good really hurts a lot, especially if that person works hard," Aqua added. "Gee, men really do have high pride."

Silence fell between the five. The only thing that could be heard was the show from the television set. As his cousins got back to what they were doing, Sora pondered on what they said and slowly realized that they were right: it was his fault why the pendant broke. Kairi had always been the one who apologizes to him whenever they fight, whether it was her fault or his. This time, I'm going to make sure I'll be the one to say sorry, he told himself.

Something caught his eye as he looked down to Ven, who was busy folding some magazine pages. "What's that, Ven?" he asked.

"Um…" Ven looked at him in confusion and then shifted his eyes to the folded paper in his hands. "A page from a magazine?"

"No, I mean that," Sora said, pointing at a small pile of boxes just beside the blond teen.

"Oh, you mean these?" Ven took a couple of small boxes from the pile. "They're origami boxes. It's our project for Arts class." He chuckled. "I kinda got addicted in making it, so I made a lot. Plus, Aqua said she'll put a necklace in each pair of box and then she'll give it to her friends. It's like a way in saving the environment too, if you ask me."

The blue-haired girl smiled as she finished yet another necklace. Sora stared at the box for a long time, thinking hard. Then he looked at the necklaces Aqua made. Wait a sec… he suddenly thought.

"I got it!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet. His cousins looked up in surprise. From his pocket, he took out the shells from Kairi's pedant. "Kairi said I should keep these as a 'remembrance' since I was the one who broke it," he explained. "It's a good thing I didn't throw it away while I was walking home." He turned to his cousins, smiling widely. "I have a plan, guys. And I need your help to do it."

A/N: Yeah, it's a short one. I made some slight modifications and added more lines, since the original story is really KH inspired. And I crammed for it, actually. I only had a few hours to work on it, and it's a good thing some of our teachers were absent, so I finished it just in time. Also, the main character and his cousins are of the same age (in the original one), but this time, he's the youngest. I learned from my teacher how to make origami boxes and she told us that men have higher pride than women, especially when they're smart, so I guess I should thank her for that (and if wasn't because of her project, I won't be able to come up with this story).

I already have plans for the next chapter, though I haven't started typing it yet because of schoolwork (Great, our teachers gave us loads of projects to work on for our Christmas vacation. You see how much they love us? What a very nice gift…). But anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this, even though the next chapter's kinda predictable. I have some tricks up my sleeve, though, so watch out for it.

I'll end it here. Happy Holidays!