This is a birthday present to a good friend of mine. Happy Birthday, Nora! (actually the 24th)
Hope you like it!
"talking"
'song lyrics'
Just another boring day at school. Easter holidays have just finished and I thought it would be nice to shock the teacher with me actually being there for once. I sit down behind my desk and look at said teacher standing in front of the class. I don´t bother to take out my earplugs. Nobody cares anyway. "So, is everybody here?" He checks the attendance list. Billy Talent´s Diamond On A Landmine as background music. "... Xion?" My black haired emo-friend raises her arm. "... Naminé?" Her best friend says: "Yes." Next it´s my brother Sora´s turn, then his boyfriend Riku´s. (I mean BOYFRIEND? WTF? I thought he was straight until he came home one day and told us about him and Riku. Mom was ok with it right away. She doesn´t care who it is if Sora´s happy. Dad died some time ago, so he can´t say what he thinks about it. Leaves me all alone with my, well, 'normal' way of thinking.) "... Roxas?" The teacher's voice kicks me out of my thoughts. '...diamond on a landmine waiting to explode.' I just glare at him and he continues to go through the list. He really is surprised at my attendance.
Finally he´s finished. Next song´s Billy Talent, too, Devil On My Shoulder. "We´ve got a new student." Wow, cliché. 'The hounds of hell are getting closer.' "Please welcome Axel", the teacher explains. "Before moving here his family and him had been living in Wales." That new guy, what´s his name again (?), isn´t standing next to the teacher. Has he even arrived yet? "So, we´ll just wait for him to grace us with his presence?", I ask the teacher. He obviously doesn´t like my tone of voice and answers angrily: "Well, Roxas, as you don´t attend class very often either I don´t understand why you are complaining. You-" Suddenly the door slams open and an utterly strange guy enters the room. 'I´ve got the devil on my shoulder.'
He´s got spiky red hair and green eyes, underneath them are dark triangles. He´s wearing a long black sweatshirt and tight black jeans. I can hear the girls gasp and don´t understand why. He´s really odd. He´s just another one of those guys I´ll never understand. He´s- I suddenly get eyed by those bright green eyes. I shudder, creepy, as if he knows I´m thinking about him. His eyes are a really funny green. They look like neon lights! I chuckle.
"Well, Roxas, as you think it´s funny what I´m telling you, why doesn´t Axel sit next to you?" I send another glare towards the stupid teacher. As If. "It´s alright, I can sit there", the redhead tells the bloody idiot of a teacher and points to the only empty table which is behind mine. I grind my teeth. Great, now he´ll ask me why I´m behaving like this and he´ll want to know that. He walks towards, then past me and sits down right behind me. I´m waiting for him to say something, but he doesn´t. He´s silent all day long.
At the end of class, some of the girls walk towards his desk giggling. "Hey, Axel", one of the most beautiful girls in this school (not my opinion) says. "Wanna hang out with us today?" Axel looks her over. "Hmm... no." He turns away. Kairi stares unbelievingly at him. "What? Why?" "Not my type." He gets up not even looking at her and walks out of the classroom. Hmm, interesting. Up ´till now, nobody has ever said "No." to Kairi.
When I arrive at home I can hear Mum talking to Riku while making lunch. That means Riku´ll be here aaalllll day long. Great. "Hi, Mum", I great her. "Hello, darling, have you had a nice day at school?" "Of course he has!", Sora interrupts. "We´ve got this really sexy new guy in class and Roxas already has his eyes o-HELLLLPPPP!" ... Stupid brother, got away without even being in reach of my fist. Riku leaves the room to convince Sora that it´s safe to come back down, but not without giving me one of his glares.
"Oh how nice! Have you talked to him already? What is he like?", Mum wants to know. Her eyes are shining with excitement. I sigh. "I haven´t talked to him, but I assume that he´s a nice guy. The teacher and my classmates like him." Well, except Kairi and her gang loooove him now. What Kairi can´t get makes her even more interested. "Awe, that´s nice. My Roxy´s found a new friend!" Suddenly I´m pulled into a tight hug. "Mum, you´re squashing me!", I protest. She just laughs happily and calls the others. We have a nice lunch and then Mum heads off for work again. She´s a nurse, so she doesn´t work regularly. I go upstairs to do my homework and ignore the moaning coming from my brother's room.
The next morning I try to convince Mum (she always tries to get afternoon or night shifts, so she can get us out of bed in the morning) that I don´t feel well, but she can tell when I´m just acting and so she sends me to school. I´m a bit late because I was dawdling, and enter the classroom. BIG surprise the bloody teacher´s already there. "Roxas! Have you got a good excuse for being late again?", he asks me. That new singer, Cee Lo Green (?), sings 'Fuck you!' on my iPod. How fitting. "Well, if you´re going to ask like that. Yes, I have. Actually I wasn´t thinking of coming to school today, so you should be happy I was just late."
How boring. The same every morning. The same loud "WHAT? HOW DARE YOU!" from the teacher, the same gasping scholars, the same- "He´s right." What the-? The teacher clears his throat. "Excuse me? What did you just say?" The new guy, Axel, rolls his eyes. "You heard me, Sir. I said he´s right. I think you should be grateful for him attending your class at all. As you already said he doesn´t come to school very often, so you should thank him for the times he comes, right?" The whole class stares at him with open mouths. He just leans back in his chair and looks out of the window getting lost in reverie again.
The teacher closes his mouth and looks at me. "Sit down, Roxas." I walk towards my seat and sit down taking my earplugs out of my ears. When the teacher starts with his tuition I turn around to this Axel guy. "Thanks", I tell him. He examines me and I shiver under the intense look he gives me. Then he nods and turns away again. The rest of the day passes by like every other day.
The next week I somehow get used to that Axel guy (although I only visit school about three days out of five). He´s like... just there. He always sits behind me and his presence is somewhat calming. Like I know him from somewhere. It feels like he´s one of those old friends you meet again after years of not hearing from each other.
Finally it´s weekend. Xion and the others organize a beach party on Saturday. Of course Sora and Riku haven´t got time. They´ve got to learn. It´s actually quite nice to meet Hayner, Pence and Olette again. They´re going to a different school than us. We can hardly meet up during the week (unless we skip class), but that´s why we do as much as we can on the weekends. We party until late at night and then all sleep at Hayners´ house. His parents are gone for the night visiting a friend of theirs, so we´ve got the entire house to ourselves. On Sunday I do my homework and finish off my essay for History (one of the subjects I like). I don´t do much else. Just listening to my iPod while trying to think of something to do.
Monday morning, and I´m nervous about going back to school, but I´m also very... excited about meeting that Axel guy again (WTF?). I jump out of bed and am the first at the breakfast table. "Wow, Roxas, you´ve got to be in love. You´re never this eager to go to school. Especially on Mondays." "Mum! I´m not, absolutely not in love!" She chuckles while setting the breakfast table, but doesn´t say anything else.
I leave in a rush for school, so I forget my music. That normally never happens. I can´t live without my music! How do you think I survive our boring German class? I walk into our classroom swearing quietly. "Roxas!" Suddenly I´m attacked by a brown haired squealing something. "Oh, have you heard? Have you heard?" Oh, it´s Kairi. "Hmm, no-" "The Kingdom Hearts festival´s going to take place at our school! You know, our school!" "What? Is that true?", I can´t believe it. The famous Kingdom Hearts festival at our school? No way, you´ve got to be kidding me. "Yes, it´s true! It´s at our school! Our school, Roxas!"
"It´s very nice of you, Kairi, to inform Roxas of this, but now I´d like to start with our lesson", the teacher says. "Yes, sorry!" Kairi winks and skips to her seat. I follow her and sit down on my seat in front of that Axel guy. The tuition starts and I´m really sad that I can´t listen to Billy Talent or some other loud music when somebody taps me on the shoulder. "What´s with that 'festival'?" I flinch when I can feel Axel´s breath on my neck.
"The Kingdom Hearts festival or short KH festival is organized by a different school in Twilight Town every year. Some other schools outside of Twilight Town join in organizing the festival, too, and arrange it sometimes. It´s always a surprise to everyone which school will organize the festival because there isn´t any set arrangement", I explain. "So, what´s the theme?" "That´s decided by every school separately. Last year´s theme was 'love potions, love letters and other lovely things'." "... a girl´s school?" "Yup." I grin. "And before that it was 'baseball, cricket and other sports'." He stares at me. "What? Can´t they think of anything better?" I burst out laughing at his tormented expression.
"Roxas? Is everything ok?" The teacher is annoyed that I´m interrupting his lesson again. "Yes", I grin. "Everything´s just fine", I say and burst out laughing accompanied by Axel´s chuckles.
The rest of the school day´s quite funny and I get to know Axel better while we eat lunch together (it´s a longer school day than normal).
He´d been living in Wales with his family before they moved to England. He´s got an older brother called Lea and his Mum and Dad work all day long. Some time ago some of the people he knew in Wales also moved here, so he gets to meet them again. He´s told me about some of them and I don´t really know what to think about a guy called Demyx that gets high by eating sugar and plays his sitar all day long and a guy called Zexion who´s really antisocial and obviously an emo, being a couple. What is it with all these gay guys? I forgot his other friend´s names, but I´m pretty sure it´s good I forgot. The rest of them didn´t really sound likeable...
After school he asks me if we want to hang out a bit and we go to a park nearby where we sit on a park bench and talk and talk... until Axel gets up and stretches. "Wow, it´s already sun set. I can´t believe we´ve been talking this long!" He grins at me as I get up and then sighs. "I hope we can do this more often, Roxas. It´s been really nice talking to you", he says honestly while looking at the sky which is covered in a warm red now. I smile and nod. "Yeah, it was nice. Why don´t we meet up sometime soon and go to the beach or something?" He looks at me with a broad grin. "I´m looking forward to that! Sorry, but I´ve got to go now. See ya, Roxy!", he says while waving goodbye and leaving the park. So I´ve got a nickname then?
I sit down again and watch the sun set. It´s such a beautiful sight.
Back at home I lie down on my bed after I´ve eaten and think about the day I spent with Axel. It was nice to be able to talk to someone like that. It felt really good sitting in the park and listening to his stories about Wales and his family. I really am looking forward to spending more time with Axel. I chuckle. Axel. What a funny name. I still don´t really know what to think about him. He´s kind and funny and... he makes me laugh and want to be with him. I... somehow like him.
It´s strange. I´ve never been close to anyone after that incident. I sigh. Maybe... maybe he can help me. Help me... forget... my... past... With this last thought I fall asleep.
I don´t know when I´ll be able to update… I do hope soon if I get any good ideas.
Review? Please!