Chapter One
the Wheel

"Hi, Kairi!"

Kairi turned delicately to the side. "Hey," she smiled, but kept walking.

She didn't often take much notice of the greetings in the corridors; they were too small and unimportant to need much affection. A quick salutation in reply, and the conversation was complete. No need for small talk and gingerly giving dainty hugs, just a nod and a wave and Kairi could escape unscathed.

Of course, sometimes someone would chase her down like a police dog, drooling desperately and asking if she wanted to be walked home or if she needed a lift, boxing her in a corner so that if she uttered anything besides 'yes, please', or 'gee, thanks!' she would cause offence and lose a friendly acquaintance.

A little too friendly for Kairi's liking, some of them were.

"Hey, d'you wanna come back to mine and work on that assignment together?" her companion suggested.

The Wheel Of Witty Answers inside her brain whizzed around, hundreds of golden replies glittering and shooting in front of her eyes.

If she answered 'I already finished it', he would still invite her round, probably so that he could read her work and then copy parts of it. He may as well have asked her to spoon-feed him some A-minus yoghurt, as without her he would obviously have been lumbered with a F so huge it may as well have been in neon lights.

If she answered 'I'm already helping someone else', he would ask whom she was helping, and then he would look suspicious when she lamely mumbled the name of a random girl in her class. Then, of course, he would invite that girl along too, and probably hit on her and start a make-out session with her on the sofa while Kairi did all three of their assignments.

If she answered 'I can't. I'm busy', he would ask what she was doing, and she really couldn't be bothered to come up with a whole different list of excuses for that question too.

"No," she told him simply.

There, problem solved. Sure, he would think she was mean and rude and stuck-up and probably never talk to her again, but hey, what did that matter? At least it got him off her back.

"No?" he repeated, stopping in his tracks. "Why not?" he asked, jogging to catch up with her again.

Damn. She hadn't seen that one coming.

The Wheel Of Witty Answers got spinning again, whizzing round and round at the speed of light, the sparkle from the strobe lights burning her pretty violet eyes.

"I'm ill," she lied, still not looking up, still walking at a brisk pace.

He clearly didn't believe her, because he stopped on the spot again, his eyebrows raised and his hands on his hips.

She hurried onwards, still not looking up, and travelling at a faster speed now that he was not tagging along trying to slow her down and waste her time. He made no apparent move to dash after her and pester her some more, so she assumed he was still standing there looking like an idiot. Hey, if he wanted people to think he was pretending to model swimwear, that was his choice.

"Kairi!" he called from behind her. When he drew close enough he placed a warm hand on her shoulder. She sighed irritably and dragged herself into a one-eighty degree turn to face him. She looked up. Then up some more. And some more.

How tall is this guy? she thought in surprise, her neck aching from having to bend backwards so much. She was used to short, stout geeks with goofy teeth, round milk bottle glasses and fluffy orange hair stalking her, not athletic boys who were clearly into sports and other physical events.

"What?" she snapped bitterly, then clamped her mouth shut and gasped. So really, clamping her mouth shut was pointless, as it dropped open a few nanoseconds later anyway.

"What's wrong?" the boy asked, genuine concern in his tone. "My mom's a doctor, so if you're really ill she'll be able to get you some medicine or something."

Kairi stared.

"Oh," the boy nodded. "Is it a 'girl problem'? I won't ask any more, then. But I really could use some help with that assignment, if you're not busy," he flashed her a grin. "What d'you say?"

"Okay," Kairi squeaked.

Because who could say no to Sora? He was the cutest boy in school, the hottest boy in school, the kindest, happiest, cheeriest and sportiest boy in school and he was overall defiantly and definitively the coolest boy in school. And he possessed more fangirls than anyone else, even Wakka, although they weren't really 'fangirls', they were more like 'girls who wanted to trip him up in the hallway and shut him in his own locker'.

But that wasn't why Kairi was surprised that Sora had spoken to her. She wasn't flattered and giggly like any other girl would be, although she was confused. Confused and agitated that he had felt it necessary to delve his hand into the past and wrench out the last that remained of her sanity and will to live, thus upsetting the balance of peace.

She felt her stomach begin to twist into various types of knots; overhand, figure-of-eight, fisherman's knot, running knot, ring knot, alpine butterfly bend. And last but by no means least, a noose. In a cruel twist of irony, the redhead was going to be hung to death by her own intestines. A strange and probably very tricky method of committing suicide, it was true, but Kairi was contemplating giving it a shot. Yep, if the tarmac playground didn't oblige her desperate pleas and gulp her up like a wholesome mouthful of fish food pretty soon, she would have to resort to desperate measures and retract her head inside her own body and ram it into her stomach, then leave her assorted limbs and body organs to do as they pleased to it.

Sora grinned and ruffled his spiky chocolate-brown hair.

"Great," he winked. "So, I'll walk you home and you can come over later, yeah?"

Kairi blinked hurriedly, snapping back to the case laid in front of her, like a carefree lawyer would do after a merry little daydream about shredders and making out with a work colleague on top of a photocopier.

"What? No!" she exclaimed. "I… uh, have to… go now…" she blurted, then turned and scarpered away.

Sora frowned, perplexed. "What?" he yelled. "Kairi! Wait!"

Then he picked up his feet and surged forward, weaving around the masses of people also on their way home from school.

Although he knew, in his gut, that it wouldn't make any difference even if he were to catch her up. It was too late by now to change anything. But he didn't want them to stay the same.

Dear Diary,

I don't know why he started talking to me. And I don't care, either. I don't want to talk to him. He's a traitor. He might be the most popular boy in school, but that doesn't give him the right to start ordering me around! I hate him, I really do. I reeeally hate him. I don't get what his problem is.

Why did he have to go and ruin things? We were getting on just fine being apart from each other, and then he had to go and change everything. I didn't want things to change. I liked them the way they were! Now he's upset the harmonic balance, and things will be all wrong for ages now.

What does he want, anyway? He's smart, so why would he need help with that assignment? He must be lying, it's so obvious!

I reckon it's a dare. Or a bet. A bet to see if he can get any girl at all. I don't date, so maybe they thought I would play hard-to-get, and ignore him. Well, that's exactly what I have been doing. I bet he would be surprised if I took an interest. I bet that would shock him, catch him off guard. I'll show him. I'll show him, that TRAITOR.

Love Kairi x

A/N: Yay! This is for Inspire-Illuminate's contest. I know I haven't used the sentence yet, but it will come... soon.