I sat quietly in my desk during homeroom. I was talking to Sora and Axel about butter. It started with dogs, then trees, then Algebra 2, and finally...butter. "I like lots of butter on my baked potatoes!" Axel said happily. We just gawked at him. "Wha?" he asked us. We all laughed. "Why are we talking about butter?" Sora asked me. I shrugged. I guess it was because this was the last day of school, and we were pretty damn bored. "Oh gosh, another day of movies and candy! I love the last days of school!" I exclaimed to them. "Namine, you love everything school related," Sora told me. I blushed. Although, it was true. School was way better than being bored at my house.

The bell rang loudly throughout the school. Then, Prinicipal Pickett came on the intercom for the announcements. "Hello, and welcome to another day at Wiki High School. All teachers must give out the students their final report cards today. Any absent stuents must come back Saturday to recieve theirs. Summer school will start on June 2nd. To sign up please visit Mrs. Mary Killweed in the office. Now, for the moment of silence.

I closed my eyes and prayed silently to myself, "Dear God, please be there for me today. This is my last day of 10th grade, and I want everything to go perfectly. I would love it if Riku could please leave us alone today. SOMETIMES I JUST WISH HE WOULD DIE. I know it sounds evil, but so is HE! Maybe you can help him with being nice to us. After all, you are God. I hope you will help me live the day in a god-like way. Amen." I opened my eyes. And, we all stood up to say the pledge. "Were you praying?" Axel asked me. "Well Axel," I begun. "some things are worth praying for. Sora and him just smiled as we said the pledge.

I met Roxas at Mrs.Jennerson's room to watch Shrek. We sat beside each other. "Hi," I greeted him. "Hey Nammy!!" he replied. I smiled. "Riku's absent today!" he told me. "Wha?" I replied...shocked...surprised...but mostly...thrilled. "Yep, he is sick with the measles!" Roxas said happily. I feel sorry for him, I thought. But, hey! He probaly deserves it. I smiled. "I guess we won't have to worry about him after all.

The whole class watched Shrek quietly, but with lots of lauguhter too. After the movie was over, Kairi, Roxas, and I met in the hallway to go to lunch. We told Kairi the good news. She suprisingly didn't seem so thrilled. Her only reply was, "Oh, well cool." I guess she just didn't feel so well.

Lunch went by very quickly that day. It usually seemed like it was eternity, but not today. We then went back to our homerooms for Flex Time.

Sora, Axel, and I all lined up to go outside. Flex time was like an older version of recess. But, no monkey bars. How sad. "RIKU IS SICK?!" Axel and Sora replied when I told them. "Yep, with measles," I replied. They burst out in laughter. "Serves the jerk right!" Sora exclaimed. Me and Axel giggled. After all, he really had been extremley rude to us this past school year.

After Flex time Kairi, Sora, Roxas, Axel, Heyner, Olette, and Me headed to Car Riders outside for our pick-up from school. We just looked at each others report cards.

"I got straight A's!" I exclaimed to them as we sat on the bench outside. "Like always..." Roxas said. We all giggled. "I got C's...again," Kairi told us. "Same here," Roxas said. "I got C's too...and a F...and D...and another F," Sora said. We all laughed. "STUPID SPANISH!" he half-yelled. "I got straight A's too," Axel told us. "Nerd," Sora muttered. Axel scowled at him.

After I was finally picked up...last my mom told me something not so wonderful. "Namine," she begun. "What Ma?" I asked her. "Riku was your old friend right?" I nodded. REAL OLD FRIEND, I thought. "He died this afternoon...with measles," she said. I stared at her like a baby who saw the world for the first time.

ONE WEEK LATER

All six of us...and our families...went to the funeral. Despite how evil Riku was to us it was really, really sad. Roxas leaned close to me as we all left for our cars. "I had prayed fr something like this to happen," he told me. "I did too," I confessed. I started to cry and leaned my head on his shoulder. "I always thought that this would make all the trouble stop," Roxas told me. I nodded and looked him straight in the eye. "It's not the end of our problems...it's only the beginning," I said sobbinly to him. We walked along the graveyard to our cars holding hands. I cried a little more, and I promised that I would never pray for death again.