A/N: Hello, everyone! I've been on kind of a hiatus lately. Just trying to figure out where my story is going and such. So, naturally, I figure that it's the perfect time to release a new story. I hope you all enjoy!

-Wildfire37

Mistakes

Chapter 1: The First Friend

Everyone makes mistakes. It's how we handle these mistakes that define us.

Sora turned off the engine to his car. A relieved putter escaped the hood, betraying the age and maintenance of the vehicle. It was small, a little run-down, and a fiery red color. Chips of paint were few and far in between, but they were still there. Sora checked himself in the rear-view mirror, licking his finger-tips and running them through the chocolate brown spikes of hair on his head. Sora was a moderately tall teenager, at six feet flat. He straightened out the collar on his black button-up shirt, which had been buttoned all but the top two, showing off his necklace: a silver crown. Underneath the over-shirt, was a white t-shirt. Sora also wore blue jeans, untouched by rips or holes in them, and a pair of black sneakers. Sora looked himself in his light-blue eyes, and, finding his appearance to his liking, slapped himself lightly in the face, as if to wake himself up.

"You got this, Sora. This year will be different," He said to himself, giving a self-pep talk.

Sora grabbed his black backpack from the passenger seat, and opened the door to the outside world. He slung one strap of his backpack over his shoulder as he stepped out. Shutting the door, Sora pressed the lock button on his car keys. After hearing the reaffirming horn, he walked toward the front doors of Destiny High Academy.

Sora looked up at the main building of the academy, struck by how grand the structure was. It looked just like the rich, private colleges that appeared in movies. There was even a rustic clock tower perched in the center of the roof. The building was made of bricks that had long since lost their sharp red and had gained an antique look with faded browns, tans, and oranges. Moss and ivy creeped over these bricks and added to the overall cliché of the academy. An ornate marble frame surrounded tall, mahogany double doors, signifying the entrance to the building. The doors were currently open, allotting students and faculty to come through.

A quick glance at the clock told Sora that he was almost late for homeroom. To top it off, Sora realized he didn't even know what that was yet. Speeding into a fast walk, Sora pushed through the trickle of students that, like himself, were only just realizing that school was about to start. As soon as he made it into the building, his jaw dropped. The sheer grandness of the room blew him away. The room had a high, vaulted ceiling adorned with a crystal chandelier that resembled a blizzard to Sora. Those can't be ALL diamonds, the awe-struck youth thought. The room's walls were made of a light wood nearing the ceiling and a dark mahogany baseboard at the floor. Lamps were placed every seven meters or so, also made out of some crystal. Two ornate tables, both with three leather-backed chairs, sat at the corners of the entrance wall. The floor was made of the same dark wood as the doors and the baseboards. At the opposite end of the room was what looked like an information desk.

Seeing this desk, Sora made his way over to it. There was only one lady seated at it, staring into an expensive computer monitor. She had short black hair and black eyes. She wore a navy blue blazer, white button-up shirt underneath, and a red tie. The bottom half of her body was blocked by the desk. If Sora was older than he was, he would have said she was attractive.

"Excuse me?" Sora asked the woman.

She looked up at him, grinned widely and said, "Can I help you?"

Sora thought of where to begin, "Well, you see, I jus-"

The woman interrupted him, and the grin quickly transformed into an irritated frown, "Look, you little brat. I get that you lost your schedule that you got at the end of last year. I get that, as a caring and supportive member of the staff, I'm supposed to get you another one. But, just like I told all the other kids who suck at keeping their stuff, that first of all, you were supposed to keep the one you got! Secondly, I actually don't care at all!" The woman was now yelling at him, drawing the attention of a few bystanders. "And to top it all off, until Leon gets here, I can't do jack diddly squat anyway!"

Sora was leaning back to avoid her wrath now. As if to finalize the woman's point, the bell sounded, a single note transmitted electronically throughout the whole school, and all the kids still lurking in the room made their way to homeroom.

He squeaked, "I'm... I'm just gonna... go..." Sora tried backing away slowly, but the woman wasn't finished yet.

"Oh please, what are you gonna do? Go to every single class and see if you're on the attendance sheet? Sit down over here and wait until Leon's here," She motioned to another chair next to her.

Sora hesitated, but at a death glare from her, decided that it was better to do what she said. He tentatively made his way around the desk and took the seat. Keeping his head down, Sora twiddled his thumbs. The back of the desk wasn't anything special, just a few computers and their equipment. The school had done a great job modernizing over the summer, so that all bookwork had been uploaded to the school's mainframe. A number of computers, interactive whiteboards, projectors, and other technical equipment had been installed all over campus. It was part of why Sora applied to the academy.

"So what's the deal with your uniform? Forget that at home, too?" The woman smirked, much to Sora's chagrin.

"What's your deal, lady? I'm a new student here!" At this remark, the woman paled, and Sora continued. "I didn't get my schedule at the end of last year, and I never got a uniform! So lay off, would you?" With a great sigh, Sora thought, My 'great year' isn't going too great so far, and stared at the floor.

The woman matched his sigh, and then said, "I'm sorry, alright?"

Sora looked up at her. He could tell that he just caught her on a bad day and she wasn't actually a horrible human being. He replied, "It's fine. Today isn't working out so great for me, either."

She laughed a bit at his statement, then admitted, "I probably didn't do anything to help that, did I?"

Sora chuckled. "Are you kidding? You're the only reason!" He teased.

They both laughed for a few seconds. Sora felt relieved, he hadn't been able to laugh in a while. The woman leaned back in her chair, and introduced herself, "I'm Ms. Kisaragi, by the way, but all my friends call me Yuffie."

Sora scratched his head, they had yelled at each other, been completely awkward in the moment of peace, laughed over two jokes and now the two were friends? Destiny Islands is weird.

"To answer your non-verbal question, yes, we are friends now. It's polite to introduce yourself as well, by the way," Yuffie said, taking a matter-of-fact tone that suited her.

Sora grinned at her. It's a good weird, though. "I'm Sora Michaels, nice to meet you."

A song burst out from Yuffie's purse on the ground. Suddenly flustered, she flung herself on the ground next to it. Sora vaguely recalled the music to the song. Yuffie ransacked her purse hurriedly, obviously embarrassed by the music.

Sora suddenly recognized the song. Struggling to hold back a laugh, he said, "Is that Every Breath You Take? Looks like my new friend Yuffie is in love."

Yuffie gave Sora another death glare, then resumed searching for what Sora assumed to be a phone. Finally, she held up the device in victory. Quickly, while still kneeling on the ground, Yuffie pressed on the screen, which lighted up instantly. The phone was obviously a touch screen, and Sora wondered why he would've ever had any doubt as to the equipment of the staff belonging to the world's most expensive and luxurious high school.

Yuffie held up the phone to her ear, saying, "Hello?" Judging by the way she was blushing and smiling, though, Sora had a feeling that she knew exactly who was calling her. Then, her expression fell dark, though. "Oh... no, it's okay. Don't worry about it... seriously, Leon, chill. I'll be fine. I was just hoping to see your handsome face, is all," She giggled lightly, but her face remained downtrodden. "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow, then?... Good, hope you feel better! Bye!" Yuffie hung up the phone and remained on the floor. Sighing, she picked herself up and turned to face Sora. "Sorry, Sora, but it looks like you're stuck with me for the rest of the day. The computer network isn't up and running today for whatever reason and the only two people who know how it works aren't here today."

This piqued Sora's curiosity. "So, the only thing keeping me from my schedule was a down computer network?" Yuffie nodded, and Sora laughed. "Perfect. Do you mind if I take a look at it?"

Confused, Yuffie hesitated before backing away, saying, "Just don't try to change your grade or anything. Remember, I'm watching you."

Sora scooted his chair over in front of her computer and relaxed his hands on the keyboard. A multitude of keystrokes, a couple of windows, one Mountain Dew from the staff fridge, a few gasps from Yuffie, and one drop of sweat later, a message popped up in the lower right corner, saying: Connection to D.H.A. Main Network has been restored. Yuffie's jaw dropped and Sora smirked confidently.

"How did you... how did you... how did you..." Yuffie kept leading off, not able to finish her question.

Keeping the smirk, Sora replied, "I know a few tricks. Do you think you'll be able to get my schedule now?"

"Are you joking? You could've just gotten it yourself!"

"Not really, I don't know your username or password."

Yuffie brushed a lock of hair out of her face and said, "That's a relief. I'm kinda afraid what you could do with it. Anyway, look away now. I'm gonna log in and print out your schedule."

Sora obliged and another few minutes, Sora was staring at the piece of paper in his hands.

"Confused?" Yuffie asked. Sora nodded and Yuffie explained, "D.H.A. is different from other schools, obviously. You should see seven classes, right? One of those is homeroom and six other classes that you probably chose on enrollment here."

"I remember that. But homeroom is the only one with a period number next to it," Sora observed.

"That's because homeroom is the only class that's set in stone. You go to homeroom every day, then after that, you're free to choose which class you go to next. You could go to English after that, then Algebra, or whatever you want. What's more, we don't care if you switch it up every day or so. So long as you show up for each class at some point in the eight-hour day, it's all the same with us."

Sora was shocked. The academy's website failed to mention this set-up. He remarked, "That's pretty... lenient." Who are you kidding, Sora? This is frikking awesome!

Yuffie smiled, the more students learn about the academy, the more they like it. "Our headmaster is pretty intelligent. He realized that this was the best possible way to ensure attendance, and we have a small enough student population for it to work properly."

"One more question. You said eight-hour day, yet we only have seven classes?" Sora asked.

Yuffie replied, "That's an easy one. One free hour every day. Along with the 45 minute lunch break, the whole school day is over at around..." She broke off, trying to do quick math in her head.

"3:45," Sora finished her sentence almost instantly.

She nodded her head in respect, "Props to you kid. Something tells me you're smarter than the other rich kids around here." Sora buried his head deeper in his schedule, pretending not to hear her compliment. She ignored it, and continued, "So, tell me, Sora, what classes does our new resident genius grace with his incredible intelligence?"

"I'm not sure. All my classes besides homeroom are blocked out, and they've been replaced by 'G.C.'. What is that?" Sora asked.

Yuffie's jaw dropped again. "You're in G.C.? Man, was I right about you! G.C. stands for Gifted Classes. I'm not talking about Honors English or anything like that either. I'm talking experimental physics and the like. You're the fourteenth student that's ever got in that program."

Sora nodded in comprehension, "So what does that mean for me?"

"Well, I dunno much about it. Except that you get a special tutor all to yourself, you don't have to go to any regular classes besides homeroom, and that you're really freaking smart."

"I'm sure it's not that special," Sora replied, to which Yuffie let out a derisive snort. "Anyway, Yuffie, do you mind if I hang out here for the day?" He asked.

"Why would you want to hang out here instead of meeting new friends and going to your first class and... I'm already bored just talking about it. Yeah sure, I don't mind. It'd actually be nice to talk to someone all day." She replied.

They passed the rest of the hour getting to know each other. Yuffie, as it turned out, was horribly bored by her job and was glad to have a friend to talk to. Sora figured that it would be beneficial to have a friend on the staff. It's not like he was planning on breaking a lot of rules, but it couldn't hurt.

The bell rang and the sound of distant doors opening and feet storming down the halls were heard by the two of them. At that moment, Yuffie remembered something. "By the way, Sora, one particular student usually chooses to use her free period helping me out here in the office."

"Oh yeah? So, should I be expecting someone?"

"I'm not sure. She showed up every day last year, but I dunno if she's gonna do that this year, too."

"Hmm, that was helpful."

"Shut up."

"By the way, Yuffie..."

"Yeah?"

Sora hesitated, unsure of whether to proceed or not. He decided to go through with it and asked, "Do you mind not spreading around this G.C. thing? I'm trying to fit in, not stand out."

Yuffie waved him off, "Come on, Sora. This is the kinda thing to be proud of. Like I said, you're the fourteenth student to get in the program. It's been open for about 200 years. Which means that only one student gets in every..."

"Every 14.29 years. I get that it's special or something, I just don't want to be known for this. Please, Yuffie?"

Yuffie sighed, then submitted, "Fine, if that's the way you want it. You know what? I don't know if she's coming, it's been at least a minute now-"

A shrill scream pierced the air, "YUFFIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Yuffie laughed, "Scratch that, she's definitely coming."

A/N: So... how do you like it? Tell me about in... say... a review? I promise to update Ten Years within a week, too. Have a nice few days, then, if you're planning on reading that. If not, then have a good... whatever until I update next.

-Wildfire37